Almost the entire expense incident to the operation of the rural mail service is in the compensation paid to carriers. On account of their unusual duties, which include the sale of stamps and stamped paper, registration of mail, transaction of money-order business, etc., duties not required of city delivery carriers, it is stated that carriers maintaining a motor vehicle of the capacity required by the Department, who work eight hours a day and carry perhaps as much as 50,000 pieces of mail a month, should receive not less than $2,000 per annum.
The total number of miles of railroad in the United States in 1830 was 23, and 634 miles in 1834, on which mail covering 78 miles, was carried. In 1844 the mileage had increased to 4,377 and mail carried on 3,714 miles. In 1854 the mileage was 16,720, in 1864, 35,085, in 1874, 70,278, and in 1882, 104,813, with corresponding increase of mail carriage. There are now 3,479 railroad mail routes with a length in miles of 234,175.13 and an annual travel of 502,937,359.43 miles.
The decision of President Wilson to place all postmasters of the country under the civil service law will take away $16,587,300 of public patronage from the customary method of disposal. At the first of the year there were 567 first-class offices in the country paying salaries ranging from $3,000 to $8,000, or a total of $2,014,300. Included in this list were the post offices in New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Boston, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Detroit, Cleveland, Toledo Columbus, Atlanta, and other large cities. There were 2,213 second-class offices, salaries ranging from $2,000 to $2,900, or a total of $5,235,500. Third-class, 7,437 paying from $1,000 to $1,900 yearly, or a total of $9,337,500. Fourth-class postmasters are already under the civil service law.
From 1816 to 1845, a letter carried not over 30 miles paid 6¼ cents, over 80 and under 150 miles, paid 12½ cents, and if the letter weighed an ounce, four times these rates were charged. In 1851 the 3-cent rate was reached for distances less than 3,000 miles, and in 1853 distance limit was abolished and the rate made uniform. This system led to a deficiency in 1860 amounting to over $10,000,000. The restriction of service during the Civil War, it being then confined to the densely populated States of the north, allowed a surplus to appear amounting in 1863 to $2,800,000. After the war, deficiencies became the rule for many years, diminishing, however, from year to year as the country became more thickly settled.
By official order it is stated that the Department commends and will give record credit marks to rural carriers whose efforts result in greater quantities of farm products being transported through the mails.