The Holly chieftain., 1923-04-26

q.
who resigned to become regulator of
the moving pictures. Then came Hubert Work
Of Colorado. practicing physician Of national
reputation. Now comes former United States Sem
ator Harry S. New, an Indiana newspaper man.
Dr. Work goes to the Interior department as sec
retary, succeeding Albert B. Fall Of New Mexico
resigned.
Postmaster General Work, upon leaving the Post
Office department. submitted a biennial report
March 4. 1921, to March 4. 1928 to the President.
1t is an exceedingly interesting document, much
60 that the senate ordered 1t printed In the Con-
gressional Record In body type. The purpose of
this article Is simply to forth Of the items
In this report which are of general public interest
incidentally, two Of the pictures given sam
pies of progress The postal card printing machine
IL really up to date and the solution of the prob
lem Of the most comfortable carrier for mall mat
ter means lot to the lettercarriers. third
shows former Postmaster General Frank Hitchcock
sending the first package by parcel post December
81, 1918. 1t contained a silver loving cup tad-
dressed to Postmaster Morgan Of New York which
Is now In the National museum at Washington.
The report bears the title Regeneration Of the
American Postal System" and begins with these
statements: In 192021 the postal deficit was $751;
8s7,8s7 0s; in 1922 the postal deficit was $780,
S15.40038; in 1929 the postal deficit will be $780,
100000; In 1923-24 there will be no deficit
The methods employed to reduce the deficits
by nearly S20.O000O0 In the first period above were
varied and ingenious. Examples are these:
Through the purchase of foreign exchange In
anticipation Of settlements of balances on money
order business. the Post Office department made
profit of $130,0O0 with only single loss of S5,OOO
Through the cancellation Of an existing four-year
contract and successful negotiation Of new agree
ment. economy of S8,278OO0 was effected
Sweeping changes in the method of purchasing
supplies have earned approximately $1,5OO,OOO to
$2,000,000 during the past two years. These
changes consisted offsanceng many contracts at
wartime prices and In the elimination of long-term
contracts covering every variety of supplies nec-
essnry for the Post Office department.
1t appears that elimination Of "tortuous" red
tape causing endless waste and delay in admin
istration effected through the adoption of
policy of decentralization, the result Of which has
been the establishment of a miniature Post Office
department In each state known as central ac.
counting post Office. Fifty-two of them have been
organized and are In full operation throughout the
country. These central accounting offices conduct
the postnl affairs of their respective territories
serving their post offices with promptness and dis
patch almost incredible in comparison with the old
method of handling all postal business In the de-
partment at Washington. The new system also
changed accounting In post Offices permitting post
masters to finance themselves from their receipts
instead of sending the money to the department
and then having It returned to them through
vouchers to cover their expenses Rendition and
auditing of half million money-order accounts
wns abolished and these activities were trans
ferred to the central accounting offices. Instituted
with absolutely no extra cost decentralization re-
suited In the release Of TAO employees at the de-
partment at Washington, thereby saving 81, 100000
annually. summary of the functions of the cen.
trail accounting post offices Includes auditing of
quarterly accounts of postmasters: adjusting and
payment of parcel-post claims distribution of sup
plies, Including stamps, within "a hours instead of
week or ten days.
BY way Of contrast It is discovered in the report
that rural route carriers Of the postal service made
lcomplete enumeration of the pig and SOW produc.
tion of the United States. This census, conducted
after other administrations had refused to coop
crate with the Department of Agriculture, was con-
Quoted in every state Of the union, rural route
carriers filling and distributing 100000 ques-
honnares to farmers. The result was the first ac-
curate statistics upon the number Of swine ever