288 



POSTAL SKIIVICE. 



day of the month of issue, they become invalid, though 

 a duplicate may be obtained upon payment of an 

 ditit.nal tee. 'flic following table shows the' imMMM 

 ol the postal-note system since its establishment : 



Fical year. Vote* iaraed. Note* paid and repaid. 



1884 t7.411.il02.48 $7.2.14.12.V."1 



1885 1.37 



1886 1I.71S.OI0.05 11.C66.93U.73 



1887 Il.7r.ssj4.81 11.7:'' 



1848 12,134,459.04 



Fee* received. 



8110 



152.1. 



,1.15 



180AM -; 

 800,341.68 



l year. 



1WM 







1886 



UK 

 1-s- '.'.. 



Expenditure*. 

 $76,389.49 

 91,275.82 



no.u5.ao 



82,870.72 

 82,456.30 



2d. 77i< Rfffuln/ Sy/*ttm, first authorized by act of 

 March 3, 1855. By this svstem additional security is 

 intended to be given to valuable matter in its passage 

 through the mails, the means relied on for giving this 

 security consisting of the recording, or registering, of 

 all matter presented for registration, the giving of re- 

 ceipts to the senders at the. time of mailing, the re- 

 ceipting and careful handling of the matter by all 

 persons through whose hands it may pass throughout 

 its journev, and the final acknowledgment of receipt 

 by the addressee. Thus a letter registered may DC 

 traced from hand to hand until it gets to destination. 

 or, in case of ita loss or miscarriage, up to the official 

 who is responsible therefor. To give distinctiveness 

 to registered matter it is enclosed in large colored en- 

 relopes, termed "registered package envelopes." which 

 may contain one or more letters to any one office, and 

 the condition of which must be indicated by the in- 

 dorsements of all who handle it, A bill of lading, or 

 " registry bill " as it is called, accompanies this en - 

 Telope. which bill after verification is returned by the 

 receiving to the sending postmaster. Kvcry failure to 

 receipt for these envelopes or their contents, every dis- 

 crepancy between bill and contents, and every lo.-s, is 

 promptly reported and at once investigated. Much of 

 the separate handling of and receipting for registered 

 matter has of late years been obviated by the use of 

 through pouches between prominent offices, the i>ouches 

 being locked with tell-tale locks that can properly be 

 opened only by the sending and receiving postmasters. 

 Vast amounts of money, bonds, and other valuables 

 are transmitted annually by registered mail, so that its 

 value to the business world" is beyond question ; but its 

 greatest value is probably to people at small places 

 where the money-order system does not exist, where 

 banks are unknown, and where railroad, steamboat, 

 and express lines have not been extended ; for it 

 brings every one of these little communities into safe 

 and expeditious commercial intercourse with the great 

 cities, and places, as it were, their opulence and variety 

 at its feet The fee for registering matter is 10 cents, 

 which is in addition to the lawful postage. The 

 system is probably self-sustaining. The number of 

 letters and parcels of matter registered during the post 

 ten fiscal years is as follows : 



1879 5.429,022 



1880 _ 6.9<W.r.i:t 



1881 8,338,918 



1882 ... !i.., 



1883 10,594,716 



1R84 11,? 



1885 _ 11,043,256 



1886 _ ll.ti-|s,227 



1887 12- 



1888 _ 13,677,169 



3d. The Fref-Dtliivry Si/item, authorized by act 

 of March 3. lKf.3. The principal function of this 

 branch of the postal service is to make delivery by 

 regular carriers employed by tbe government, at the 

 residences of addressees or at other specified places of 

 address, of all mail matter that may arrive or be de- 

 posited for local delivery at what are known as free- 

 deliver}- offices. In council inn with this duty is that 

 of collecting matter from designated boxes throughout 

 tbe cities when- the xyitlcui exists, and mailing il at the 



post-office. The term "free-delivery" is not strictly 

 accurate ; for while no direct charge is made for col- 

 lecting or delivering matter by the carriers, there U an 

 indirect charge, made by doubling the local or drop 

 rate of postage on letters at all free-delivery office*. 

 Thus, at an office where carrier delivery is not made, 

 the drop rate on letters is one cent an ounce or I 

 thereof; at a free-delivery office the drop rate is two 

 cents the difference being originally intended to main- 

 tain the system. Under the last law passed I... 

 gress affecting the i'r< < delivery system, authority is 

 given the Poet master-General to establish it at any 

 place having a population of lO.(XX), or where the 

 gross revenue of the post-office for the preceding year 

 shall have amounted to $10.000. The total number of 

 free-delivery offices in existence on June 30, 1888, was 

 358; the number of carriers in service at tbe fame 

 time was 6346 ; and the number of pieces of matter 

 handled by them during the year ending on that date 

 was as follows : 



Letters delivered 873,760,692 



Postal card? delivered 212,426,703 



Registered letters delivered 4,271,i05 



Newspapers, etc., delivered 428.71U.933 



fitters collected 760.113,963 



Postal cards collected 



Newspaper*, etc., collected.. 127,597,925 



Whole number of piece* handled 2,630,861,758 



Table II. shows the growth of the free-delivery ser- 

 vice since its establishment It will be seen that if one- 

 half the postage on local matter at free-delivery offices 

 be taken as the measure of revenue resulting from 

 the establishment and extension of the system, it h:is 

 been financially a burden to the government from the 

 beginning. If, however, the additional use of the 

 mails, locally and otherwise, which the system un- 

 doubtedly influences, with the resulting increase of 

 revenue, be taken into account, to say nothing of the 

 immense amount of office separation of the mails 

 which in the. absence of carriers would have to be 

 done by distributing clerks and paid for out of some 

 other item of revenue, the system beyond all question 

 has been self-sustaining. Besides, it handles an enor- 

 mous amount of matter other than letters, on which 

 no increase of the local rate of postage has been made, 

 and from which, consequently, no increase of revenue 

 has been derived, and it collects for mailing nearly as 

 much matter as it delivers a service which was prob- 

 alily not intended when the system was created, and 

 which the increase in the drop rate of postage WES not 

 expected to pay for. 



Prior to 1863 a carrier-delivery service existed at a 

 few of the larger post-offices known as the " penny 

 post" the carriers being appointed by the depart- 

 ment, and being allowed in tne way of compensation 

 a Ice to lie collected from even' person to whom 

 matter was delivered. It is a rather remarkable fact 

 that although this system existed in Kngland as far 

 back as the reign of Charles II. -^-one. Win. Dockwra 

 having successfully introduced it into the city of 

 London and was a short time afterwards authorized 

 in this country, and Motioned, after the separation of 

 the colonies from England bv repotted act* of Con- 

 gress, it had not, down to the establishment of the 

 Free-delivery system, been extended to more than 15 

 or 20 post-offices in the whole country. The principal 

 cause of this is to be_ found, not in the disinclination of 

 the people to patronize the system for we find them 

 in many places eagerly supporting private letter ex- 

 presses wnercver they were, permitted to exist but in 

 the opposition of postmasters, whose compensation, 

 alwnys partially dependent upon the rent of post office 

 boxes, the system of carrier delivery was supposed to 



seriously affect. Soi ittcmpts have been made 



within the last five or six years to bring about the 



lislnncnt of the "penny-post" tor places of 



less population than the law requires as a condition 



