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.
CHAPTER III
Department Operations—General and Detailed Descriptions and Cost of Service
History of Rural Free Delivery
The subject of Rural Free Delivery occupies so much public attention both in the press and among the people, and the Department has shown such interest in the matter and done so much to make the service popular and attractive as a public measure, that it is worthy of some considerable space in a work devoted entirely to postal affairs. Aside from tabular work which has no proper place in descriptive accounts of departmental operations, a very good idea of what rural delivery is and aims to accomplish, may be gathered from the articles which follow this introductory reference.
The history of Rural Delivery dates from January 5, 1892, when Hon. James O’Donnell, Member of Congress from Michigan, introduced the first bill in Congress relating to the subject. This bill carried an appropriation of $6,000 but failed of passage. March 3, 1893, Congress appropriated $10,000 for experimental purposes but this sum together with $20,000 appropriated July 16, 1894, for the same purpose, was not used, Postmaster General W. S. Bissell, of New York, deeming the amount insufficient. On June 9, 1896, $10,000 together with the prior appropriation of $30,000 was made available, and experimental rural free delivery service was established by Postmaster General Wilson, of West Virginia, on October 1, 1896, simultaneously, on three routes in that State—Charlestown, Uvilla and Halltown.