The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1907-12-03
WASHINGTON LETTER
[speeial correapondence.l

are compiled from operations of 105
days, during which postal clerks and
special employees have been determin
ing the average amount of mail trans
ported daily over railroad lines.
Weighing the Mails.
1t will cost about $1,500,O0O to weigh
the whole country, and the whole coun-
try, according to law, musbbe weighed
in quarter sections in the course of ev-
cry four years. 1t costs twice as much
to weigh the big and expansive gran
ger states as it does to weigh some 9TH
err quarter sections, notably the south,
where the scales will be set up in all
postal cars some time next spring.
Nothing could be more erroneous"
said the postmaster general the other
day, than statements one still hears
occasionally that the mails are heavily
padded at weighing time Every pos
sible safeguard is taken to prevent it.
There are special employees on every
train where the weighing is in prog
ress, and they have Instructions to re-
port Immediately to the department any
w SAOPAiAChb thttl oSClllO pOSpANlOuo+
Safeguarding Uncle Sam.
The Investigations for determining
what the United States ought to pay
the railroads for mail service are prob
ably the most thorough and compre
hensive ever conducted by the post
office department of any nation. For
six months every ounce of mail orig
mating in every postoffice has been
weighed in the aggregate and by class
es, and the records are now pouring
into the department. That weighing
has been entirely distinct from the
weighing on the railroads in what is
called the third contract section, which
includes the big states up and down
the Mississippi valley. During thirty
days of October there has been a spe-,
cial investigation in 81 selected offices
to obtain some statistics ON the aver
age haul of mail. In this investiga-
ton, in other words, note has been
made of the distance = the state of its
destination of every piece of mail.
When the data is all in hand which
will be before long, the compensation
for transportation will be taken up for
adjustment.
Potomac Improvements.
A mass of interesting information in
regard to public works in the District
is contained in the annual report of
General Mackenzie, chief of engineers,
United States army.
General Mackenzie says that the
amount expended on the existing prof.
ect for the improvement of the Poto-
mac river at Washington to June 80
last was 1881 ,764, of which $329,934
has been applied to maintenance since
March 3, 1899.
The Potomac river is navigable to
the foot of Little falls, three and one
half miles above Georgetown, but the
Aqueduct bridge, which crosses the
river at Georgetown, 113 miles above
the mouth of the river, has no draw
and limits the navigation of large
steamers and masted vessels.
The principal articles of commerce
are sand and gravel, coal, lumber, ice,
cord wood, stone, oils, oysters, bricks,
coke and general merchandise. The
receipts, and shipments during 1906
amounted to about 100000 tons and
were estimated to be worth about
$S609,S60 This is the largest tonnage
ever reported.
In the Lower Stream.
The Potomac river below Washing
ton, General Mackenzie says, is gen
orally wide and deep body of water,
having the characteristics of a tidal
estuary rather than of a fiuvial stream.
Prior to improvements twenty
foot navigation was INSTRUCTED by sew
en- shoals, over which the depth ranged
from nineteen and one-half to twenty
three feet at low tide. Several of these
shoals were long and formed serious
Instructions to navigation by deep
draft vessels.
The amount expended to June 80 was
$1S4,S36, of which about $4,000 was
applied to maintenance.
AS result of this expenditure chan
nels twenty-four feet deep and at least
200 feet wide have been dredged
through all the shoals.
BY Ok Team From Tacoma.
Ezra Meeker of Tacoma, WASH,
who has driven an OK team all the way
from that city to Washington, called at
the White House recently. 1t has
taken him twenty-one months to make
the trip. In 1852 he went from the
Mississippi river to Oregon in wagon
pulled by oxen, fighting Indians along
the way. His object in seeing the pres
ident is to ask the latter's aid in max
Ing the old Oregon trail, as it is called,
a national highway.
Allyn Williams, ranked as the great
est of English artists on ivory, has ar
rived in this country to secure minia%
ture of President Roosevelt, which he
has been asked by Sir Alfred Reynolds
of England to paint. Mr.. Williams
painted miniatures of King Edward
and Queen Alexandra, and he wants
the likeness of Mr., Roosevelt on inn
perishable ivory to hang near the faces
Of the rulers of England.
A Hundred Thousand Want Tips.
Washington servants may not be ac-
quainted with the term "backsheesh, .
and they may never stoop to use the
term ''tip," but they are star specimens
Of all those etwo institutions imply.
There are more than a hundred thou
sand negroes in Washington, large
majority of whom are employed as
household servants and In other mental