The evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1907-1908, 1907-12-02
FOR POSTAL BANKS
$10,516,o95 DEFICIT IN P.
O. DEPARTMENT..
Meyer Favors Slot-Machines for Selling
Supplies-Always sopen and
Save Clerk Hire.

WASHINGTON, Dec. I'm his annual
report, just made public, Postmaster-Gen-
eral Meyer makes some important recon-
the administrative department OF an off,
eial to be called Director OF Posts or Dep
uty General, or some such
name. This official, the Postmaster-Gen-
eral says. should be made permanent n
should hold Office through successive adj
ministratlons to act as expert adviser to
the head of the department. thus insurjng
a continuity of policy that would conserve
the departments great interests.
Mr.. Meyer also comes out strongly for
the installation of postal savings banks.
This, he thinks, would achieve two great
results. 1t would encourage among our
people economy and thrift and would ''af-
ford a place of deposit free from any pos
sibility of doubt or suspicion for vast sums
Of money which might otherwise be hoard
ed and kept out of circulation through ig-
norance or lack of confidence"
The Postmaster-Genera points out the
fact that the 1000, 900 of immigrants who
la come to this country in the last
ten years have sent back to Europe vast
sums of savings. In many Instances"
he says, at has been found that for want
of postal savings banks money orders are
being bought, payable to the purchaser,
good for one year" In the fiscal year
ended June 30 last postal money orders for
over s72. 900. 900 were sent abroad from this
The Postmaster General also recon-
mends the extension OF the parcels post
by increasing the weight limit from four
pounds to eleven pounds. A novelty he is
now experimenting with is the stamp vend-
{rw r.a,4l-4 i ~raR,a - a. ~ he dOnO
to put out many slot machines which will
sell stamps and postal cards. Their use
in postof1ce Hobbies" he says. will afford
an all-night service with no expense for
clerk hire, and their use In postoff1ee sta
lions, hotels, railroad stations. newsstands.
department stores and drug stores will add
immeasurably to public convenience.
The railway mall routes in operation at
present have a length of 207. 2S7 miles, and
cost the government s45, 11s,s72 a year,
an increase over the annual rate of ex-
penditure of about Ss per cent. About
6,343 miles of electric cable car routes
are In operation at a cost of over $500, 600
1t cost So, 1913, 400 to transport the foreign
mails in the year ended June 50. Mails
are now sorted in sixteen steamship sea
postofices on vessels plying between New
York and Europe. This sorting cost $72.41S
last year, but the Postmaster-G General says
1t was worth 1t.
In the railway mail service last year
twenty-one postal clerks were killed and
125 seriously and 662 slightly injured in
railroad accidents, an increase OF hve
killed and 296 injured over the previous
year. Many of these accidents are due
to inferior cars. but these are improving
in qaulity, it is believed.
Over $50, G0O, 1000 more domestic orders
we're Issued han in the previous year and
over S21. O00,0OO more foreign orders, these
increases bringing into the department
an additional revenue of more than S4O0,-
600. The registered mail business also took
q big Jump. Over 4,000, 900 more parcels
and letters were registered last year than
the year before. and about one letter OF
package in every $1,000 was lost.
That the public is as careless II hasty
as ever in the matter Of addressing things
sent In the mails Is shown by the fact that
in the year ended June 30 no less than
1906. 255 letters ot parcels were received
at the dead letter office, an Increase Of
over a million and a quarter. About 5,225,-
900 were subsequently delivered to the
owners.
The receipts of the department for the
year were SlSS. SIS, 0O5.57, and the expen-
ditures $191, 2sS, 2SS.S4, al excess of expen-
ditures over receipts Of $6.653. 2S2. This,
however, is an improved showing. In
1906 the receipts were $167, 1872, 7s2, the
expenditures $17s, go. 1903. leaving a deficit
OF s10.5 .995.
Since 1857 the postal business of the
United States has just about doubled every
ten years. Mr.. Meyer thinks that by 1871
the postal receipts VIII have passed the
S35p 0Nl ono mark