River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1906-12-13
DEFICIT is
OVER TEN MILLION.
coRTELYOU CONCERNED MAINLY
ABOUT EFFICIENCY.
ANNUAL REPORT ISSUED
Present Conditions and Demands, He
Says, Warrant Improvement of
Every Branch of the
Service.

Washington, Dec. 10.-The annual
| report of Postmaster General Cortel-
you, made public Sunday night, re-
views the work of the department for
the past year gives in detail the postal
revenue and expenditures, discusses
important changes that have been
made in departmental organization,
and makes such suggestions and rec
Concentrations as appear to be war
| ranted.
The statement of the departments
| finances shows that the receipts for
the year were $167, 1892, 1926; the ex-
penditures, $17S,932, 1889; excess of
expenditures over receipts, $10,516,-
| 1854
As to the Deficit.
After discussing various reforms in
| the organization of the department,
| the postmaster general says:
Il repeat what [ stated a year ago,
that while it would be gratifying cir
cumstance if the post Office depart
ment We're self-sustaining, / am less
concerned about the deficit than about
the efficiency of administration. The
public demand for postal facilities is
constantly growing. If the installa-
ton of the rural service had depended
upon the existence of surplus in the
! postal revenues under the existing sys-
tenn of accounting, that service could
not have been given. The same con-
siderations apply to a number of other
1 hoe fol
certain branches are SO interviewer
with and dependent upon others that
| there is much force in the contention
that it is unreasonable to charge any
one of them with the responsibility
| for the deficit.
''The rural delivery has undoubtedly
| increased the bulk of first-class mail
matter. The circulation of the second
class mail also very largely affects
the bulk of the higher class, to what
degree it is practically impossible to
| determine. Of course, rapidly in
creasing deficit for period of years
may be matter of some concern, but
/ think present conditions warrant us
in turning our attention, rather, to an
| investigation and Improvement of
every branch of the departments
work"
High Efficiency Shown.
Other extracts from the report are:
In spite of defects the efficiency of
| the service has been in many respects
remarkable, as witness the record of
the registry service for the half cen
tury of it's existence, showing a per-
centage of loss from ali causes-in-
Guiding burglary, theft and fire-for
the fiscal year ended tune 80, 1904, of
only three one-thousandths of one per
cent. Some private business enterprises
may In certain directions yield bet
| ter financial returns, but they cannot
| show a higher standard of integrity
nor more faithful performance of
duty"
Use of Mails for Fraud.
In the two years closed June 80,
1906, the fraud orders numbered $50,
exceeding by II the total number is
sued in the four years immediately
preceding. The schemes suppressed
represented almost every conceivable
| variety of fraud. There were work-at-
home propositions, bond investment
enterprises, medicinal cure-alls, alb
sent-treatment schemes, devices for
| the exploitation Of stocks, and enter
prises offering something for nothing
under the guise of the endless chain
method of investment, all of which
upon examination proved to be mere
traps for the credulous. Included in
the total of orders issued during the
two-year period in question were SO
orders against lotteries and similar
enterprises"
Rural Delivery of Parcels.
Il recommend that provision be
made for the carriage by rural car
riers, at fair rate of postage, of small
parcels on rural routes, such privilege
to be restricted in each case to the
limits of the particular route on which
the parcel originates, or, if found
feasible, to all the routes emanating
from a single post office.
In cooperation with the department
of agriculture, systematic efforts have
been made during the year to secure
the Improvement of the roads tray
ersed by rural carriers
The report concludes
Il know of no one thing that will
do more for the postal service than
continued insistence upon the policy
of substituting business for politics in
the administration of its affairs"