Evening star., 1901-04-30
WALKING POST OFFICES,
Result of the Innovation and Pointers
to the Public.

Now that every postman IN the United
| States and all OF the rural free-delfvery
| carriers are limited walking post Offices
| for the additional purpose Of registering
mail matter will give you a pointer or
| two OF value about this, one Of the most
! important offshoots Of the peoples branch
of the government which are imperfectly
understood, and in some communities not
understood at ALL said post Office official
To a Star reporter this morning.
I'm the first place, articles of value
should not be sent through the mails un-
registered. If an article is Of any value at
all it Is worth the small fee the government
dc MAJ n0S for its safe transmission and its
insurance up to the amount of $40, which
amount OF indemnity it is proposed to IN
crease to $50.
"One reason why the people have not
registered their letters TO greater extent is
because trip TO the post office was nee
essary. The innovation of walking post
offices has been tried now long enough to
demonstrate its success, and the people
should patronize them. These additions
swell the number of post offices in the
country for this purpose up to over 81, Geo,
as there are I6.600 regular offices, over 16,-
4hb carriers and the remainder is made up
OF substations and rural free delivery car
riers. The postal service is certainly ex-
tending.
That the people at large are apprecf-
dllIS I lcIt Sdln ) system OF registration
with it's chain of checks and the earmarks
Of some kind Of evidence against every
man who handles a valuable letter or pack
age registered is shown by the fact that
100000 registered packages We're mailed
last year, an Increase of quarter OF million
over the preceding year. OF these 19S, ,000
went to our friends across the sea, an in
crease of il.ND. AS large this percent
age is it is not large enough by loo per
cent. Packages are especially liable to
miScarry, and If the public wish to save
pecuniary loss and much trouble and cor
respondence, use the registered mail.
IF persons Of economical turn Of
nina wish To know how easily the pennies
accumulate in small sums when paid over
and over again let them be cheerful in the
thought that the government collected last
year in payments of cents each 81, 223S ,OH,
an increase of $685. 900 over the year pre-
vious, on l2,61Hd0 domestic and 1,S75,OOo
foreign letters. In addition, the govern
fnent transported and registered free over
381.01 pieces of mail, a large portion of
which originated and was delivered in
Washington. That the government has
done some business in the registery branch
in twenty Years is shown by the fact that
1t has registered 2fG,3e9utt pieces Of mail
in that time
The system of checks and counter
che cks adopted to safeguard the public's
property is about complete. when 1t is
borne in mind that out Of all this great
total of individual pieces carried loss of
but eighty-seven was chargeable to depre-
dations by postal employees. and only ia
pieces We're lost because Of the carelessness
of the clerks. In fact, 1855 complaints of
loss were received, and Of the 1890 investi-
gated only leo were found to constitute
an actual loss. and of these I,13O were
chargeable to burning and wrecking of
post offices, postal cars steamboats, and to
minor accidental causes. Out of these
100 cases of loss in l $40 recovery was
effected in one way or another to the own
erS.
"A loss Of but three thousandths Of one
per cent is truly remarkable considering
tho great amount of business done, dis
tance covered and the dozens of hands
through which each piece Of mail must
pass.
THE government literally patronizes it's
own registry service, and sends large
sums of money from point to point, espe-
cially out of Washington, we'll as arti-
cles of value. The Treasury Department
transmitted last year in actual money
value S13T1 100000 in this manner and
some of it was cash sent to the Philippines
without the loss of a penny. To this vast
amount should be added money values to
the sum of $500 600 900 from the Post Of
flee Department. while the other executive
departments also avail themselves of the
system to large aggregate annual
amount