780 



UNITED STATES. 



$7,321,499 for 76,070,995 miles of transporta- 

 tion, was done at a cost of $4,739,478 for 77,- 

 998,782 miles of transportation. At the close 

 of the fiscal year there were 993 railway post- 

 office lines, against 769 the previous year. The 

 miles on which the railroad companies were 

 paid had increased from 100,565 to 109,827, 

 and the service upon the lines was measured by 

 86,180,430 miles. There were 5,927 money- 

 order offices, at which the aggregate issues for 

 the year were $125,047,238.42; and payments, 

 $120,407,468.83. The fees amounted to $1,- 

 272,060.60, affording a net profit on the busi- 

 ness of $159,104.34. The total number of let- 

 ters and packages received at the dead-letter 

 office was 4,440,822, an increase of about 4 per 

 cent. The number of registered letters and 

 parcels was 10,594,716, on which the fees 

 amounted to $926,549.71. The cost of ocean 

 transportation of mails to foreign ports, under 

 the provision of the law which limits the com- 

 pensation to the postage on the mails conveyed, 

 was $316,522.13, of which $265,621.52 was for 

 transatlantic service. 



The Postmaster-General confirmed and re- 

 newed the orders of the department, made in 

 1879, forbidding the delivery of registered let- 

 ters and the payment of money-orders to the 

 managers of lotteries. Specific instructions 

 were given to the Postmaster of New Orleans 

 not to deliver mail -matter to the Louisiana State 

 Lottery, or to M. A. Dauphin, its president. 

 An arrangement having been made for the pay- 

 ment of money-orders and the delivery of reg- 

 istered letters to the New Orleans National 

 Bank on account of the lottery company, in- 

 structions were also issued forbidding delivery 

 and payment to the bank. The result of this ac- 

 tion was a suit against the Postmaster-General 

 for $100,000 damages, brought by the lottery 

 company, and a suit against the Postmaster of 

 New Orleans, brouglit by the National Bank, 

 for an injunction restraining him from inter- 

 fering with mail-matter addressed to the bank, 

 and from refusing to pay money-orders payable 

 to it on account of the lottery company. The 

 latter case was decided early in January, 1884, 

 by Judge Pardee, at New Orleans, in favor of 

 the bank, on the technical ground that the 

 Postmaster-General could not revive an order 

 which his predecessor had revoked. He could 

 issue a new order based on evidence presented 

 to himself, but he could not appeal to evidence 

 which his predecessor had discarded, and de- 

 clare that an order previously revoked was still 

 in force, as he had undertaken to do in this case. 



Pensions* On June 30th there were 303,658 

 pensioners on the Government rolls, of whom 

 198,648 were army invalids, 74,374 army wid- 

 ows, minor children, or dependent relatives, 

 2,468 navy invalids, 1,907 navy widows, minor 

 children, or dependent relatives, 4,831 survivors 

 of the War of 1 81 2, and 21,336 widows of those 

 who served in the War of 1812. During the 

 year preceding, 38,958 names had been added 

 to the rolls, and 20,997 dropped, leaving a net 



increase of 17,961. The average annual value 

 of pensions was $106.18, and the aggregate an- 

 nual value of all pensions $32,245,192.43. The 

 total amount paid for pensions during the fiscal 

 year was $60,064,009.23, nearly half the sum 

 being for arrears. The total number of claims 

 allowed for pensions since 1861 is 510,958, 

 and the aggregate amount paid during the 22 

 years is $621,073,297.60. (See page 248, et seq.) 

 A new building for the use of the Pension 

 Bureau is in process of construction at Wash- 

 ington, for which an appropriation of $400,- 

 000 has been made. Many complaints were 

 made of the swindling practices of pension- 

 agents or attorneys during the year, and an 

 effort was made by the Pension Commissioner 

 to break them up. The assistance of the De- 

 partment of Justice was invoked, and the mat- 

 ter was taken up by the District Attorney of 

 the District of Columbia. In a letter to the 

 Secretary of the Interior announcing his pur- 

 pose to bring the matter before the Grand Jury, 

 the District Attorney said : 



The character of the enormous frauds which are be- 

 ing perpetrated upon applicants for pensions by certain 

 claim agents of Washington will, if the allegations 

 are sustained by the evidence, surprise the public. 

 The devices employed arc as numerous as the skill of 

 dishonest men can contrive. Some of the cases be- 

 fore me are heart-rending in their details. Maimed 

 and decrepit soldiers, and the poor widows and help- 

 less orphans of soldiers, pay their pittance of $1, $2, 

 $4, or $10 to agents who must know their claims are 

 worthless and can never be paid, and these agents 

 merely file a formal application to enable them to col- 

 lect money from their deluded clients. 



Several firms and individuals charged with 

 the fraudulent practices were suspended from 

 the privilege of prosecuting claims before the 

 bureau, and others discontinued business. No 

 new regulations were adopted at the time, but 

 in December a number of the agents accused 

 of deceiving and defrauding their clients were 

 indicted by the Grand Jury of the District. 



Revenue Questions. On June 25th an execu- 

 tive order was issued making important changes 

 in the internal revenue collection districts. 

 The total number of districts was reduced by 

 consolidation from 126 to 82. As a rule, 

 where two districts were consolidated into one, 

 the collector most recently appointed was re- 

 tained, and the other was dismissed ; but in 

 some cases a new collector was appointed. 



A question arose in the early part of the 

 year as to the date on which the repeal of the 

 tax on the capital and deposits of banks took 

 effect. The law had required the payment of 

 these taxes half-yearly, on the 1st of January 

 and the 1st of July, and returns of the average 

 amount of capital and of deposits for the six 

 months preceding were required to be made 

 within ten days of those dates. The act of 

 March 5, 1883, simply repealed these provis- 

 ions, without designating any time for the re- 

 peal to take effect. The Attorney-General 

 gave it as his opinion that the tax could not be 

 collected for any part of the half-year already 



