Waterbury Democrat., 1901-11-29
POSTOFFICE REPORT.
Annual Statement Shows a
 Decreased Deficit.
SECOND CLASS MAIL ABUSES.
The Government Has Annually Been Carrying 2OO,OOO,OOO Pounds of Matter at 1 Cent Rates Which
 Ought to Have Paid $ Cents.

OuSn 10 Have Fal0 . cents. WASHINGTON, Nov. 2s.-The an- nual report of the postoffice depart ment for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1901, shows in brief the financial op- erations of the department for the year as follows: Ordinary postal rev. enue, $1O9, ,531, ,77S.67; receipts from money order business, $1.66S, 659.29; receipts from unpaid money orders more than one year old, $430, ,755.43; total receipts from all sources, SILL 631, ,193.39; total expenditures for the year, $115, ,554. .92O.S ST; excess of expend- itures over receipts, $3,923, T27.4S. While the expenditures in the ordi- nary development and through various extensions of the service are $7,814,- 652.S8 greater than for the preceding year, the deficit is $1,461, ,961.22 less. Under present prosperous conditions the annual increase of receipts is. for tunately larger than the inevitable in crease of outlay, and for several years the deficit has been steadily growing smaller.
 A large space in the report is occu- pied with the subject of second class mail matter: The postmaster general says:
 Tn my annual report for 1899 said, The most urgent need of the postal service is the rectification of the enor- nous wrongs which have grown up in the perversion and abuse of the priv ilege accorded by law to second class matter Time and experience only en- phasize this statement. It is the most urgent need because it aims at the one great oyershadowing evil of the service and because it underlies and .overtops all other reform and advance. It would relieve the department from the one oppressive burden which crip- pies and weighs it down and which stands as a constant and formidable barrier against improvement and prog ress for the benefit of all the people in many directions. Deeply impressed with this conviction, the department has taken positive steps in orders is sued on July IT, 1901, to correct the abuses and accomplish substantial re- form so far as it is possible by admin istratiye action.
 The second class matter constitutes nearly 50 per cent of the weight of the entire mail matter of the country, and yet, while the postal revenue for the last fiscal year was $111, ,631, ,193, the second class matter paid only $4, ,294,- 445 of that amount-that is, while making three-fiftlls of the mail in weight is furnished one twenty-eighth part of the revenue. The transporta- tion of mails is paid for chiefly by weight. The enormous disproportion of return to cost in second class matter Is thus apparent at a glance.
 Careful computation shows a prodi- gious aggregate of 2O0,O0O,0OO pounds of mail a year which the government is carrying and delivering at l cent a pound and which oaght either to pay the third class rate. equal to cents pound, or not to be carried at all. Not counting the expense of handling, it costs the government $10.000,000 year to transport this matter. It returns in postage $2,000,000, thus involving di- rect loss on transportation alone of $S,000,000. If it be charged with it's
 
 service on the very conservative ca1cu- lation heretofore given, the loss of the government is not less than $12000,- COO. That amount is three times the postal deficit of the last fiscal year. Had that loss not been sustained there would have been a surplus of $S0OO,- 900.
 "The government is thus not only con- tributing largely and rightly to the dis tribution of legitimate newspapers and periodicals with public object and coming within the law, but it is paying subsidy of $12,000,O00 year for purely private publishing enterprises run solely for private profit. How great a burden this is and how it stands in the way of just public undertakings will be plain on moments considera- ton. This wrongful subsidy would pay substantially the net cost of ex- tending rural free delivery over all the feasible part of the whole country 1t would pay if not all at least the great CT part of the loss of revenue involved in penny postage on drop letters. It would pay the cost of three battle ships. It would pay the largest amount
 
 that has been proposed to be set apart for the upbuilding of a great American merchant marine and leave $3,000,OoO to spare every year,
 On the subject of mail routes the re- port gives the following:
 '"The length of domestic or inland mail routes was increased during the year by 10.S18 miles, or 6,940,2S5 miles in annual travel, the total number of such routes of all classes at the end of the fiscal year being 35,316. aggregat- ing 51f, 1908 miles in length and an an- nual travel of S66, 146,0S9 miles. This comprehensive service involved an ex- penditure of $5G, G,S1O, ,242.05, an increase of $1, ,664, ,182.29 over the previous year.
 .'The transportation Of the mails in Hawaii and Porto Rico, the cost of which is now included in the general appropriation for that purpose, has, since my last report, been completely rebrganized, and there are now in Ha- waii 57 routes, with total length of 4,349 miles, and in Porto Rico at the. end of the fiscal year there were 41 routes, with length of 4, ,754 miles,"