of expenditures of $3,836,124.02, or 4.42 percent.  The deficit was $1,679,956.19 less than that of the preceding year.  The chief expenditures of the postal service are regulated by law and are not in the control of the Postmaster-General.  All that he can accomplish by the most watchful administration and economy is to enforce prompt and thorough collection and accounting for public moneys and such minor savings in small expenditures and in letting those contracts, for post-office supplies and star service, which are not regulated by statute.

An effective cooperation between the Auditor’s Office and the Post-Office Department and the making and enforcement of orders by the Department requiring immediate notification to their sureties of all delinquencies on the part of postmasters, and compelling such postmasters to make more frequent deposits of postal funds, have resulted in a prompter auditing of their accounts and much less default to the Government than heretofore.

The year’s report shows large extensions of both star-route service and railway mail service, with increased postal facilities.  Much higher accuracy in handling mails has also been reached, as appears by the decrease of errors in the railway mail service and the reduction of mail matter returned to the Dead-Letter Office.

The deficit for the last year, although much less than that of the last and preceding years, emphasizes the necessity for legislation to correct the growing abuse of second-class rates, to which the deficiency is mainly attributable.  The transmission at the rate of 1 cent a pound of serial libraries, advertising sheets, “house organs” (periodicals advertising some particular “house” or institution), sample copies, and the like ought certainly to be discontinued.  A glance at the revenues received for the work done last year will show more plainly than any other statement the gross abuse of the postal service and the growing waste of its earnings.

The free matter carried in the mails for the Departments, offices, etc., of the Government and for Congress, in pounds, amounted to 94,480,189.

If this is offset against buildings for post-offices and stations, the rental of which would more than compensate for such free postal service, we have this exhibit: 

Weight of mail matter (other than above) transmitted through the mails for the year ending June 30, 1896.

---------------------------------------+--------------+

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Class.                  |   Weight.    |    Revenue.   |
---------------------------------------+--------------+-----

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|_Pounds._|               |
1.  Domestic and foreign letters and    |              |               |
postal cards, etc.                |  65,337,343  |  $60,624,464  |
2.  Newspapers and periodicals,         |              |               |
1 cent per pound.                | 348,988,648  |    2,996,403  |
3.  Books, seeds, etc., 8 cents a pound.|  78,701,148  |   10,324,069  |