In the year 1790 there were 75 postoffices in the United States. In
1918 there were 54,345. The number of pieces of mail handled in a year
approximates twenty million. In order to operate this vast business
enterprise Uncle Sam requires the services of 300,000 people.
The Postoffice Department, constant in service, day and night, probably
has no rival among Government institutions. In 1863 the free delivery
of mail was undertaken in half a hundred cities, with 449 carriers. In
1918 there were 2,000 city delivery offices, with 35,000 carriers. The
first rural free delivery routes, three in number, were established
as an experiment in 1896. There are now considerably more than a
million miles of such routes, employing over forty thousand carriers.
Special delivery service was established in 1885. In an average year
the number of pieces of mail handled by special delivery approximates
fifty million. In 1865 there were 419 money-order offices and the
money orders issued amounted to $1,360,122. In 1918 only a very small
percentage of postoffices did not issue money orders, and the value of
the orders amounted to $940,575,219.
The postal savings system was begun in 1911. Within six years there
were upward of six thousand postoffices that received deposits and
the amount to the credit of depositors was nearly $150,000,000. The
smallest deposit accepted is $1, but smaller amounts may be saved by
purchasing a 10-cent savings card and affixing 10-cent savings stamps.
Interest is allowed at the rate of 2 per cent.
The parcel post system dates from 1913. It has gradually been made more
serviceable to the public by the removal of restrictions regarding the
size, weight, packing and nature of shipments and by the increased use
of motor vehicles. The Department estimates that 3,000,000,000 parcels
were handled in 1918.
On May 15, 1918, the first regular air mail route was established in
this country between Washington, Philadelphia and New York. The flight
between Washington and New York requires approximately two hours, as
compared with five hours by the fastest railway trains. Other routes
are in course of development.
During the latter part of the World War the Postoffice Department
operated the telegraph and telephone systems of the country.
In the year 1918 the Department inaugurated a system of motor-truck
parcel post routes, especially to facilitate the distribution of
food stuffs. The trucks are owned by the Government and many former
Army trucks are now utilized in this service. A great variety of
merchandize is hauled along these routes; all sorts of farm products
are carried to the city markets and the merchandize purchased in the
city is distributed through the rural districts on the return trip.
The trucks pick up parcels anywhere along their routes--not merely at
postoffices, but at farmhouses--and deliver in the same way. Produce
from the country is delivered directly to the consignee in the city,
house-to-house delivery being made wherever the houses are easily
accessible to the regular routes of the trucks. While certain produce
cannot be shipped through a postoffice, under the postal regulations,
all kinds of produce, including live poultry, are accepted by the
trucks where the delivery can be made directly without having to go
through a postoffice.
Besides these routes operated directly by the Government, many of
the so-called “star routes” (routes operated by contractors) are now
equipped with motor vehicles.
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 7, No. 11, SERIAL No. 183
COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.
[Illustration: DISABLED SOLDIERS LEARNING TO WEAVE RUGS AT AN ARMY
HOSPITAL]
_THE STORY OF UNCLE SAM_
_War Pensions--and Something Better_