The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-18
POSTAL SERVICE
 TO BE IMPROVED Great Changes Will Be Made
 According to Plans NEW HEAD IS PROPOSED Director of Posts Is to Be Employed and Seven Heads of Departments Under Him, Abolishing Pres
 ent Four Assistants.
NEW HEAD IS PROPOSED

Washington. December 17.-Important recommendations for changes in the or ganization of the postal service are made by the joint committee on the business methods of the postoffice department and the postal service which today laid before Congress the result of its deliberations during the past two years The commis- sion favors a permanent administration head for the department to be known as director of posts. This office, it was suggested, should be given the general management of the postal service, while the postmaster general remains the ad- ministrator of the postal finances.
 It is proposed to abolish the offices of the four assistant posmasters general and to re-arrange the work under seven separate bureaus.
 It is proposed to divide the country into postal districts upon administrative and not geographical considerations for the management of the postal service.
 Under the existing law there is com Mined in the same office the dual func- tions of prosecutor and judge in respect of matters such as the clan of periodicals
 
 ly affecting the property rights of indi- viduals not connected with the postal service. This was found by the com mission to be a serious defect. Provision is made, therefore, for the creation in the commission of postal appeals consist ing of three members The duties of this commission will be three-fold: To de- termine upon appeals from the assistant director of mail matter whether the ap- plication of any periodical for admis- sion to the second class which he has denied should in fact be granted; to de- termine upon proceedings brought before it whether the second class mailing priv ilege of any newspaper or periodical once admitted should be annulled or revoked, and to pass upon the issuance of fraud orders against persons alleged to be conducting lotteries, or schemes to de- fraud. Except in these particulars mat ters relating to mail matter are. left as now with an executive officer, the assist ant director of mail matter, whose duty it is not only to decide all applications for admission in the first instance, but to investigate and prepare all cases for pFopOSeQ revocation or annulment
 While the principle that the property rights of the person affected shall not be taken away without a hearing is recog- nized in the law by expressed statute in respect to newspapers and periodicals and by implication in respect of the issuance of fraud orders, the present system has given general dissatisfaction. The reason for this is that the hearing thus created by law, according to the commissions re- port, loses much of it's choice quality. This circumstance has led to many pro- posals for curtailing the power of the postoffice department in the premises and submitting it to judicial review. The com mission, however, does not concur in such proposals
 substantial change made in respect to the management of postoffices is the placing of all fourth-class offices upon salary basis computed in precisely the same manner as commissions are now computed, with the exception that the sal ary for each year is based upon the total amount of business done for the year pre- ceding. It is believed that this change will do away with great deal of present complaint and remove the existing temp tations to fraudulent imitation of busi- ness.
 The investigation by the commission convinced it's members that the present system of money orders is entirely ade- quete for the transmission of considerable sums, but is too expensive and cumber- some for the transmission of small sums. II is provided, therefore for the intro- duotion of postal notes or money orders without advances for the transmission of sums not exceeding s5, the fees for which will be small.
 The plan proposed does not contemplate sudden and immediate transformation of the old system into the new. On the contrary the new Is simply to be de- yeloped out of the old.