The Huttig news., 1916-09-02
ECONOMIES IN MAIL EQUIPMENT.
Great Saving of Money to the Government
 -BaQs at Half Former Cost.

The people who see mail bag loaded on postal cars from the mail wagons of the government. or see them thrown off at the station 1T the cities, can form no idea of the immensity of this branch of the public service. Statistics and ta- bles of figures may have little in terest for the ordinary reader, but when it is stated that the total number of mail bags used for transporting the mails amount to about five millions, and if placed end to end would stretch from Boston to San Francisco and ex- tend into the Pacific Ocean, some estimate may be formed of the tre- mendous mass of such equipment needed in the dispatch of public business.
 At the beginning of this admin stratlon an inventory was taken to learn what equipment for railway postal transportation the govern ment had on hand It was dis covered that the grand total of such property was 3.549,489 pieces, of which 468. .846 were mail pouches, 2.5e2,4zo were sacks, and 488,1 were mail locks. Since this inventory was made the growth of the service re- quired the purchase of over one million and half mail bags to meet the steadily increasing demand. This business of the government is so enormous that tabulation made in the railway mail service two years ago showed that the eight mail bag Repositories of the I United. States received and sent out again during the year just pre- ceding. nearly 4O,OOO,OOO sacks and pouches. As the real amount of stock then was about 4,OOO,- 900, it will be seen that this equip ment was handled ten times by the system of distribution devised to relieve congestion at one point and meet pressing demands at another, without which arrangement the peculiar exaetions of the service could not be met. The amount thus handled is now very much larger, sacks and pouches passing to and fro through these deposito- ries and the mail bag storehouses at Washington aggregating 56,- 100000 pieces. In the summer | of 1915, the department was pay ling $1 A for it's ordinary mail Ipouches. This price was deemed too high, and experts were set to work to devise something which would be of equal capacity, equal durability, at less cost. The re- l suit was that pouch was designed which the department contracted for and purchased for less than 60 cents each, and this pouch has been produced in large quantities and is replacing those formerly un- der contract. Experts were also placed on the proposition of de- signing cheaper but equally eff fective pouch for the exchange of mails by moving trains. The de- partmeht was then paying $l.ZO for these catcher pouches. With in a short time a pouch was evolved designed on scientific principles, which is giving far better service and at greatly reduced cost, viz. 80 cents each.
 The saving in this production of equipment will amount to very large sum, for there have been over l5O,OOO of these new style bags placed in the service within the last two years at reduction of | fifty per centum, and this economy will of course continue and grow in amount as the further demand for supply is met While the old style of equipment required expert at tention to keep them in repair, this newer product requires but little, and is kept in good condition at a nominal cost by machine operators.