The age-herald., 1900-11-03
WHAT THE MAIL
 SERVICE COSTS
Some Interesting Facts and Fig
 ureS Given Out
ESTIMATES ARE INCLUDED
Assistant Postmaster General w. N. Shallenberger Makes Annual Re- port - Total Expenditures
 Amount to $57,16o,593

Washington, November 2-The annual re- port of w. N. Shalenberger, Assistant Postmaster General, was made public today. It shows that June 30 last the annual rate of expenditures for inland mail service was $55,156060; for the foreign service, 53S; total expenditures, S57,16O59S.
 There were 22,S34 star routes, with a to- tai mileage of 269, S5S, involving an annual rate of expenditure of s51S3,S7S 1943 special office routes; 1S2 steamboat routes; 266S rail- road routes annual expense S33, 427, ,7S2; 22S railway postofice car routes, annual ex- pense, $4,369, coo; S695 railway postoftice car clerks, annual expenditure SS,946, 424; 719O mail messenger routes; 22O wagon routes Gin cities); five pneumatic tube routes, an- nual expenditure $222, ,256.
 Necessary and special facilities on trunk lines of railroads involved an annual rate of expenditure of $1S5.72S, and annual equip ments cost $S25,744.
 Miies Covered by Routes
 The routes of all kinds in the domestic mail service cover over a half million miles in length, and the miles traveled over them per annum was 4592O5,779. An average of almost nine trips week on each route was maintained throughout the country. MT. Shallenberger refers to the steps taken looking to stopping speculative bidding for mail contracts and announces that the ney policy of awarding all new contracts only to persons living in or contiguous to the route involved has worked satisfactorily.
 The experiment of box delivery on star routes whereby persons along the line could baUe the mail brought from the next office by the star route carrier and left in box erected by such person has worked satis- factorly in South Carolina, and the next star route contracts will provide for such service, increasing the mail facilities in the rural districts at moderate increase in cost.
 Letters for Alaska
 Letter mail for the interior of Alaska was carried last winter by a service that was reasonably well performed. For the coming winter the arrangement has double the fre- quency of dispatches for points supplied by various overland routes, supplying the of- fees along them with letter mail four times a month. Mails will be carried by reindeer this winter from Eaton to Katzube, a point north of the Arctic circle. Plans for various overland routes are announced and the necessity of emphasized for co-opera- tion with the War Department in opening an all-American, military and post from Valdez to the upper Yukon.
 The service in Porto Rico, Hawaii and temporary military postal service in China are touched on briefly.
 An Increase shown
 The special and general weighing of the mail throughout the United States, whose results were announced last February, showed the railroads carried an aggregate much greater than generally supposed and that S6 per cent of the total matter was sent direct to the railroads.
 The result of the general quardiennial adjustment of the pay for railroad trans portation in the second contract section, comprising North and South Carolina, Geor- ga Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennes- see and Kentucky, based on a re-weighing under orders issued to September 30 last, was an increase of over 10 per cent.
 Pneumatic service
 The pneumatic service Investigation, it is stated, has developed valuable informa- ton, and the report will be submitted to Congress soon after it convenes Pending that, estimates for continuance and exten- sons of existing service are withheld.
 The electric cars have been found a most advantageous means of providing exped- tious mail transportation, especially for suburban towns, and in many cities saves the establishment of wagon service.
 In the railway mail service matter too
 
 of delivery amounted to 14,672, 74 pieces, an increase of over Il, 900.
 Relief M Measurea
 Relief of families of men who are injured in the service is asked, and the creation of a fund to retire on pay a clerk whose usefulness is cut short by permanent dis ability incurred in the line of duty Is rec ommended Reorganization and reclassifcation of the railway mail service, legislation requiring separation of second-class mail matter by publishers, and legislation for the punish ment of persons who by force attempt to enter a postal car or assault a postal clerk on duty are recommended. No estimate is submitted at this time for pneumatic tube service or for special facilities on trunk lines.
 Estimates Arc Made The total estimate for all mail transpor- tation for the fiscal year ending June 30 1092 is $61, ,43O, 249 being $2,15S,610 364 per cent more than the current appropriation. The estimates submitted in detail are as follows: Star service, including special officers, $5,5S0,000 Steamboat service, $5S6,000. Railroad transportation, $34 700,0 900. Railway post office cars AS61, ,000. Railway post clerks, $10,37S749. Mail messenger service, $1, OBS, GOO. Electric and cable car service, $50O,000 Wagon service in cities $500 900. Mail equipments s326,500 Miscellaneous items. $1000. Total inland service, S5S, ,726,249. Foreign mail transportation, s2,549,000. Balances due foreign countries, $155,OO0.
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