The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-12-10
URGES RURAL DELIVERY.
Postmaster General Smith Fa-
yOrs Extension of System.
MAKES ANNUAL REPORT
CHANGE OF ABUSE OF MAILS IN
CREASES REVENUES.

Washington. D. c., Dec. 9.-Postmas-
ter General Charles Emory Smith has
submitted his annual report TO the pres
ident. In it the financial operations Of
/ the department for the last fiscal year
are shown briefly in the following
statement of revenues and expendi-
lures:
Ordinary postal revenue, Sl0O. 500 433;
receipts from money order business, ST.
455.14J.
Total receipts from all sources. s1O2.-
Total expenditures for the year, &c.,
/ 40, POI.
Excess of expenditures over receipts
I 1885,. 6SS.
The deficit for the year 1S99-19OO is
shown to be s., 225,0SS less than the pre-
yioUs year
! The estimated postal revenue for the
! fiscal year ending June 80, 1902, is $1f6,-
/ $50, 042. and the estimated expenditure,
/ $12l,276,349, leaving a probable deficiency
/ of Sz,634,3 800.
Rural Free Delivery Main Feature.
/ Rural free delivery, the report says,
I has proved to be the most salient, sig
nificant and far-reachinE feature OF
J postal development. Besides swelling
J the postal receipts, the value of farms
! are enhanced, through the necessity for
/ good roads, and the opportunity afford
/ ed the farmer to keep abreast of the
| times by being put into closer commu-
( nication with the outside world. The
/ isolation ana mOn0tOny which has been
I the bane of country life is sensibly
mitigated through the effect of rural
] Tree delivery in placing the farm with
/ in daily range of the intellectual and
/ commercial activity Of the world. The
| farmer is also given cause TO feel that
/ he shares the governmental advantages
I of the townsman, which stimulates his
/ loyalty and patriotism.
/ With all these results clearly indi-
/ Gated by the experiment as thus far
tried, rural free delivery is plainly here
10 stay"
Scope of System Broad.
OF the q. Coos 600 of people scattered
over 100000 square miles Of territory
/ TO whose doors it is the task of the gov
I eminent to arrange TO carry the mails
! through rural free delivery. Postmaster
! General Smith says that by the end Of
the current fiscal year one-sixth of them
/ shall have been served, and 4.300 routes
/ in operation. The net annual cost Of
I a complete rural free delivery system
is estimated a t s1S,762,2 PA. On this point
/ the report says:
/ 1T viii hardly be disputed that the
great result Of carrying the pOstOffiCe to
: =
at such comparatively small cost is an
object we'll worth undertaking.
Points Out an Abuse.
This duty is emphasized and en-
/ forced when we consider some other
phases of the postal question In my
las annual report il was shown that
if a class Of publications. which now,
under an evasion of the purposes OF
the law, pay the second-class rate of
postage, were really made to pay the
third-cless rate, as they ought to do,
it would bring an additional revenue to
the government of So, 343. 6i2. The cost
to the government of this abuse is al
most exactly equivalent TO the estimat-
ed cost of broad national rural free de-
livery, and il it is a question between
favoring a very limited number OF pub
fishers and favoring p, 600 Of people
who live on the farms of the United
States, there ought to be no hesitation
in serving the many rather than the
few The abuse should be uprOoted as
a public duty; the national delivery ser
vice should be undertaken as public
policy, and when, through the over
throw Of the wrong. the right can be
established without the slightest addi-
tionaI burden, the appeal becomes ire
sistable.'
Apologies For Cuban Frauds.
The report says IlaT the poStdl scr VIE
in the new island possessions OF the
United States has materially advanced
I and strengthened unfortunately. says
. the rerOrt speaking Of Cuba. its admin
isfl,aticn was stained for time by frauds
and peCuIatiOn of shameful character
/ EUt this was The crime of the agents,
{ ard not any fault of the system The
/ system was such that the frauds ano
populations could not nave been com
{ niitted by any one, however dlSnonest
/ They were made possible only through
J the coIlusicn of officers who should have
, been a check on each other and who en-
! tered into a copspirac y by which the safe,,
/ guards dependent on careful plan Of
I checks we're thrown down
s'Wnen the facts were brought u Hghi
: Immediate action was taken to right iat
( wrongs ard drratgn the wrong doors NJ
/ offense Of those Implicated was more
! than infidelity 10 the confidence reopSeo
In them and more than ordinary maI1eds,
ance in office. Its turpitude was enhanced
I nv the fact that 1t was the betrayal ol
a rust held for people who were oul
wards which carried peculiarly sacred
Il OBLIGATIONS and II merits the SeNeteS
cOndemna ton. The cases have passed Il
Z the custody of the courts and early trla
, The IMPROVEMENT of the last few year.
IN the money order system has been con
, I tfnued and even enhanced. says the post
fnaster-general, anc Tree dehNery eN
The report of the second assistant post
- mast general Is cited to show the IN
I : crease in the number OF routes owe
, which mail is transported and the goo'
: I effects to the service OF the ordeT o
I last February prohibiting the cohs4Qets q
2 ton of bids for star route contract
= ! where the bidder resides of OF the rouu
he was bidding for.
A reasonably good mail service IS 3elni
( furnished the peOpie Of Alaska ana N
/ 1uu1l7er of complaints is surprising !,
small Arrangements have been mace 70
=. weekly service over the two overiani
/ routes
e Oldest Mason Dies.