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mile, equivalent to 16 cents per ton mile, while commuters are carried as low ascent a mile, or 4 cents a ton mile." An act of March 2, 1907, made some provision for a reduction in railroad postal rates; but further reductions are being demanded. It is still claimed that were the government as anxious to make right terms with railways as to afford proper service to the public there need be no increase in postal rates. The whole question is now before Congress.

The development of free delivery has been one of the most remarkable features in the evolution of our postal system. In 1863, it was established in all cities having at least 50,000 inhabitants, and it has now been extended to cities having 10,000 inhabitants. In 1885 a system was introduced by which immediate "special" delivery on receipt at the post-office of the addressee can be secured by the payment of ten cents, in addition to the ordinary postage.

A third branch of postal delivery has now been instituted for country districts. This "rural free delivery service" began experimentally in 1897 with an appropriation of $40,000 and the establishment of forty-four routes. The expenditure for the fiscal year, ending June 30, 1897, was only $14,840, but in 1908 the amount was more than $34,000,000, and there were in operation in that year 39,516 routes, distributing nearly two billion pieces of mail to more than 18,000,000 people residing in rural districts.

The incidental effects of this rural service have been of great importance, for, in addition to relieving the tedium and isolation of country life, it is a powerful factor in the improvement of public roads. The Post-Office Department is steadily insisting that the routes covered by rural delivery shall be maintained in good condition throughout all the seasons of the year, and in response to this pressure, state legislatures are increasing their appropriations for the building and improvement of highways.

Although Congress has provided for the transmission of books and small parcels of merchandise by mail, the restrictions are so narrow and the rates so high as to lead to a demand for the establishment of a special system, a "parcels post." In Great Britain parcels not more than three feet long can be sent for six cents for the first pound and two cents for each additional pound

1 Reinsch, Readings, p. 385.

up to the weight of eleven pounds. Measures providing for a similar post have often been introduced in Congress, but they have been defeated by the activities of express companies and other common carriers, who contend that it would mean almost the destruction of their private business. Moreover, since the establishment of the rural free delivery service, the merchants of small towns are protesting against the parcels post on the ground that it would enable the great department stores of the cities to undersell them. It, therefore, seems practically impossible at the present time to secure the establishment of this service, in spite of the enormous saving and convenience which it would undoubtedly offer the public.

Another function generally performed by the post-office in foreign countries is that of acting as a savings bank receiving deposits of money up to a certain amount and paying interest thereon. In order to encourage thrift and secure absolute safety for the savings of the small depositors, it has been proposed within recent years to establish such an institution in the United States.' The system was recommended by the Postmaster-General in his Report of 1908, in which he called attention to the fact that more than $3,600,000,000 was deposited in private savings banks throughout the United States. He urged that inasmuch as there were at least thirty-two states inadequately supplied with such concerns, not less than half a billion dollars was kept in hiding a sum which could be brought into circulation through the agency of postal savings banks. As an evidence of the demand for this new institution, he cited the fact that American citizens during the previous year bought no less than $8,000,000 worth of postal orders payable to themselves, in order to secure safety for their money. He accordingly approved the measure, then before the Senate, providing that post-offices should receive deposits and turn the funds over to national banks, requiring the latter to pay not less than 2 per cent interest, of which 2 per cent was to go to depositors of sums up to $500.2

1The Republican platform of 1908 stated that the party favored the establishment of a postal savings bank system for the convenience of the people and the encouragement of thrift; and the Democratic party favored the establishment of this bank, in case the scheme of guaranteed bank deposits should not be adopted.

The matter is now (1910) pending in Congress.

The Post-Office Department

The Post-Office Department is a vast business concern charged with the supervision of an army of employees, some stationed in Washington and others scattered throughout the United States - in the thousands of post-offices and on the railway trains and other vehicles for mail transmission. The direction of affairs is vested in the Postmaster-General, who appoints departmental employees under the civil service rules, nominates to the President a large number of local postmasters (but not without consulting interested members of Congress),' manages postal finances, and hears appeals from subordinates. The PostmasterGeneral has four assistants, each of whom is responsible for one of the great branches of the postal service. The first has charge of appointments of postmasters, the establishment and discontinuance of offices, the adjustment of salaries and allowances for rent, clerk hire, and other expenses, and the city delivery service. The second assistant looks after all matters pertaining to the transportation of mails; appointments to the railway mail service; authorization of transportation by railways and other carriers; the making of contracts for carriage; the inspection of the carrying service; and the equipment of the service with the devices necessary for the conduct of its business. The third assistant is the finance officer of the Department, and he is in charge of the accounts, the issue of stamps and money orders, the registry system, and classification of mail matter. The fourth assistant superintends the divisions of rural delivery, supplies, dead letters, and topography. The administration of the post-office is greatly hampered by the fact that Congress controls rates and locates buildings, under the pressure of "politics," often with slight regard for economy or efficiency.

The postal authorities possess the power to exclude from the mails the letters and papers of persons and corporations practising fraud and deception, and also the power to prohibit the use of the mails for matter tending to encourage crime and immorality. When any person attempts, by fraudulent methods, to procure money or property through the mails, the postal authorities simply withdraw the privileges of the mails absolutely. This is

'He also appoints many postmasters himself.

done by instructing the postmaster at the place where the fraud is practised to stamp on all letters addressed to the person in question the word "fraudulent"; and return them to the writers if there is a return card, or to the Dead Letter Office. The PostOffice Department employs inspectors to conduct investigations into the misuse of the mails, and make reports to the PostmasterGeneral. These reports are the principal evidence upon which "fraud orders" are based. In practice the postal authorities serve notice on persons charged with abusing mail privileges, and inform them of the nature of the accusation. If an accused wishes to make defence, he must go to Washington and present his case. It has been uniformly held by the courts that the decision of the Postmaster-General on questions of fact in fraud order cases is not subject to judicial review.' The Court, however, will review the question as to whether a particular scheme in fraudulent.

The exercise of this large power has been entirely reprobated by many champions of individual liberty, who hold that it is not the business of the government to act as the paternal guardian of the citizens, protecting them from their own folly against the machinations of patent medicine fakirs and "get-rich" swindlers; or in guiding them as to the proper literature for the good of their morals. On the other hand, it is asked, with a good deal of plausibility, whether the government should permit the use of the mails by fraudulent concerns, and thus become a party to the deception of innocent persons.

'Readings, p. 204.

* For example, a few years ago a company in New York began to advertise fountain pens at $2.50 apiece, and promised at the same time to employ every purchaser of a pen at $8 a week in letter-writing. "It was an endless chain scheme, growing constantly wider. All revenues were derived from the sale of the pens. This inverted financial pyramid was not thought stable by the post-office people, and the concern was put out of business by a fraud order in October, 1902, after having secured 19,000 patrons." Reinsch, Readings, P. 394.

CHAPTER XX

NATIONAL RESOURCES

The Federal Land Policy

THE United States at the close of the War for Independence possessed an enormous domain of unsettled lands beyond the Alleghanies, and from time to time new areas have been added by purchase and conquest.' It is estimated that the United States has possessed at one time or another a public domain of no less than 2,825,000 square miles an area more than ten times the size of the German empire and more than twenty times the size of Great Britain and Ireland. In other words, over two-thirds of the total continental area of the United States, including Alaska, has been at some time during our history public property. In 1860 we had a public domain of 1,055,911,288 acres, and in spite of the enormous grants which have been made to railway companies, corporations, and private persons, the United States possessed in 1909 a national estate of 731,354,081 acres.2

The history of the disposal of our great domain forms one of the most striking and important chapters in the history of the United States a chapter which is unhappily marred by a record of wasteful methods, lack of foresight, political corruption, and fraudulent transactions. This chapter also contains a record of the peaceful conquest and settlement of the Great West

'In addition to the lands already granted to private persons, there were large public domains in most of the territorial additions to the United States. Inasmuch as Texas had organized an independent government and had won recognition as an independent commonwealth before admission to the Union, it had already made provision for the public lands and was allowed to retain them. The acquisition of Hawaii, Porto Rico, and the Philippine Islands in 1898 brought very little additional public land to the federal government, as most of it had already been granted away to private persons. 'Insular possessions are not included in this estimate; but Alaska is. Report of the Secretary of the Interior, 1909, p. 7. Of course Alaska has been added since 1860.

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