Evening star., 1901-11-28
Report of Postmaster General
Smith.
SHOWS STEADILY DECREASINGDEFICIr
The Abuse Of the Pound Rate.
PriviI ege. !.
LEGISLATION RECOMMENDED

The report of the Postmaster General,
made public today, exhibits the following
financial statement of the department.:
Ordinary postal revenue, s1O9, 531, 1851;
receipts from money-order business, 81 $685.
%; receipts from unpaid money orders
more than one year old, $430, 755. 43; total
receipts from all sources, Sill, ,631, ,193.3 80;
total expenditures for the year, s115, 5,554,-
92OS7; excess of expenditures over receipts,
So, ,923, 727.4S.
While the expenditures in the ordinary
development and. through various extern
sions of the service are s7,S14, ,652. SO greater
than for the preceding year, the deficit is
81 ,461 .961. % less. Under present prosperous
conditions the annual increase of receipts
Is fortunately larger than the inevitable in
crease of outlay. and for several years the
deficit has been steadily growing smaller.
Recommendations for Legislation.
The following recommendations for legis-
lation, some of which have heretofore been
made, are submitted for the consideration
of Congress:
That the maximum fee for a money order
be fixed at % instead of 80 cents.
That fund be created out of the salaries
of railway mail clerks to provide for the re-
periods of service become incapacitated for
active duty.
That publishers be required to make a
preliminary separation of newspapers, un-
der the direction of the department. as a
condition under which they shall enjoy the
exceedingly liberal rates provided for car
rylng second-class matter through the
mails.
That a building be provided in the CITY
of Washington to be used wholly or in part
by the mail bag and mail lock repair shop
and as depository for mail bags.
That section of the act of June 13, 1898,
chapter 446 providing that assistant post
masters, cashiers and other employees in
post offices of the first, second and third
classes shall give bond direct to the United
States be repealed, and that a statute be
enacted requiring such officers to give bond
dlrec.-y to the postmasters and holding
postmasters responsible under their own
bonds for any and all acts and defaults oc-
curing at their respective offices.
That provision be made for the payment
Of incidental expenses incurred by local
officers or others in the arrest, detention
and keeping of prisoners charged with vio-
lations of the postal laws until such pris-
oners can be transferred to the custody of
a United States marshal.
That statute be enacted authorizing
post office inspectors to take out search
warrants whenever the same may be neces-
sary in the prosecution Of their official du-
ties.
That an appropriation be made for the
purpose of constructing lookouts wherever
in the opinion of the Postmaster General
they may be needed.
That the interstate commerce law be
amended to prohibit common carriers to
wit, telegraph and express companies or
any of their employees from aiding and
aDettlng In the green goods or lottery swim
dies, or any other scheme carried on partly
by mail and partly by common carrier and
which is in violation of the postal laws.
Abuse of Newspaper Privileges.
The Postmaster General says that the
most urgent need of the postal service; Is the
rectification of the abuse of the privilege
accorded by law to second-class matter.
He says:
1T Is the most urgent need, because it
aims at the one great overshadowing evil
of the service, and because it underlies and
overtops all other reform and advance. 1t
would relieve the department from the one
oppressive burden which cripples and
weighs 1t down, and which stands as con-
slant and formidable barrier against i'm
provement and progress for the benefit OF
all the people in many directions.
Inc second class matter constitutes
nearly 60 per cent of the weight of the en-
tire mail of the country, and yet, while the
postal revenue for the last fiscal year was
$lll ,631, 1913, the second-class matter paid
only s4,94 445 of that amount. That is,
while making three-fifths of the mail in
weight it furnished only one. e.twenty-eighth
part of the revenue. The transportation OF
the mails is paid for chiefly by weight. The
enormous d1sproportion of return to cost in
second-class matter is thus apparent at a
glance.
The cost of the mails for the last fiscal
year was $115, ,554, ,920 One-fourth of that
amount Is S,730. The revenue from
second-class matter was 81 294, AS, leaving
an actual net cost and loss to the govern
ment of $24, ,594, ,2S5.
The expense of carrying the mails, MAX
ing the whole cost divisible by the whole
volume, has in the past been generally
reckoned at 8 cents pound, 1t is now be-
lleved that this figure is excessive A more
accurate weighing and closer analysis
place the cost of carrying the mail as a
whole at cents pound and making all
allowances, put the cost on second-class
matter at about cents pound This fig
ure is clearly within the truth The second
class mail matter which paid the pound
rate amounted for the last fiscal year to
429, 444 573 pounds. AT cents a pound it
cost 81, 49, 22S to carry it. 1t paid in post
age "a, 4,294, 445, leaving a net loss to the gov
ernment of s17,277,7s3 on transportation
alone"
Mr.. Smith says that If the mail thus car
Red at a heavy loss were limited to what
the law intended there would be nothing
more to be said.
In that case it would be a deliberate
and national public expenditure for a we'll
defined, Justifable and worthy public OBJ
Ject, and taking the service as a whole
tnere would De no loss at all.
Rise of Advertising Periodicals.
Under the practice hitherto prevailing
there has been great inducement to these
private publishing enterprises. The two
cardinal factors have been cheap paper
and nominal postage. The production of
legitimate newspapers and periodicals in
voiyes costly news service large editorial
staHs, expensive corps Of contributors and
all the elaborate machinery offa complete
intellectual and business organization. But
A NOWEI. FOOD.