rship and management by the
Government of the penal institutions in which Federal prisoners are
confined. I simply desire to again urge former recommendations on the
subject and to particularly call the attention of the Congress to that
part of the report of the Secretary of War in which he states that the
military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kans., can be turned over to the
Government as a prison for Federal convicts without the least difficulty
and with an actual saving of money from every point of view.

Pending a more complete reform, I hope that by the adoption of the
suggestion of the Secretary of War this easy step may be taken in the
direction of the proper care of its convicts by the Government of the
United States.

The report of the Postmaster-General presents a comprehensive statement
of the operations of the Post-Office Department for the last fiscal
year. The receipts of the Department during the year amounted to
$75,080,479.04 and the expenditures to $84,324,414.15.

The transactions of the postal service indicate with barometric
certainty the fluctuations in the business of the country. Inasmuch,
therefore, as business complications continued to exist throughout
the last year to an unforeseen extent, it is not surprising that the
deficiency of revenue to meet the expenditures of the Post-Office
Department, which was estimated in advance at about $8,000,000, should
be exceeded by nearly $1,225,000. The ascertained revenues of the last
year, which were the basis of calculation for the current year, being
less than estimated, the deficiency for the current year will be
correspondingly greater, though the Postmaster-General states that the
latest indications are so favorable that he confidently predicts an
increase of at least 8 per cent in the revenues of the current year over
those of the last year.

The expenditures increase steadily and necessarily with the growth and
needs of the country, so that the deficiency is greater or less in any
year, depending upon the volume of receipts.

The Postmaster-General states that this deficiency is unnecessary and
might be obviated at once if the law regulating rates upon mail matter
of the second class was modified. The rate received for the transmission
of this second-class matter is 1 cent per pound, while the cost of such
transmission to the Government is eight times that amount. In the
general terms of the law this rate covers newspapers and periodicals.
T