The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-03-28

war tax on letters of one cent an ounce or fraction thereof. The de partment opposed this as the Post master-G General believed that the postal service should not be made an instrumentaHty for raising revenue. Because of the large profit in hand ling mail of the first class Congress felt, and justly so, that if it was necessary to impose a war tax on this mail it could not in justice and fair ness permit the low rate on second class matter to longer continue as this class of mail was handled at an esti- mated loss of approximately seventy two million dollars annually. For this reason the law providing new | rates of postage for second class mat ter was enacted.
 While the zone system for adver- tis;ng has been criticised by some yet when considered from the standpoint of all classes of publications its be- l.eved to be the most fair and equit- able. l. is a mistaken idea that the zone rates apply to reading matter. ! They do not. A low flat rate applies to the reading matter of all pubIica- tiors no matter to what zone address 1 ed. This rate is SO low that it will not under any circumstances reim- l purse the government for the cost of ] handling and transportation of such matter Since the law providing the ] low flat rate which prevailed prior to 1 July 1 was enacted a new factor in 1 connection with publications, that of i advertising, has been introduced. At : the time that law was enacted few | if any publications contained as much
 as five per cent. Of advcrtiseing. but
 many Of them have now become com ] merciaHzed to a very great extent by ! such advertising. The zone rates ap- | ply to such advertising only when it l exceeds five per cent. of the entire l contents of the publication. These zone rates. therefore, apply to such extent only as the publisher com uercializes his publication.
 There was much fear on the part l of the publishers that this law would result in much inconvenience to them
 and be extremely difficult to admin ister- IL is the purpose of the de- i partToen-, however, to adnliniswr it ! in the most liberal manner
 TIie Postal Service Under War Con-
 dit;ons
 As you know. this country became ! involved in this terrible war during April of last year. This immediately 1 thrust upon the postal service many new and unusual conditions and diff 1 fcult problems. Efficient postal ser
 vice is of the utmost importance for
 the proper conduct of the business.
 social and economic affairs of the
 country. This being true, we have
 attempted to do that which no other
 country engaged in this war has at 1 tempted to dC-not to restrict or cur tail our postal service in any manner during the war. We have established a post office in each army canton ment and today they have S9 such of
 fees established. They are rendering
 efficient service under the most difl-
 cult and trying circumstances to the
 thousands of men assigned to such
 camps. Prompt communication and
 good mail service is necc ssary for the 1 comfort and welfare of our soldiers.
 For that reason we will not leave any,
 thing undone to give to these men
 who must sacrifice their all if neces-
 sary the best service possible We 1 have also furnished a number Of our
 best employees for duty in connection
 with the mail service in France which l handles the mail for the force over
 seas.
 Additional Duties 10 Be Performed.
 The Post Office Department has at l least one representative in each city.
 town or hamlet where a, post office 5s
 located. This being true it has the
 most complete orga nization for se-
 curing information or assisting in
 government work of any of the ex- ecurive departments
 As postmasteTs know, the demands in carrying on the war activities dur
 ing the past year have been numer- ous and varied. The postal service has been called upon to transport distribute and deliver hundreds of thousands of tons of literature in con- nection with this war. All of this lit erature was transported free of charge and the great amount of work in- volved is not reflected in the -posta, receipts. You have been required ir . towns having populations of 5000 or 2 i less to register German alien enemies ] You have also been required to report } enemy owned property, violations o1 5 the Espionage Act. to issue exporr l licenses, to assist in Red Cross cam. = paigns and many other activities. The r sale of Liberty Bonds, War Saving. = and Thrift Stamps have imposed r | upon you and the employees of youl l l offices many hours of additional work = but I am proud to say that this worI = has been performed willingly anC = gladly at a time when our boys at the front are sacrificing so much and l when others in this country are wait = ign to make the supreme sacrifice i . necessary.
 l Unusual Conditions and Unjust Crit, icisZa.
 Tn addition to having these extrs
 burdens thrust upon you have had - during the past winter, to contend = with most severe weather condition l which made the rendering of ef1cien @ service extremely difficult and il 1 some instances almost impossible o Train schedules were demora1ized n trains running as much as 24 hour : may make a difference of A hours il a Nothing affects the efficiency cf tn l. postal service so much as interrup r uons to the transportation service 6 The railroads became so demora lize 0 early in December last that 1t wa f necessary for the President of tn l. United States to take charge of then '- and operate them under governmen y control.