Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-12-10
POSTMASTER GENERAL
Submits His Annual Report Of
Operations.
RECOMMENDATIONS MADE
MADE
Another Deputy is Needed and the
Reason.
INCREASE OF THE SALARIES
Of Certain Postal Employees is Advis-
ed-Business Principles Instead
of Politics.


of Politics.
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
With this significant statement Postmas-
ter General Cortelyou concludes his an
nual report for the fiscal year ended June
80 last, made public today
A number of important improvements in
the postal service are recommended in the
report The deficit of the department has
undergone a substantial reduction since the
fiscal year ended June 80 19O5-from $14,-
1887 to $10542,941 in 1903, which is 27.76
per cent. but instead of looking for ways of
cutting this still further Mr.. Cortelyou
asks for much larger appropriations for
new features. Among the Improvements
planned are an improved parcels post, re-
duction in postage, etc. The creation of
new Office Of deputy postmaster general is
also recommended.
The receipts for the year were $167 932, :
1926; the expenditures, SITS, 449, 778.S9; ex-
1864.
The Deficit.
Concerning the deficit, the Postmaster
General says:
Il repeat what stated year ago, that
while 1t would be gratifying circumstance
If the Post Office Department were SELF
sustaining, am less concerned about the
deficit than about efficiency Of administra-
ton. The public demand for postal facil-
lation Of the rural service had depended
upon the existence of a surplus in the pos
tai revenues under the existing system Of
accounting that service could not have been
given. The same considerations apply to q
number of other branches.
THE financial returns from certain
branches are so interviewer with and de-
pendent upon others that there is much
force In the contention that 1t IL unreason-
able to charge any one Of them with the re-
sponsibility for the deficit
Another Deputy Needed.
In support of his belief that there should
be deputy postmaster general, Mr.. Cor
telyou says:
while this department has a personnel
Of more than $4,000 and requires annual
appropriations approximating $500, 600, 600,
the general supervision Of it's affairs is in
trusted to a Postmaster General and but
four assistants. Its remarkable growth in
recent years has put upon these officials
burdens of which they should be relieved;
and their tenure, which is In the nature of
things dependent largely upon changes in
the national administration, operates
against a continuity Of policy in the gen.
eral operation of the department, which Is
most unfortunate.
ITO meet this situation, at least in some
degree, I recommend that provision be
made for deputy postmaster general, who
shall be the ranking officer Of the Post
master Generals assistants, whose tenure
shall be permanent, whose compensation
shall be commensurate with his position,
and whose duties shall be in the nature of
general manager of the postal service If
there were appointed to such a position an
official of tried executive capacity and long
experience in postal matters, he could re-
lieve the head of the department of in
Vulnerable details which now consume a
large portion of his time and preclude the
proper consideration Of important questions
of general policy developed in our own and
foreign postal administrations.
Fraud Orders.
In the two years closed June 80 last the
fraud orders numbered $780, exceeding by
II the total number issued In the four years
Immediately preceding. The schemes sup
pressed represented almost every conceiv-
able variety of fraud. There were work-at-
home propositions, bond-inv estment enter
prises medical cure-alls, absent treatment
schemes. devices for the exploitation of
stocks. and enterprises offering something
for nothing under the guise of the end
less-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 fifty-nine orders
against lotteries and similar enterprises.
Increased Salaries.
Increased salaries to postal employees are
recommended in the following words:
1.-The general advance in salaries in all in
dustrial and commercial pursuits, as we'll
as the recent fat advances of 10 per cent
in the salaries of their employees by many
of the leading railroad systems, has nat
urally followed upon the great prosperity
of the country. That the pay of many gov
eminent employees Is less than that of
admitted; and while it may be said that the
ranks of government employees can always
be recruited, 1t would seem that this depart
ment must inevitably lose manytpf the best
trained and most desirable among its per-
sonnet If nothing is done for their relief.
Competent employees are constantly leav-
ing the service to obtain better wages else
where. The salaries paid in the lower /
grades offer little inducement to those seek
ing employment Numerous vacancies
caused by the resignation of experienced
clerks have to be filed. at best, by inexpe-
rienced men. thus lowering the efficiency
of the service. Much of the work in our
post offices cannot be performed satisfac-
torily by such men. as years of training are
required before efficiency Is attained
1.-THE employees Of this service have right
to expect that their chosen vocation shall
yield sufficient income to meet current ex-
penses and provide little in addition for
the needs of the family in times of sickness
and misfortune. The increased cost of liv-
ing, together with the multiplying RESPONSE
bilities which result from the phenomenal
growth Of the postal service, fairly entftle
many of It's clerks and other employees to
an increase of salary"
Second-Class Matter.
The report contains review of the work
of the commission that has been consider
ing the question of second-class postage
rates.
IF it should be developed" says Mr.. Cor
telyou, "by the testimony before the COM
mission, by the results Of the weighings re-
Gently directed by the Congress or by the
departments Investigations that any class
of publications is enjoying undue advan-
tages under the precent rate, action should
be taken looking to a correction of this in
equality. The department exists to serve
not particular industry but all industries
not portion of the people but all of the
people, and rates of postage for second
class mail should be established on that
basis, with no rate that is relatively dis
elimination against or out of proportion to