Chapter 137. Making appropriations for the service of the Post-Office Department for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and ninety-five
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CHAP. 137.— An Act Making appropriations for the service of the Post-Office Department for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and ninety-five.July 16, 1894. *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled*,Postal service appropriations. That the following sums be, and they are hereby, appropriated for the service of the Post-Office Department, in conformity with the Act of July second, eighteen hundred and thirty-six, as follows:
Office of the Postmaster-General.Postmaster-General. For advertising, nineteen thousand dollars.Advertising.Miscellaneous. For miscellaneous items in the office of the Postmaster-General, one thousand dollars. Office of the First Assistant Postmaster-General.First-Assistant Postmaster-General. For compensation to postmasters, sixteen million dollars.Postmasters.Clerks in post-offices. For compensation to clerks in post-offices, nine million seven hundred thousand dollars. For rent, light, and fuel for first and second class post-offices, eightRent, light and fuel. hundred and forty-five thousand dollars.
For rent, light, and fuel for post offices of the third class, six hundred and sixty*Proviso*.Limit, third-class offices. thousand dollars: *Provided*, That there shall not be allowed for the use of any third-class post-office for rent a sum in excess of four hundred dollars, nor more than sixty dollars for fuel and lights, in any one year. For necessary miscellaneous and incidental items directly connectedMiscellaneous. with first and second class post-offices, including furniture, one hundred *Proviso*.Expenditures.and forty thousand dollars: *Provided*, That the Postmaster-General, in his discretion, under such regulations as he shall prescribe, may authorize any of the postmasters of said offices to expend the fund he may allow them for such purposes, without the written consent of the Postmaster-General.
For free-delivery service, including existing experimental free-deliveryFree delivery. offices, twelve million three hundred and twenty-seven thousand six hundred and eighty-five dollars and thirty-three cents; of which the sum of twenty thousand dollars shall be applied under the direction of Rural districts.the Postmaster-General to experimental free delivery in rural communities other than towns and villages, and the Postmaster-General shall 105 be required to report to the next session of Congress such measure as he may deem practical for extending mail service to rural districts and the probable cost of such extension.
For stationery in post-offices, fifty-seven thousand dollars.Stationery.Twine.Paper.Scales. For wrapping twine, eighty thousand dollars. For wrapping paper, fifty thousand dollars. For letter balances, scales, and test weights, and repairs to same, fifteen thousand dollars. For postmarking and rating stamps and repairs to same, and ink andCanceling, etc., stamps. pads for stamping and canceling purposes, thirty thousand dollars. For packing-boxes, sawdust, paste, and hardware, one thousand fivePacking-boxes, etc. hundred dollars.
For printing facing slips and cutting same, card slide-labels, blanks,Printing. and books of an urgent nature for the postal service, ten thousand dollars. For purchase or rental of canceling machines, sixty thousand dollars.Canceling machines. Office of the Second Assistant Postmaster-General.Second Assistant Postmaster-General. For inland mail transportation, namely: Inland transportationInland mail transportation.Star routes. by Star routes, including temporary service to newly established offices, six million dollars.
For inland transportation by steamboat routes, four hundred andSteamboat routes. twenty thousand dollars. For mail messenger service, one million two hundred and eighty-fiveMessenger service. thousand dollars. For mail bags and mailbag catchers, cord fasteners, label cases, andBags, catchers, etc. for labor and material necessary for repairing equipment, two hundred and seventy thousand dollars. For mail locks and keys, chains, tools, and machinery, and for laborLocks, keys, etc. and material necessary for repairing same, thirty-five thousand dollars.
For the purpose of enabling the Postmaster-General to rent a buildingRepair shop. for a mailbag repair shop and lock-repair shop, and for fuel, gas, watchmen and charwomen, oil, and repair of machinery for same, eight thousand five hundred dollars. For inland transportation by railroad routes, of which a sum notRailroad routes. exceeding thirty thousand dollars may be employed to pay freight on postal cards, stamped envelopes, and stamped paper, and other supplies from the manufactories to the post-offices and depots of distribution, twenty-five million five hundred thousand dollars: *Provided*, That*Provisos*.Publications of societies rated as second class. from and after the passage of this Act all periodical publications issued from a known place of publication at stated intervals and as frequently as four times a year by or under the auspices of a benevolent or fraternal society or order organized under the lodge system and having a bona fide membership of not less than one thousand persons or by a regularly incorporated institution of learning or by or under the auspices of a trades union and all publications of strictly professional, literary, historical, or scientific societies including the bulletins issued by State boards of health shall be admitted to the mails as second class matter and the postage thereon shall be the same as on other second class matter and no more: *Provided, further*, That such matter shallLimitation. be originated and published to further the objects and purposes of such society, order, trades union, or institution of learning and shall be formed of printed paper sheets without board, cloth, leather or other substantial binding such as distinguish printed books for preservation from periodical publications.
For railway post-office car service, three million dollars.Postal cars.Railway mail clerks. For railway post-office clerks, seven million one hundred and eighty-six thousand dollars, of which sum not to exceed fifteen thousand dollars may be used to pay necessary traveling expenses of chief clerks and railway postal clerks traveling on duty under order of the Traveling expenses.Postmaster-General. 106 For necessary and special facilities on trunk lines from Springfield,Special facilities.
Massachusetts, via New York and Washington, to Atlanta and New Orleans, one hundred and ninety-six thousand six hundred and *Proviso*.Conditionfourteen dollars and twenty-two cents: *Provided*, That no part of the appropriation made by this paragraph shall be expended unless the Postmaster-General shall deem such expenditure necessary in order to promote the interest of the postal service. For miscellaneous items, five hundred dollars.Miscellaneous.Foreign mails.*Proviso*. For transportation of foreign mails, one million four hundred thousand dollars: *Provided*, That hereafter the Postmaster-General shall be authorized to expend such sums as may be necessary, not exceeding fifty-five thousand dollars, to cover one-half of the cost of Clerks on steam ships.transportation, compensation, and expense of clerks to be employed in assorting and pouching mails in transit on steamships between the United States and other postal administrations in the International Postal Union.
For balance due foreign countries, one hundred and ten thousandBalance due foreign countries dollars. Office of the Third Assistant Postmaster-General.Third Assistant Postmaster-General. For manufacture of adhesive postage and special-delivery stamps,Stamps. one hundred and sixty three thousand dollars. For pay of agent and assistants to distribute stamps, and expensesDistribution. of agency, twelve thousand dollars. For manufacture of stamped envelopes, newspaper wrappers, andStamped envelopes, etc. letter sheets, one million dollars.
For pay of agent and assistants to distribute stamped envelopes,Distribution newspaper wrappers, and letter sheets, and expenses of agency, seventeen thousand eight hundred dollars. For manufacture of postal cards, two hundred andPostal cards. three thousand dollars. For pay of agent and assistants to distribute postal cards, andDistribution. expenses of agency, seven thousand eight hundred dollars. For registered package, tag, official, and dead-letter envelopes, oneOfficial, etc, envelopes. hundred and ten thousand dollars.
For ship, steamboat, and way letters, one thousandShip, etc., letters. five hundred dollars. For engraving, printing, and binding drafts and warrants, three thousandPrinting, etc., drafts. two hundred dollars. For miscellaneous items, five hundred dollars.Miscellaneous. Office of the Fourth Assistant Postmaster-General.Fourth Assistant Postmaster-General. For mail depredations and post-office inspectors, three hundredMail depredations.*Proviso*.Fees, suits on official bonds. thousand dollars: *Provided*, That not exceeding live thousand dollars of this amount may be expended for fees to United States attorneys, marshals, clerks of courts, and special counsel necessarily employed in prosecuting civil suits instituted by the (sixth) Auditor of the Treasury for the Post-Office Department, through the Solicitor of the Treasury, against the sureties on the official bonds of late postmasters, as [R.
S. sec. 292, p. 4](/us/rs/t/s292/p4).provided for by section two hundred and ninety-two, Revised Statutes of the United States. For payment of rewards for the detection, arrest, and conviction ofRewards. post-office burglars and robbers, ten thousand dollars. Sec. 2. That hereafter, in making contracts for postal cards, stampedDeliveries of postal cards, etc., by contractor. envelopes, stamped paper, and all other supplies, the Postmaster-general is authorized to require the contractor, under such regulations as he may prescribe, to make delivery at such points in the United States as he may direct, whenever, in his opinion, any such contract can be made at a saving to the Government.
Sec. 3. That if the revenue of the Post-Office Department shall beAppropriation to meet deficiencies. insufficient to meet the appropriations made by this Act, a sum equal to such deficiency of the revenues of said Department is hereby appro- 107priated, to be paid out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to supply said deficiencies in the revenue for the Post Office Department for the year ending June thirtieth,, eighteen hundred and ninety-five. Sec. 4. The Secretary of the Treasury and the Postmaster-GeneralMoney-order statements, etc., may be destroyed after ten years. shall cause to be destroyed in such manner as they may deem best all Money Order Statements rendered by Postmasters and all paid Money Orders and paid Postal Notes accompanying the same, now filed in the office of the.
Auditor of the Treasury for the Post Office Department, or which may hereafter be filed therein, after ten years shall have elapsed from the expiration of the period covered by such statements: *Provided*, That the Postmaster-General upon evidence satisfactory to*Proviso*.Outstanding orders.*Ante*, pp. 32, 33. him, and under such special regulations as he shall prescribe, may cause payment to be made in the manner prescribed in sections four and eleven of the Act approved January twenty-seventh, eighteen hundred and ninety-four, of the amount of any Money Order remaining unpaid after the lapse often years from the date of its issue.
Approved, July 16, 1894.