The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1928-12-04
new OUTLINES
ANYWAYS MAIL
1928 RESULTS
Postmaster General Show s
Postal Service Had $685.
363.14S Deficit
DEAD LETTERS DECREASE
$98,678 Found in Unclaimed
Mail; 46l,441 Packages I'm
delivered

Washington, Dec. 4.-(AP)-Re-
suits OF an improvement and expan.
sion program in the American pos
tai service, particularly in the all
mail. were set out today by Post.
master General New in his annual
report to President Coolidge which
noted an operating deficit of
S33 ,363,148 for the year ended June
3Oth.
The operation Of the Jones-Whitc
Merchant Marine Act, designed to
stimulate American shipbuilding
with aid from postal revenue, was
not reflected in the report as new
contracts could not be made to be-
gin during the period. The five
cent rate on letters sent by air also
was made effective since the date
of the report but Mr.. New said that
the contract air mail service appears
to justify his opinion that private
enterprise can perform the work
creditably.
The Postmaster General recon-
mended amendment of the March 8
ect under which contracts were let
during the past year for transport
ing the mails by air between New
York and Montreal; Key West and
San Juan, Porto Rico, and between
Key West and the Canal Zone, ask
ing authority to make contracts for
routes between the island posses
sions and foreign countries, between
such island possessions, and over
routes in foreign countries.
Need s76O,973,279
The revenues of the service were
placed at $693, 633,921, an increase
of 1.54 per cent over last year when
the increase was $3.50 per cent. The
audited expenditures were $725,-
699,765. The final estimate Of the
sum needed to run the Department
was $760,973,279 and the amount
carried in the appropriation act,
$755, 1885, 200.
The average per capita expendi-
ture for postage was SSH. A re-
duction of 8.5 per cent in the number
of unbelievable letters was noted,
but these dead" messages totaled
23,649,O44 pieces. The decrease was
ascribed to the departments cam
paign to induce mail advertisers to
use envelopes bearing return ad-
dresses. Money found in dead let
tiers or loose in the mails totaled
$98,678 and 461,441 parcel post
packages went unclaimed.
Free Mail Privilege
Surveys of all matter mailed free
under the penalty privilege by the
several government departments
and under the franking privilege ac-
corded members Of Congress showed
an estimated number Of 520,117,717
pieces of mail. Had postage been
collected the revenue would have
been $17,634, $40, it was estimated.
The Postmaster General asked au-
thority to extend the free mail privi-
lege to the Diplomatic Corps and
consuls of Pan American countries.
A long list of recommendations
for legislative action were made,
among them one to prohibit the
sending of unsolicited articles
through the mails for sale. Others
asked were: More drastic punish
ment for mail robbers; a fee for in
quiries made for patrons concern
ing registered, insured or COLLECTION.
delivery mail and postal money or
ders; demurrage charges on unde-
livered collect-on-delivery parcels;
punishment for those attempting to
extort money through the mails by
means Of tblackmail;" authority to
require steamship companies to
carry the mail when rendered and to
impose fines on steamship compa-
MES and air mail lines for unreason-
able and unnecessary delays and
other delinquencies; permission tt
hire motor vehicles from carriers fol-
use in the service, and power to de.
fine more clearly the authority fol
requiring the delivery, in accordance
with the requirements Of the de.
partment, Of foreign mails brought
by steamships from abroad.