The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-12-12

annual report favorS increasing the postage on the advertising pages of magazines. the establishment of a rural parcels post to handle packages up to Il pounds in weight. and he issue of postal notes up to $10 in value. The report in part follows:
 In the last annual report of the de- partment special attention was direct ed to the enormous loss the Govern ment sustains in the handling and transportation of second-class mail. volume of such mail the loss is con- Stantly growing. A remedy should bs promptly applied by charging more postage. In levying the higher rates 1t is believed that distinction should be made between advertising matter and what is termed legitimate read ing matter. Under present conditions an increase in the postage on read ing matter Is not recommended. Such an increase would place a special burden on large number of second class publications, including educa- tional and religious periodicals. that derive little or no profit from adver- Using. It Is the circulation of this type of publications, which aid so ef- fectively in the educational and mor- al advancement of the people, that the Government can best afford to en- courage. For these publications. and also for any other legitimate reading matter in periodical form, the de. partment favors continuation of the present low postage rate of l cent a pound. and recommends that the proposed increase in rate be applied only to magazine advertising matter. This plan would be in full accord with the statute governing second class mail. law that never Justified the inclusion under the second-class rates of the vast amounts of adver- Using now transported by the Gov ernment at a tremendous loss. ~
 In view of the vanishing postal de- fcit 1t Is believed that if the maga- zines could be required to pay what 1t costs the Government to carry their advertising pages the departments revenues would soon grow large enough to warrant 1-cent postage on first-class mail.
 Newspapers are not included in the plan for a higher rate on advertisin, :, distribution. they do not employ the mails to any such extent as the wide ly circulating magazines.
 Under the system proposed it will be possible, without increasing the expenditure of public funds. to utilize that considerable portion of the pos tai revenues now expended to meet the cost of special privilege enjoy ed by certain publishers
 Experiments made by the depart ment show that the rela i've weights legitimate reading matter carried by can be readily determined, making it simple matter to put into successful operation the plan out lined. Under that plan each maga- zine publisher will bt required to certify to the local postmaster. in ac- cordance with regulations to he pre- necessary to determine the, proper po~taee charges. The method of prn cedure will be worked out in such manner as to insure the dispatching of the mails as expeditiously as at present.
 Rural Mail Service.
 Next to the heavy loss resulting from the low postage rate on second class mail, the principal inroad into the profits of the postal service is tha: made by the excessive cost of rural delivery. The large expenditures for rural mail service are far more justi- fable. however, than are the much heavier payments required to meet the losses incurred. on account of mail. Millions of dollars disbursed each year for the latter purpose are paid out chiefly for the benefit of a comparatively small class tions annually granted to maintain and extend3 the rural delivery system are expended in the interests of vast population. The advantages of rural delivery are such as to war rant its further extension even at @ loss to the Government. It is believed, however, that without the proper development of this branch of the postal service a material reduction can be made in the rate of expense incurred. The during the year of the star route and rural delivery systems wirl undoubtedly accomplish much m this direction. For some time past these two systems have provided practically the same kind of mail de- livery, but as they were managed quite of each other much of service resulted. Un- der the plan of consolidation recent ly put into effect the important pos tai facilities provided by these two systems can be extended with less ex- penee to the Government and with a probable gain in efficiency.
 Postal Savings, System.
 The Board of Trustees created by the act of June 25, 1910, to control. supervise, and administer the postal savings system has made substantial progress in perfecting plan of opera ton.
 After a most careful investigation and numerous conferences with lead ing bankers the board unanimously decided to adopt the plan of using certificates of deposit instead of pass books.
 Tn order to make the first trial of the new system as comprehensive as