Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1902-12-06

Total expendi- oo- ~
lures theyear 115, 554, 92O.e7 124, 1856, 697.o'
Excess expen-
dutires over o.o -.
receipts ..s 1923, 727.4s 5 1881, 649.s1
The estimated deficit for 1903 is given
as S5,6O2 227 and for 1904 as $S,242.S56.
The Postmaster General says that de-
6cits in the postal service are not to be
viewed with apprehension, as 1T is the
policy, whenever the postal receipts OK
coed or come near the expenditures, to
extend postal facilities and cheaper the
cost of the service to the public. In this
connection is noted the continuing effort
to better the condition of postal employees,
involving wholesale promotions and re-
auctions of working hours of clerks IN
postofiees.
Of the rural free delivery the report
says:
Rural free delivery service has become an
established fact. 1t Is no longer In the ex-
perimental stage and undoubtedly Congress
will continue to increase the appropriation
for this service until all the people of the
country are reached, where 1t Is thlckly
enough settled to warrant 1t. The estl-
mates of the department are to the erect
that the available territory for this service
embraces about 100000 square miles, or
one-third of the country area exclusive OF
Alaska. The II, $50 routes now In operation
cover about one-third of the available terri
tory. From this 1t will be seen that 1t will
require q, 600 employees additional to those
now in the service to cover this territory.
If Congress shall make the necessary ap-
preparations it is believed that within the
next three years the extension of the serv
ice will have been completed.
With the carriers salary fixed at 5000 per
pleted rural free delivery service will ap-
proximate $24.OO00OO. After the service
has been completed this increase ought not
to exceed annually to 10 per cent, or in
about the same proportion as obtains in
other branches of the service. The people
are demanding the service with impatient
earnestness.
The report states that the money order
business has largely increased during the
fiscal year, both in the number of orders
issued and the amount of money involved
The number of domestic money orders is
sued was 40,474,327 amounting to So 49,
sol ,279. The number of international
money orders issued during the year was
1911, Ill, amounting to $50, 974 ,473. The
number of international orders paid dur
ing the year was 3O7,679, amounting to
$5,S21, 729.
Of the railway mail service the report
says:
At the close of the year there were $50
lines of travelling postoffices, covering 49,
796 miles in length. The number of clerks
employed was 9731, annual travel by them
in cars 221 $50, 500 miles. To accom-
this 3.7S5 cars and apartments were used
on the steam roads. besides twenty-four
cars on the electric lines under the super
vision of the railway mail service and So
apartments on steamboats,. 1t is estimated
that these clerks >handled 1902, $50, $40
pieces of ordinary mail and a, 174,174 pack
ages and cases of registered mail. The en-
rOrs by clerks in handling the mail as re-
ported indicate but one error made for
every 1862 pieces correctly distributed.
There were csc casualties to mail cars
last year, in which either mail or clerks
were injured. Nine clerks were killed and
IS seriously and 300 slightly injured In
the appropriation act for the current fiscal
year provision was made for the first time
authorizing the postmaster general to pay
to the legal representatives of any railway
postal clerk who shall be killed while on
duty or who, being injured while on duty,
shall die within one year thereafter as
the result of such injury, the sum of $1,000
The report closes with the following
recommendations for legislation:
That the extension of free delivery to
towns of not less than 5000 population, or
$4,000 gross annual receipts, be author
lied.
That substitute letter carriers in cities OF
10000 population and over by guaranteed
monthly earnings of not less than $50, and
in cities of less than $4,000 population not
less than $50.
That rural letter carriers be allowed an
annual leave of absence of not to exceed
Is days with pay.
That the maximum fee for a money order
be fixed at % instead of 30 cents.
That section of the act Of June 13,
1898, chapter 446, providing that assistant
postmasters, cashiers and other employees
of postoifices Of the first. second and third
classes shall give bond direct to the United
States be repealed. and that statute be
enacted requiring such officers to give bond
directly 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 the Interstate commerce law be
amended to prohibit common carriers, to-
wit telegraph and express companies, or
any of their employees, from aiding and
abetting 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.
That the department be authorized to
adopt a system of postal checks.
That a statute be enacted authorizing the
receiving and dispatching Of certain classes
Of mail matter without the necessity of af-
fixing postage stamps to individual pieces.
That an act be passed comforting upon
the department specific authority to intro
duce system of reply postal cards and
envelopes.
ions rendered by the assistant attorney gen
eral for the poStotfice department.
That provision be made for new and suit
able buildings for the manufacture and re-
pair of mail equipment the quarters at
present occupied being entirely insufficient.
First Girl Baby in 40 Years.
A girl baby has been born to Mr.. and
Mrs. Arthur w. Becker of ST. Louis. Or
dinarily such an announcement would
carry with it no interest beyond the I'M
mediate circle of the family interested.
But when one is told that the Beckers
are a particularly large family and that
this is the first girl Becker to be born