REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF THE POSTAL MONEY-ORDER SYSTEM.. POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT, OFFICE OF SUPERINTENDENT OF MONEY-ORDER SYSTEM, Washington, D. C., October 28, 1885. SIR: On the 30th of last June closed the twentieth full year since the Money-Order System of the United States was inaugurated. In submitting this, the annual report of the operations of that system for the fiscal year just ended, I may be permitted to make brief allusion to the growth of the business during the two decades of its existence. The first complete fiscal year during which money-order business was transacted under the auspices of the Post-Office Department was that which ended on June 30, 1866. There were at that time 766 moneyorder offices. There are now 7,355 such offices-nearly ten times as many. The issues of money-orders during that year amounted to a little less than $4,000,000, and the payments to nearly that sum. The money-orders now issued amount to about $120,000,000 annually, and the payments to a few thousand dollars less. The total receipts for fees during that first year were only a little more than $35,000. They now aggregate almost a million dollars per annum. The amount of the gross revenue which the system yielded for the benefit of the postal service was then about $7,000. During the last fifteen years the gross revenue has averaged nearly $190,000 per annum, and during the past eight years it has averaged over $250,000 annually. The steady growth of the business, which is the best evidence of the estimation in which the system is held by the general public and by the business men of the country, will appear from an examination of the tabular statement (A) in the Appendix, showing the operations of the domestic money-order system for each year since its establishment, November 1, 1864, up to June 30, 1885. NUMBER OF MONEY-ORDER OFFICES. To the 6,310 money-order offices which were in operation on June 30, 1884, there have been added during the past fiscal year 762, and 16 have been discontinued, making the number of such offices on June 30, 1885, 7,056. Since that date a further increase has been made of 303 offices, while 4 have been discontinued, leaving at date of this report 7,355 post-offices authorized to issue and pay money-orders. 6755 P G M-49 769 ISSUES AND PAYMENTS OF DOMESTIC MONEY-ORDERS. The number of domestic money-orders issu ed during the year was 7,725,893, amounting to And the number of such orders paid during the same period was 7,657,710, of the value of $117, 165, 886 43 $117,858, 921 27 In addition to which money orders were repaid to the number of 55,203, aggregating Making the total amount of payments and repayments And the excess of payments over issues 830,318 63 117,996, 205 06 The gross amount of the fees received by postmasters from the public for the issue of domestic money orders was. 137,283 79 923,930 85 These figures exhibit a decrease in the amounts both of orders issued and paid, and of fees received; in the two former of $4,262,340.71, or 3.49 per cent., and $3,974,877.74, or 3.25 per cent., respectively; and in the latter of $26,134.94, or 2.75 per cent. This slight falling off may be attributed in part to the general stagnation of business during the past year, and, perhaps, in small measure, to the increased use of postal notes. The money-orders issued averaged in amount $15.26, or 32 cents less than the average of the year before, and the average fee received was 11.96 cents, being sixteen one-hundredths of a cent less than that of the preceding year. ISSUES AND PAYMENTS OF POSTAL NOTES. The number of postal notes issued during the year was 5,058,287, of the total value of.. And the number of notes paid during the same time was 4,946,682, amounting to.. While there were repaid at the offices of issue postal notes to the number of 65,415, aggregating Making the total amount of payments and repayments And the excess of issues over payments... $9,819, 515 98 $9,996, 274 37 128,507 82 9,948, 023 80 48,250 57 152, 018 58 The aggregate amount of fees received from the public was. The average amount of the postal notes issued was nearly $1.98-three cents less than the average of the year 1883-'84. The increase in the amount of postal-note business (issues and payments) was about 143 per cent., if it be assumed that the same average volume of business would have been transacted during each of the first two as during each of the last ten months of the preceding year had the business commenced July 1, 1883. Postal notes, however, were not issued until September 3, 1883. WAR CLAIMS. Some additional labor is imposed upon this office by reason of the fact that claims of colored soldiers for services rendered in the late war are paid by the Paymaster General of the Army by means of moneyorders which are not transmitted to the payees, but are forwarded to the paying postmasters through this office, with instructions to be observed in the settlement of the claims. Subsequent correspondence, if any be necessary, between the War Department and postmasters is also conducted through this office. The aggregate amount of the orders purchased for this purpose during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1885, was $15,486.11. DUPLICATE MONEY-ORDERS. The law establishing the postal-note business declares a postal note invalid and not payable at the expiration of three months from the last day of the month of issue, but provides that a duplicate may be issued to the owner of the note upon his filing the original, with an application, in the Department. During the past year 3,963 duplicates of invalid postal notes have been issued by this office, upon each of which an additional fee of three cents was charged, as required by law. Duplicate money-orders may be issued when the original has been lost or destroyed, or has remained unpaid for a year, and thus become invalid, or has received more than one indorsement, which renders it invalid; likewise, when payment of the original is prohibited by the Postmaster-General to fraudulent concerus, under authority of section 4041 of the Revised Statutes, the money is restored to the remitter of the order by means of a duplicate issued by this office. The table, B, in the Appendix, shows the number of duplicate money-orders issued by this office during the last fiscal year, and of the reasons for their issue. DRAFTS AND TRANSFERS. The regulations of the Department require a postmaster to use the postal funds in his hands when called upon to pay money-orders to an amount in excess of his available money-order funds, and, if his postal funds be not sufficient, to apply to this office for a draft on the postmaster at New York. Transfers for this purpose were made by postmasters during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1885, to the aggregate amount of $913,648.59, of which the sum of $746,071.47 was subsequently retransferred to the postal funds by various postmasters, and the remainder due was refunded by a deposit made under the direction of this office on October 12, 1885, with the assistant treasurer at New York to the credit of the Treasurer of the United States for the service of the Post-Office Department. If applications from a postmaster for drafts on New York are very frequent, or his use of the postal funds is continuous, he is furnished with a letter of credit in a round sum, which is renewed as occasion requires, and is supplied with a limited number of blank drafts on the postmaster at New York, to be drawn when needed. During the past fiscal year drafts of postmasters on money-order account were paid by the postmaster at New York to the amount of $12,991,111.56. During the same period the postmaster at San Francisco furnished to neighboring money-order offices funds to the amount of $224,138, and the postmaster at Portland, Oreg., filled requisitions from postmasters for money-order funds to the amount of $91,844. REMITTANCES OF SURPLUS MONEY-ORDER FUNDS. The money-order system being without working capital, except such as accrues from unpaid money-orders, it is necessary to keep the moneyorder funds in constant circulation, and as rapidly as possible to accumulate at great paying centers the receipts of offices where the issues largely exceed the payments. The regulations therefore require every postmaster to remit daily to some post-office designated as his depository all his surplus money-order funds. The gross amount of the remittances thus made during the fiscal year just closed was $103,682,205.46. |
