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.