Questions of Finance

Postal Revenue—How Derived

The revenues of the Post Office Department are derived from sales of stamps, stamped envelopes, newspaper wrappers and postal cards, second-class postage (pound rate) paid in money, box rents, money order business, balances due from foreign postal administrations, miscellaneous receipts, fines and penalties, and from unclaimed dead letters and postal matter. Its greatest revenue is received from postage paid on mail matter. The amount so received in the last fiscal year was $287,001,495.13, or 91.97 per cent of the total revenue received. Of this amount $20,174,973.93 was received from mailings of second, third and fourth-class mail matter on which the postage was collected in money, the remainder, $266,826,521.20, being the postage paid by means of stamps. Entire revenue, 1916, $312,057,688.83.

Revenues and Expenditures

The audited revenues and expenditures of the Post Office Department for the year 1916, show that the ordinary postal revenue yielded $303,232,143.36; revenue from money order business $8,130,545.47, and from postal savings business $695,000. Total revenue received, $312,057,688.83. Expenditures: On account of the current year, 1916, $297,637,128.87. On account of previous years, $8,566,904.27. Total expenditure during the fiscal year 1916, $306,204,033.14. Excess of revenue over expenditure, 1916, $5,853,565.69. Amount of losses by fire, burglary, etc., $24,419.62. Surplus in postal revenue for fiscal year 1916, $5,829,236.07.

Method of Expenditure

Expenses of the postal service are paid as follows:

By Postmasters.—Postmasters are authorized to pay their own salaries, the salaries of clerks and carriers attached to their offices, rent, light, and fuel, and other expenses of their offices from postal receipts.

By Warrants Drawn upon the Treasurer of the United States.—These warrants are in payment of the contracts for transportation of mail, supplies, and other obligations that cannot be paid direct by postmasters. The accounts are prepared for payment by journals in the Bureau of the Post Office Department having jurisdiction over the appropriations and certified to the Auditor, who reviews them and forwards the journals to the Division of Finance. Warrants are then drawn for the amounts due to contractors, countersigned by the Auditor and mailed direct from the Department to the payees.

By Disbursing Postmasters.—Certain payments may be authorized by the Postmaster General to be made by postmasters designated as disbursing officers. The Department authorizes and directs disbursing postmasters, one in each State, to pay the monthly salaries of rural delivery carriers. In addition thereto the Department authorizes other postmasters who are designated as disbursing officers, to pay the salaries of railway mail clerks, and in some instances the salaries of postoffice inspectors and other employes of the postal service. When the receipts of an office are not sufficient to meet the pay rolls authorized by the Department, the postmaster is instructed to make an estimate of the deficiency and forward a requisition to the Postmaster General therefor. An accountable warrant drawn on the Treasurer of the United States for the sum needed is then forwarded to the postmaster who deposits the same in a depository bank and issues his check in payment of such salaries.

By Transfer Draft.—If a balance appears to be due a postmaster after his term of office has expired and his accounts have been adjusted, the Auditor certifies the amount due and upon this certification a transfer draft issued by the Department and drawn on a postmaster in the State in which the former postmaster resides, is forwarded in settlement of the account.

How Appropriations Are Made for the Department

Appropriations for the Post Office Department are made by the Congress upon estimates submitted to the Postmaster General by the heads of the various bureaus according to the nature and needs of the service. After examination and approval by the Postmaster General, these estimates are sent to the Secretary of the Treasury where the estimates for all Departments of the Government are assembled for transmission to Congress. Hearings on the estimates submitted by the Postmaster General are then held by the House Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads, the members of which go over the items in detail, the various bureau heads being in attendance to explain more fully, if need be, the public necessity and requirements of the estimates submitted. The Postmaster General may also be called upon to explain these estimates if the Committee so desire. At the conclusion of these hearings, the result of such inquiry and the recommendations of the Post Office Committee are submitted to Congress and are considered in Committee of the Whole. When the post office bill is under consideration and upon its passage through the House of Representatives it is in charge of the Chairman of the Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads, who answers all inquires made and defends the action of his committee in submitting these estimates to Congress for its action and approval.

Auditor for the Post Office Department

All accounts of the Post Office Department are audited by the Sixth Auditor of the Treasury, who is the Auditor for the Department. When the Department was reorganized in 1836 this position was created for the purpose of relieving the Postmaster General of the responsibilities of this particular form of official duty. The statutes define these duties which are numerous and important, the fiscal relations, owing to the great growth of the postal service, being of such magnitude and involving such an amount of detail that the office has become one of the greatest of the auditing branches of the Treasury Department. The annual reports of the Auditor to the Postmaster General show the financial condition of the Department at the close of each fiscal year and are a part of the Postmaster General’s report to Congress. A very large force of clerks is required to conduct the operations of the office and the most approved devices and methods are used to facilitate the dispatch of business. For greater convenience the office of the Auditor is lodged with the Post Office Department.