masters and their assistants; also oaths of office and papers required for the qualification of these officers. It receives the bonds and oaths so executed, and enters and files the

same.

V. THE SALARY AND ALLOWANCE DIVISION.

934. This division is charged with the details required in the adjustment and readjustment of salaries of postmasters, and in the allowances made for expenditures of postmasters for fuel, lights, clerks, &c. The control of the head of the department over these subjects is explained heretofore, in part, in sections 866, 867, 868, and 869.

OFFICE OF THE SECOND ASSISTANT POSTMASTER-GENERAL.

935. To this office, commonly known as the Contract Office, is assigned the general supervision of all matters relating to the inland mail service, and it has charge of the following-named divisions of the department:

1. Contract Division.

2. Division of Railway Classification.

3. Railway Mail Service.

4. Inspection Division.

5. Mail Equipment Division.

The duties of these several divisions are as follow:

I. THE CONTRACT DIVISION.

936. To this division is assigned the business of arranging the mail service of the United States and placing the same under contract, embracing all correspondence and proceedings respecting the frequency of trips, mode of conveyance, times of departures and arrivals on all the routes, the course of the mails between the different sections of the country, the points of mail distribution, and the regulations for the government of the domestic mail

service of the United States. It prepares the advertisements for mail proposals, receives the bids, and has charge of the annual and occasional mail lettings and the adjustment and execution of the contracts. It receives all applications for mail service or change of mail arrangements and for mail messengers. All claims are considered by this division for transportation service. From this office all postmasters at the ends of routes receive the statement of mail arrangements prescribed for the respective routes. It reports weekly to the Sixth Auditor all contracts executed and all orders affecting the accounts for mail transportation; it prepares the statistical exhibits of the mail service and the reports to Congress of the mail lettings, giving a statement of each bid; also of the contracts made, the new service originated, the curtailments ordered, and the additional allowances granted within the year.

II. THE DIVISION OF RAILWAY CLASSIFICATION.

937. This division has charge of the classification of railroad routes and the adjustment of the rates of pay for the transportation of mails thereon, according to the amount and character of the service.

III. THE RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE.

938. To this division is assigned the general supervision of the railway post-office clerks, route agents, mailroute messengers, and local mail agents; also the distribution and dispatch of mails in all post offices and on railroad and steamboat routes. It considers the cause of and applies a remedy for delays or irregularities in the delivery and transmission of mails on railroads.

IV. THE INSPECTION DIVISION.

939. To this division is assigned the duty of receiving

and examining the registers of the arrivals and departures of the mails, certificates of the service of route agents, and reports of mail failures; of noting the delinquencies of contractors, and preparing cases thereon for the action of the Postmaster-General. It furnishes blanks for mail registers, reports mail failures, and performs other duties which may be necessary to secure a faithful and exact performance of all mail contracts and service.

V. THE MAIL EQUIPMENT DIVISION.

940. To this division is assigned the duty of issuing mail locks, mail pouches and sacks, and of the construction of mail-bag catchers. It gives attention also to the repairs of mail bags at the repair shops in certain of the post offices designated to receive damaged mail pouches. OFFICE OF THE THIRD ASSISTANT POSTMASTER-GENERAL.

941. This office includes the Divisions of Finance; Postage Stamps, Stamped Envelopes, and Postal Cards; Registered Letters; Dead Letters; and Files, Records, and Mails. It is commonly known as the Finance Office.

I. THE DIVISION OF FINANCE.

942. To this division is assigned the duty of issuing drafts and warrants in payment of balances reported by the Sixth Auditor to be due to mail contractors or other persons, of superintending the collection of revenue at depository, draft, and depositing offices, and the accounts between the department and the Treasurer and Assistant Treasurers and special designated depositaries of the United States. This division receives all accounts, monthly or quarterly, of the depository and draft offices, and certificates of deposit from depositing offices, and keeps a cash account with each Treasury depositary. It

keeps also a record of all contracts for mail service and of all orders of the Postmaster-General recognizing mail service not under contract, so as to insure correct payments to contractors. This division is to a great extent analogous in character to the divisions of accounts in other bureaus. In explanation of the warrants and drafts here issued for the payment of the creditors of the postal service, it may be observed that in the process of drawing moneys from the Treasury this department differs radically from all other executive departments. It has been stated that, with the exception of moneys required by this department for postal expenses, all moneys are by law drawn on the warrant of the Secretary of the Treasury. The Post Office Department, as regards its accounts, is anomalous in this: that they are audited by a special Auditor, who is substantially an officer of both that and the Treasury Department; that his adjustment is final without the revision of a Comptroller, as in the case of all other accounts; and that all balances certified to be due and all moneys of the postal service are drawn from the Treasury upon the warrant of the Postmaster-General, countersigned only by that Auditor. All postal revenues are deposited in the Treasury to the credit of the Treasurer of the United States for account of the Post Office Department, and are not covered in, as in the case of all other Government receipts. The warrant issued by the head of the department is both a warrant and a draft. It is issued directly to the creditor, who is enabled to collect the amount expressed therein from the Treasury.

II. DIVISION OF POSTAGE STAMPS, STAMPED ENVELOPES, AND POSTAL CARDS.

943. To this division is assigned the issuing of postage stamps, stamped envelopes, newspaper wrappers, and postal cards; also the duty of supplying postmasters with envel

opes for their official use, and registered package envelopes and seals. These stamps, &c., are manufactured for the Government by contract, under supervision of an agent at the place of manufacture, under whose supervision also they are issued upon daily orders of the Post Office Department. These orders are made up from the requisitions of the postmasters, received and acted upon in this division.

III. DIVISION OF REGISTERED LETTERS.

944. To this division is assigned the duty of preparing instructions for the guidance of postmasters relative to registered letters, and all correspondence connected there: with; also the duty of compiling statistics as to the transactions of the business.

IV. THE DIVISION OF DEAD LETTERS.

945. To this division is assigned the examination and return to the writers of dead letters, and the preparation of all correspondence relating thereto.

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946. Dead letters are such as have been advertised and have remained unclaimed at the place of delivery thirty days after date of advertisement, or have been refused, or for any reason have not reached the party addressed. They are of six classes: “unclaimed,” unmailable," "held for postage," "refused," "hotel," and "fictitious" letters. Such letters are transmitted at the expiration of four weeks or one month from the date of advertisement by the delivery office in packages addressed to the Third Assistant Postmaster-General.

Such letters, with the exception of letters received from foreign countries, which are returned to those countries in the condition received, are opened in this division, called the "Dead Letter Office." Any letter inclosing articles of value or money is registered and returned to the proper