the excess of such postages over the cost of the service was $1,526,936.27, a gain of $232,165.72, or 17.93 per cent. At only nineteen offices the receipts from local postage exceeded the cost of this service; but at those the excess was sufficient to overbalance the deficiency of all the rest by the amount stated. There was in most of the free-delivery offices a better showing in this feature. The Recommendation in the last annual report for the extension of the discretionary limitations of this service to places of 10,000 inhabitants or $10,000 of gross annual revenue, I respectfully renew. The argument in its favor I will not repeat, as little need be said in addition to what was then presented, to one who favors the bestowal of the utmost feasible privileges to our citizens. It would not be necessary, nor proper, at once to extend to all cities and towns within such limits; not all will at once desire it, or meet the local conditions which the regulations and the principles of this service require. But the law should be altered so that no amendment will be again required in this respect for many years; and a sufficient curb on the exercise of the discretion can be annually imposed by the Congress through the usual limitation of the portion of the appropriation left applicable to extension. The opinion expressed in the last report that a separate grade of collection carriers should be established, for use in the larger cities, at lower rates of annual pay than are given the delivery carriers, has ripened, in my mind, to a conviction that efficiency and economy would both be promoted by the measure. The work of collection requires little experience and carriers of little education. It would afford employment to many who cannot now enter the service at all. The division of the labor is in accordance with the soundest principles of organization and would doubtless advance the measure of performance to means and cost. It is suggested also that the statute which forbids placing collection boxes in any but public buildings or railroad stations should be modified. It is now customary to construct in the cities private buildings of large size and great height for business purposes, of such capacity that a colony of business men may occupy one. A convenient device is often supplied to these by which mail matter deposited in the several stories in a common pipe or tube will drop to a letter box on the ground floor. By this means such a letter box oftentimes serves more persons than one upon a street corner and with equal security, and such provision is, or can be made, in all cases, that it is as conveniently accessible to collectors. It would be an additional facility extended by the postal service to business men to authorize such boxes to be constructed, without cost to the Government, and embraced within the collection service, under control of the local post-office. The Money-Order System has been conducted during the past year in accordance with its well-established methods and with customary efficiency. It was extended to 311 additional post-offices, while but 10 were dropped from its list. The returning business activity has shown its marks here by an increase in the number of orders and postal notes issued and paid, slightly exceeding 9 per cent. on the whole; the gain on domestic orders, however, being less than 3 per cent., while in postal notes it was nearly 19 per cent., and in international orders nearly 10 per cent. of issues, though but 3.35 in those paid. Yet, notwithstanding the increase in number, the total value of domestic orders, both in issues and payments, diminished by a little more than $4,000,000, or nearly 3 per cent.; while the gross amount of postal notes, both those issued and those paid, increased by over $1,700,000. This difference was due to a continuance of the tendency, noted the year before, to the use of orders for smaller sums; the average amount of the money-order having fallen by 93 cents from $15.26 in 1885 to $14.33, and of the postal note from $1.98 to $1.95. The system was provided for those whose transactions are limited, and the scale of fees for the larger orders opens it to competition by the banks, express and telegraph companies, which it does not encounter on the smaller. The charges for orders of $40, or more, exceed the rates which many banks require, and unless reduced will limit the employment of this means of transmitting money. So long, however, as it continues to furnish the best means for those whose dealings are but moderate, the system meets the chief objects of its creation, and its very great value to the people is shown by the large aggregate volume of its business. During the past year there were issued 7,940,302 domestic orders, amounting to nearly $114,000,000; 5,999,428 postal notes, amounting to $11,718,000, and 493,423 international orders, aggregating $7,178,786.21, besides the payment of foreign orders, reaching a total of almost $4,000,000. The entire amount of fees received was $1,214,506.38, less by $2,869.60 than the previous year. There was some diminution in the fees from domestic orders, but a greater arose from the reduction of the charges on international money-orders from one and one-half to one per cent. The total net revenue paid into the Treasury for the year was $350,551.87, a sum more than sufficient to pay all cost of the money order clerical service in the Department and the Auditor's office, the rent of buildings and the maintenance of them, besides all incidental and miscellaneous expenses. The reduction in the fees on orders of five dollars and under by the Congress, pursuant to the recommendation in the last report, will somewhat further diminish the net revenue of the current year. It is a gratifying proof of the efficiency which characterizes the mauagement of this business that but 52 money-orders, or in the ratio of 1 to 152,618, were reported during the last year as erroneonsly paid; and of these a part proved on examination to have been properly paid, and for a part the inspectors recovered the money; so that during the year but 29 orders, involving $619.78, were charged to postmasters because of their fault, and but 2, amounting to $65, were assumed by the Department. On the 1st of October, 1885, the money-order business begun with Japan, under the convention reported last year. In November, 1885, I signed a convention for the exchange of money-orders with the Lee ward Islands, which went into operation on the 1st of January last. Negotiations are in progress for an exchange between this country and The Netherlands, Norway, and Austria-Hungary, respectively, and it is probable will be concluded during the current year. I concur in the hope expressed by the experienced superintendent that the bill which was passed by the House of Representatives at its late session, extending the convenience and usefulness of the postalnote system, may soon become a law. The Special-Delivery Service was instituted under authority of the act of March 3, 1885, and put in operation on the 1st day of October, last year. The act limited the service to free-delivery offices and such others as served places with a population of 4,000 or more; and its privileges were thus operative at but 555 post-offices. The restriction greatly limited the convenience and employment of the service, because it required the sender of a letter to consult the list of offices where the stamp would be available, a list often inaccessible at the proper time. Nor was the stamp efficacious upon any but firstclass matter. Notwithstanding, the public appears to have found the system advantageous, and during the full year of its use, to the end of September, 1,118,820 letters were received for special delivery at the designated offices, of which 785,020 came by mail and 333,800 were drop-letters. The large proportion of the latter seems an indication of the restraint on senders, just mentioned, from the want of ready knowledge of what offices were designated for special delivery. The Auditor reports sales of these stamps to the estimated amount of over 1,400,000 prior to the 30th of June, and the issues to postmasters to that date aggregate nearly 3,700,000. Taking the full year of the system, the amount of fees paid for special delivery is put by the returns received at $84,784,42, leaving a gross profit to the Government of $27,097.58; figures approximately, though not nicely, accurate. The service, to the extent it was employed by the public, has been well performed. The receipts of addressees give the hour and minute of delivery, as also the postmaster's note of the minute of dispatch from the post-office, and these show the average time between the office and the addressee to have been nineteen minutes. Another indication of efficiency is the insignificant number of complaints received. The past year can be properly regarded as only affording a tentative experiment with the new system, with favorable indications. present Congress, by the act of August 4th, gave power to make the stamp available at any office and upon any article of mailable matter. Instructions were prepared and issued to all postmasters, and circulars of information to the public, and the enlarged system was put in operation on the 1st of October. The short period since passed allows but general information of the results. Confident assertion is therefore impossible; yet it may be properly said that all indications afford the promise that this auxiliary will much increase the usefulness of the service. The Department will spare no pains to assure the public of prompti tude and certainty in the delivery of matter properly stamped, and will co-operate with public criticism to improve the efficiency of the system by the investigation of every complaint. Postmasters have every where manifested a praiseworthy zeal to promote its value, and as trial of its conveniences shall gradually extend knowledge of the various uses it will serve, its general and satisfactory employment may be reasonably anticipated. Practically it now affords the advantages of the parcels-post system for such articles as are admitted to the mails, and it may prove a precursor to the general introduction of that feature of postal service, now in use in several countries of Europe. THE TRANSPORTATION OF THE MAILS. Attention has been already called to the immensity of this part of our service, far exceeding in extent the similar establishment of any other country. The expense of its maintenance assumes corresponding proportions, rising above the combined sum of all other expenditures of the Department. On the 30th of June, 1885, the annual rate of cost of the entire transportation service was reported by the Second Assistant Postmaster-General to stand at $28,285,081. But by contracts and orders previously made, to take effect on the 1st day of July, 1885, this rate was so changed that on that day, the beginning of the past fiscal year, it stood at $28,955,898. Notwithstanding, the actual cash expenditure, as reported by the Auditor, has been but $27,553,238.98, to which must be added a sum estimated not to exceed $175,000 for railroad serv. ice unadjusted at the date of his report. Including that sum, the expenditures, as contrasted with the rates of cost in the several items at the beginning of the year, show as follows: The various changes effected in the course of the year, by increase of service in different parts and by reduction of cost in others, left the annual rate of cost on the 1st of July, 1886, to stand as follows: Railroad transportation, weight pay to the companies. $15,924,863 00 Special facilities.... Railway Post-Office Service Railway Mail Service. Star route transportation...... Mail Messenger Service Add mail equipments at last years' cost. 251,726 00 1,816,321 00 4,516, 826 00 $22, 509, 736 00 5,091, 225 28 405,945 68 831,223 00 235, 198 60 29,073, 328 56 In Railroad Transportation, the annual rate of cost has increased from two causes: first, an increase of 2,901 in the number of miles of road employed, and, secondly, the increase in weights of matter shown by the quadrennial weighing in the Eastern section. Yet the increase was only at about half the rate per cent. of the previous year, although the increased mileage was over three-fourths as much, for the reason that applications for special weighings were generally refused. The practice of prompt adjustments has been pursued with good results. The following statement shows the changes in the extent and cost of the service from year to year since 1873. Comparative statement showing total length of railroad routes; annual increase and annual percentage of increase in length of routes; annual rate and increase or decrease in rate of cost, and average annual rate of cost per mile for weight; annual increase or decrease in cost for railway post-office cars; total annual rate of cost and total annual average cost per mile for weight and railway post-office cars combined, from 1873 to 1886, inclusive. Caused by 10 per cent. reduction under act of July 12, 1876. No separate appropriation was made for R. P. O. cars until fiscal year ended June 30, 1880, and, consequently, the accounts prior to that year for this service were combined with those for cost for weight of mails. 45 Ab |