The Washington times., 1901-10-31
AUDITOR CASTLES REPORT.
Enormous Aggregate of the Govern
ment Postal transactions

The annual report of the auditor for
the Postofiice Department to the Sec
retary of the Treasury and to the Post
master General for the fiscal year ended
June 30. 1901. was made public yesterday
Auditor Castle. in comparing the increase
in the amount Of financial transactions
entailed upon the Auditors Office, states
that in lS35. the year in which the Audi
tors Office for the Postofice Department
was established as an independent insti-
tuition, the total financial transactions Of
the office were less than six millions,
while the aggregate of such transactions
for the year 1901 was over $s03, 10000
The items which so to rake up the sum
total of these transactions are as fol
lows:
Revenues of the postal service. sIII 6sI Ig3
expenditures OF the postal service. ll5 55i go
Total amount Of money orders issued 294 els, $50
lotai amount Of money orders paid. PSI 554. III
Aggregate $500 350, 500
The postal revenues. the report states.
are largely derived from the sales of
stamps and stamped papers. A ledger ac-
count of those revenues. together with
credits for services and disbursements.
must be kept with each of the 76,9sS post
amount of the 36.OOO,0OO domestic money
orders issued last year was $3.50
Once in six years" Mr. Castle says,
II Is necessary to open new books. and
the office has just completed the transfer
Of 1900 postmasters' accounts to new led
gers
The phenomenal increase in the volume
of postal money orders during the month
OF January, 1871, Mr. Castle attributes to
n llansN tNsNf fsta..H
month preceding. made possible by the
wonderful prosperity of the country. The
total weight Of money orders received
during January was 9.026 pounds. as COM
pared with 6,252 pounds during the cor
responding month of 1900. The increase
IN the volume of business was so great
Mr.. Castle says, that II was necessary to
ASK Congress for relief. through the ap
pointment of additional clerks. which
were Immediately provided for in the
urgent deficiency bill
As late as 1895, Mr.. Castle states. there
were thousands of delinquent accounts
each year. The condition was gradually
improved, changes made in the system of
auditing, and for the quarter ended Sep
tember 80. 1894, there were only 35S deln-
quents, while for the quarter ended June
80, lSU, there We're only fourteen delin-
quents Two of these accounts are due
from offices in Alaska and three from
offices in Hawaii, leaving only nine delin-
quents with the United States proper.
defective methods, Auditor Castle says:
Il can emphasize. but need not reiter-
ate, statements made in my annual re-
port for the past two prec4ss..s fiscal
years, in regard to dangers which wcs.t1
follow an inconsiderate engraftment Of
various projects which are constantly
the subjects of proposed Congressional
legislation. The promoters of the postal
savings bank. the postal telegraph, etc,
are still insistent, but few or none of
them exhibit any adequate conception of
the vital Importance of the accounting
function in the gigantic enterprises their
enactments contemplate.
Not content with these suggestions,
some of the leading journals of the coun-
try urgently invite attention to the es-
tablishment of a life insurance bureau,
which shall issue policies guaranteed by
the Government and thereby provide an
other official means for gathering in. an-
vestir,g and distributing the savings of
the people. Pathetic tales are told of
men who have Invested their savings in
life insurance companies. only TO find that
the companies had failed Just at the
time their policies were likely to mature.
II does not occur to the promoters of this
and other enterprises of State socialism
that failures and disappointments are in
cident to all kinds of commercial and
financial business; that If the Government
is to protect all its people against losses
by investments, financial, industrial and
otherwise. ii must practically conduct all
the business of the country. guarantee
prompt and liberal returns from all
classes of investments, and devise some
now incomprehensible method of rails
ing the funds necessary to pay fat divi-
dends to all citizens. thus making a uni
versally happy, prosperous and contented