Republican farmer., 1918-12-13

is advocated to relieve premium charges which are said by the report to be excessive, and also to eliminate delay and difficulty.
 Dealing with complaint of delays in mail for soldiers in France, both be- fore and after the mail service was taken over by the army, MT. Burle- sons report says that much of it was due to the handling of mail by order 1 lies in military service.
 1 Perhaps the most serious of these IdeIays arose from the attitude Of the military authorities" it says, ''who declined to reveal to 8 civilian postal organization the whereabaUts of mill tary units, in many cases until their ! location had been discovered by the | enemy. There was also a good deal ! of trouble in obtaining motor trans l port. and at one time the military authorities undertook to take from the 1 postal stations the small etails of enlisted men who were assisting in the work on the ground that they were needed for purely military ser vice"
 | In the United States, 123 branch post offices were established at camps and cantonments to deliver mail to the troops Censorship boards were es-
 tabIished at nearly all ports of exit from the United States, in connection with military operations, and 1,600 em- iployes were engaged in censoring ap-
 proximately 5000 pieces of mail dur
 ing most of the period covered by the
 report.
 A very wide extension of the aerial
 mail service has been planned, the report indicates and outlines are given for four routes. two of which extend outside the United States.
 'The trunk line and feeders decided upon for the aerial mail" the Post master General says, after describing
 experimental operation between Wash ington, New York, and Philadelphia
 under the present program are:
 "1 New York to San Francisco
 with feeders from (a) Chicago to St Louis and Kansas City; Gb) Chicago
 to St. Paul and Minnesota; Co Cleve-
 land to Pittsburgh.
 ''2 Boston to Key West, with feed
 CTS from (a) Philadelphia to Pitts.
 burg; Cb) Washington to Cincinnati
 Co Atlanta to New Orleans.
 "S. Key West, via Havana to Pan,
 anna,
 s A. Key West, via the West Indies
 to South America"
 "The Post Office Department only
 awaits the day when the aircraft pro
 lduction of this country can more thar supply the needs of our own army and those of our allies to make eff
 fective the program for aerial mai that I have directed to be put into operation as speedily as the war con
 ditions will permit" MT. Burleson con
 tinues. He points out that planes fo the overseas service decided upor mus be powerful, fitted with wireless and of special construction, and de
 clares that the commercial advantag,
 resulting from the expected reduction
 in the time of communication betweel , South and Central America will jus tify the expense.
 : Discussing the rural truck lines, ant , the expected requirement by the de partment of many hundreds of wa, trucks, the report says that the com mercial and economic advantage O IAS SSIFlG5 are GVtu6uLs ana US SX tension desirable. The transmission l of food products from farms to urbal centers is particularly facilitated b! the motorized post lines. Due to enlistments, and high wage , in outside service 9,o7S postal em ployes left government employmen
 during the year. the report says, ne cessitatins extra efforts in training substitutes. Of the number leavin, the service 4,S98 resigned for othe employment, or 12.4 per cent. of tn entire force, but the report says tha ! overtime allowances made under nev law will guarantee the maintenanc 7 of an efficient force.
 Postal savings bank deposits in = creased $16,516SO3 during the year , arising the total of these deposits t 5 '$148, ,471 499.