The Brooklyn Daily Eagle from Brooklyn, New York • Page 13

HE BROOKLYN DAILY AG -l1 1 society. theaters. EDITORIAL'. FASHIONS. NEW YORK CITY.

SUNDAY. JANUARY 15. 1011. IIIREi: CENTS. LI Rational Extension of Business Would Banish Postal Deficit Ogre this office and arrived at the profound conclusion that the post office was losinc and business by this sort of competition and actually proposed to pass a law com Don C.

Seitz Scores Present Policy of Obstructive Monopolistic Control of Mail Delivery Service in the United States. BUSINESS SO CONDUCTED WOULD NOT LAST "Open Doors Wide to Second Class Matter and Establish a Tarcels Post," He Says, "to Make Proposition Pay." chant would study In convenience and Indulge in efforts to make the Post Office attract people to his store, with economy to the department, and Improvement in the service. The "deal" with the express companies should end. The department should demand a parcels post. It would get It.

United States Blocks International Improvement Scheme. Other nations are eager to join in an international improvement, along the line of package carrying. They find the United States standing in the way of convenience and progress. The first of nations is the last. The most far-reaching of its monopolies is managed the most Inefficiently of them all! How would the Post Office Department get business? By the simplest of processes.

It should first abolish the censorious barriers that it has raised against the several grades of second-class matter ar.d welcome all that It can get. It should establish the parcels-post along the lines employed in Europe and Japan. It should transform its postmasters into business-getters who would hunt for trade Instead of for votes for a political party. It should encourage and support newspapers and magazine circulation as the Post Office Department In Germany does, by acting as a dealer in publlci-tlons. The German Post Office buys publications in bulk and sells them to Its customers.

To say that this would interfere with the newsdealers Is nonsense, because there are not more than 24.000 newsdealers in the United States mainly grouped in large cities, 4.000 In New York alone while there are 69,580 post offices with postmasters who In the main have fiiiple leisure to be employed in getting business and whose communities would rejoice at the benefits. There Is no need to enlarge on the wisdom of the parcels-nost. It exists everywhere except in the United States. To-day there may be Been in the streets of New York City a dllvery wagon labeled "Parcel Delivery of the Imperial German Mall," doing a work for foreign shippers which our own people are not permitted to employ between the states. Could there be a better illustration of our own fatuity? It ought to be easier to encourage the use of the mails than to discourage It.

Yet the efforts of all recent Administrations have been solely in the former direction In paralyzing contradiction of all the laws of trade. the purpose of conveyt'ig them, contra ty BECAUSE OF THE DEATH OF Mr. Arthur Gibb THIS STORE WILL BE CLOSED ON MONDAY, JANUARY 16. tu law be fined not more than 160 Whoever shall transmit by private ex "What would be thought of a corporation which built or rented 69,580 buildings, hired as many local agents, with 179,480 assistants and 41,152 men and horses for delivery purposes In rural dis press or other unlawful menln. or doliv'r to any agent thereof, or deposit or cause pelling an duik packages of newspapers to go through the malls whether tho mall trains went at the proper time or not.

Sural Carriers Forbidden to Retail Newspapers Along Country Routes The postmaster can still take subscriptions for newspaper clubs, but the rural carrier cannot take newspapers in bulk and retail them to subscribers along the route. He could do this once, but the department stopped the custom and raised tho carriers' pay! The department with Its vast base of offices and men and without real competition, with an immense leeway by which it can do more business without Increasing its basic cost needs only freedom of action and encouraging methods to become a dividend-payer to its stockholders (the public), through lower rales and greater convenience. The railroads, the Post Office rentals, the officials and the minor employes are not overpaid. With the single exception of the letter carriers and clerks in the great cities they are underworked. The Post Office to-day is not more than 60 per cent, efficient; it ought to be at least 90 per with its monopolistic advantages.

The Post Office Department need not economize on expenses. They are low in their units. It needs more business properly to employ its fine facilities, and should radically change its policy and hunt for trade Instead of driving It out with a club. Postmasters should be selected for their energy and business ability. They should send out "business hunters." as the freight lines do.

They should keep open shop early and late, and not be the last business institution to open In the average town and the first to close. It might be well to let the postal agency in the ordinary towns to the lowest bidder. Many a sharp mer-1 to be deposited at any appointed place tricts, made contracts for transportation for the purpose of being so transmitted, any letter or packet, shall bo fined net more than $00. Kestrictions Placed on Those Con nected With Transportation Lines. Whoever, being the owner, driver, con ductor, master, or other person having charge of any stage coach riilway car, oa.

try? steamboat, or of any kind which regularly performs trips at stated periods on any post route, or from a.ty city, town, or place to any other cuy, town, or place between whicn the is regularly carried, and which shall carry, otherwise than th; mail, any letters or packets, except such as relate at a fixed rate for a term of years and then exerted Itself mainly to repress energy and curtail customs?" Don C. Seitz, In a copyrighted article in the February number of the World's Work, asks this question. In the arguments that follow he severely scores the United States Post Office for its obstructive and monopblistic policies. Mr. Seltz's article follows: Would not a corporation that so exerted itBelf to repress energy and curtail custom be doomed from the start as business enterprise? Would not Its management be voted imbecile and Its stockholders rise in righteous wrath against such a programme? They would, unless unless they happened to be the people of the United States, who are joint stockholders in Just such a concern, to wit: the Post Office Department of the United States.

It may seem rude to raise such questions at a time when trusts and monopolies are engaging the attention of the public and the "uplifters," and when thera is an easy tendency to suggest a way out of all the troubles, real and manufac to some part of the cargo of such steam boat or other vessel, to the current ness of the carrier, or to some article carried at the same time by iho simc stage coach, railway tar. or other vehicle, except as otherwise provided by law, shall be fined not more than $50. Whoever, being concerned In carrying the mail, shall collect, receive, or carry any letter or packet, or cause or procure the same to be done, contrary to law, snail be It'ned not more than o0, or P. S. C.

Gives Statistics On Traction Problem imprisoned not more than thirty days, or both. See Jiow carefully protected by law is this monopoly, which presumes to pre scribe how the people of the United Statt shall do business, supervises their Over a Billion and a Half Per sons Ride on Cars in 1910. SEBI INCREASE OVER PAST YEARS morals, and Intrudes autocratically Into affairs that would be private but for ns assumption of control! To say that any service performed under these restrictions is a "privilege" is laughable. To say that Its use is a "subsidy" Is an outrage even If the remark is made by the President of the United States. The Postmaster General talks wisely of the "reforms" that he has inaugurated since last year, which led to the cutting down of the 109 deficit from to $5,848,567, but details are scanty.

The facts as revealed by the report of Merritt O. Chance, Auditor of the Post Office, just published, make the real occasion for the improvement clear. The effort of the department (urther to restrict and destroy business was stopped by the failure of the Post Office and Post Koads Commmittee to act on any B. R. T.

Explains Offers To Operate New Subway Travel Habit Gains, and Every tured, by resort to. government regulation, ownership, or control. But no better test-case can be raised as to the competence of government management than by an examination into the affairs of the Post Office. It is one of the greatest corporations in the world. It did a business in the fiscal year ending June 30, 1910, of $224,128,657.62, and lost 5,848,567 of its stockholders Post Office Is a Monopoly Made by Law and Convenience.

Yet the Post Office is a monopoly, made so partly by law and partly by convenience. What is worse, It is an unintelligent and obstructive monopoly, the prey of politicians and the refuge of the least energetic and business-llko of our citizens. The country postmaster is often the respectable village ne'er-do-well, the brother-in-law of the local boss, or his lon-in-law, or some "good fellow" who does not know how to take care of and must be helped in what is, after ell, the most expensive way for the gen- city by which, if the elevated system from the Fourth avenue subway becomes elective, grades will be abolished along Gravesend and New Utrecht avenues. According to the way the money is to lie spent, however, as outlined by ihe Commission, the expense to the D. R.

T. would be slight after ail for Ihe distribution Is as follows: Borough if Queens, Borough of Brooklyn, Manhattan and the Bronx, Richmond, $200,000. Last year the Commission prevailed upon the Legislature to appropriate $250,000 for the elimination of grade crossings. This wa3 the first money appropriated by the state for this purpose within ten years. The railroads have been much more alert than the state.

They have voluntarily abolished some crossings, bearing th entire expense. The Commission calls attention to the fact that in three years sixty person' have been trilled lirTrradt'-crossing accidents in the city, and one hundred and eight Injured seriously. After a resume of the general subway situation the Board states: "During the year, considerable addi New Yorker Take3 320 Rides. the B. R.

T. offer the four elevated extensions would be built entirely at the company's expense, except as to such amount which the city might contribute for tho abolition of grade crossings. "Interborough Offer Means Two Fares to Manhattan." The Interborough offer would mean two fares to Manhattan and vice versa to all residents south of Forty-third street using B. R. T.

lines and Fourth avenue subway, whereas the B. R. T. offer would mean one fare to all such passengers (except those to and from Coney Island). And In the Coney Island case there maybe but one faro if the city chooses to assume the loss.

All tho company Insists upon is that the rate should not be reduced to what is confiscatory unless the the city pays the deficit. It Is true that tho Interborough offer gives the opportunity of one fare from Local Traction Company Compares Its Proposed Scheme With That of the Interborough to Operate Fourth Avenue Line, Some figures which cast light on the of Mr. Hitchcock's recommendations. So way in which our transportation problem is growing will, tt qund in the summary business throve and increased 10 per cent, over the previous year! Now the costs of the department, being fixed by of the report of the Public Service Commission for the year, whit-h has been sent law or well defined In the charges for rentals and transportation for stated periods, naturally drop in proportion as business increases. to the Legislature and will later probably be accepted.

More Business Brought in Extra Profits to Post Office Department. Here Is an analysis of the offers made for the operation of the Fourth avenue subway, one by the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company and the other by the Interborough. The statement, which Is of course comparative. Is made from the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company's point of view: CROSS EARNINGS. Interborough offer determines gross earnings from tickets deposited at stations upon' this division, but inasmuch as (inferentially, but not explicitly) free transfers are to be exchanged between present subway system and Fourth avenue subway, the fares of all passengers transferring from the present or proposed Interborough subways either ut During the past year tho street and electric railroads of New York carried 1.530,000,000 passengers, an increase of 130,000,000 over the figures for last year, of 400.000,000 over the figures for five years ago and an Increase of 684,000.000 over the estimates for ten years ago.

The figures show that the transportation question, on the mere basis of passengers carried, is to-day nearly 33 1-3 per cent, more difficult to cope with than it was five years ago. The 1,530,000,000 people provided a total transportation revenue of about $80,000,000. A chart Included in the report shows how the riding habit has grown among New Yorkers: tional work has been done on the present Bubway, which was constructed and is being operated under the terms and conditions of Contracts Nos. 1 and 2. As pointed out last year, a new station Is being constructed at One Hundred and Ninety-first street and St.

Nicholas avenue, at a cost of $380,000, and additional elevators at the One Hundred and Eighty-first street and St. Nicholas avenue station, costiug $150,000. The terminal station at One Hundred an'd Eighty-first street (Zoological Park) and the station at Intervale avenue have been completed. "In addition, $1,500,000 is being expended In lengthening station platforms so as to increase the length of express trains from eight lo ten ears and of local trains from five to six cars, and $500,000 Is being expended In constructing ceipts would not equal the operating expenses, to say nothing of interest on the cost, and the acceptance of the Inter-bcrough offer would, therefore, probably mean nn even greater loss to the city than If It operated the subway Itself, for under the latter condition It would get the revenue both ways, whereas under tho Interborough offer not over 60 per cent, of this revenue would be credited to the earnings of this line. The B.

R. T. offer absolutely insures the city against loss on operation (unless the city should reduce the Coney Island fare), and in addition mokes much more certain to the city the prospect of getting the interest on Its bonds and provision for sinking fund. NET INCOME. Both offers propose to divide the net income equally between the city and the company, but In the ease of the Interborough offer there 'is no prospect of net income, whereas In tho case of tho B.

R. T. offer there Is every prospect of a net Income. Moreover, the interborough offer proposes to shore tho profits but not to bear losses, whereas the B. R.

T. offer proposes not only to share the profits, but to bear all the losses from Every postmaster who filled more boxes, every car that carried a fuller complement, every rural route man who increased his load added to the reduction of the deficit. This ought to be apparent, oven to the ordinary "garden variety" of a Postmaster General and should arouse him to the next step, which Is to dismiss the Idea of "privilege" and "subsidies" and go after business as docs the Standard Oil Company or the' American Tobacco Company, who succeeded in earning 40 per cent, dividends by Intelligence and efficiency, despite the cost of defending their several monopolies against competition and the government "regulators" something from which the Post Office Is spared. The boxes In the average post office are rarely more than a quarter filled. The average load of a rural free delivery man can be carried in his arms though he Park row, Manhattan, at Lafayette avenue Or at Flatbush avenue, would not be credited to Fourth avenue subway earnings, but would go to the Interborough, while the expense of carrying such transfer passengers would be charged against the Fourth avenue subway earn additional entrances and exits which will be necessary because of the Increased length of stations.

This Improvement will allow nearly 25 per cent. Increase In train capacity. Commission Orders Side Doors on Subway Cars. "Under orders from the Commission. Rliies Per Capita.

228.0 231.2 2411.2 248.2 256.3 265.0 274.1 2S2.7 301.3 305.4 304.4 303.9 320.1) Pr.pu-lelion. S.S.-,1,2U 3,344,211 3,519. H3 3.H62.4S3 3.773.123 3.S7.7'13 4.000.4(13 4.1S3.69!) 4,3116,995 4,460,291 4.BI3.5S7 4.766.SS3 Fate Patwnjrs. 741. 329, TO 773,301,232 848.3S3.05S SSI, 341.

SOI 1.000, 707. 1.330.9H2,6!t(J 1.251.841, nr. 1.315, 381, 3RS 1.358,000.407 1.402,417.642 1,030,000,000 Year. 18 1SW ISM 191)1 1W3 1SU4 1915 1 1117 IMS 19t 1910 rral public. Yet when criticism is aroused over the perpetual deficits of the department, the blame is promptly laid at the door of tho publishing interests of the country, who really produce its revenues and who are always treated as if they were in receipt of enormous favors.

President Talt has gone majestically on record as asserting that they are "subsidized," and Postmaster General Hitchcock has been busy ever since he took office in devising schemes to oppress and repress his chief 60urce of traffic. At first I he included newspapers and magazines together in his list of undesirable customers. Then the great dailies were able to show the Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads that they do not use the Post Office to any appreciable extent because it is slow, unreliable, and much more expensive than other means of transportation, and that they employ It only where other methods are not handy. So some thirty periodicals, three-quarters of whose output is sent to distributing centers in freight cars, are left alone to be the victims the curious ignorance at Washington! "Mr. Hitchcock Eecurs to Business-Killing Idea." Mr.

Hitchcock now recurs to his earliest idea of business killing, which he at first advocated for all publications, to divide the contents between reading advertising matter and reclassify, leaving the "privileges" to the tud, and taxing the business part of the publication. It is perhaps useless to argue with a mind that can put fouu such a proposition. There are two views concerning the Post Office, one or the other of whicn must prevail in considering the problem. The department cannot be eleemosynary and a business at the same time. If it is the former, then its deficits might as well be met out of the tax levy as by usually employs a horse and wagon capable of hauling a ton a day.

Lower Postal Bates in Other Countries Bring in Profits. points north of Forty-third street on the Fourth avenue subway in Brooklyn to points reached by the Interborough system in Manhattan, but this gift is at the expense of tho city, as indicated above, and the number of persons who would thus be daily benefited by that opportunity Is probably very small compared to the number of people who, under tho B. R. T. offer, could got to and from their places of business in Brooklyn or lower Manhattan for ono fare, whereas under the interborough offer they would bo obliged to pay two fares, one to the B.

R. T. and one to the Interborough. The acceptance of the Interborough offer leaves unsettled the development of all the suburban section south of Thirty-sixth street, as such development is retarded by the existence of grade crossings of steam railroad lines. The B.

T. offer presents an opportunity for tho abolition of all such crossings, present or future, and of thereby removing a great obstacle to the development of this territory. "Interborough Offer Would Not Relieve Congestion." The acceptance of the Interborough offer presents practically no relief to tho congestion of transit conditions over tho Brooklyn Bridge, whereas the B. R. T.

ofTer. by the diversion from the present bridge operation to the Fourth avenuo subway of travel originating in approximately eighteen square miles of territory would greatly relieve that situation. The Interborough offer means not only double fares to all persons south of Forty-third street using B. R. T.

lines and the subway, but means a change of cars and consequent loss of time and Inconvenience. The B. R. T. offer means through cars, with great saving of tiniu and convenience.

Tho above comparison is confined solely to the Fourth avenue subway propositions. In addition It should be pointed out that coupled with tho B. R. T. offer la presented the opportunity (proposal No.

2) to the city to provide one of tho best Postal rates of all sorts are not too the Interborough Rapid Transit Company has been Installing side-doors in car used In subway express service. At the end of the year there were 699 cars so equipped, which makes possible to have In operation seventy ten-car trains entirely equipped with side doors. This facility will make possible the cutting down of the train Interval by about ten seconds, which will allow an 8 per cent, increase In the number of trains per hour during the rush periods. "The loop line on and Centre streets, so far as ronstructio-n work is ings. The purely local traffic on the Fourth avenue subway between Forty-third street and the Manhattan Brldgo would probably be a small proportion of the total traffic, and it is, therefore, safe to assume that probably 40 per cent, of the passengers carried on the Fourth Avenue subway would represent transfers.

In other words, out of the total number of passengers carried by the Fourth avenue subway probably not more than 60 per cent, would ropresent fares to be credited to that subway in the proposed accounting with the city. On the other hand the B. R. T. offer would credit to the gross earnings all of the fares (both ways), not only on tho four miles of Fourth avenue subway but on the proposed elevated connections with that subway, covering about twen operation, leaving the only risk assumed by the city the possibility of the combined earnings not only from the four miles of Fourth avenue subway, but from the twenty-two additional miles of B.

R. T. connections, being insufficient to pay the interest on tho city's investment. OTHER FEATURES. The Interborough offer Is for 49 years, while the B.

R. offer is for 20 yearB with a maximum renewal of 20 years. If, therefore, the Interborough offer means certain loss to the city and the B. K. T.

offer means probably no loss but a growing income the adverse condition. If continued, must be borne by the city for forty-nine years, in the case of the acceptance of the Interborough offer, while the favorable condition created by the Jurisdiction of Public Service Commission. The Public Service Commission for the First District has Jurisdiction over traction, gas and electric companies In New York. It has no jurisdiction over telephone companies, these, by a special provision of the Legislature, being placed entirely under the jurisdiction of the up-staie commission of the Second Department. The local commission last year had Jurisdiction over Interests of low.

They are far too high. The Canadian 'post office with a one-cent "drop-letter" rate In cities where carriers are employed, against our two cents, and with a quarter-cent-a-pound rate for periodicals, and as wide a tree zone as prevails here, with a much more scant patronage and difficult delivery districts, earned $743,210.25 net In Its last fiscal year. Tho Canadian Department's total revenue waj $11,068,753.05, and its percentage of earnings was 6.71. This applied to the United State's gross revenue of would give a profit of Tho British 1910 figures, just published, show a postal profit of $24,545,725. The Japanese Department of Communications, under a wise and able admin concerned, has been completed, with thd exception of Section 9-0-1, which comprises the terminal station for the loop.

Work on this section was Interrupted in May, 1908, at the request of the Mayor of the city. In order to allow the plac great magnitude. These involve a gross capitalization of JI, 125,858,000, divided as follows: Street railways, sicam railroads (Staten Island line), gas companies, electrical companies, $163,216,000. and gas- ty-two miles of additional routes. istrator.

Baron Goto who governs the railroads, telegraphs, telephones and nost office manages to clear about $9,850,000 a year on the postal branch, in B. R. T. offer justifies the hope of steadily increasing revenue to the city, and will enable even better terms for the city at the end of forty years. Either offer leaves possible the extension of the subways to Fort Hamilton and increasing the cost to customers, who, a conutry of slender resources, with one-cent letter postage and a most liberal and Inexpensive parrels post system.

When complaint is made to the de after all. are the taxpaying citizens of the country. It is fair to say that people who read are people who pay. Things that are equal to the same thing are equal to each other In this as well as in other matters. partment about unbusinesslike method? and a manifest unwillingness to consider public convenience, the complainant is usually referred to Congress.

When Congress complains the department blames ing of foundations for the Municipal Building, which is to be constructed directly over the station. "Because of the cessation of this work, the claims for damages and extras by the contractor, the necessary change of plans due to the Municipal Building and the Importance of an early completion of this section, the Commission, in the month -of September, agreed with the contractor upon the sum of $1,425,635.62 in settlement of all his claims and for the completion of the work. This was submitted to the Board of Estimate and Apportionment for its approval, but that Board has not yet finally acted on the matter." "The six contracts for the construction of the Fourth avenue subway, from the Brooklyn end of the Manhattan Bridge to Forty-third street and Fourth avenue, were executed In November, 1909, and the work was started before the end of tho year. During the year 1910 substantially electrlc companies, $5,424,000. The Commission has given much time during the past year to a consideration of the question of grade crossings, and this subject is dealt with at some length in the report.

The report says that tho Commission will ask this Legislature to appropriate $600,000 for the elimination of grade crossings in New York City. There are four hundred grade crossings within the city limits. This appropriation would become effective only after being matched by one of an equal amount from the city and one from the private interests owning the roads, as large as the combined appropriations of city and state, or $1,200,000. Long Island Railroad and B. P.

T. If any private corporation had the privileges and monopolies enjoyed by the I'oot Office, it would maKo money too fast "second-class matter. But in ten This would very materially swell the gross earnings to be accounted for with the city. It would probably mean from five to ten times as large a volume of gross earnings as that to be credited under the Interborough offer. DEDUCTIONS FROM CROSS EARNINCS.

Under the Interborough offer the city takes all the risk not only in fixed charges but In operating expenses. Under the B. R. T. offer the company assumes all this risk, with the exception of the Interest and sinking fund on the city's bonds, unless the city should reduce the Coney Island fare, In which case any deficit Incurred by the compauy would be assumed by the city.

In view of the large amount of non-revenue producing traffic which would bo carried under the Interborough offer, as shown above, and the relatively small amount of fares credited to the Fourth avenue subway, It is quite probablo (certainly for a long time) that the re years, at least, the department has neve gone to Congress with a single bust ness-increasing proposition, or with facts Coney Island, but in the case of the Interborough offer the operntlon of such extensions Is to be only on the same terms as that of the Fourth avenue subway, Itself, which. If a losing operation to the city under the Interborough offer, would be trebly a losing operation if the extensions were built. On the other hand, the B. R. T.

offer means Immediately in effect at least four extensions of tho present subway (by elevated connections), of which two would traverse practically the same route as the proposed subway extensions and two would reach new territory equally Important, and these elevated extensions would be just as satisfactory as to ouickness. safety and comfort of travel as if constructed as subways. Moreover, under the Interborough offer the two proposed subway extensions would be built at tho city's expense, whereas under and figures that any human being could and most complete rapid transit routes yet suggested for the entire city, namely, from the North River at or about Canal street across Manhattan Island and Manhattan Bridge through the congested portion of Brooklyn and out through tho former towns of Flatbush and Flatlands to tho Atlantic Ocean. Practically half of this route Is already constructed In th so-called Brighton Beach railroad as a four-track rapid transit line with grade crossings. Tho B.

R. T. offer Involves the additional building by the city of only 2.79 miles of subway. The interest on the cost and provision for sinking fund la assured. No straightcr or better line furnishing such great relief to so many could be laid out from lower Manhattan through Brooklyn.

The time required to complete construo tion will bo comparatively short. to count. It is not possible under tne law for any citizen or corporation to do a postal business. The statute says: Whoever, without authority from Ihe Postmaster General, shall set up or profess to keep any office or place of business bearing the sign, name, or title of post office shall be fined not more than five hundred dollars. understand or believe.

We are gov erned by law." say the officials which law is mainly just what they have made themselves, until the shop is congested, Individuals Forbidden by Law to Would Bear Brunt of Expense. The bulk of this sum would fall on the Long Island Railroad. Some of It, though, would fall on the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company. There Is a provision in the last proposal made by the B. R.

T. to toe 30 per cent of the construction work been done. By the terms of the comracH. the work must be completed within twenty-four months, that Is, by November, 1911." and Its patrons live In despair. Great Newspapers Solve Their Own Postal Problem.

Such business as the great dally newspapers in New York do with the post office is handled direct, and not through the post office. The mall is routed, bagged and Bhlppped by the papers in their own mailing rooms. The only service that the post office performs Is to send a clerk over to take the weights. PRAISE FOR EAGLE ALMANAC. It would be Impossible to make th and a history of the Bclence.

Comprehensive maps and a wealth of data exhaustively cover the all-pervading subway question. Motorboats, which are revolutionizing marine travel in ail departments, and the status governing their operation, are explained In a chapter, and the latest census figures are given almost at a glance. The series of fine maps for which the publication is justly noted are augmented by a road map of especially of New York City and Long Island. It contains 621 pages and as supplements has a number of comprehensive map's of Long Island and Its vicinity, forming a most complete guide for those interested in the section. IThe Standard Union.) The twenty-sixth.

Eagle Almanac, though no larger, is undoubtedly better than any which has preceded it. Evidence of this merit Is found in its very complete and up-to-date aviation statls- That the 1911 edition of The Eagle Almanac is proving as satisfying as have rter the earlier ones, Is seen by the following comments from The Eagle's contemporaries, showing the value of this year's volume as a fund of Information: (The Brooklyn Tlms.J Originally an indispensable encyclope body wants to know something in a huiry, such as tho Hall of Fame, the Five-Foot Book Shelf. Roosevelt's African tour. How to Secure a Copyright, are giveif, making the volume a repository probably of more knowledge and more kinds and varieties of it than can anywhere else be found. Tho mechanical features, by which nearly 700 well-printed, legible pages of durable paper are compacted into a thickness of an inch, are a distinct achievement In book-meking and all the features of the Almanac are excellent.

The citizen. previous volumes is given which many will, no doubt, find of great advantage. Two maps are Inserted In a pocket on the front cover of all the boroughs, ai well as the whole of Long Island. The Long Islander. 1 The Brooklyn Eagle Almanac has ba-conie on indispensable handbook or every Long Island family, and this year It is better than ever.

It has nearly 700 pages. Its census reports of every vil- i ge, town and hamlet, distance from the city terminals and from railroad stations of every village and hamlet; maps of railroad lines, steam and electric: churches, city, town, state and United Long Island, which will be especially dia In concise form of Brooklyn and Start Private Post Offices. Whoever shall establish any private express for the conveyance of letters or packets, or in any manner cause or provide for the conveyance of the same bv regular trips or at stated periods over any post route which is or may be established by law. or from any city, town, or place, to any other city, town, or place, between which mall is regularly carried, or whoever shall aid or assist therein shall be fined $500. or imprisoned not more than six monthe, or both: Provided, That nothing contained in this section shall be construed as prohibiting any person from receiving and delivering to the nearest post office, postal car.

or other authorized depository for mail matter, an mail matter properly stamped. Nothing in this chapter Code, chapter eight, offenBes against tho Postal Service), shall be construed to prohibit the conveyance or transmission of letters or packets by prlais hands without compensation, or by special messenger employed for the particular only. Whoever, being the owner, driror. conductor, master, or other prison having charge of any stage coach, railway car, steamboat, or other vehicle or vessel, shall knowingly convey or r.cr-mlt the conveyance of any p'rvm acting or employed as a private express for tlie conveyance of letters or packets, and actually in possession of the same for tics, including the work of the air-men both In Europe and America to December 31, date of the tragic deaths of Moisant and Hoxsey, and In like manner In th'i cverythlng that pertains thereto, The i appreciated by automobilists. Another Eagle Almanac, ith each recurring an-1 new map shows the elevated lines of the rual Issue, while elaborating and im-1 boroughs, with location of stations at proving upon this commendable feature, glance.

A glossary of the Important has become besides something of a na-j laws enacted in 1910, Information relating tlonal institution In the variety and to licenses and permitB. telephones, the scope of general information contained, nav; and numismatics are other inland It is now In demand everywhere. I portant departments. In every respect The 1911 Eagle Almanac, that valuable nd complete book of reference on civic -States governments, and names of small deliveries now made and reach points of sale in time ir they had to run the gauntlet of post office routine. All this reduces the cost of handling to the department, which showa no signs of gratitude, but now announces as a "reform" the extension of this system to periodical second-class matter In New York, though it was invented by the dallies ns the only way to get their Issues through the malls somewhere nearly on time.

Indeed the post office attitude toward second-class matter Is cavalier and careless. The New York newspapers have practically no mall subscribers, because the "single-wrapper" mall Is unreliable. The fact that A dally newspaper Is a perishable article has never yet been discovered by a post office official. So the newsdealer Is Borved by express or by direct shipment through the railroad at less than half the cost, and with much more celerity and regularity than can b- hod through the post office, and he eliminates subscriptions. The late Congressman Loud of California, tfwhen chair thorough and accurate compilation of tho wholesale changes in consequence of the and national statistics and other infur-, officials street directory and maps of all November elections, returns from which matlon, is now offered for sale.

parts ol the City of New York. Includ- The twenty-sixth issue of tho Almanac, at I The Eagle Almanac for 1911 Is something In all of the states concerned are given The Index of the general elassifb-a- Ins Brooklyn and Queen, with street-? present being circulated, contains nearly for Brooklyn to be Justly proud of, as with substantial completeness. The local 700 pages, treating of things of which. Its fame has spread far beyond its orlg-1 departments of the Almanac are as usual everybody wants to know. Besides the i Inal constituency.

full, accurate and classified to a degree of refinement nowhere else attained, and as a further exposition of the city, maps The Fourth Estate. The Brooklyn Eagle's Almanac for of all the boroughs, together with a new tion snows more than sixty main sub-1 shown, make it Invaluable to every Long jects treated, embracing every depart-; IsUind family. A new feature is a Use mcnt of municipal and state service, pn-jof the more important laws passed. Tho litical organizations, societies, churches, lists of all fraternal and benevolent or-sporting records and a social and physical 1 ganizations. churches, clubs and officials survey of Greater New York and Its i make the book of very great value.

There boundaries. Its detailed Index shows are scores of other good things in th multitude of subjects and covers more I book that should be laid on every V-than thirteen pages of closely spaced; brary table or oiher plnce handy for ref-printlng. ert nee. It ill be used ad often as yoa lu addition to these two, an index to telephone. usual departments which have made the Almanac famous, ard which have been brought minutely up to date, there are a number of new features which keep pace with these rapid history-making limes, and which add to the InvaluHbllity 11)11 made its appearance this week, and I one of the Brooklyn elevated system.

as usual Is about one of the best pub lished. The Eagle Almanac is substan upon which all its stations are plainly marked, is given. Many general topics which cannot be strictly classified, but upon which, at one time or other, every- of the Almunac as a compendium. Sev ally bound in cloth and Is a book man of the Postal Committee, looked luto eral imges are devoted to aviation records general information of the world, and.