DEFICITS AFFECTED BY SECOND-CLASS TONNAGE.
In this connection I desire to show that deficits in the federal postal service are largely governed by the tonnage of second-class matter carried, the greater such tonnage the smaller the deficit. To do this I shall take the liberty to quote from the “Inland Printer,” probably the most widely read periodical among the printing crafts, as it certainly is one of the best informed and most carefully edited journals of any in matters relating to the publication and distribution of periodical literature. The article speaks of several points pertinent to our subject and is so instructively written that I know my readers will appreciate it in its entirety. If the publishers of the periodical will pardon my wholesale appropriation of their article, I am confident my readers will do the same. The article is of date March, 1911, and was written by Wilmer Atkinson, whose permission I should also ask for reprinting it in toto:
In 1860 the postal deficit was $10,652,543; in 1910 it was $5,848,566. The postage rate was four times greater in 1860 than now.
Coming down twelve years to 1872 the total weight of second-class matter was that year less than 65,000,000 pounds.
Now it is 817,428,141 pounds, more than twelve times greater.
Then the postage rate was four times what it is now.
Then the gross revenue was $21,915,426; now it is $224,128,657, more than ten times as much.
Then there was no rural free delivery; now that system costs $36,923,737.
Then there were no registered letters; now there are 42,053,574 a year.
Then there were issued $48,515,532 of domestic money orders; now there are issued $547,993,641.
Then postmasters were paid $5,121,665; now they are paid $27,514,362, and their clerks are paid $38,035,456.62.
Then city delivery cost but little; now it costs $31,805,485.28.
In 1872 there were issued of stamps, stamped envelopes and wrappers less than $18,000,000 (there were no postal cards); now are issued, including postal cards, $202,064,887.96, more than ten times as much.
Observe that the weight of second-class matter is 752,428,141 pounds greater than in 1872, costing therefore (according to some official mathematicians), more than 9 cents a pound for transportation, or a total of $67,718,532.69. The deficit for 1910 is almost identical with that of 1872.