240 



POSTAL I'SION. 



the place of the mart contractor, and collecting from 

 and delivering mail to everybody alone his route. 



. IH.IV otli -iulx mi :ill trains that carry mails 

 nut in charge 01 postal clerks should be NQjami t 

 mail matter offered to them rn mul,-. and to 

 deposit it in dc.-ignated boxes along the line, or at 

 port-offices at the teruiini of their several runs. In 

 other words, the present law which requires the captain 

 of a steamboat or the mail-carrier on a star-route to 

 receive and projicrly deposit all mail matter hnndt-d to 

 him, should apply equally to the officials of a railroad 



y. lircatcr dispatch of matter, and greater con- 

 venience to the public, would in innumerable cases re- 

 sult from such a regulation. 



10. The system, uow existing in the postal service 

 of many Euro|>ean countries, under which reimburse- 

 ment to a limited amount is made for losses in the 

 mails. should be introduced, as a part of the system of 

 registration. 



11. The pneumatic tube system, now existing in 

 London. 1'aris, Berlin, and Vienna, should be adopted 

 for use in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston, 

 and St. Louis, as a part of the system for the special 

 delivery of letters. 



12. There should be a better method of cancelling 

 the stamps on mail matter than that now in vogue. 

 Several plans to this end might be urged : for exam pie, 

 the use of a cancelling ink which by chemical combi- 

 nation with that used in printing the stamps would 

 effect permanent discoloration : _or the use of an ink 

 for printing postage stamps which, while sufficiently 

 strong to resist the ordinary wear and tear to which the 

 stamps arc. subjected by their holders before use, would 

 yet be so yielding as to give way before such solvents 

 as would be necessary to remove the usual cancelling 

 marks; or the use of a chemically prepared paper in 

 the making of postage stamps, such as would dis- 

 color when cancelling inks should be applied, or when 

 efforts should be made to remove the cancelling marks. 

 Under any circumstances, the color of the stamps 

 should be anti-photographic that is, such a color or 

 colors as will prevent counterfeiting by the aid of pho- 

 tography ; and in this event it might be cheaper and 

 belter to print the stamps on an ordinary printing ma- 

 chine from electrotypes than from steel plates and by 

 the plate-printing process. The value to the govern- 

 ment of any good plan for preventing the counter- 

 feiting or the fraudulent reuse of postage stamps is 

 obvious. 



13. The present system of postmarking letters 

 should be improved. Probahlv over -> \T cent, ot'all 

 the postmarks on letters mailed in the United Stales 

 arc illegible, causing at times great annoyance and in- 

 convenience. An excellent plan has been suggested as 

 a partial remedy for this trouble : that of having vari- 

 ous outline forms of postmark say a different form 

 for even- State which, if the name of the post-office 

 were indistinct, would assist in its identification. 



14. At every place of considerable size say at 

 every place ot 10,000 inhabitants the government 

 should own the post-office building ; and these build- 

 ings should be erected and furnished with facilities 

 according to carefully considered plans made upon 

 consultation with postal experts. The result would be 

 an ultimate saving to the government in the item of 

 rent and the prevention oi changes in the location of 

 the post-offices ; while the transaction of postal busi- 

 ness would be expedited and rendered more accurate. 



15. The method of ascertaining and fixing the com- 

 pensation of postmasters should be radically chanircd ; 

 for, as may be seen by any one who gives the subject 

 any consideration, the present plan offers a constant 

 temptation to official dishonesty. The law authorizing 

 this method requires that at what are known as fourth- 

 class |H,st -offices (conslitnliiiL' more than n; 

 twentieths of all the. offices) the compensation of post- 

 masters shall be made up mainly of commissions on 

 postage stamps cancelled, the amount of cancellation 



at an office lioinjr ascertained quarter yearly from the 

 Muster's own returns, the % critical ion of which by 

 the auditing office at Washington is simply impractic- 

 able ; at what arc known as presidential olhccs tlic 

 compensation is fixed once a year, in even hundreds or 

 thousands of dollars, upon the basis of the gross 

 postal revenue, as reported by the postmasters tliem- 

 selves, the correctness of the reports, a* in the case of 

 the fourth-class offices, it being impracticable for tl>.> 

 auditing office to determine. The schedule of salaries 

 at the presidential offices is as follows : Where the 

 gross receipts are $1900 and do not exceed $2100, the 

 compensation is $1000 per annum ; where the receipts 

 are $2100 and not over $2400, the eompePMtm is 

 $11 IK i; where the receipts are $2400 and not over 

 $2700, the compensation is $1200; and so on through 

 thirty grades, increasing $100 for each grade up to the 

 three highest, the pay of which is $4000 per annum 

 where the cross receipts of the office are $450,000 and 

 not over $500,000 ; $5000 where the gross receipts are 

 $500,000 an3 not over $600,000 : and $6,000 where the 

 gross receipts are in excess of $600,000. Thus at 

 nearly 55.000 post-offices (the department never 

 knowing the amount of ( cancellation) the |>ostrna8tcrs 

 practically determine theirown compensation ; at every 

 one of the presidential offices, about 2200 in number, 

 the postmaster has it in his power, whenever the gross 

 receipts approach the maximum of the grade in which 

 for the time being his office is placed, to carry himself, 

 either by forced sales of stamps or false returns of 

 sales, over into a higher grade, and thus increase his 

 compensation. The temptation to do this _is very 

 great, in view of the fact that a single dollar's increase 

 of gross revenue may make an increase in the post- 

 master's compensation of either $100 or $1000 accord- 

 ing to the grade he may happen to be in. The true 

 policy would seem to be fixed compensation for long 

 periods, or to be varied only when special examination 

 should show an increase to be proper. (M. D.) 



POSTAL UNK >X. I "NI VKKSAU This is the name 

 given to an association of nearly all the civilized nations 

 of the world, formed for the purpose of regulating in- 

 ternational postal intercourse. The credit of originating 

 this great union (which has been of inestimable ser- 

 vice to mankind), or rather of taking the first action 

 that may be said to have brought about its formation, 

 belongs to the government of the United States the 

 idea having been first suggested in the early part of 

 1802, to the head of the Post-Office Department, by 

 Hon. John A. Kasson, then First Assistant Postmas- 

 ter-General. At his request the Postmaster (iencral, 

 Hon. Montgomery Blair, on Aug. 4, 1802, transmitted, 

 through the Department of State, to the government 

 y country with which the United States had 

 diplomatic intercourse, a formal invitation to partici- 

 pate in a congress of nations, to assemble at some con- 

 venient place in Kurope, and which should consid'-r 

 the expediency of establishing a uniform classification 

 and standard of weight for international mail matter, 

 uniform rates of international postage, and uniform 

 svstcms for regulating the dispatch of matter between 

 tlie various countries of the world, the transit of mat- 

 ter from one country to another through the inter- 

 mediary of a third, the registration of matter, the 

 return of undelivered letters, and the transmission of 

 limited amounts of money by _means of international 

 orders or drafts. Under this invitation a congress 

 the first international postal congress that ever assem- 

 bled convened at Paris on May 11, 1863, in which 

 there were distinguished representatives of the postal 

 administrations of Austria. Belgium, Costa Rica, 

 Denmark. Fiance, (i real Britain, the Hnnscatic Cities, 

 Italy, the N'eth-'ilands, Portugal, Prussia, the- Sand- 

 wich Islands, Spain, Switzerland, and the United 

 States. Mr. Kasson represented this country. The 

 utmost harmony and liberality of thought prevailed 

 at the sessions of this congress, and the interchange 

 . of ideas and the discussion of principles anJ policy 



