Items of Interest November 14, 1903 Issue

Items of Interest

Postmaster General Payne, in his estimates for appropriations for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1905, calls for an aggregate of $168,085,770 for the postal service and $1,511,050 for the Post Office Department proper at Washington. The appropriation for the year ending June 30, 1904, was $153,511,550, and the estimated revenues for that year $146,304,643. The estimated revenue for 1905 is $159,472,061, and the deficit $8,613,709.

The total increase on account of city delivery service is $1,671,750 and rural free delivery increase is $3,163,700. No estimate is made for the special fast mail facilities, for which the last appropriation was $167,726. An estimate of $800,000 is made for pneumatic tube service. The heaviest items are of $39,698,000 to railroads for transportation of mails; $13,506,000 for salaries, etc., in the railway mail service, and $5,736,000 for railway post office car rentals. Other important items include: Star route service, $8,100,000; compensation of post masters, $24,000,000, increase, $2,250,000; compensation of assistant post masters, at first and second-class post offices, $2,000,000 increase, $105,900; assistant postmasters at third-class offices, $1,700,000, increase, $400,000; clerk hire, etc., $20,000,000; pay letter carriers, $20,731,250; letter carriers and clerks in charge of rural stations, $15,000,000, increase, $3,000,000: rental cancelling machines, $250.000.

According to the admissions of officials of the Department of the Interior, the investigation of the public land scandal now going on in the States of the Pacific coast, bids fair to uncover more dishonesty than that of the Postal Department. The present investigation has been going on more than four months, is entirely independent of the Indian land scandal and involves money-making transactions to the extent of between $20,000,000, and collusion, it is said, between organized plunderers and State and Federal authorities in the matter of land allotments in some fifty-four forest reserves, which cover altogether 60,175,765 acres of land. Already a number of indictments have been issued.

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit

Items of Interest

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access