STATEMENT OF MANAGERS ON PART OF THE HOUSE.

The amendment of the Senate No. 4, which the conferees disagreed to, in the opinion of the conferees on the part of the House extended and enlarged the provisions of the bill to an extent which the conferees were not justified in accepting.

Amendment No. 1 of the Senate makes the provisions of the bill applicable to entries heretofore or hereafter made. This was strongly urged by the Interior Department and is believed to be in the interest of uniformity of administration.

Amendments Nos. 2 and 3 of the Senate were agreed to with an amendment striking out the last four lines of the bill which these amendments modified, and inserting a provision in harmony with the intent of this portion of the bill as it passed the House and with the Senate amendments, and adding a provision in harmony with one of the provisions of Senate amendment No. 4, the effect of which will be to have the question of the coal and noncoal character of the land heard at the time when the entryman presents his final proof.

F. W. MONDELL,

A. J. VOLSTEAD,

Jos. T. ROBINSON,

Managers on the part of the House.

CONGRESS,

CONGRESS,

RESURVEY OF PUBLIC LANDS.

FEBRUARY 23, 1909.-Ordered to be printed.

Mr. MONDELL, from the committee of conference, submitted the

The committee of conference on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses on the amendments of the Senate to the bill (H. R. 24835) authorizing the necessary resurvey of public lands, having met, after full and free conference have agreed to recommend and do recommend to their respective Houses as follows:

That the Senate recede from its amendment in line 12, striking out the word "Twenty" and inserting the word Five.

That the House recede from its disagreement to the amendment of the Senate in line 4, striking out the words "In the manner" and inserting As he may deem wise under the rectangular system, and agree to the same.

STATEMENT OF MANAGERS ON THE PART OF THE HOUSE.

The amendment of the Senate in line 4 authorizes the Secretary to execute the resurveys or retracements in such manner as he may deem wise, instead of following, in every case, the system of contracts and per diem now provided by law, and the change is believed to be in the interest of economy and the speedy adjustment of disputes and conflicts.

The amendment of the Senate in line 12 reduced the amount of the annual appropriation for surveys and resurveys which might be used for the resurveys and retractments authorized by the act from 20 to 5 per cent. The agreement restores the per cent provided for in the House bill, as it is believed that a smaller amount would not be adequate at all times.

F. W. MONDELL,

A. J. VOLSTEAD,

Jos. T. ROBINSON,

Managers on the part of the House.

60TH CONGRESS, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. REPORT 1 No. 2294.

EXPENDITURES IN THE POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT.

FEBRUARY 23, 1909.-Ordered to be printed.

Mr. WANGER, from the Committee on Expenditures in the Post-Office Department, submitted the following

REPORT.

The Committee on Expenditures in the Post-Office Department submit the following report:

Under the authority granted by the House, and in discharge of the duty imposed upon the committee by paragraphs 42 and 47 of Rule XI of the House of Representatives, the committee held twenty-nine formal meetings during the first session of the Sixtieth Congress for the hearing of officials and an ex-official of the Post-Office Department, besides which, during that session and the summer vacation, the members of the committee individually examined into the subjects included in paragraph 42 at the Post-Office Department and at several of the leading post offices in the United States, as also upon railway mail trains, and at the department and in a few of the post-offices in Germany. At the recent session a like procedure was conducted, although less extensively.

It gives us pleasure to report that no evidence of corruption or of maladministration has been called to our attention; neither have we discovered any. On the contrary, there has been manifested alike by the Postmaster-General and by each of the other officials and the employees of the department a very earnest desire to discharge duty with economy, accuracy, and efficiency.

"The economy, justness, and correctness of expenditures" is a very comprehensive phrase, and we interpret it as relating to us as controlled by existing law; at the same time endeavoring to secure information of the possibility of better results with less expenditures under other conditions, but without trenching upon the duties or entering the general field of labor of the Committee on Post-Offices and PostRoads nor the general commission on business methods of the PostOffice Department and the postal service. Our investigation has consequently been conducted with this conception of duty.

RECENT IMPROVEMENTS IN POSTAL ADMINISTRATION.

In his last annual report the Postmaster-General says, under the topic of "Business methods:"

A number of improvements in business methods, a striking need of which was pointed out in my last annual report, and certain suggestions made in the preliminary report of the Joint Postal Commission appointed by Congress, have been put in force to the advantage of the department and the postal service, some of the important changes being

The closer inspection of all supplies purchased.

The consolidation of accounts in journal form, requiring one signature instead of hundreds.

The transfer of the printing section from the Postmaster-General's office to the office of the Fourth Assistant Postmaster-General, Division of Supplies.

The fixing of the functions and responsibility of the different bureaus in the purchase of supplies.

Further increasing the efficiency of the Division of Supplies while decreasing the number of employees from 102 to 81.

The taking of an annual inventory of stock in the Division of Supplies.

Revision and standardization of form blanks and the elimination of unnecessary forms.

General improvement in the filing systems of the department.

The substitution of card systems for book records-a policy that will be extended. The installation of adding machines, loose-leaf ledgers, and carbon processes whereby several circular letters to different persons are written at the same time. These improvements will also be extended.

The simplification of methods in the Division of Dead Letters, increasing the output of work without additional clerical force.

The committee concurs in this declaration and commends the improvements which have been made, and especially the adoption of a tentative. system of efficiency records for clerks and carriers, prescribing uniform standards for the entire system, in order that a degree of excellence may be established as a necessary preliminary to advancement in grade. The schedule of demerits to be imposed upon clerks and carriers for errors and offenses will necessarily be most variously applied by different postmasters, unless each is of the same conviction of duty, standard of performance, and in every particular, as related to this matter, like every other postmaster. As this is not the case and never will be, there must be some effective supervision or the purpose will largely fail. How to secure this supervision and the desired uniformity of administration is a question which should have the most careful study of the Postmaster-General and First Assistant PostmasterGeneral. We print as a supplement to this report the instructions relative to efficiency records of post-office clerks and city letter carriers, dated November 23, 1908, with the accompanying schedule just referred to.

There are other tests of efficiency of methods and of mechanisms which should also be adopted, a few of which we shall elaborate.

PNEUMATIC TUBE SERVICE.

It is impossible for your committee, with the evidence which it can reasonably secure, to reach any satisfactory conclusion touching the economy of expenditures for pneumatic tube service; we are doubtful of our authority to go into the general question, but as our justification gets very near the subject we deem it proper to advert to it in the hope of securing through the department, with its present facilities and without extra expense, a great deal of valuable data from which correct conclusions may be drawn touching the true value of the service.