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Show ONE-CENT LETTER RATE IN SIGHT Washington. April 11. Action on the part of Postmaster General Albert B I'.urleson. Involving the appointment appoint-ment of a commission to investigate the "actual finmcial. phvslcal and' Working conditions of the postal serv. ice" is regarded bj business men all over the country .is the initial step towards one cent letter Pnt:ic;r Postmaster rienera' Burleson indicates indi-cates that (hers have heen so manv conflicting reports) as to the general conditions of the department th:H he h.i decided, to ha.e full and com-j prnte Investigation made with a view' to determining the r-.aet status of; af lairs The cominisston is composed of Daniel C Roper, Joseph Stewart. A I :j. Doekery and lames I Blackslee ' first, vecond. third and fourth ipsist- I ant postmasters general respectively I an. Merrir O. Chance chief clerk of ' the department These are the new 1 Officials U8t appointed uud r the Wilson administration to conduct t lie i i affairs of the poBt oflk-e department i Now that the parcels post is in I 1 - T actual operation and bids fair to bs !) extended rb.i ag the next few ears, U it Js claimed by busines- men gener- fit ally that their demand for a one-cent m letter rate should i,e heeded They wt point to the fad that the post office ft department Is now realizing an enor-fi mous surplus, something like ?6.",000.. jiU 000 per year from the letter maii Al-j 0 though letter mail constitutes hutlS fourteen pel cent of the revenue of n the department it pss about seventy-ja five per cent of the revenue received Jail from all cla3se. and it is eudent that! this is a decided discrimination Ife lacuinst users of first class or letter W mall One of the interesting features of Cji the postolfice department which wiUli be Investigated is the so-called 'bluet tag" S3 tem. In September. 1911. thg"fi pl in was inaugurated. It coers that section of the United States lyilUH U-tweon Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Chicago, St Louis and Kansas City and pro-l lides that within this section, secondly class mail, particularly hea maga-R zii.e mall, shall be hauled in ireightE cars. A report from PostmastejH hi ids of Kansas City Indicates that fj thi system has heen a great succesH BO far a- it has been worked out. Re-K'j ports furnished by Postmaster ChildsyJ in ito that tho saving on the small pan of the whole mail that this por-tion por-tion covered for a term of seventoefilH months was $364,996 50 1-ormer Postmaster General Hitch- w jcoek. who recently retired from of-l?. lice, was firm in the belief that aaC.' Immense saving could be effectedJB till Ughout the co:;nii If tills plan 1 were followed. :nd all large casteroXjij maa?nie publishers icrpiired to dls- 1 tribute their product in this manner.j The Curtis Publishing t'o. of Pb.11-1 . adelphia, probably the largest period-! I al publishers iii the world, ship outl ol Philadelphia by regular mail sorv-1 ice every day, from 5 to m fully load-1 1 led cars stacked to the roof with mag-J These are carried at the ratal of one cent per pound, or $20 per tQM I When hipped in thi-- '.va- they may b carried for that ridiculous sum, lf the way from Philadelphia to Calif or1 1; Inia. Letter 'mail, on the other bandj . 2j (osts its originators an average rain j of over 84 cents per pound, heciuSfJ I there nie In the nekhhorhood of 4w I : including some postal cards, " to ihe pound. This means a cost of . 11 per ton io tlie originator of let-: f ten mail, as against $20 per ton for thej 'd big magazines i u'dlshed In the east,! J -onie of which charge a high SJ ( S'cii i a page for advertisements. J It Is i laimed that the loss to thSJ government through this 1icK of husi; in ss method s over SfiO 000,000 PSuT veai. siifiicient i ' . ! e-: ;, r.t up the i surplus furnished i fu1?' f loss m3"lQr |