INCLOSURE OF HIGHER CLASS MATTER WITH A LOWER CLASS FOR MAILING AT LOWER RATE. During the fiscal year there arose 757 cases of alleged violations of the statute which makes it an offense punishable by a fine of not more than $100 to conceal or inclose matter of a higher class in that of a lower class for the purpose of evading payment of the higher postage rate properly chargeable. This is an increase of 240 over the previous year. Upon inquiry and investigation it developed that 735 of the apparent violations were not willful, but due to inadvertence or misunderstanding, while in 20 cases the mailers were unknown and could not be found. In 2 cases, resulting in prosecutions, fines of from $1 to $10 were imposed by the court. PRODUCTION, DISTRIBUTION, AND REDEMPTION OF STAMPED PAPER. SUMMARY FOR THE FISCAL YEAR. Sales of postage stamps and other stamped paper during the year aggregated $256,206,543.71, a decrease of $2,193,938.67, or 0.85 per cent, compared with the sales of the fiscal year 1914. The aggregate transactions of the fiscal year 1915 follow: Postage stamps and other stamped paper on hand in post offices Stamped paper charged to postmasters_ Stamped paper transferred from post offices_. Adjustment of stamped paper purchased by navy mail clerks from postmasters Total. Sales by postmasters, July 1, 1914, to June 30, 19151_ Stamped paper transferred to post offices_. Stamped paper on hand in post offices June 30, 1915_. $94, 232, 994. 81 267, 345, 612. 01 513, 755. 92 24,083.38 362, 116, 446. 12 256, 206, 543. 71 1,347, 983. 55 2, 437. 20 15,964.90 507, 691. 70 1.58 104, 035, 823. 48 362, 116, 446. 12 The department issued stamps, postal cards, stamped envelopes, newspaper wrappers, international reply coupons, and postal-savings cards and stamps to the total number of 14,060,052,089, an increase of 57,181,556, or 0.41 per cent. EFFECT OF THE WAR UPON STAMP SALES. The halting of the country's business following the outbreak of war in Europe and the subsequent return to conditions approaching normal have both been reflected in the stamp sales of the past 1 The sales reported by this office differ somewhat from those reported by the Auditor for the Post Office Department, the difference being due to credits allowed by the auditor to postmasters on account of losses by fire, burglary, and other casualties; also to the excess revenue gained in sales of stamped envelopes and newspaper wrappers singly and in odd quantities, an item which is stated by postmasters directly to the auditor and not to this office; to the adjustment of certain differences between the stamp and postal accounts in the year following that in which they occur; to the adjustment of delinquent stamp accounts; and to the adjustment in postal accounts of certain debits and credits which can not be entered in stamp accounts. These differences are all reconciled between the two offices quarterly and annually. year. Hostilities were begun about August 1. The receipts from stamp sales during the first quarter of the fiscal year, ended September 30, 1914, showed a slight increase over the sales of the corresponding period of the previous year. In the following two quarters the sales showed decreases, but in the final quarter they recovered and an increase was recorded. The figures follow: The number of requisitions for postage-stamped paper filled was 925,611, a decrease of 9,033, or 1 per cent. The average number of requisitions filled daily was 3,035, compared with 3,054 daily in the fiscal year 1914. COILED STAMPS. The demand for postage stamps in coils of 500 and 1,000 continues to increase largely. The number of coils issued in 1915 was 1,591,462, an increase of 379,179, or 31 per cent, compared with an increase of 58 per cent in 1914. STAMP BOOKS. The number of stamp books issued was 27,779,800, a decrease of 1,531,050, or 5.22 per cent. This is the first year since the initial issue of stamp books in 1901 that a decrease has been recorded, but the reduction is comparatively small. NEW POSTAGE STAMPS. A new stamp, of 11-cent denomination, has been issued, having been placed on sale August 11, 1915. It is of the same shape (a rectangle on end) and size (about by 3 inch) as the other ordinary stamps; it bears the head of Benjamin Franklin in profile, from Houdon's bust, looking to the left, and the color is dark green. The border design is the same as that of the other denominations of the current issue above 7-cent. This new stamp is issued primarily for use in prepaying postage on parcels, and postage and insurance fee on insured parcels, amounting to 11 cents, and it makes the series of denominations complete from 1 cent to 12 cents. STAMPED ENVELOPES. The department issued to postmasters during the year 1,793,764,296 envelopes and wrappers, of which 1,267,142,016, or 70.64 per cent, bore printed return cards and 526,622,250, or 29.36 per cent, were unprinted. The excess revenue in the sale of stamped envelopes and newspaper wrappers aggregated $130,061.83, this amount representing the accumulated fractions of a cent gained when envelopes and wrappers are sold singly or in odd quantities. IMPROVEMENTS IN STAMPED ENVELOPES. On February 5, 1915, a new contract at reduced prices for the manufacture of stamped envelopes and newspaper wrappers during the four years beginning July 1, 1915, was awarded, the successful bidder being the Middle West Supply Co., who have acquired the plant of the former contractor in Dayton, Ohio. The new contract calls for "wove" paper in the manufacture of the envelopes, "laid " paper being discontinued because it is no longer used extensively for stationery. The watermark has been changed to a monogram composed of the letters US 1 inch high and inch wide, with the year 1915 running through the monogram, the position of the "1915" being different in the paper produced by different mills for the purpose of identifying the mill in which the paper is manufactured. The cut of the envelopes is somewhat improved, and they are to be manufactured upon a new machine which produces more uniformly close corners and a flatter seam. The Postmaster General has approved new and handsome designs for the stamps and a more attractive style of type for the return cards than has heretofore been used. REDEMPTION OF STAMPED PAPER. The redemption section received and disposed of 23,046 cases, involving $5,027,816.61, including postal savings redemptions amounting to $3,566,713.90. STOCKS OF STAMP SUPPLIES. June 30, 1915, the Government's stocks of postage stamped paper available for issue consisted of 1,842,232,024 adhesive postage stamps, 423,084,300 stamped envelopes, 47,425,000 newspaper wrappers, and 442,243,350 postal cards; also 2,824,849 postal-savings cards and 21,700,100 postal-savings stamps. LABOR-SAVING DEVICES. The division of stamps has been equipped with labor-saving mechanical devices for the performance of its work, these devices consisting of typewriters with attachments for automatically feeding invoice blanks in rolls, duplex adding machines for listing and totaling the issues of stamped paper, nonlisting adding machines for computing values of issues, and combined typewriters and adding and subtracting machines for recording and auditing postmasters' quarterly stamp accounts. With these various devices the work of filling requisitions and of auditing accounts is done better and quicker and with fewer clerks than formerly. LOSSES OF STAMPS BY BURGLARY. The burglary of post offices is a growing evil which has reached serious proportions. The principal object of the burglar is to obtain the stock of postage stamps held by the post office, and 1,401 claims of postmasters for stamps lost in this way, amounting to $190,390.65, were allowed in the fiscal year 1915. This sum, however, does not represent the total loss to the Government or to postmasters from burglaries, since the cost of investigating these depredations, of apprehending, prosecuting, and imprisoning the burglars is very great. The difficulty of identifying stolen postage stamps when recovered makes conviction of the burglar uncertain, and this office has under consideration a method of identifying stamps with the post office of issue. If a successful method of identification can be worked out at a comparatively reasonable cost, the burglarizing of post offices will be almost, if not wholly, stopped, since stamps which can be identified positively at sight as the property of the United States will present no attraction to the burglar, because of the greatly increased probability of conviction both to the burglar and to the receiver of the stolen stamps. Pending the development of this matter of identification, the quantities of stamps issued to postmasters are being reduced and excessive stocks recalled for the purpose of minimizing the losses as much as possible in that way. Postmasters are also being instructed to exercise the greatest possible care in providing the safest obtainable storage facilities for their surplus stocks. REGISTRY, INSURANCE, AND COLLECT-ON-DELIVERY SERVICES. SUMMARY FOR THE FISCAL YEAR. The number of pieces of mail registered, insured, and sent collecton-delivery during the fiscal years ended June 30, 1914, and June 30, 1915, is shown in the following statement: 1 The number of official paid articles during 1915 is included in the number of "Domestic letters and parcels." PAID REGISTRATIONS. While there was a decrease of 2,049,796, or 6.02 per cent, paid registrations during the fiscal year 1915 compared with the preceding year, there was an increase of 4,325,292, or 8.58 per cent, in the total number of registered, insured, and C. O. D. pieces. The decrease in registrations was principally in the foreign business, which declined over 20 per cent, and was due very largely to the conditions resulting from the European wat. FREE REGISTRATIONS. There were 5,296,669 official pieces registered free, or 14.20 per cent of the total of paid and free registrations. Free registrations at the Washington (D. C.) post office, where the largest number originated, were 662,340, or 12.50 per cent of the total free registrations. However, 175,972 pieces were sent free in direct pouches by the Treasury and Navy Departments, which would otherwise have been registered as single pieces at Washington. These, added to the free registrations at that office, would make a total of 838,312, or 15.83 per cent of the free registrations of the whole service. MAILINGS AT 50 OFFICES DOING LARGEST BUSINESS. The following is a statement of the mailings during the fiscal year 1915 at the 50 offices doing the largest registry business, the 50 offices doing the largest insurance business, and the 50 offices doing the largest C. O. D. business: The percentage of paid registrations at the 50 offices doing the largest registry business during the fiscal year 1914 was 45.77. There has consequently been a change in the proportion this year of only sixty-four hundredths of 1 per cent. The largest number of paid registrations at one office was 4,094,006, at New York, which was 12.79 per cent of the paid registrations of the entire country. There was a net increase of 1,874,299 parcels insured at the 50 offices doing the largest insurance business, or 31.67 per cent over the preceding year. The percentage of parcels insured at such offices as compared with all post post offices decreased from 44.28 per cent during the fiscal year 1914 to 43.26 per cent, due to the wider popularity of the service at the smaller offices. An increase of 1,327,566 parcels resulted at the 50 cities doing the largest C. O. D. business over that transacted by such offices during 1914, or 65.42 per cent. These cities mailed 71.11 per cent of the parcels sent C. O. D. throughout the entire country, as compared with 67.76 per cent during the preceding year. This is readily accounted for by the enthusiastic patronage of large mail-order houses, which have adopted the C. O. D. service for the distribution of their commodities. At Chicago, where the greatest number of mail-order establishments are located, 755,368 pieces originated, the greatest number at any office and 16 per cent of the total number mailed at all offices, for which $1,372,988.23 was to be 23871°-Ab. 1915-vol 1-48 |