Chapter 116. making appropriations for the service of the Post-Office Department for the fiscal year ending Juno thirtieth, eighteen hundred and eighty-three, and for other purposes
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CHAP. 116.— An Act making appropriations for the service of the Post-Office Department for the fiscal year ending Juno thirtieth, eighteen hundred and eighty-three, and for other purposes.May 4, 1882. *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled*,Appropriations for service, Post-Office Department. That the following sums be, and the same are hereby, appropriated for the service of the Post-Office Department for the year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and [5 Stat., 81](/us/stat/5/81).eighty-three, out of any money in the Treasury arising from the reve- 53nues of said department in conformity to the act of July second, eighteen hundred and thirty-six, as follows:
Office of the Postmaster General,—For mail depredations andItems. Post-office inspectors, including amounts necessary for tees to United States marshals and attorneys two hundred thousand dollars, and of this sum three thousand dollars shall be paid to the chief post-office inspector. and not exceeding five thousand dollars of this amount may be expended for fees to United States attorneys, marshals, clerks of courts, and counsel necessarily employed by Post-office inspectors of the Post-Office Department, subject to approval by the Attorney General.
For advertising, forty thousand dollars.Advertising.Wrapping paper.Twine.Marking and rating stamps.Balances, weights, and scales.Canceling stamps, etc., in offices of fourth-class Postmasters. For wrapping paper, twenty-two thousand dollars. For cotton, jute and hemp twine fifty-five thousand dollars. For marking and rating stamps fifteen thousand dollars. For letter balances, test weights, and scales fifteen thousand dollars. For supplying fourth-class postmasters, in the discretion of the Postmaster General, with the necessary implements for canceling stamps and weighing and postmarking mail matter, not to exceed in value five dollars to any one office, to be accounted for like other public property of the government, and to be turned over to the successor in office, thirty-five thousand dollars.
For miscellaneous items in the office of the Postmaster General, oneMiscellaneous. thousand five hundred dollars. Office of the First Assistant Postmaster General.—ForPostmasters. compensation to postmasters, eight million eight hundred thousand dollars. For compensation to clerks in post-offices, four million three hundredClerks. and eighty-five thousand dollars. For payment to letter carriers and the incidental expenses of the free-deliveryLetter carriers. system, three million dollars; one hundred thousand dollars of which may be used, in the discretion of the Postmaster General, for the establishment under existing law of the free-delivery system in citiesFree letter delivery.Rent, light, fuel.Furniture.Stationery.Miscellaneous.Inland transportation of mails.Railroads, failure to transport mails; penalty. where it is not now established.
For rent, light, and fuel, four hundred and fifty thousand dollars. For office furniture, twenty thousand dollars. For stationery, fifty-five thousand dollars. For miscellaneous and incidental items, ninety thousand dollars. Office of the Second Assistant Postmaster General.—For inland mail transportation, namely: For transportation on railroad routes, eleven million one hundred and fifty-five thousand dollars; and if any railroad company shall fail or refuse to transport the mails for which this appropriation is made, when required by the Post-Office Department, upon the fastest train or trains run upon said road, said company shall have its pay reduced fifty per centum of the amount now provided by law; and the Postmaster General is authorized to pay, out of the appropriation for transportation on railroad routes, for special railroad serviceSpecial mail service. between the Union depot in East St.
Louis, Illinois, and the union depot in St. Louis, Missouri, a sum not exceeding the lowest rate which private individuals, express companies, or others may pay for transportation between said points, but not to exceed for the fiscal year twenty-five thousand dollars, including allowance for depot room and transfer service at each terminal; and the act passed June ninth, eighteen hundred and eighty, entitled “An act providing for the transportation of[21 Stat., chap. 170, p. 171, repealed](/us/stat/21/chap170/p171). the mails between East St.
Louis, in the State of Illinois, and St. Louis, in the State of Missouri,” be, and the same is hereby, repealed. For inland transfortation by steamboat routes, eight hundred thousandSteamboat. dollars. For inland transportation by star routes, seven million two hundredStar routes. and fifty thousand dollars: *Provided, however*, That whenever any con- 54Contracts, conditions, penalties, etc.tractor or subcontractor shall sublet his contract for the transportation of the mail on any route for a less sum than that for which he contracted to perform the service, the Postmaster-General may, whenever he shall deem it for the good of the service, declare the original contract at an end, and enter into a contract with the last subcontractor, without advertising, to perform the service on the terms at which the last subcontractor agreed with the original contractor or former subcontractor to *Provisos*.perform the same: *Provided*, That such last subcontractor shall enter into a good and sufficient bond, and that the original contractor shall not be released from his contract until a good and sufficient bond has been made by such last subcontractor and accepted by the Post-Office Department: *Provided, further*, That when a contract hereafter made is declared void on account of its having been sublet, the contractor shall not be entitled to one month’s extra pay as provided for by law: *And provided further*, That if any person shall hereafter perform any service for any contractor or subcontractor in carrying the mail, he shall, upon filing in the department his contract for such service, and satisfactory evidence of its performance, thereafter have a lien on any money due such contractor or subcontractor for such service to the amount of the same; and if such contractor or subcontractor shall fail to pay the party or parties who have performed service as aforesaid the amount due for such service within two months after the expiration of the quarter in which such service shall have been performed, the Postmaster-General may cause the amount due to be paid said party or parties and charged to the contractor, provided that such payment shall not in any ease exceed the rate of pay per annum of the contractor or subcontractor: *And provided further*, That where any person, corporation, or partnership shall have contracts for the performance of mail service upon more than one route, and any failure to perform the service according to contract on any one or more of such routes shall occur, no payment shall be made for service on any of the routes under contract with such person, corporation, or partnership until such failure has been removed and all penalties therefor fully satisfied.
Railway post-office car service.For railway post-office-car service, one million five hundred and twenty-six thousand dollars. Items.For necessary and special facilities on trunk lines, six hundred thousand dollars: said facilities to be extended as far as practicable to the principal cities of the United States. For compensation to railway post-office clerks, one million seven hundred thousand dollars. For route agents, one million five hundred and fifty-five thousand dollars; and the Postmaster General is authorized to designate Postmasters at Presidential post-offices designated as disbursing officers, etc.Postmasters at Presidential post-offices as disbursing officers for the payment of the salaries of the officers and employees of the postal service concerned in the transportation of mails or in their distribution in transit, and for such other payments as they are now authorized to make from postal revenues.
Items.For mail-route messengers, two hundred and eighty thousand dollars. For local agents, one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars. For mail-messengers, eight hundred thousand dollars. For mail locks and keys, twenty-five thousand dollars. For mail bags and mail bag catchers, two hundred thousand dollars; of which sum nine thousand dollars may be used for the purchase of packing-trunks for the transportation of registered letters. For miscellaneous items, one thousand dollars.
Third Assistant Postmaster General.Office of the Third Assistant Postmaster General,—For manufacture of adhesive postage-stamps and of newspaper and periodical stamps, one hundred and nine thousand dollars. Items.For pay of agent and assistants to distribute stamps, and expenses of the agency, eight thousand one hundred dollars. For manufacture of stamped envelopes and newspaper-wrappers, five hundred and forty-seven thousand dollars. 55 For pay of agent and assistants, to distribute stamped envelopes and newspaper-wrappers, and expenses of agency, sixteen thousand dollars.
For manufacture of postal cards, two hundred and forty-two thousand dollars. For pay of agent and assistants to distribute postal cards, and expenses of agency, seven thousand three hundred dollars. For registered-package envelopes, locks and seals, and for office envelopes, and for dead-letter envelopes, one hundred and ten thousand dollars. For ship, steamboat, and way letters, one thousand five hundred dollars. For engraving, printing, and binding drafts and warrants, one thousand five hundred dollars.
For miscellaneous items, one thousand dollars. Office of Superintendent of Foreign Mails. For transportationForeign mails. of foreign mails, three hundred thousand dollars. For balances due foreign countries, fifty thousand dollars, includingItems. the United States’ portion of the expenses of the International Bureau of the Universal Postal Union Convention. Sec. 2. That if the revenue of the Post-Office Department shall beAppropriation to supply deficiencies in the revenue of Post-Office Department. insufficient to meet the appropriations made by this act, then the sum of one million nine hundred and two thousand one hundred and seventy-seven dollars and ninety cents, or so much thereof as may be necessary, be, and the same is hereby, appropriated, to be paid out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to supply deficiencies in the revenue of the Post-Office Department for the year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and eighty-three.
Sec. 3. That the amount of all money-orders which shall have remainedMoney-orders outstanding unpaid for five years to be covered into the Treasury of the United States. unpaid for a period of five years or more after the date of the issue thereof, which amount is to be ascertained and reported annually by the Auditor of the Treasury for the Post-Office Department, shall be covered into the Treasury. But nothing herein shall be so construed as to prevent the payment, out of current money-order funds, by duplicate issued under the authority of the Postmaster-General, of any money-order which has remained unpaid more than five years.
Approved, May 4, 1882.