Postcard from the past: Curious facts about government affairs in 1880s

An article in the June 14, 1884 issue of the Carbon County Journal proclaims:

It costs $80,000 a year to light the Capitol and grounds.

Pennsylvania has a larger number of post offices than any other state.

There are 419 type setters besides apprentices in the government printing office.

Last year the post office department used $11,000 worth of ink for stamping and cancelling letters.

The government has sold more than $200 million worth of public land in 80 years.

Next to the president of the U.S., the best paid federal official is the clerk of the Supreme Court.

It costs the government $187,000 a year to maintain lights and buoys on the Ohio, Mississippi and Missouri rivers.

More than one-half of the internal revenue receipts of the government comes from New York, Illinois and Kentucky.

Estimating Congress to be in session 200 days a year, the salaries of senators and representatives reach about $10,000 a day.

From the five states of New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Massachusetts and Ohio, the government derives one-half of its postal revenues.

The state of Nevada, which has two senators and one representative in Congress, has not as large a population by 617 souls as the city of New Haven, Conn.

Two-fifths of all of the newspapers and periodicals sent through the mail by publishers at pound rates are mailed at New York City. Chicago comes next.

Eighty years ago, North Carolina had as many representatives in Congress as New York. North Carolina now has nine, or one less than in 1880, while New York has 34.

The eight states of Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island and Vermont have together less than one-half the population of Illinois, but have the same number of representatives in Congress – 22.

During the past 10 years, the government has expended nearly $70 million caring for Native Americans. The total number of Native Americans attached to agencies is only 246,000 and of these 60,000 are in the Indian Territory, 7,700 in Wisconsin and the 3,000 in New York are supposed to be at least self-supporting.

The 13 states of Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oregon, Rhode Island and West Virginia, with an aggregate population which does not exceed that of New York alone, have 26 U.S. senators to New York’s two.

Not a clerk is the pension office draws less than $1,000 a year salary, the average for the 1,173 clerks, being $1,294. Even the copyists get $800 a year. These clerks have light labor and short hours. 

The average salary of the railway post office clerks throughout the country is only $977 a year. These men work hard, at the most trying labor, and have long hours.