St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1916-08-12
SH[ET METAL WORKS
uP-TO-DATE TIN SHOP

GOVERNMENT ECONOMIES
IN MAIL EQUIPMENT
Great Savings Of Money in Mail Bags
Now Purchased at Halt
Cost
The people who see mai Dag
wloaded on postal cars from the nall
wagons Of the government. or see
them thrown off at the station in the
cities. can form no idea of the i'm
,nensity Of this branch Of the public
Statistics and tables OF fg-
mes may have little interest for the
ordinary reader, but when 1t is stated
that the total number Of rail bags
used for transporting the mails
amount to about FIVE millions, n II
placed end to end would stretch
from Boston to San Francisco and ex-
tend into the Pacific ocean,, some es-
innate may be formed Of the tremen-
dous mass of such equipment nodded
in the dispatch of public business.
At the beginning Of this admins
tration an inventory was taken 70
learn what equipment 0 railway
postal transportation the government
had on hand. 1t was discovered that
the grand total Of such property was
NLA go 0AG
3,549,4S 5 pieces, Of WHICH 4oS,o4o
we're mail pouches, 2,5s2,47S were
sacks. and 4S8,164 were mail locks
since this inventory was made the
growth OF the service required the
purchase of over one million ana Q
/ half mail bags to meet the steadily
increasingg demand. This business
| of the government is SO enormous
that a tabulation made In the railway
mali service two years ago showed
that the eight mail bag repositories
az the United States received ano
sent out again during the year just
preceding, nearly 10000, 600 sacks and
pouches. AS the real amounut Of
stock then was about 100000, 1t viii
be seen that this equipment was han
died ten times by the system OF dis
tribution devised to relieve congestion
at one point and meet pressing de
mands at another, without which al
rangement the peculiar exactions o.
the service could not be met. Tht
amount thus handled is nov verl
much larger, sacks and pouches pass
ing to and froo through these depos
tories and the mail bag storehous'
at Washington a~ggregating 56,000,O0'
pieces.
The money required from time .
time for the purchase of this grea
supply and the price to be paid, SO a
to come within the appropriation, wer'
matters of grave c to thoes II
charge. Congress supplied the fund.-
but where the supply could be bough
at the lowest price-governmen
standards maintained-was the prof
lem. In the summer Of 1913, the de
partment was paying $144 for its or
binary mail pouches. This price wa
deemed too high, and experts wer'
set I'd work to devise something whicl
would be of equal capacity, equal dur
ability, at a less cost. The result wa
that a pouch was designed which thu
department contracted for and pun
chased for less than so cents eacn
and this pouch has been produced Il
large quantities and is replacing thos'
formerly under c%outractt. Expert
were also paced on the proposition
Of designing a cheaper but equally ct
fectiye pouch for the exchange Q
mails by movingtrains. The depart
ment ment then was paying $1.70 10
these catcher pouches. Within . shor
time a pouch was evolved, designed
ON scientific principles, which is civ
ing far better service and at a great
ly reduced cost, viz. 80 cents each.
The saving in this production 0
equipment will amount to a yer.
large sum, for there have been owe
10000 of these new style bags places
in the service within the last tw'
years at q reduction of fifty per cen
tum. and this economy will of cours'
continue and grow in amount as thu
further demand for supply is met
While the old style Of equipment re
CURED expert attention to keep then
in repair, this newer product requires
but little, and is kept in good condi
ton at a nominal cost by machine op
eraors.
The repair and proper maintenance
OF mail bags is provided for in an es