Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1900-12-15
POSTAL DEPARTMENT REPORT
RECOMMENDATIONS ARE MADE
The Chief Wants to Reach the Farm
Door-Thinks 1t Will Make the
Farms More Valunble-POsts and
Postal Frauds i'm Cuba.

Washington. = Postmaster General
Charles Emory Smith has submitted
his annual report to the president The
financial operations of the department
for the last fiscal year are shows in
the following statement of revenues
and expenditures:
Ordinary postal revenues, $100,899,-
433; receipts from money order bust
ness, $1,455,145. Total receipts from
all sources, $102.354,579.
Total expenditures for the year.
$107,74O,267 Excess of expenditures
over receipts, $5,3S5,SSS.
The deficit for the year 1S99-1900 is
shown to be $10,00S,0S0 less than last
year The estimated postal revenue
for the fiscal year ending June 80, 1902,
is $116, ,042, and the estimated ex-
penditure $12l, 276,349, leaving a prop
able deficiency of $4,634,307.
Rural free delivery is here plainly
has proved to be the most salient, sig
nificant and far reaching feature of
postal development"
Besides swelling the postal receipts
The values of farms are enhanced,
through the necessity for good rc1ds
and the opportunity afforded the farm
9r to keep abreast of the times by be-
Ing put in closer communication with
the outside world. The isolation and
monotony which has been the bane of
country life, is sensibly mitigated
through the effects of free rural d civ
cry in placing the farm within c lilly
range of the intellectual and CONNER
cial centers. The farmer is also given
cause to feel he shares the govern
mental advantages of the townsmen,
which stimulated his loyalty and pa
triotism.
Rural free delivery, the report says,
to stay" 1t reaches millions of peo-
pie scattered over a million acres of
territory to whose doors it is the task
OF the government to arrange to carry
the mails through. rural free delivery
Postmaster General Smith says. By
the end of the current fiscal year one
sixth of them shall have been served.
and 1890 routes in operation. The 1t
annual cost of a complete rural free
delivery system is estimated at $13.-
1S2,224. On this point the report says
1T will hardy be disputed that the
great result of carrying the postoffice
70 every home, if it can be accom-
plished at ,sucn comparatively small
cost, is an object we'll worth undertake.
in.
The report says that the postal SER
vice in the new island possessions of
the United States has been very ma
terially advanced and strengthened.
Unfortunately" says the report
speaking of Cuba, cts administration
was stained for a time by frauds and
populations of the most shameful char
acter. But this was the crime of the
agents and not any fault of the sys-
tenn. The frauds and peculations could
not have been committed by any one
official, however dishonest. They were
made possible only through the collu-
sion of officers who should have been
a check on each other and who entered
into conspiracy by which the safe
guards dependent upon careful plap
OF checks were thrown down.
When the facts were brought ia
light immediate action was taken to
right the wrongs and arraign the
wrongdoers. The offense of those i'm
plcated was more than infidelity to
the confidence reposed in them and
more than ordinary malfeasance in of.
flee. Its turpitude was enhanced by
che fact that it was the betrayal of a
trust held for people who were our
wards, which carried peculiarly sacred
Obligations and it merits the severest
condemnation. The cases have passed
20 the custody of the courts and early
trial is expected
Inc Improvement of the last few
years in the money order system has
been continued and even enhanced,
says the postmaster general, and free
delivery extended.
The reports of the second assistant
| postmaster general are cited to show
the increase in the number of routes
over which mail is transported and
the good effects to the service of the
order of last February prohibiting the
consideration of bids for star route con-
tracts where the bidder resided off the
route he was bidding for.
A reasonably satisfactory mail ser.
vice is being furnished the people of
! Alaska and the number of complaints
is surprisingly small. Arrangements
/ have been made for weekly service
over the two overland routes. >
Bryan to he Senator.
! Nnur Not.l- Doc Ii tnInnr,r,, L.