The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1913-11-06
THE NATIONAL CAPITAL

Brookings Register Bureau, Washington. DC.
(By j. E. Jones)
Secretary Lane Of the Interior De-
partment has been driving it home to
Washington that the cause of the COM
plants that have been coming from
people of the west in tremendous vol
ume during the past years must be
alleviated. He takes issue against the
policy based on the theory that the
government of today must fight battles
to extend over future generations, and
also exact toll for the treasury before
the interests of the living generation
come in for eve scant consideration.
The secretary is not pateient with the
idea entertained by a branch of the
national government which has been
apparent to a disagreeable extent in
the land Office, where homesteaders
are nearly always treated as though
they were spectators in disguise, and
are frequently held up for years before
coming into the long restricted posses
sion of the little ground which they
have struggled to possess. The secre-
tary Is a practical man of the west
who knows the problems before him,
and there is a growing confidence that
he is getting away" with his job.
Representative James r. Mann of
rhfnoC n ofthnr 10 thn uyhi}1 clatya 1nn-
islation and the pure food and drug
act. has let it be known that he will
again arise to the occasion to stem
the increasing number of selfinflicted
fatalities that come by way Of the $
Of bichloride OF mercury, Paris green,
carbolic acid, and other drugs have
had their day, and now the rage seems
to be a little pinch of bichloride as a
e of escaping the troublesome
affairs OF the times. Mr.. Mann has
been in consultation with Secretary
Houston and other officials of the
agricultural department with a view
to o thoroughly restraining the sale
Of bichloride in the hopes that there
may be a useful conservation Of hui
man lives.
The United States post ONCE was es-
tablished in 1889 and there were orig
inally seventy.ive post Offices. In the
first full yea Of It's ~existance, 1890,
these seventy1ive post Offices produc-
ed a gross venue OF $37,935, and the
expenditure of the department amount.
ed to 1924 1t il found that by the
year 1900 the number of Offices had In
creased to 1.205, and a hundred years
ago, In 1913, there were 2,70S post
Offices with a gross revenue Of $702,154
and gross expenditure Of 1851 oil. The
FIRST postage stamps issued in their
present form were on July /, 1S47, and
there were sold during the following
year $S60.3s9 worth. BY 1853 the post
Office department had become a con-
siderable institution, and we find that
this was the first year in which stamp.
ed envelopes were issued, and the
sales amounted to s5,000.00 0 Letters
were FIRST registered on July /, 1856,
and the first newspaper wrappers were
issued In 1851. Special request en-
velopes were first put into use in 1865,
and postal cards had their birth in
June. 1873. In 1856 we lind that the
gross expenditures Of the post Office
for the drst time exceeded $1O,0 0 900
. year. while in 1899 the expenditures
reached $161.63S.160. In 1912 this had
increased to $24s.624.S40. In 1899
there were issued $500. 775.81 in
postage stamps, and In 1912 the
amount wa nearly three times as
great, having climbed to $1,000, 1875. 7s6.
The sale Of postal cards jumped from
l$s1. 900 IN 1874 TO $s0s.411.ol5 In 1912.
This, q course. did not take into &c
count the private and picture postal
cards. n The year 1919 We ma that
there were se.719 post oflces in the
Unltsd statss producing : sorss rev