UNITED STATKS. 



745 



later to St. Petersburg ; A. Loudon Snowden, of 

 IVtins\ Ivania, Minister to Spain ; David I'. 

 Thompson, of Oregon, Minister to Turkey ; 

 Williuiu D. McCoy, of Indiana, Minister Resident 



John Watson Foster was born in Pike County, Ind., 

 March :.>. ISM. lie was graduated at the Indiana State Uni- 

 vi'i-iiy iii is.v>. studied law at Harvard, and practiced at 

 Kvansville. Ind., until the civil war brokeout, when heentered 

 tin- army as a major of volunteers, and served under Grant 

 and Sherman in 1 ho West, becoming colonel of an Indiana 

 regiment, and commanding the brigade of cavalry that occu- 

 pied Knoxvillc in 18IJ3. He edited the Evansville "Journal" 

 after I he war until 1873, when he was appointed United States 

 Minister to Mexico by President Grant. President Hayes re- 

 appointed him to that post in 1880, and in March, 1881,'trans- 

 ferred him to St. Petersburg. He resigned that mission in 

 the following Noveinlx-r. and settled in Washington, where he 

 became counsel for some of the foreign legations in mailers 

 that came before commissions or were submitted to arbitra- 

 tion tribunals. In February. 1883, President Arthur ap- 

 pointed him Minister to Spain. After negotiating a com- 

 mercial treaty, he resigned in March, 1885, and returned to 

 the 1'nited States, but was sent over by President Cleveland 

 on a special mission with the object of obtaining modifica- 

 tions m the terms, in which he was unsuccessful. 



at Monrovia, Liberia ; and Watson 11. Sperry, of 

 Delaware, Minister Resident at Teheran, Persia. 

 Postal Service. During 1891-92 the Govern- 

 ment effected a saving of $1,000,000 on mail 

 contracts. Free delivery was extended to 50 

 per cent, more offices, and the distribution of 

 mail by cities on trains was increased in the same 

 proportion. The ocean mail service to Central 

 and South America and to Europe was greatly 

 extended. The new mail contracts are made with 

 11 different steamship lines. The contractors 

 will have to be provided with 41 ships, of 85,500 

 tons, and to complete this fleet they must spend 

 $14,000,000. There will be weekly mails to 

 Southampton, Boulogne, and Antwerp, carried 

 by the new American line, which now has two of 

 the fastest and finest ships on the ocean, the " City 

 of Paris" and the " City of New York," natural- 

 ized by special act of Congress, and intends to 

 build live more, of 10,000 tons each. The bill 

 granting American registry to these ships pro- 

 vides that they may be used by the Government 

 by charter or by purchase in case of war, as well 

 as the other vessels of the same class and size 

 which the company, formerly called the Inman 



Company, undertakes to build in the United 

 States. Thecontracts made with the lines sailing 

 to South and Central America have increased the 

 frequency and shortened the time of the trips, 

 besides adding new ports of call, and have 

 sustained lines that otherwise would have been 

 withdrawn. Then- will be a tri-monthly service 

 to La Guayra, both from New York and from 

 Galveston, a weekly service from New York to 

 Tuxpan, one to Cuba weekly, and one every 24 

 days to Rio. There is also a mail service to 

 Buenos Ayres, the first ever carried under the 

 American flag, once a week with calls or once in 

 28 days without. The daily free delivery service 

 in villages has proved profitable, and Postmaster- 

 General Wanamaker thinks that it should be 

 introduced in country districts, whether it pays a 

 profit or not. The collection of mail matter from 

 letter boxes at house doors was tested in 

 Washington and St. Louis, and it was found that 

 the earners lost no time. Accordingly an order 

 was issued on Sept. 9, 1892, directing postmasters 

 of free-delivery cities to have the mail taken up at 

 the houses on any carrier's route where two-thirds 

 of the householders desired it and equipped their 

 houses with boxes of any of the kinds that have 

 been found suitable and safe. The application 

 of the merit system of promotion to departmental 

 officials, to the classified offices, and to the 

 railway mail has proved very satisfactory, and 

 the Postmaster-General advocates making all 

 promotions for merit alone, a permanent staff in 

 the department with the exception of the 

 Postmaster-General and the Fourth Assistant, 

 the appointment of Deputy Postmaster-Generals 



George Shiras. Jr.. was bom in Allegheny I'ountv, Pa., 

 in 1832. He was graduated at Yale in ISM. studied for the 

 bar, and became one of the leading lawyers of western Penn- 

 sylvania. He was once a candidate for tin- United Stated 

 Senate, but was never active in politics. His* deep knowl- 

 edge of law, especially of the commercial bniu-h. was rec- 

 ognixed by the Dench and bar. Justice Joseph P. Bradley 

 died on Jan. 22, 1892, and President Harrison, after long 

 deliberation, selected Mr. Shiras for the vacant judgeship. 

 annoiiiiciiii: the nomination on July 19. 



for New York and San Francisco and a Comptroller 

 in Washington, a reduction of hours of labor at 

 almost all points, and the equalization and 

 advance of the pay of employe's. A reform that he 



