Omaha daily bee., 1910-01-13
Forester and Associate Are Both
Known as Pinohot Men.
RURAL MAIL SERVICE GROWS
Number of Pieces Handled Increases
SO Per Cent in Four Years.
ROADS GREATLY IMPROVED
Fourth Assistant Postmaster General
Say This IL One of the Indirect
Benefits of Installation
of Service.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 12.-President Taft
this afternoon appointed Henry s. Graves
director of the Yale Forest school, as for
ester OF the United States to succeed Glf-
ford Pinchot. He also appointed Albert
f. Potter, at present acting forester, as
associate forester. The new forester and
his associate are both known as Pinchot
men. Both have served under Mr.. Plnchot
and both are in sympathy with his policy
of administration.
1t was largely through Mr. Pinchots ef-
forts that the Yale Forest school was
established and Mr.. Graves went from the
post of assistant chief Of the division of I.
forestry under Mr.. Pinchot to become di-
rector of the school in 1900 He had served
in the forestry division for two years. Mr..
Graves graduated from Yale in 1892. He
was trained in forestry In this country and
in Europe and has had extensive experience
in the west. having made the reconnais-
sance survey Of the Black Hills in 1897.
Mr. Graves will take up his duties as for
ester February /.
Mr. Potter. the new associate forester.
who succeeds Overton w. Price, is a native
of California and had spent all OF his life
in the west until he became a member of
the forestry staff nine years ago. He has
within the preserves. He is well acquainted
with western conditions and is thoroughly
informed Of all the policies and practices
of the forestry service.
Rural Mail Service Grows.
An Increase of SO per cent in the amount
of mail handled on rural delivery routes
during the fiscal year ended June 80 last
over the fiscal year of 1905 is shown in
the annual report of the fourth assistant
postmaster, General p. V. Degraw which
was transmitted today to the postmaster
| general. Commenting upon this fact Mr..
Degraw says:
! This remarkable increase is conclusive
evidence that the institution of rural de-
| livery has enlarged the amount of the
mails handled and therefore Increased the
revenue.
This is true, although 45 per cent OF the
! bulk of mail on rural routes is second
class matter, as the increase applies to all
classes of matter, especially to letters and
postal cards the latter due to the enormous
use of souvenir or picture postal cards"
The report shows that during the last
year 1876 petitions for rural delivery serv-
ice of mail were filed with the department
OF this number S61 were pending on June
80 1909. OF the S,O15 petitions disposed Of
9O7, or 81 per cent, were rejected and 2,10S
petitions were accepted for investigation
on June 30, 1909, reports had been made in
LOO Of these cases, Of which 647, or a
per cent, were adverse to the installation
of the service. N.
Mr. De Graw says that the installation
of rural delivery as a rule. has been fol-
lowed by an increase in the amount of
mail delivered and collected within the
territories, respectively, covered by that
service.
During the last fiscal year the total ex-
penditures for rural free delivery was $685.
661O34, increase over the previous year
Of 81, ,2S9,095.
There has been unprecedented i'm
provement of the roads traversed by rural
carriers" the report says, due to the
intelligent and well directed interest of
postmasters and carriers"
At the dead letter division the receipts
of mail matter for the year aggregated
H. 1925 pieces, decrease of 1,l4T,s47 from
the preceding twelve months.
The revenue derived from dead matter
for the year amounted to $29,234.
Government and Powder Combine.
Whether the government shall continue
TO buy it's great supply of snokeless pow
der from the DUPONT Powder company
the alleged powder trust" or extend the
work OF manufacturing it's own powder,
was considered by the house naval COM
mittee today and officers OF the army aand
navy and officials of the powder company
gave evidence at length.
F. c. Buckner, vice president OF the pow
der company, denied that the company is a
trust. He said there weer a dozen COM
peting companies in the United States and
| ba fhat
had recently captured the big government
contract for the powder USED on the 18TH
mus OF Panama.
Denial was made by Mr.. Buokner of
the charge that his company had raised the
( price to the government for powder needed
when the Spanish war began. On the
contrary, he said, prices were lowered The
! givernment now pays So cents per pound
to the DUPONT company a decrease from
last year
II costs the government SO cents to manu-
facture powder but labor, salaries and
other charges bring the cost up to the
amount paid the private concern. Brigadier
General Crosier chief OF ordnance, and
Rear Admiral n. f. Mason. CHIEF of the
bureau Of ordnance, offered no contradc-
tion of Mr. Buckner's testimony
Status of Federal Coal Lands.
OF the i22,OOOOOO acres Of western coal
lands 100000 acres still remain I'm the
y hands o fthe federal government, according
0 to a statement contained In bulletin
a issued by the United States geological
survey The report goes on to deal with
. the present scheme Of classification and
' valuation by the government OF its coal
I lands, which is based on selling coal lands
e at coal prices and fixing the prics per acre
I on an estimate OF tonnage content and
p quality of coal
c In speaking OF the effect OF the new
valuation plans upon government coal
I sales G. H. Ashley OF the survey says the
$ higher prices seem 10 have increased rather
e than decreased the sales OF coal lands In