·

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 therewith; 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.

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

If the

postmaster for delivery to the writer or owner. party cannot be found, the letter is returned to the Dead Letter Office and filed, subject to future demand of the person entitled thereto. No record whatever is kept of dead letters which do not contain articles of value. They are returned to the writer if practicable, otherwise they are destroyed.

947. The following organizations, established by the statutes, perform their duties under the immediate direction of the Postmaster-General:

V. THE OFFICE OF FOREIGN MAILS.

948. To this office is assigned all business relating to foreign postal arrangements. It is under charge of an officer designated by law as the Superintendent of Foreign Mails. The business of his office embraces all matters regarding contracts for sea transportation with steamship lines; all matters relating to the exchanges of mails with foreign countries; negotiations with such countries looking to the making of postal treaties; and all correspondence with the proper authorities abroad as to matters concerning the fulfillment of postal treaty stipulations.

949. It also has a supervision of postal accounts arising out of the exchange of mail matter with foreign countries. This matter of accounts has been greatly simplified by reason of the Postal Union Treaty entered into at Berne October 9, 1874, and which went into effect July 1, 1875. This treaty was entered into between Germany, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Egypt, Spain, the United States, France, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, Luxemburg, Norway, the Netherlands, Portugal, Roumania, Russia, Servia, Sweden, Switzerland, and Turkey. These countries form a single postal territory for the reciprocal exchange of correspondence between their post offices, under the title of "Gen

eral Postal Union." Under the provisions of this treaty each country retains the exclusive use of all postages which it collects. Hence all postal accounts formerly kept in the department with these countries have been discontinued. On the 1st of April, 1879, however, the treaty forming the "Universal Postal Union," concluded at Paris June 1, 1878, will go into operation, superseding that of Berne, just referred to. The territory of the union is enlarged under the last treaty, but the benefits of the scheme in the matter of postal accounts are substantially the same.

VI. THE MONEY-ORDER OFFICE.

950. To this office is assigned the general supervision and control of the postal money-order system throughout the United States, and also the supervision of the interna. tional money-order correspondence with foreign countries. The office is under charge of an officer designated by law as Superintendent of the Money-Order Office.

VII. THE TOPOGRAPHER'S OFFICE.

951. This office is charged with keeping up the maps in use by the officers and clerks of the various bureaus; with the preparation and publication of new post-route maps and revised editions of others; and with furnishing maps, where necessary, to postmasters and other persons in the postal service. These maps are, however, to be considered as primarily constructed and published for this use, and not for outside distribution or sale, excepting when surplus copies may remain on hand.

VIII. THE OFFICE OF SPECIAL AGENTS AND MAIL DEPREDATIONS.

952. All cases of mail depredation, or violation of law by private expresses, or by the forging or illegal use of