I would most respectfully submit the following estimates for the ensuing fiscal year: For support of institution over and above the probable amount to be received from pay patients, including fuel, light, medicines, salaries, food, and necessary repairs Rent and furniture. Total.... $15,000 3,000 18, 000 J. H. THOMPSON, M. D., The BOARD OF DIRECTORS, Columbia Hospital. REPORT OF THE POSTMASTER GENERAL. POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT, Washington, D. C., November 15, 1869. SIR: The ordinary revenues of this department for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1869, were $18,344,510 72, and the expenditures $23,698,131 50. For the year ended June 30, 1868, the ordinary revenues were $16,292,600 80, and the expenditures $22,730,592 65. The increase of revenue for the year 1869 over the preceding fiscal year was $2,051,909 92, and the increase of expenditures $967,538 85. The increase of revenue for 1868 over 1867 was $1,055,573 93, and the increase of expenditures for 1868 over 1867 was $3,495,109 19. The ratio of increase of revenue for the year 1869 is 12.59 per cent., and of expenditures 4.25 per cent., compared with receipts and expenditures for the year 1868. The increase of revenue for 1869 is greater than the increase for 1868 by $996,335 99, and the increase of expenditures for 1869 is less than the increase for 1868 by $2,527,570 34. If, therefore, the increase of receipts be compared with the increase of expenditures for the year last ended, it will appear that the increase of receipts exceeded the increase of expenditures in the sum of $1,084,371 07; while a like comparison of the receipts and expenditures for the year 1868 will show an excess in the increase of expenditures over the increase of receipts for that year of $2,439,535 26. ESTIMATES FOR 1871. The estimated expenditures for the year ending June 30, The foregoing estimates do not include the following special appro priations in the nature of subsidies : For mail steamship service between San Francisco, Japan, and China.... $500,000 For like service between the United States and Brazil............. Total... Of the deficiency appropriated for the year 1869 there For balances to foreign countries. $150,000 75,000 725,000 $1,500,000 00 $250,000 00 Leaving a net balance, after settlement and payment of all liabilities, of.... 815,813 65 STAMPS AND STAMPED ENVELOPES. The number of postage stamps issued during the year Stamped envelopes, plain, 46,265,750, representing.... The whole number of stamps, envelopes, and newspaper wrappers was 502,722,560, of the aggregate value of... $12,706,220 00 16,348 00 1,332,862 50 950,726 00 71,905 00 15,078,061 50 The increase thereof is best exhibited by the following table: The issue of periodical stamps was discontinued by my predecessor about February 1, 1869. The number of packages of postage stamps lost in the mails during the year was 22, representing $818; and of stamped envelopes 15, representing $259 30, being much less than the losses from like delinquencies in 1868. CONTRACTS. There were in the service of the department on the 30th of June, 1869, 7,056 contractors for the transportation of the mails. Of mail routes in operation there were 8,449, aggregating in length 223,731 miles, in annual transportation 90,723,403 miles, and in annual cost $10,406,501. If the compensation of railway post office clerks, route agents, local agents, mail messengers, mail route messengers, and baggage-masters in charge of mails, amounting to $1,275,227, be added, the aggregate annual cost will be $11,681,728. This service was divided as follows: Railroad routes: Length, 39,537 miles; annual transportation, 41,399,284 miles; annual cost, $4,723,680-about 11.41 cents per mile. Steamboat routes: Length, 20,779 miles; annual transportation, 4,331,011 miles; annual cost, $774,536-about 17.88 cents per mile. "Celerity, certainty, and security": Length, 163,415 miles; annual transportation, 44,993,108 miles; annual cost, $4,908,285-about 10.9 cents per mile. There was an increase over the preceding year in length of routes of 6,803 miles; in annual transportation, 6,499,078 miles; and in cost, $140,445. To the last add increased cost for railway post office clerks, route, local, and other agents, $160,594, and the total increase of cost will be shown to be $301,039. The foregoing statements of distances and costs do not include serv ice for "special" offices. There were, at the close of the year, 1,962 of these offices, each with a mail carrier, whose pay from the department is not allowed to exceed the net postal yield of the office. "Special" routes and their carriers are included in the number of contractors and routes as given above. OVERLAND MAIL. The contract or agreement entered into on the 21st October, 1868, between the Post Office Department and Messrs. Wells, Fargo & Co., for the transportation of the United States mails between the western terminus of the Union Pacific railroad and the eastern terminus of the Central Pacific, for the term of one year from October 1, 1868, or until the two railroads should meet, at the rate of $1,750,000 per annum, subject to deduction pro rata for every section of fifty miles of railroad completed and reported to the department ready to carry the mails, expired on the 9th of May, 1869, the railroads having effected a junction and reported ready to carry mails through on the 10th. When the contract was entered into, it was estimated that the junction would not be formed before the 31st July, it being supposed that the severity of the weather would compel a suspension of work on the railroads during the months of January, February, and March; and it was further estimated that the cost of the mail service under Wells, Fargo & Co.'s contract would amount to $670,144. The weather proving unusually mild, however, and the progress of the roads being uninterrupted, their completion was accelerated nearly three months, and hence the cost of the service under the contract with Wells, Fargo & Co. was reduced $214,339 36 below the estimate. The amount actually paid to them for the whole period from 1st October, 1868, to 9th May, 1869, inclusive, (221 days in all,) after making deductions for completed sections, was $455,804 64. The temporary contract entered into on 31st October, 1868, with the same parties, at $79,000 per annum, for that division of the overland mail route extending from the terminus of the Kansas Pacific railway to Denver, numbered 14,167, and known as the "Smoky Hill route," expired by limitation on the 30th June, 1869. The route had been curtailed in the mean time so as to commence at Cheyenne Wells, being coincident that far with the daily route to Santa Fé, and $14,149 deducted from the annual pay, for thirty-six miles decrease, reducing the pay to $64,851 per annum. The route as thus curtailed, and numbered 17,034a, was advertised under date of January 6, 1869, to be let from 1st July then next, the department offering to receive proposals until the 7th April and to decide thereon by the 14th of the same month. Under this advertisement several bids were submitted, the lowest being $34,600 per annum. It appearing, however, from the specific reports of postmasters, that the mail matter conveyed over the route had become inconsiderable, owing to the transmission of the principal mails for Denver over the Union Pacific railroad, after its completion, via Cheyenne City, and that there were no post offices whatever between Cheyenne Wells and Denver on route 17,034", the continuance of the service was not deemed to be of sufficient importance to justify the expense it would involve, and the route was consequently left out of operation from 30th June, 1869. The contract made on the 28th October, 1868, with Wells, Fargo & Co., to carry the mails for one year from October 1, 1868, on route 17,035, from Cheyenne City to Denver, one hundred and two miles, and back, daily, at $9,970 50 per annum, expired on the 30th September, 1869, and the route was re-let from October 1st, under the above-mentioned advertisement of January 6th, to the same parties, they being the lowest bidders, at $8,640 per annum. This is all that remains of the old overland mail service, and this will doubtless be superseded in a few months, a railroad between Cheyenne City and Denver being now in rapid course of construction. |