Imperial Valley press., 1913-11-26

landed area of the earth. Yet it han
dies one-third of all the mail matter
of all the postal systems in the world.
And this, mark you, was the case be-
fore the parcel post was established in
the United States, although such sys-
TENS prevailed in other countries and
a great proportion of the mail of
other countries consisted of parcels.
When the parcel post is fully devel-
oped here it is probable that the
American postoffice will handle nearly
one-half of all the mail matter of the
world.
The public is so familiar with its
mail service that it seldom pauses to
think of its extent. 1t knows, in a
general way, that it is service that
now demands one-fourth of all the
annual expenditures of the United
States government, and that it an
nually handles some 7,000,000,000
pieces of mail. But the real meaning
of the expenditure of $250,000,000 is
too difficult to grasp, and the handling
of 17,O00,0OO,O00 pieces of mail too
large a task to be pictured. An
American dollar bill is little over six
inches long, yet the annual expendi-
lures of the postoffice department
would make nearly nine belts of bills
around the earth. A rapid counter
can count hundred in a minute, AT
this rate it would take an arm5' of
1900 people, working twelve hours a
day and 313 days year, to count the
pieces of mail handled annuallJ by the
postal service. And Wien one re-
calls the number o. landings tha.
each piece of mail REQUIRES, varying
from three times to 4 dozen, the inn
of the task begins to appear.
If there is any individual in any
part of the world who has any better
method of collecting the postal reve-
nues than through t.le use of the post
age stamp, that person would be re-
ceived with open arms by the post
Office department. The department is
the recipient of many suggestions as
to substitutes for postage stamps, but
it reports that to date nothing has
been developed which embodies all of
the very practical and direct advan-
tages of the stamp. 1t is admitted
that there is a possibility that sue
cessful substitute will yet be found,
but the department officials add that
the tendency now is to extend rather
than to curtail the stamp system. 1t
requires approximately $4,000, ,000, 900
stamps and pieces of stamped paper
to accommodate the postal needs of
the people of the country, and they
come in 124 varieties and denomina-
tions. The one and two cent stamps
represent ten out of every thirteen
issued by the government, including
postal cards and newspaper wrap
pers.
' One of the striking developments in
the postal service of the United States
has been the increase in the salaries
paid to those who handle the mails.
They increased $23,000,000 in four
years, while the number of employees
increased by 10000. The average
clerk in postoffice got STA raise
in his salary, the average letter car
rier s71 raise, the average railway
postal clerk s94 raise and the aver
age rural carrier S193 raise.
There are approximately $4,000
postoffices in the United States where
the nations mail is received and dis
patched. Of these all but about 5000
are fourth-class postoffices, where the
postmasters receive percentage of
the face value of the stamps they
cancel as their compensation in lieu
of salary. Where the cancellation of
stamps does not exceed $50 per quar-
ter the postmaster gets the full face
value, and it is estimated that nearly
$4,000 postmasters make no returns
of the revenues from the dispatch of
mails from their Offices. From this
it will be seen that some $4,000 post
masters are working for the govern
ment for 5000 year or less. The
average compensation of the fourth
class postmasters of the United
States, of whom there are nearly
$4,000, is less than $24 month, and
out of this they must furnish their
own quarters and equipment. 1t is
little wonder that one of the principal
offenses against the postal laws is
that of postmasters who pad their re-
ceipts by claiming to have cancelled
stamps they did not cancel.
The postal service has been going
forward at a marvellous rate in re-
cent years. In only twenty-five years
the number of pieces of mail handled