Waterbury Democrat., 1900-12-10
POSTOFFIM REPORT.
Revenues of the Department x Exceed $1oo, 900, ,ooo.y
RURAL FREE DELIVERY A SUCCESS.
Is Fast Being Extended and Proves Great Boon to Isolated Families. Second Glass Mall Matter Abuses
 Need Prompt Attention. .,

WASHINGTON, Dec. 10.-Postmas- ter General Charles Emory Smith in his annual report made public last night be- sides discussing domestic and insular operations in the last fiscal year, devotes particular attention to the abuses of the second class mail matter privileges and extension of rural free delivery. He makes the following recommendations for logisla tion: Compulsory separation by publishers of second class mail mat ter amendment Of the interstate com mercc law to prohibit telegraph and eX- press companies or their employees from aiding abetting in the green goods or lottery swindleS or any other wrongful scheme carried on jointly by mail and common carriers. punishment of persons who forcibly attempt to enter mail cars or who assault q railway mail clerk while on duty. authority for postoftlce in- SpectorS to take out search warrants whenever necessary. an appropriation for constructing inspectors lookouts ill post offices wherever the postmaster general deems them necessary.
 The financial operations of the depart ment for the last fiscal year are shown briefly in the following statement of rev enucs and expenditures: Ordinary postal revenue S1OO. .S99, ,433 A.; receipts from money order business. S1 ,465. 145.S3: to- tai receipts from all sources. S102,3o4.- .J79. 29: total expenditures for the year. S1O1. TAO. 261.39: excess of expenditures over receipts. S5.3S5. .6SS. 70.
 From this statsment it will be observed that the revenues have now passed the hundred million mark; also that while the expenditures were over $6,O00.0OO greater than for the previous fiscal year the deficit for the year 1S99 1900 was but $5 1885, ,6SS. being S1,225.O .OSS less than that of the previous year.
 Several pages of the report are devoted to rural free delivery.
 The extraordinary extension of rural free delivery during the past two years has proved to be the most salient. sig nticant and farreaching feature of postal development ill recent times. We have had other striking advances, but they have been along lines already well set tied.
 But to undertake the personal and dai ly delivery of the mail at tine individual and isolated farmhouse on the remote country road marks what in this widely extended land amounts to q new depar- ture in postal service.
 Rural free delivery has now been sufi- ciently tried to measure it's effects. The immediate and direct results nreEclearly apparent. It stimulates social and po'i- ness correspondence and so sweils the
  | variably followed by a large increase in the circulation of the press and of peri odical literature. The farm is thus i brought into direct daily contact with the currents and movements of the buSi- ness world. A more accurate knowledge of ruling markets and varying prices is 1 diffused. and the producer. with his quick | CT communication and larger infornla- 1 ton. is placed on Surer footing. The ! .hxr 1 many cases, is enhanced. Good roads become indispensable, and their improve | inent is the essential condition of the | service. The material and measura ble | benefits are signal and unmistakable. ,t 1 But the movement exercises wider l and deeper influence. It becomes a fac tor in the social and economic tendencies of American life. With all these results 1 clearly indicated by the experiment as thus far tried rural free delivery is plain ly here to stay. II cannot be abandoned where it has been established. and il cannot be maintained without being ex- tended. It is q service in which there
 can be no backward step.
 In urging the importance of remedia legislation for fragrant abuses of second | class privileges the postmaster genera
 says:
 There should be no abatement of the ! protest or effort against the pcrpetuatiol
 of evils which have insidiously grown q
 through the ingenious perversion of the
 laws. intent on furthering private inter
 ests. and which have now become 2
 heavy public burden. Their elimination
 while doing no injustice in any quarter
 would effect a saving ranging from SIP,
 100000 to S2O, ,0OO, ,00O a year and would
 pave the way for legitimate postal ad
 vances. in every direction