Special Articles on Postal Subjects
The American Postal System
The genius of the American Postal System is found in the harmonious
cooperation of its several parts, in direction and in operation; wise
policy and purpose as seen in the formulation of plans, with willing
assistance in operation to render such plans effective. The Postmaster
General directs the policy, the bureau heads execute what is determined
upon and the benefit or failure is seen in practical administration.
All alike share in achievement, the mind that conceives, the heads that
direct, and the force upon whose faithful and intelligent effort the
outcome depends.
A form of Government democratic in all its parts and tendencies
requires fidelity and patriotic purpose in performance from every one
to whom any trust is committed, and in every successful accomplishment
of any given plan or purpose, the measure of success is always in
proportion to the interest taken or the industry with which such plan
or purpose is pursued. Loyalty alike to administrative endeavor or the
public welfare is imperatively required and unless this is faithfully
and ungrudgingly given no plan can succeed, even the best devised must
surely fail. There is such a thing as patriotic devotion to public duty
and no man is fit to hold an office of trust no matter how small it may
be who does not consider this as an obligation to be met and honestly
discharged. If any one thing has contributed to make our postal
establishment prosperous and great it is the conscious acceptance
of the full meaning of such an obligation. This has distinguished
Americans in all public employment, emphasizing the stirring words
of Lord Nelson, England’s great naval commander, whose injunction to
patriotic response upon a memorable occasion deserves to be remembered
in civil life as well, for loyalty and patriotism are as much in
accord there, as much demanded in ordinary civil functions as in the
more heroic, but not less honorable and useful pursuit common to our
national life.
Considerate Treatment of Newspaper Mail
When General Gresham was Postmaster General in President Arthur’s
administration, the Washington correspondent of the _Louisville
Courier-Journal_ complained to him about the non-delivery of
newspapers mailed by private individuals. “What do you think is the
reason?” asked General Gresham. “I attribute the failure,” said
the correspondent, “to the carelessness of post office officials.
A newspaper in their mind is a very small thing and it is handled
accordingly. If the address is the least unintelligible no effort is
made to decipher it and it is tossed on the floor and if the wrapper
happens to be torn it shares the same fate, and I believe that
newspapers are often torn open and read without any conscientious
scruples whatever.”
“I am glad you told me about the alleged carelessness that exists in
post offices in the country,” said General Gresham. “I shall give the
matter prompt attention. If I cannot work out a reform in that respect,
I would remove a postmaster for breaking the wrapper of a newspaper or
making away with it as quick as I would if he had torn open a letter.
One is as sacred as the other.”
Bureau of Engraving and Printing
Stamp Manufacture
The Bureau of Engraving and Printing in which all the postage stamps
used by the Government are manufactured is a wonderful institution
every way. Every known appliance and all that the mechanical skill and
ingenuity of the Director, Hon. Joseph E. Ralph, and his very capable
expert and designer, Mr. B. R. Stickney, could devise, have been
brought into requisition for the purposes the Bureau is intended to
serve.
The various operations required in printing postage stamps alone, of
which such enormous quantities are annually required, would seem a
great undertaking, but when to this is added the printing of all the
paper money, bonds and securities used by the Government, the magnitude
of the task may be understood. Between four and five thousand people
find employment within the Bureau, the greatest establishment of its
kind in the world. Thousands of visitors annually witness the wonders
therein displayed and come away impressed with the marvels they have
seen in the adaption of means to a definite purpose. The care and
comfort of the employes is a matter of deep concern to the Director
and every possible method of providing for both, by approved means
of sanitation and ventilation, is availed of. The air is washed and
strained to cleanse it of all impurities and full hospital provision
made for those who may need medical care and attention. Nothing seems
to have been forgotten or overlooked in this most wonderful of all
government establishments and the result is that under favorable
working conditions the utmost that may be expected is fully realized.
The ordinary postage stamps are in denominations of from 1 cent to $1
and of nineteen kinds. The output is 40,000,000 daily, or something
like thirteen billions per annum, with a face value in 1915 of
$221,875,000. They are printed in sheets of 400 each, which are divided
and subdivided until the sheet contains 100 stamps in which amount they
are sent to the post offices for public use. The various processes used
in manufacture, the printing, gumming and perforating, are separately
performed on the sheets of stamps; those intended for slot machines
are printed and perfected on a rotary press which performs all the
operations at once. This press, the invention of Mr. Stickney, after
seven years of labor, will save 65 per cent of the cost of printing
stamps per annum or $280,000, and will completely revolutionize stamp
printing from intaglio plates. It combines twenty-three operations in
one. It prints, gums and perforates the stamps, cuts them into sections
of 100 stamps each, or will finish the stamps in coils of 500 and 1,000
stamps per coil. It turns out the finished product ready for shipment
to the postmasters of the country. As an object lesson to further show
the tremendous proportions of this postage stamp industry, it may be
stated that the daily output would cover approximately eight acres of
land if laid flat or make a chain of stamps 703 miles long if laid end
to end. The sheets of 100 stamps each sent to post offices in 1915,
piled up one upon another, would make a shaft over 6 miles high, and
placed end to end would make a strip over 16,000 miles long and as
there are ten rows of stamps on each sheet, a strip of single stamps
would be more than 160,000 miles long, enough to girdle the earth six
times with something over.
The paper required to print these stamps for the year 1915 amounted to
1,200,000 pounds, and to make this paper and to obtain this amount,
3,500 spruce trees were ground to a pulp. Converted into lumber this
would have built fifty houses complete. The amount of ink required was
670,000 pounds.
When the post office inspectors, unannounced, visited the Bureau at
the close of the fiscal year of 1915 to check up the accounts, they
were found correct to the last one-cent stamp, a high compliment to the
excellent accounting system in practice at that institution.
Orders for stamps are received daily from the Office of the Third
Assistant Postmaster General and shipped by the Bureau.
Post Office Inspectors
The Division of Post Office Inspectors is in many ways one of the
most interesting in the postal service. The duties are varied and of
especial importance, as the Post Office Inspector when on duty for the
Department is the official representative of the Postmaster General and
clothed with all due official authority. The purpose of such officials
is to have ready at hand reliable men for confidential work. Unusual
capacity is required, tact, judgment, patience and courage. The duties
of an inspector are not measured by the ordinary hours of employment,
but depend altogether upon the nature of the work he is called upon
to perform, day and night in successive order, being synonymous terms
when especial service is required. Complaints are generally the basis
of inquiry and operation, but the scope of duties takes a wide range,
involving special work of any kind and in any direction. Irregularities
in the service form the principal basis of complaints, but violations
of postal laws, frauds and depredations upon the mails furnish a
proportionate share.
The inspectors are assigned to duty in geographical divisions of the
country under an inspector-in-charge, with the Chief Inspector at
Washington in general control. As a rule inspectors do duty in their
divisions, but under the orders of the Postmaster General they may be
sent anywhere. They are expected to be familiar with the Postal Laws
and Regulations and conduct their inquiries in accordance therewith.
The division is directly under the Postmaster General and in the
classified civil service, and the selections made for this important
service represent men of intelligence and integrity. Volumes could
be written of the strategy employed and methods pursued in tracing
criminal operations. The more agreeable duties, however, require an
equal amount of skill though attended with less danger and difficulty.
The force of inspectors has been largely increased in recent years
because of postal growth and development in all directions.
The Railway Mail Service
The Railway Mail Service of the United States, the most splendid of
all the branches of the postal service, owes its origin to Hon. S.
R. Hobbie of New York, First Assistant Postmaster General in the
administration of President Jackson. Upon his return from Europe in
1847, he made a report to the Department giving his impression of the
traveling post office in England. The Department was then struggling
with many difficulties in the distribution and bagging of the mails and
one plan after another was tried with but indifferent success. Finally
Judge Holt, Postmaster General in 1862, determined to try the English
system and the first railway post office was introduced in the postal
service of the country. The overland mails were then carried by stage
coaches from the west side of the Missouri River to California and the
immense accumulation of mail matter at Saint Joseph, Mo., destined for
the Pacific Coast and the intermediate States, induced the Postmaster
General to establish the first railway post office on the Hannibal and
St. Joseph Railroad (Quincy, Ill., to St. Joseph, Mo), the pioneer
road in Railway Mail Service history. The growth of the Railway Mail
Service has been marvelous and its achievements unequalled in modern
progressive developement. Three thousand five hundred railroad mail
routes, aggregating 502,937,359 miles of service and employing nearly
19,000 postal clerks and supervisors with salaries amounting to over
$26,000,000 attest the strength and greatness of this magnificent arm
of the postal service. Of the 14,369,582,586 pieces of mail matter
distributed and re-distributed during the past year, 14,367,325,426
pieces, or 99.984 per cent, were handled correctly--a record which
should be a matter of pride to every man who wears the badge of the R.
M. S. The fifteen divisions in which the whole service is divided each
complete in itself, but responsive to central control and direction in
Washington, has brought the system to such a state of perfection that
but little remains for further experiment.
The Parcel Post and the Opposition to Its Establishment
The splendid showing made in the recent reports of the Postmaster
General touching the growth and development of the Parcel Post in this
administration must be of interest to the people of the country for
whose benefit this measure has been so successfully conducted. Its
admitted usefulness brings forcibly to mind the struggle through which
this measure passed before the force of public opinion and the evident
advantage it foreshadowed, secured its ultimate adoption.
While in the American Republic history is rapidly made and startling
changes are not of infrequent or uncommon occurrence, it is, however,
true that subjects which provoke discussion because cherished interests
are endangered or settled opinions of public policy liable to be
overthrown, require time in which to adjust themselves to changing
conditions.
The student of political economy will be interested to note how these
changes of time and condition affect the opinion and views of men
identified with public affairs. What seems wisdom and good judgment in
one generation is opposed and set aside in another, both acting for the
general welfare and inspired by patriotic purpose.
The proper scope and purpose of government, in its relation to the
people whom it serves, is always a matter of deep concern, not only as
to the views held by those appointed to administer public affairs, but
also in the opinions and ideas of the people themselves. While a great
principle may remain in many minds the same, unchanged and reluctant to
change, conditions may operate to produce views entirely dissimilar and
completely at variance with those of another and previous period.
Two greatly divergent and distinctive opinions have divided the
thinkers and the statesmen of our country as to the proper functions of
such a government as this. This difference arising from the educational
environment of many leaders of public opinion, easily became a matter
of accepted political or party belief between those who held to the
limitations of delegated authority and those who inclined to wider
power and greater privilege. Both have had earnest and strenuous
advocates, but the tendencies of the times conclusively point to the
growing acceptance of the latter as more suited to a great and growing
nation whose needs may not be fettered by tradition or obstinate
blindness to the march of progress, but must recognize the paramount
interests of the people whose welfare should always be the chief
concern.
The Parcel Post is now a recognized benefit to the country. All classes
and conditions profit by its mutual advantage. Its gigantic strides
to popular favor cannot be measured or adequately described. The
burdensome exactions of the high tariffs, which corporate enterprise
so long interposed, have been lifted and closer relation established
between buyer and seller, by which both are the gainer. As no
compromise was possible where monopoly was concerned, it remained for
the Government to set aside the question of limited powers and give
the people of the country the benefit to which they were entitled, but
which monopoly denied, viz., the opportunity to profit by the use of
the facilities which were at hand and which have proven so thoroughly
effective. Two names stand out prominently in this connection, the
statesman whose thorough knowledge of the subject and whose earnest
and intelligent efforts shaped and directed this great public measure,
and the public official whose hearty cooperation assured its success.
Hon. David J. Lewis, of Maryland, and Hon. Albert S. Burleson, the
Postmaster General, deserve the thanks of the country for their work in
this beneficial enterprise and the meed of praise will not be withheld.
The old-time belief in the necessity of curbing the ambitious designs
of those who were striving to open the way to an enlargement of
government privilege is strikingly seen in the attitude of Postmaster
General Jewell in his annual report to Congress in 1874. In referring
to the activity then already seen to widen the scope of the Post Office
Department and engage in enterprises held by many at that time and the
Postmaster General in particular, as foreign to the sphere of duties
and intended purposes and powers of the Department, Mr. Jewell said:
“I would suggest that the time has come when a resolute effort should be
made to determine how far the Post Office Department can properly go in
its efforts to accommodate the public, without trespassing unwarrantably
upon the sphere of private enterprise. There must be a limit to
governmental interferency and happily it better suits the genius of
the American people to help themselves than to depend on the State. To
communicate intelligence and disseminate information are the primary
functions of this Department. Any divergence from the legitimate sphere
of its operations tends to disturb the just rule that, in the ordinary
business of life, the recipient of a benefit is the proper party to
pay for it, since there is no escape from the universal law that every
service must in some way be paid for by some one. Moreover, in a country
of vast extent like ours, where most of the operations of the Department
are carried on remote from the controlling center, the disposition to
engage in lateral enterprises, more or less foreign to the theory of
the system, may lead to embarrassments whence extrication would be
difficult.”
Although the advocates of the privileged rights of private enterprise
have ever resisted the entrance of government into the field of
national endeavor, the triumphant progress of the Parcel Post under
Departmental direction has silenced all captious objection, for its
admitted adaptation to the needs of the country and its growing
popularity among the people, attests the fact that no limitations can
be wisely set in public affairs which bars the progress of an intended
benefit.
An attempt was later made in 1901 to check the growth of public
sentiment favorable to the establishment of the Parcel Post, for which
a bill has been introduced into Congress, by a concerted movement, by
whom originated is not known, which aimed to arouse the merchants in
rural sections in opposition thereto, a widespread propaganda, the
object of which was to flood President McKinley with a stereotyped
circular signed by these rural merchants all over the country, in order
that such measure might not meet with his approval because of the wreck
and ruin it would be sure to create. To what extent this movement
was carried or what attention it received from President McKinley is
not known, but the fears of Postmaster General Jewell or the alarm
of the rural merchants were not borne out in the light of subsequent
events, as the successful progress of the Parcel Post has abundantly
demonstrated.
This popular measure was, however, not to be secured for the public
good without strenuous effort, even in these later days when its early
adoption was so clearly foreseen. It still had to encounter opposition,
the lingering echo of previous struggle. Its friends had to meet and
combat resistance, within and without the halls of legislation and it
was only by determined purpose and a concert of effort that criticism
was finally silenced and the measure written into the statutes of the
nation. Congress passed the act, August 24, 1912, and the struggle of
nearly half a century was at an end with the popular will triumphant.
First recommended in 1892. Law passed by Congress August 2, 1912.
Became operative January 1, 1913. It is in operation on 45,000 rural
routes and a billion parcels are carried annually. Parcels may be sent
C. O. D., may be insured, 3 cents for parcels valued up to $5 or less
and a low graduated scale up to $100. Indemnity is paid for partial
loss or damage. Rate is charged by weight in pounds and by zones. Books
are now admitted and all classes of proper merchandise accepted. Weight
is limited to 50 pounds for first and second zones (150 miles) and to
20 pounds beyond. Postmasters will give all necessary information.
Interesting Facts about the Postmasters General
Excluding the border States, the South, properly speaking, has had but
two men in the office of Postmaster General since the days of Benjamin
Franklin--Joseph Habersham, of Georgia, and Albert Sidney Burleson,
of Texas. The more populous States of the east, with their political
power and material advantages, have had the greatest number of such
appointments, 23 of the 48 men who have held that office having come
from that section. The border States have had 15 and the west only
8. It was not until 1866 that the west was at all recognized in the
appointment of such cabinet officer, when Alexander W. Randall, of
Wisconsin, was chosen by President Johnson. Subsequently that State
furnished three more Postmasters General, viz., Howe, Vilas and Payne.
In 1829 the Postmaster General became a member of the cabinet by the
action of President Jackson, his first appointee to that position, Hon.
William T. Barry, of Kentucky, receiving that honor.
In considering the States of the Union which have been most fortunate
in appointments to this office, it is found that Pennsylvania and New
York have each had 6 to their credit; Connecticut, Kentucky, Tennessee,
and Wisconsin, 4 each; Massachusetts, Maryland, and Ohio, 3 each,
and the remainder scattered among the 18 States from which all the
Postmasters General have been selected.
The term of service was, it seems, much longer in the olden days than
at present. From 1775 to 1850--75 years--there were only 17 men in
that position, Gideon Granger, of Connecticut, having served 13 years
and 8 months, and Return J. Meigs, of Ohio, 9 years and 3 months. From
1850 to 1913--63 years--there have been 31 men in that office. Whether
the shifting currents of political life and expediency, or other
causes, have operated to make changes in this office, it appears that
many occurred in the administrations of some of our chief executives.
Roosevelt, for instance, had four Postmasters General; Grant, Arthur,
and Cleveland (in the latter’s two terms) also had 4 each; Washington
and Buchanan, 3; Jackson, Fillmore, Lincoln, Hayes, and McKinley, 2
each. The remainder of the Presidents evidently retained the men they
had originally appointed.
Withdrawal of Letters from the Mail
It may not be generally known that a letter once mailed can be
withdrawn. Such is, however, the case. Letters may be withdrawn from
the mails at the office of mailing by satisfactory identification, a
written address in the same handwriting, if address was written, or
such other evidence as will satisfy the postmaster of the applicant’s
right to withdrawal. If letter has already been dispatched the
postmaster may telegraph to the point of destination for withholding
such letter from delivery, or to a railway postal clerk in whose
custody the letter is known to be, carefully describing the same and
requesting its return. A sum must be deposited with the postmaster
sufficient to defray all expenses incurred.
Handling of the Mail
Official mail comes to the Department addressed to the several
Bureaus. It is then opened, assorted to the various divisions and
redistributed to the clerks according to the subjects named or special
duties assigned to each. The divisions are supervised by the official
in charge, under whose direction the work is done and by whom the
responsibility is assumed. He advises with and suggests methods of
operation, and in important matters involving special correspondence,
assumes direct charge himself. Letters written by clerks are submitted
to the chief for examination before being initialed for mailing, or for
the signature of the Bureau heads where such signature is required.
Letters are answered according to date of receipt all reasonable
promptness being enjoined. Filing is done according to the nature and
duties of the various bureaus and the character of correspondence
and papers in use. Approved systems are followed and metal filing
cases generally employed. In the Bureau of the Fourth Assistant where
monthly reports are received in connection with the regular mail,
during the month of January, 1917, the amount so received aggregated
72,000 pieces, and 46,000 pieces of mail were dispatched. Ordinary
hand work could not dispose of such amounts with the force assigned,
therefore mechanical devices for opening and sealing mail are employed
for the purpose. Messengers gather the outgoing mail by regular rounds
and it is dispatched as soon as brought to the mailing room. A work
of considerable magnitude in this Bureau is now being conducted,
viz., the purging of the accumulated rural and star route files and
correspondence which had so grown in bulk as to make both search and
handling difficult. It was a much needed reform and will be found of
especial value in filing operations.
Cost Accounting
By means of an accurate cost-keeping system devised for the equipment
shops, but which can be adapted to any form of clerical expense, great
improvements have been made and savings effected. All mail equipment is
now supplied at a greatly reduced cost and in improved form. Supplies
for post offices are judiciously and economically handled under the
system now in operation, all discoverable waste checked and the service
greatly benefited. The direct, the indirect and the overhead charges
can now be clearly ascertained in any form of manufacturing enterprise
and the cost in any direction definitely known. It was a long felt need
in economical administration and its introduction in the Post Office
Department has been of decided advantage.
Cleansing Mail Bags
The life of a mail bag is about six years and after being dragged about
on railroad platforms and other places they accumulate an amount of
dust and dirt which renders them unfit for handling when returned to
the bag shop for repair. The old practice was to shake them out by
hand, but in the hurry and haste of business this was but imperfectly
done and there was constant complaint among the operators and clamor
for a better system. After many experiments and various tests a method
was at length devised which cleans them thoroughly and does away with
the discomfort under which the work was done. The method finally
adopted consists of large tumbling barrels or cages made of wood with
slats and fashioned in the shape of a star, holding several hundred
bags each. Driven rapidly by electric power the bags are thoroughly
shaken, the escaping dust confined in a tightly constructed room
and carried off by blowers into an immense canvas bag resembling a
dirigible balloon when inflated. At stated intervals the end of this
bag is opened and the dirt and dust removed. Four thousand bags a day
are now successfully treated by this process.
The Farm-to-Table Movement
As the farm-to-table movement is now attracting a great deal of public
attention and is directly connected with the postal service by its
afforded means of communication, some observations upon the subject may
be worthy of mention.
There are four fundamental facts connected with the subject, viz., the
points of production, places of consumption, methods of operation and
means of communication. Production is upon the farm, consumption in the
cities and towns, methods, to be determined by experience, and the mode
and means of conveyance, a government function.
Regarding the first of these divisions, certain facts are apparent.
The balance of trade, eight to one is against the farmer at the
point of production; he receives very much more than he sends. Why
this disproportion? It is caused either by lack of interest in the
subject, or because of lack of practical experience in the successful
management of such business enterprise. The remedy in either case
is in his hands. If interest is wanting he should cultivate it; if
he has made experiments and they have failed of proper results, he
should not become discouraged but try again. High prices in the cities
lead the residents there to seek relief by direct dealings with the
producer. The consumer will reach him if he puts himself in touch
with the man who is seeking, and the desire to sell his goods and do
business, should lead the producer to inquire how best it can be done.[
The postmaster can help him by advice and counsel and it should be a
pleasurable duty for the postmaster to advise and confer with, and put
the producer (who is his patron), in the way of profitable business
intercourse with the man in the city who needs him and is only too
anxious to find who he is, where he lives, and what he has to sell.
While the country postmaster at the point of production has a duty
to perform in advising with the producer (for the postmaster is to
all intents and purposes the “middleman” in this connection) the city
postmaster has also a duty to perform in assisting the resident there
to find the most convenient places of production and how such places
can be easily reached and what can be procured there that the city
resident wants and needs. Many postmasters are now paying especial
attention to this matter on account of the urgent necessity which the
high prices, and diminished quantities of provision that come to the
cities, render so necessary, but conditions require that many more
should be engaged in that direction to afford all the benefit this
great measure of the Government was intended to give.
The methods, the best methods to obtain the end desired, both at the
point of production, where the supply is found, and at the point
of consumption to which this supply is to be transported, must be
discovered by the actual results which the various methods that have
been tried have produced, or were found to be most advantageous and
most successful. Many plans have been suggested and tried out, but it
must remain for experience to demonstrate and determine which of these
is best and most likely to secure advantageous benefits.
The remaining question is the part the Government is called upon to
perform to reap the most possible results and make the farm-to-table
movement popular and profitable. The Government is more ready to act
than either producer or consumer seem to be; to extend every privilege
and afford every accommodation which postal enterprise or the public
purse can provide, that this, in some sense paternal relation of
government to people in benevolent provision for their welfare, may
secure all that its most sanguine projectors ever hoped to accomplish.
It has the support of Congress, and the Postmaster General has omitted
no word or act which could in any manner contribute to its success
and stands ready to do the utmost that his great office and his great
opportunity afford, to make this measure a benefit and a boon to all
the people.
The readjustment of prices will come, and the remedy appear, when the
elimination of so much handling, packing, repacking and distributing
with its consequent loss and its increased cost, decreases the cost
which the consumer has to meet for all this added labor, and for which
he pays the price, and from which burden the parcel post by its direct
and better system of exchange aims to free and relieve him.
Postal Service in Alaska
Alaska is so far off that its interests do not commonly concern the
people to any great extent. The Government, however, takes a more
paternal view of its only territorial possession in North America,
and has paid particular attention to its progress and development,
especially in postal affairs and the means of communication among
the people. Alaska has now 170 post offices of which 45 have money
order facilities. It has 21 star routes with an aggregate length of
4,544 miles and an annual travel of 249,331.10 miles. Annual rate
of expenditure, $260,518.50. Average rate of cost per mile traveled,
$1.04. Average number of trips per week, 52.
Standardization in Post Office Methods
During this administration a very important change was made in the
management and conduct of the larger post offices of the country.
It was found that the delivery of parcel post matter by vehicle was
costing from 1 to 6 cents each. Investigation showed that this varying
cost was largely due to lack of uniformity in methods and equipment
and that the need of standardization extended to every branch of post
office service. Postal experts were accordingly sent to all sections of
the country to study existing methods and recommend necessary changes.
As a result, unnecessary independent divisions in post offices were
eliminated and two divisions established, one in charge of records,
accounts and financial services, the other to have charge of the
mail handling operations. The personnel of the offices also received
attention, that as far as possible, clerks could be assigned to the
duties for which they were best fitted. Subsequent investigation
confirmed the advantage of such standardization, and the large post
offices which handle 75 per cent of the nation’s mail, have now been
brought under such improved control that the benefit which such
intelligent methods, properly carried out, should naturally develop,
has been abundantly shown.
Postal Savings Circulars in Foreign Tongues
The Government has for years been anxious to reach citizens of foreign
birth residing in the United States for the purpose of informing them
relative to our Postal Savings System. Circulars have now been issued
in the mother tongue to Bohemian, Bulgarian, Chinese, Croatian, Danish,
Norwegian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Magyar, Italian,
Japanese, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Ruthenian, Serbian,
Slovak, Sloverian, Spanish, Swedish, and Yiddish people here which have
been widely distributed and are expected to be of considerable service.
The foreign born population in this country, according to the census of
1910, numbers over 13,000,000 and it is believed that the business of
the Postal Savings System would be greatly increased if the attention
of these people could be properly directed to its advantages, and
these circulars in their own language are intended for that purpose.
Postal Enterprise of a Patriotic Maryland Editor
It seems from old records on the subject as mentioned in the
_Washington Evening Star_, that some of the editors of the colonial
period of our history had quite a good deal to say and took a very
active part in shaping political events, particularly in postal
affairs. One Maryland editor, Goddard by name, when his papers were
refused in the mails on account of his outspoken views, set about
establishing what he called “A Constitutional American Post Office.”
He issued a circular, July 2, 1774, announcing his plan, and went
about the colonies soliciting support. Committees were appointed and
subscriptions of money secured, postmasters designated, riders secured
and service established, which was instantly patronized. Crown post
riders found the roads unsafe and resigned. Goddard was printer of the
_Maryland Journal_, printed at Baltimore, and by the early part of 1775
he had thirty offices and nine post riders, covering the territory from
Massachusetts to Virginia, including Georgetown-on-the-Potomac.
It was a private service, operated in opposition to the still
existing British service. Goddard had declared his desire to have the
Continental Congress assume charge and administer this service for all
the people.
The Continental Congress took up the matter and appointed a committee
composed of Mr. Franklin, Mr. Lynch, Mr. Lee, Mr. Willing, Mr. Adams,
and Mr. P. Livingston, who brought in their report July 25, 1775.
The report was taken up and considered the next day, July 26, 1775,
when it was resolved, that a Postmaster General be appointed for the
United Colonies. The record of the Continental Congress on that day
(postal independence day), then closes with the unanimous election of
Benjamin Franklin to be Postmaster General.
Damage in Handling Parcel Post Mail
A study of 4,219 reports received at the headquarters of the various
Railway Mail Service Divisions during a thirty-day investigation, held
recently to discover the amount of damage in handling parcel post mail
and the causes of such damage, it was found that in 52.31 per cent of
the cases damage was caused by improper preparation of the parcels by
senders. The result of this investigation may be summarized as follows:
Cases of damage caused by improper preparation
of sender 2,207
Cases of damage caused by improper handling
by postmaster 107
Cases of damage caused by improper handling
by Railway Mail Service employes 43
Cases of damage caused by improper handling
by railroad employes 54
Cases of damage from miscellaneous causes 188
Cases of damage from unknown causes 1,620
------
Total 4,219
Cases of damage to--
Eggs 355 8.41
Butter 99 2.35
Hats 119 2.82
Paint 20 .47
Powders 59 1.40
Preserves 129 3.06
Liquids 925 21.92
Foodstuffs 575 13.63
Merchandise 1,002 23.75
China and glass 368 8.72
Liquids 925 21.92
Fruit 194 4.60
Poultry 51 1.21
Flowers 53 1.26
Other articles 270 6.40
------ ------
4,219 100.00
Damage cases insured 137 3.25
Damage cases on star routes 304 7.21
An Opinion by Daniel Webster on Mail Extension
In this period of unprecedented postal growth and activity when
history is rapidly made and great achievements are born in a day, it
is interesting to recall that in 1835, during the discussion of a
measure in the United States Senate to establish a post route from
Independence, Mo., to the mouth of the Colorado River, the learned
Daniel Webster closed his speech in opposition with the following
language:
“What do we want with this vast worthless area; this region of savages
and wild beasts, of deserts, shifting sands, and whirlwinds of dust;
of cactus and prairie dogs? To what use can we hope to put these great
deserts or those endless mountain ranges, imposing and covered to their
very base with eternal snow? What use have we for such country? Mr.
President, I will never vote 1 cent from the Public Treasury to place
the Pacific Coast 1 inch nearer to Boston than it now is.”
“I can safely venture,” said Hon. D. C. Roper, late First Assistant
Postmaster General in his speech at the Denver, Colo., Convention of
the National Association of Postmasters, in July, 1913, from which
this extract is made, “that were Mr. Webster to return to earth and
accompany me on this western trip he would confess in chagrin that in
no expression made during his long career as a public speaker was he
wider of the mark.”
A Blind Woman on the Pay Roll
It is wonderful how the blind, those who have been denied by nature
or accident of the most priceless of all human faculties, can adapt
themselves to conditions whereby the means of support may be obtained.
All communities and great centers of population have doubtless
such cases, especially where opportunities are afforded by private
munificence or public appropriation, but there are perhaps few cases
where, in Government service, it is possible for a blind person to find
an opportunity to earn a living. The Mail Bag Repair Shop at Washington
furnishes such a case and it is worthy of notice.
Twenty-six years ago a blind girl, Miss Hattie Maddox, called to see
Postmaster General Wanamaker and asked for a place in the bag shop. She
said, “You give seeing people a two months’ trial at the work, will
you give me that much time to prove that I can do it?” She then went
to Colonel Whitfield, Second Assistant Postmaster General, who had
charge of such work, and showed him some crocheting she had done and
the opportunity she sought was given her. She is there today busy with
a pile of mail bags, stringing them with new cords, finding weak spots
and repairing them with needle and thread and does the work as well as
any of those around her. An attendant from her home brings her to her
daily task and calls for her, and she is one of the most contented and
happy women on Uncle Sam’s pay roll.
Mr. Wanamaker’s Four Great Postal Reforms
Marshall Cushing, private secretary to Postmaster General Wanamaker,
says in his book “The Story of Our Post Office,” published some
years ago, that Mr. Wanamaker had in mind and frequently discussed
with public men, four great postal propositions, one of which this
administration is now vigorously pushing forward, while the other
three are still in abeyance. These propositions were the postal
telegraph, the postal telephone, rural free delivery and house-to-house
collections of mail. He regarded them as simple and easy business
propositions.
The first proposed that the thousands of letter carriers of the
Department should help the telegraph companies collect and deliver
messages, and that a few clerks in a central bureau at Washington could
manage the stamp department and do the book-keeping for this part of
the business of the companies. Telegrams were to be written on stamped
paper, sold by the Department, or upon any sort of paper provided with
stamps sold by the Department, and be deposited as in the case of
letters whether on the streets or attached for collection and delivery
purposes at house doors. These postal telegrams were to be collected by
carriers on their regular tours of collection and telegraphed to the
destinations and taken out and delivered in the first delivery. Answer
to be sent off exactly in the same way.
Telegraphic business was thus to be cheapened to the public because of
the lessened cost to the companies by this Government aid, commonly
estimated at about one third of their whole operating expenses. The
gain to the Government would be not only the 2 cents for postage
rates proposed for telegrams under this scheme but also the impetus
given by general correspondence. The gain to the companies would be
the additional patronage which lower rates and regular collection and
delivery would give, also the saving of this expense and the office
use, clerk hire, etc., and other expenses incidental thereto. This
scheme was in no wise to interfere with the use of the quicker form
of telegraphing for those who preferred it. It was simply intended
to bring together in concerted action the two great machines for
conveying intelligence, the telegraph plant of the companies and the
free delivery operating forces of the Department. This, in brief, was
his idea, but much more extensively elaborated in further supporting
arguments in its favor and in meeting objections where doubts of its
practicability might be supposed to exist.
This proposition has been widely mentioned, has had many advocates,
and it is interesting to note in this connection that Postmaster
General Burleson entertains a somewhat similar idea, and has in three
annual reports to Congress urged the matter, however, with this
difference. Wanamaker’s plan did not contemplate taking over the
telegraph companies, simply entering into a mutual business arrangement
with them, while Postmaster General Burleson goes a step farther by
the incorporation of the telephone and telegraph into the postal
establishment. The opposition to the postal telegraph was as strong
then as now, its constitutionality being questioned by those who
oppose it. Mr. Wanamaker held that the powers granted to Congress by
the Constitution were not merely confined to the facilities known at
the time, but were to keep pace with the progress of the country, and
Mr. Burleson says, operation of these facilities inherently as well
as constitutionally, belongs to the postal service. Both are thus in
accord, differing only in method. The question is one of interest and
its future development will be watched with considerable concern by all
who wish to see further progress in this direction.
As the second of Mr. Wanamaker’s propositions, the postal telephone,
with its tremendous opportunities and possibilities, especially
in connection with rural delivery and parcel post advantages, the
magnitude and success of which even the enthusiastic and optimistic
Pennsylvanian did not then foresee, is bound up in General Burleson’s
plan, and the third, the rural free delivery, is making such strides
towards country-wide extension that it is only a matter of time when it
may be brought near, the fourth of Mr. Wanamaker’s propositions remains
only to be mentioned.
This is the use of letter boxes for the collection as well as the
delivery of mail from and to everybody’s door in every city, town,
village and farming community of the country. This means such an
immense convenience to everybody that he does not argue the case,
but simply points out its admitted advantages as a sufficient reason
for its early adoption. A disk at the door-box when mail was to be
collected would summon the carrier on his daily rounds, even if no
mail was to be delivered; trips to the letter box on the corner would
then be no longer necessary, and the ease and certainty with which
collection would be made, would in Mr. Wanamaker’s opinion, give an
impulse to letter writing and increase the public revenue to a very
considerable extent. It would mean two great conveniences to the
family, the safe delivery of letters at their door and the equally safe
collection of mail therefrom. Of course to obtain this service, letter
boxes would have to be provided by the householders, but Mr. Wanamaker
believed that this complete accommodation would induce people to go to
that trifling expense in order to gain such an evident advantage. It
was tried in St. Louis in his time, and worked exceedingly well.
Postmaster General Wanamaker was an official with a far-seeing vision
and actively alive to all postal possibilities, and the present
Postmaster General is fully abreast of him in every form of public
enterprise which makes for the utmost in postal accomplishment (See
page 83, for Postmaster General Burleson’s views regarding Postal
Telegraphs and Telephones).
The Rural Carrier as a Weather Man
It is said that the most common topic among mankind everywhere is the
weather. It follows nearly every greeting and salutation, introduces
conversation, is always a subject of interest and affords opportunities
of discussion upon which people can agree and disagree without exciting
the least disturbance whatever.
It has so much to do with the temper, the disposition the pleasures and
the material affairs of life that its compelling interest is admitted
and the winds and clouds are ever objects of our daily attention. The
Government recognizes this fact and has brought scientific knowledge to
bear upon the subject for the benefit of the man who tills the soil,
for the mariner upon the sea and they who dwell in the cities, and for
whom wind and weather has also its peculiar interest and concern.
Weather maps are common in the crowded cities and commercial centers,
but are not as convenient of access in the country districts, and aside
from the reports in the morning papers, the farmer has no particular
way of acquainting himself with the provision the Government has made
in this respect.
It has been suggested that an easy and simple way of interesting and
informing the rural residents of the daily weather forecasts would be
for the carriers on rural routes who can obtain this information to
make it known by means of little flags attached to their vehicles,
for example, a white flag when the weather will be clear, a red flag
when rain is indicated, a yellow flag for snow and a blue flag when
a cold wave is coming. This would be a daily guide, a matter of but
little trouble to the carrier, and give his daily visits an additional
interest to all the patrons whom he serves.
New Box Numbering System for Rural Routes
In the cities of the country the streets are named and the houses are
numbered by the authorities. The Department uses these numbers and
street names in its mail deliveries. A letter to be properly addressed
to a person or a firm needs only the number of the house or building
and the name of the street. This method is very simple and the mail is
speedily and successfully handled.
In the country districts there are four systems in use by the
Department, the railroads, and the express companies. The first
system is where patrons erect boxes at their places of residence for
the collection and delivery of mail. The letter or parcel is simply
addressed to the post office, to the patron and the rural route is
given. The second is where a letter or parcel is addressed to the
patron at a post office, with the number of the route, the box number,
the side of the road, and the miles from the office being embodied in
the box number. The third is where a letter or parcel is addressed to
a patron at a post office giving the route number and the number of
the patron’s box. The fourth system is where mail is addressed to the
patron at an office giving the section and township where the patron
lives. This latter system is used by the railroads relative to freight
and express matter and definitely locates a person in any part of the
United States. The addition of the rural route number and box makes the
most complete designation possible.
There has been an ingenious plan suggested (if it can be practically
employed), a newer and more complete method of numbering the boxes
along rural delivery routes indicating and locating the patrons thereon
which will identify the patron with his place of residence, simplify
assorting, and afford in many ways advantages not offered or included
in the old method.
The Present Method
[Illustration]
The Suggested New Method
The diagram on the following page, which is intended to illustrate the
suggested new plan, shows that in any given three numbers, such as 111,
the first figure at the left would be the route number, the second
figure the number of the box, the third the distance from the supplying
office.
_Explanation_: The first figure as indicated denotes the rural route
number, the second figure denotes the box and its location on the mile,
the third or more figures denotes the miles from the supplying post
office. Each mile is divided into four quarters for box designation,
those on the right have the odd figures 1, 3, 5, 7, and those on the
left even figures 2, 4, 6, and 8. If there is more than one box in
a quarter, the other boxes are given the first box number in that
quarter with the addition of a small letter _a_, _b_, _c_, _d_, etc.,
after the mile figure or figures. The patron if he lived at the first
quarter of a mile would be addressed--John Williams, Rayville, Ill.,
Rural Delivery 111. This would show that John Williams lives on rural
route number one, at the first quarter mile on the delivery part of
the route, and that it is the first box on the first mile. If he
lived on the second mile at the third quarter he would be addressed
Rural Delivery 152, and his box would be so numbered. If he lived on
the second mile at the second quarter, and on the left-hand side of
the road, his box number would be 142. Where automobile routes are
established a capital letter can be used instead of the first figure.
If it is desired, the section number can be used instead of the miles
figure or figures, and would then show where the patron lived in the
township.
[Illustration]
It is understood that the Department has under consideration the
question of locating the boxes on the right-hand side of the road for
the convenience of the carrier. The above system can be used whether
all the boxes are located on the right side of the road or not. The
question of entirely abandoning the practice of numbering boxes
is also being considered and if adopted, this suggested method of
additional identification would of course be useless. It is simply
mentioned here as an idea to aid in readily assorting mail in the
office and as a more complete method of identification than under the
present system. If the Department decides that the name of the owner on
the box is sufficient, this suggested new plan has no further value and
can be regarded as one of the many novel ideas in connection with the
rural service which come up from time to time.
It may, however, be said that a box once located and numbered always
retains its identity and no matter how many persons live at, or move to
or from that locality, the box number retains its identity the same as
a house retains its identity in a city.
Wireless Telephones in the Rural Service
From that memorable day in June, 1875, when Alexander Graham Bell
discovered a faint sound emanating from the curious little machine over
which three years of patient labor had been spent, until today, when
the world is debtor to this great man for one of the marvels of the
age, the telephone has been a constant wonder and especially so at this
time, when its adaptability for the common uses of life has made it of
value wherever civilization extends. Mr. Bell was a professor at Boston
University and his honors came to him at an early age, for he was but
twenty-nine when the patent that was to make him famous was granted by
the Government.
He exhibited his invention at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition
with but indifferent success; no attention was paid him until Dom
Pedro, Emperor of Brazil, a visitor at the fair, who knew the young
inventor, placed the receiver to his ear while Professor Bell, in an
adjoining room, spoke into it and, listening to it a moment, looked up
with the exclamation, “My God, it talks!” Recognition by the judges was
then hurriedly given and future success assured.
The fortieth anniversary of the award of this patent was fittingly
celebrated at the annual dinner of the National Geographic Society in
Willards Hotel, Washington, D. C., March 7, 1916. The account of what
occurred there, the splendid tributes paid to Professor Bell by the
distinguished men present, appears in the March number of the _National
Geographic Magazine_, 1916, and presents a story of achievement of
which every American can be justly proud, but is not a matter of pride
to American genius alone, but shared alike wherever men do homage to
intellectual worth and greatness.
But what of the future? Can the telephone be brought to still other
uses than already known? Can it be made adaptable for field use, for
rural purposes in the country districts of the United States? _The
Electrical Experimenter_, for April, 1917, discusses a practical
possibility in this direction, not for civil pursuits but for military
needs. It mentions a wireless telephone set, mounted on a motorcycle
for army purposes by means of radiophonic communication in connection
with a military aeroplane. This is of course intended for military
purposes only, but shows the great possibilities involved and
advantages that may follow fuller investigation of wireless methods.
All questions of wireless development for military needs, however, may
now be safely left in the hands of those directly concerned. Perhaps
the greatest interest centers at present in its possibilities in the
field of the rural delivery service where its successful introduction
would work a most tremendous change. If, for instance, it could be
used by a rural carrier, what a field of opportunity it would open in
connection with such service.
Is there a possibility of such accomplishments? It would seem that
there is from the investigation and discovery of a young electrician,
Earl Hanson, of Los Angeles, Cal. He recently demonstrated to the
mayor of Los Angeles and the president of the telephone company
that his apparatus could send music, talk of any kind, whispers and
signals without wires. His device is so light and small and yet so
effective that when attached to a bicycle used by a policeman, constant
communication could be maintained with the laboratory. One or one
thousand receivers can be attached, and each hears as distinctly as
if they were in the room from which the sounds proceeded. The only
explanation of this marvelous process given is that the inventor used
very low frequency wireless waves in a new way. The great drawback to
wireless telephony and telegraphy has always been that the air is one
great “line” and always busy. Hanson’s plan aims to overcome this, to
send messages though the air is split up around him by the operation of
other stations!
All this is wonderful and may require more demonstration to prove
its adaptability, but science is at work and it is not improbable
that wireless telephones for rural use and purpose may ere long be
successfully accomplished.
The Jasper, Fla., _News_, voices this prophetic hope in a well-written
article which recently appeared in that paper, and we take pleasure
in presenting that portion herewith as a compliment to editorial
enterprise and a far-seeing vision of coming events.
“An improvement, which we confidently look forward to as being made in
the not far distant future, will be the establishment of a wireless
telephone system at every county seat in connection with the rural free
delivery service.
“By means of this wireless telephone, the carrier would be enabled to
communicate with the post office from any point while serving his route,
and the post office could call any carrier desired and deliver a message
which the carrier would get without even stopping his automobile.
“The advantage of an arrangement of this kind can be easily seen. The
farmer could meet the mail at his number and over the wireless, could
call a doctor, send a telegram, inquire about the market direct with
the buyer, have Uncle Sam to run his errands, and many other things too
numerous to mention.
“Truly, we are living in a wonderful age, but more wonderful things are
coming.”
Parcel Post Exhibits at County Fairs
One of the methods by which the Department is bringing the advantages
of the parcel post to the attention of the people of the United
States is by means of exhibits at State and county fairs and other
civic expositions. While there is no appropriation available for such
purpose, postmasters who are interested in this government experiment
to bring producer and consumer together and so reduce the cost of
living expense have shown such desire to aid in this matter and their
efforts have been so generally successful in this direction that
space has been freely given and great benefits have followed in all
communities where this plan has been tried.
From reports at hand it appears that ninety-four of such displays have
been held in various States and that thirty additional fairs were
yet to be held at which such parcel post exhibits were to be made a
special feature. By tens of thousands, both city and rural populations
have been afforded an opportunity to see working demonstrations of the
farm-to-table service and been enabled to profit thereby.
These exhibits are generally so instructive to the people, the farmers
so willing to show by card or samples of goods what they can furnish,
and the postmasters so ready to cooperate in every way to make these
postal exhibits a success by showing different styles of containers,
the best method of packing, etc., that no opportunity should be lost
where county fairs are held to secure space for such exhibits and
make the most creditable display possible. The postmasters are the
proper parties for carrying out the purposes of the Government in this
connection and the Department is anxious that such opportunities be
availed of that the advantages thus offered may be utilized to their
fullest extent.
The Great Express Service of the Government
The parcel post, the great express service of the Government, is now
used so generally and for so many purposes that the mention of some of
the things that are being shipped may be of interest. For instance,
at the Lincoln County fair at Merrill, Wis., some time ago, there was
an exhibit of a take-down house all the parts of which had been sent
to Merrill by parcel post. Indeed the shipment of lumber by parcel
post is not now an uncommon thing, due attention being paid to postal
requirements.
At Gridley, Cal., a patron entered the office with several small sacks
of some heavy material and asked to have them forwarded. The clerk
after weighing them regarded the sacks with some suspicion and upon
inquiry of the shipper learned that the sacks contained dirt, soil from
a farm, which he was sending to the State University for analysis.
Another patron appeared at the office in the morning with a package of
meat under his arm and posted the parcel to a family in Marysville,
Cal., remarking at the time that Mrs.---- ordered this meat for supper!
An enterprising farmer at Burke, Va., advises the Postmaster at
Washington, D. C., that he would kill a steer on December 1, and would
sell the cuts of meat at one-third less than Washington retail prices.
His offer was advertised in a farm list and in a parcel post trade
paper and before the steer was killed the meat had all been engaged.
The cuts were sent to the customers in market baskets and containers.
The farmer was offered $35 for the steer on the hoof, but realized $45
by individual sales and the hide paid for help in parting and dressing
for market. Orders came from Washington, Baltimore, and even from Long
Island, N. Y.
The postmaster of Denver, Colo., reported that on Thanksgiving Day,
1914, more than 1,000 perishable parcels, 80 per cent of which
contained turkeys, were received at the Denver office and delivered in
good condition.
The list of possible shipments of every conceivable kind and character
could be indefinitely extended, for it is known that the scope of
subjects that can be handled by the parcel post is practically
limitless and only awaits proper enterprise for productive profit to
those who will engage in it.
The parcel post is without question a great success. There is no other
measure of interest connected with the service which presents so many
economic possibilities. Its great advantage over the private carriers
is apparent and the benefits quickly seen in practical operation. The
United States mail goes everywhere throughout the length and breadth of
the country. Private expresses are governed by the avenues of profit.
The Government is not concerned about profit but regards service as of
paramount importance, hence it directs its activities to all regions
alike, going where there are no express offices or ever likely to be.
This is the great distinguishing feature of the parcel post and its
benefits as can be plainly seen, are chiefly for the rural sections
who would be denied these advantages were there no such service in
operation.
The whole effort of the parcel post aims to furnish an exceedingly
reasonable method of interchanging commodities between the farm and
city home, something which no private corporation has ever attempted or
would undertake to do, all such enterprises being purely for gain and
profit. The farmer can now find the opportunity he has been seeking. By
some little care and attention to the conditions that assure favorable
results, such as putting himself in touch with his customers, properly
packing and furnishing a good article at a reasonable price, he can
develop a profitable market for what he produces, reduce the cost of
living to others while reaping an advantage for himself.
The Telephone and Parcel Post in Cooperation
Elsewhere attention is called to the future possibilities of the
wireless telephone for rural uses, but in the meanwhile the many uses
to which the telephone can be put in the common affairs of life is
being industriously employed in all the rural sections of the country.
The farmers have learned to make daily use of this convenience and it
is doubtless employed to almost as great an extent there as in the
cities and commercial centers. The farmers wife can talk to the village
store, or the more ambitious establishments at the county seat, or
perhaps reach a neighboring city for her wants, and Uncle Sam is so
anxious to oblige her and has made such ample provision for the purpose
that her wants can receive instant attention and be promptly supplied,
a matter gratifying alike to the customer and the merchant as well.
It was altogether different before these conveniences were available.
It probably meant in those days a visit to the city or town, or if
the need was not pressing the friendly aid of neighborly interest and
concerns in seeing her wants supplied. In the hurry and rush of modern
life taking everything for granted and considering nothing uncommon, we
are apt to pay little heed to the many comforts we now enjoy, and of
which this Government provision for speedily supplying our wants and
needs forms no inconsiderable part.
The local merchant also comes in for his share of advantage to which
the telephone and parcel post so greatly contribute. The scope of his
patronage is now broadened and enlarged. One hundred and fifty miles
of territory have been added to and is now tributary to the field of
his industrial enterprise, and he can fairly compete with mail order
houses by the lower rates of postage within this zone--quite an item in
his favor--for it is practically a rate of 1 cent a pound or but little
more, which with some business ability and advertising push will give
him a field of opportunity wherein he can enter with every prospect of
at least an equal chance with any of his competitors.
Training Public Officials
The following editorial article from the Washington, D. C., _Post_,
while not relating to postal affairs particularly but treating of
the public service generally, has yet its peculiar significance to
postal affairs as 80 per cent of all public employees are in some way
connected with the postal service. This very thoughtful and clearly
expressed editorial contains so much of value upon a subject to which
but little attention has been given, that the matter may well occupy
a share of public concern in a country such as ours where so large a
proportion of its people occupy public position.
The _Post_ says:
There has been a steady increase in the number and variety of Government
activities. As industry has become more complex more Government
agencies have been created for the purpose of regulation and control.
Unfortunately, improvement in methods has not kept pace with the
addition of new agencies.
Touching upon this condition, Prof. Charles A. Beard, of Columbia
University, supervisor of the training school for public service,
recently asked:
“How can we educate the public up to an appreciation of the necessity
for trained and expert service in every branch of the Government? How
can we order our public service so that it will attract the ablest men
and women and guarantee progressive careers to those who prove loyal and
efficient? How can we develop our civil service commissions into genuine
recruiting agencies capable of supplying the Government with exactly the
type of service needed for any given movement and of maintaining a loyal
and efficient personnel?”
If promotions were more certain in the Government service there would
be no dearth of competent men to fill the places higher up. To solve
this particular phase of the problem, however, it will be necessary to
have the Government pay higher salaries. Better pay is now available
in private industry than in the public service, and the Government has
not yet reached the point where there is any general realization of the
sound principle that it is better in the long run to pay high salaries
to efficient men than to employ mediocre men at smaller salaries.
The universities and colleges can do their part in training young men
who seek elective offices, but a man well trained for office might lack
the qualities which make for political success. Many foreign cities are
run by experts. A large city frequently hires its chief executive from
some neighboring town. A competent manager in a small city knows that
he has an excellent chance of attracting attention by good work and
getting a promotion. This system has been tried out in a small way in
the United States, where a number of cities have hired managers to take
full charge, with indifferent results. While progress toward efficiency
is apt to be slow, the increased discussion of the problem is certain to
bear good results eventually.
For the Benefit of the Fourth Class Postmaster
While the public concern has received the utmost attention, there are,
however, some questions of interest affecting the welfare of postal
employees which should be given consideration. It is but common justice
to consider the present method of payment to fourth-class postmasters,
for it allows them but small returns for their labor. If the same high
standard of efficiency is expected of them which should obtain in the
service generally, they should have their labor properly compensated.
At present the law restricts the salaries to be paid according to the
volume of outgoing mail at their office. The rural carrier who works
under the postmaster is under no such restrictions, is better paid,
and has more holiday privileges. The fourth-class postmaster may have
to work half days on holidays and Sundays and has no leave of absence.
The rural carrier has both. The position of postmaster may therefore
be said to be less desirable than that of the carrier, though his
official responsibility from the nature of his duties is greater. At
the recent State convention of third and fourth-class postmasters,
held at Sunbury, Pa., the question was brought up and a reform urged
in the matter. There is much to be said in favor of a more equitable
adjustment, and the subject can be approached without detriment to the
carrier by a wider and more comprehensive view of the duties of the
postmaster and a corresponding improvement in the method of payment.
The introduction of the parcel post as a great common carrier is
an added feature in connection with this subject. The fourth-class
postmaster receives much more mail than he sends out. This inequality
which affects his pay can be largely corrected if the postmasters in
cities would adopt some practical measures towards stimulating orders
from city patrons for farm produce which could be shipped by mail.
The organic act passed by Congress contemplated such advantageous
interchange for the benefit of the fourth-class postmaster as well
as the city consumer, and a steady and persistent effort in that
direction by the city postmasters would greatly assist in carrying
out the intention of Congress in this respect and popularize the plan
in the rural sections by the reciprocal advantages it would confer.
The fourth-class postmaster could, however, greatly benefit himself,
even under present methods, by making an earnest and industrious
effort to develop the parcel post idea in his community, embracing the
opportunities of his official relation to the service by encouraging
and taking an active part in every detail of postal management, of
which, just now, the parcel post is so conspicuous a feature and
whose more extended use among the people would so greatly advance his
official as well as his personal interest.
Public Work and Private Control
It is sometimes asked why the Post Office Department cannot be managed
as if it were in the hands of a private corporation. Many reasons might
be given, but a few will serve to explain the difference and perhaps
enlighten the public who may expect more than the Department can
perform.
In the first place, the service is throughout closely controlled by
Congress through its committee on Post Offices and Post Roads, and no
important variations in the system or the methods of administration
can be initiated without their concurrence, and even if any particular
or significant change is proposed by such committee, it is not always
possible to obtain full congressional consent. Differences between the
administrative heads of the Department and Congress as to the necessity
or advantage of certain plans or methods, are not uncommon, especially
when any proposed changes antagonize existing usage or clash with
party policy or expediency. When proposed changes invade the domain
where private enterprise has interests more or less valuable already
established, influence may be brought to bear to counteract the reforms
proposed, based on honest grounds of dissent as to the real benefit
or practical advantage to be gained by the adoption of such measures.
Unless it can then be shown that public interests would be benefited by
the changes proposed, the Department might have difficulty to overcome
this opposition.
In the next place, corporate control moves within narrower limits and
exercises its power in more direct fashion. In theory a corporation is
composed of its stockholders, a majority of whom nominate the board of
directors. This board in turn appoints the permanent officials and they
exercise full control in operation. Wide powers are given to these men
and the policies advanced for extending influence and gaining profit
are generally adopted. It is quite different dealing with Congress.
New policies are not always accepted, sometimes rejected or ignored.
It therefore follows that private concerns, having a freer hand and
no complicated management to contend with, can institute experiments
and try methods, and if well conceived, obtain results which a more
restricted authority could only perhaps with difficulty secure.
A striking contrast between public and private control is seen in
the appropriation system by which the Departments are governed.
Aside from the difficulty often experienced in securing additional
help when required, which would be readily given in great private
concerns because of expected advantages to follow, Department needs
are sometimes left unsupplied and the dispatch of business hindered by
delay in this respect, or in the installation of mechanical appliances
so generally used now, and which have in recent years to a very large
extent, taken the place of human agencies in the business world.
Perhaps one of the greatest difficulties which obtains in public work
aside from what has been already mentioned and which has hampered more
rapid progress in the Post Office Department, was the tendency and
practice to adhere to old-established rules and precedents. These lax
methods, which were particularly apparent in the business customs and
official procedure of the Department, were so firmly imbedded in its
official life that it required a firm hand and a positive purpose to
dislodge them. The present Postmaster General had both the courage and
the desire to sweep away these relics of a bygone period and substitute
newer and more suitable methods to meet progressive conditions and the
Department is now conducted as it should be, and public complaints
caused by these obsolete and unsuitable measures is now largely avoided.
These are some of the things that confront and have confronted the
Department in its efforts towards greater efficiency. Conditions must
be taken into account and understood. The Department must always be a
public function and under Government control and be conducted, more
or less, according to public usage. While red-tape rules and customs
will to some extent remain, great progress has been made in many
directions and public methods, by skilful management, brought nearer
to the successes of business life, and the time is near at hand when
the answer to the interrogatory first propounded, may be made in the
affirmative.
Protecting the Public Records
Among the many useful and necessary reforms accomplished by the
Postmaster General may be mentioned the institution of a hall of
records for the protection of the files and valuable papers which
belong to the Department. These records contain the history of postal
administration from the beginning and deserve the most careful
attention, not only on account of their sentimental but their
historical value as well. The rise and progress of this index to our
developing greatness in postal progress from the days of Benjamin
Franklin to our own times, is recorded in the volumes which form the
great official library of the Department. The opinions, acts and State
papers of every Postmaster General are found here and a complete
history of the whole postal administration could be compiled from these
records.
It is a matter of some surprise that preceding administrations paid so
little attention to the care and proper housing of these valuable files
and papers. For years they were stored in the garrets and attic of the
old Post Office Building, inconvenient of access, and so limited in
space that any semblance of order was next to impossible. Lying there
for years practically undisturbed, a prey to the ravages of dust and
decay, it is a wonder that they are in any condition of preservation
whatever. The traces of neglect and ill-usage has left its marks
visibly upon these old volumes, and but for the quality of the material
then used and the care in binding then demanded for public documents,
they would be of but little service now.
To Postmaster General Burleson belongs the credit of rescuing these
valuable archives of his Department from ultimate destruction.
Space was found on the first floor of the building for storage and
arrangement. A force of clerks from each Bureau was detailed for this
work. The books and papers were removed from the nooks and corners to
which they were relegated and under careful supervision located in the
place provided for them. Accumulations of dust brushed off, bundles
of documents neatly arranged and tied anew, frayed edges and loosened
covers attended to, and the more important historical records set
apart for rebinding when necessary. Protected now from danger, easy of
access and convenient for reference, with space and light to assist
in general preservation, these records can now be readily consulted,
time is saved in search and conditions in every way made serviceable
and satisfactory. With an elaborate and carefully devised system of
indexing, this official record is perhaps the most complete of any of
the Departments of the Government.
Registry, Insurance, and Collect-on-Delivery Services for the Fiscal
Year 1916
The number of pieces of mail registered, insured, and sent collect on
delivery during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1916, is shown in the
following statement:
_Registered_ 1916
Paid registrations:
Domestic letters and parcels 29,091,506
Foreign letters and parcels 5,179,325
----------
Total paid registrations 34,270,831
Free registrations--official 4,965,738
----------
Total paid and free 39,236,569
Amount collected for registry fees $3,427,083.10
_Insured_
Fourth-class (domestic parcel post):
Total pieces insured (3-, 5-, 10-,
and 25-cent fees) 24,936,082
Total fees $1,067,192.29
_Collect on Delivery_
Fourth-class (domestic parcel post) pieces 6,300,546
Fees $630,054.60
Readjustment of Rate for Second-Class Mail
One of the vexatious problems with which the Department has to deal is
that relating to second-class mail matter which costs the Government
several times over what is received therefrom in the way of revenue.
In March, of 1911, Congress passed a joint resolution authorizing
the appointment of a commission to investigate the subject and make
a report thereon. The president selected Mr. Justice Hughes, of the
Supreme Court, President Lowell, of Harvard University, and Mr.
Harry A. Wheeler, of Chicago. This commission found that the cost to
the Government of handling and transporting this mail was about 6
cents a pound for which the Government received but 1 cent a pound.
The Department recommended an increase to 2 cents a pound which was
approved by the commission. February 22, 1912, the report was submitted
to Congress by the President, who urged favorable consideration, but
so far no action has been taken. Suggestions as to desirable changes
in relation to second-class mail matter have been made to Congress
by Postmaster General Burleson, in which several ideas as to a more
equitable arrangement were proposed, by which the Government would get
a compensation more nearly in accord with the expense of this service,
but without result, and the whole subject remains undisposed of with
the prevailing rate still in force. This class of mail increased
93,184,891 pounds over that of the year 1915, notwithstanding the
higher cost of paper and material. The readjustment of rates is held
to be necessary in view of the disproportion of revenue to the cost of
handling and transportation.
Postmaster General Charles Emory Smith in his annual report to Congress
in 1900, referring to the cost of carrying second-class mail matter as
hindering the progress of rural delivery extension, said:
“In my last annual report it was shown that if a class of publications
which now, under an evasion of the purpose of the law, pay the
second-class rate of postage, were really made to pay the third-class
rate, as they ought to do, it would bring an additional revenue to the
Government of $12,343,612. This amount is lost through an abuse that can
be and ought to be rectified. It is a public contribution without any
public advantage for the sole benefit of a few private interests.... If
it is a question between favoring a very limited number of publishers
and favoring twenty-one millions of people who live on the farms of
the United States, there ought to be no hesitation in serving the
many rather than the few. The abuse should be uprooted as a public
duty, the national delivery service should be undertaken as a public
policy, and when through the overthrow of the wrong the right can be
established without the slightest additional burden, the appeal becomes
irresistible.”
Peculiar Customs of European Rural Delivery
Some years ago at the request of Postmaster General Gary, the Secretary
of State addressed a letter to each of our ambassadors and ministers
in Europe, asking for information touching the extent and character
of rural delivery in the countries to which they were accredited. In
the answers received it was shown, for example, that in Great Britain
there was substantially a house-to-house rural delivery, only the most
inaccessible domiciles being left unvisited. The English rural postman,
traveling chiefly on foot, walks from 15 to 18 miles a day, for an
average pay of 18 shillings, or $4.50 a week. A paternal government
provides him with a uniform, gives him $5 a year to buy shoes,
furnishes him medical attendance when sick, and permits him to retire
on a small pension after ten years of faithful service.
In France rural carriers, who also travel on foot, are paid a mileage
of 7¼ centimes a kilometer, or not quite 2½ cents a mile, for the
distance they cover. The average length of a route is from 10 to 15
miles, and they are required to cover it every day in the year, Sunday
included. They receive an allowance for clothing, and may retire on a
pension at the end of fifteen years. The service extends into every
commune, and practically all France is covered by rural free delivery.
In Germany the delivery of mails in remote rural districts is not
exactly free. Extra postage is charged, part of which goes to the
carrier and part to the government. The pay of carriers, outside
of this allowance, is from 700 to 900 marks a year, with 100 marks
additional for house rent (a German mark being equivalent to 24 cents
of our money).
In Austria-Hungary the rural carrier is hired by the postmaster of the
local office to which he is attached and paid by him. He is authorized
to collect a fee of half a cent on all letters and an eighth of a cent
on all newspapers delivered by him. His average pay is about $120 a
year. To earn this sum he travels 10 miles a day, always on foot.
Before he can enter upon his duties he has to make a deposit of $80
(or two-thirds of a year’s salary) with the postmaster as security for
carrying out his contract.
The Belgian rural carrier makes a daily round trip of 15 or 16 miles on
foot, and is paid a salary which varies according to the supposed cost
of living in the district where he serves, but which seldom exceeds
$250 a year. He is denied the right to vote, and prohibited from taking
part in politics.
What Was a Newspaper? Act of 1825
During the administration of Postmaster General Wickliffe of Kentucky
the question was raised what in the meaning of the postal law, Act of
1825, constitutes a newspaper. _The Shipping and Commercial List_ and
_New York Price Current_ claimed that it was a newspaper and entitled
to the newspaper rate. It had been so regarded prior to 1837, but
afterwards as subject to letter postage. The Postmaster General wanted
light upon the subject and the question was submitted to the Attorney
General, Hon. H. S. Legare for an opinion. As his spirited reply may
interest newspaper men of today as well as others, the principal parts
of the opinion are subjoined:
“The only light, a very uncertain one, is the use of the word,
‘newspaper’ in common parlance or in the English Stamp Acts. According
to the statute it must be (1) periodically published; (2) at intervals
not exceeding two days; (3) must contain public news or remarks thereon;
(4) that it contain not more than two sheets. Thus it may be admitted
that the paper must be published at short intervals, but what is a short
interval? There are many weekly newspapers, why not monthly? It may be
doubted whether the intervals need be exactly stated. The passing events
may be diversified according to the tastes, the fancies, the wants or
convenience of mankind. The monthly catalogue of new publications will
be of interest to a scholar, proceedings of tribunals to a lawyer,
theaters or new fashions in dress to the idle and the gay, etc.,
bulletins of battles to a soldier, price currents to a merchant, etc. A
newspaper is more likely to please a majority of readers which meets all
tastes. Why should a devout man be annoyed by puffs of opera dancers,
members of a total abstinence society with tempting sales of wines and
liquors, a plodding man of business with dissertations on books, or a
bookish man with columns of business advertisements?”
The decision states in conclusion that “_The Shipping and Commercial
List_ to be treated as a newspaper must be sent open and without any
written signature or note.”
Women in the Post Office Department
The women of the United States owe an everlasting debt of gratitude
to Frances E. Spinner for opening to them the door of opportunity for
employment in the public service. Salmon P. Chase was Secretary of
the Treasury in the administration of President Lincoln and General
Spinner was the Treasurer of the United States. Many of the clerks of
the Treasury had joined the army, and General Spinner suggested to the
Secretary the employment of women in their stead. Though his suggestion
met with considerable opposition at the time, the wishes of General
Spinner finally prevailed, and Secretary Chase gave his consent to the
appointment of women, and the avenues of public employment were opened
to them.
Since that time the employment of women in the public service has
become general, and they may now be found in all the Departments, in
post offices and as mail carriers on the post roads of the United
States. The most recent register of employees in the Post Office
Department shows that it had upon its pay rolls for the Department
proper, sixty-two women receiving $1,200 per annum, thirty-two at
$1,400 per annum, ten at $1,600 per annum, three at $1,800, forty-three
at $1,000 per annum, besides many more at lesser salaries. The act of
General Spinner in opening the door of the public service to women
doubtless had its general effect in private employment as well, for
from the close of the Civil War the entrance of women into the business
relations of the country may be safely dated.
Many of the women in the Departments occupy positions of responsibility
and importance, and fill such positions with credit to themselves and
the service as well.
Railroad Accidents and the Construction of Mail Cars
There were 163 railroad accidents during the fiscal year, 1916, of
which 155 resulted in injuries to clerks, and eight, exclusive of those
in which clerks were injured, resulted in loss or damage to mail.
The following table shows the kind and construction of the mail cars in
which accidents to clerks occurred:
-----------+----------+-------+---------+----------+---------+---------
Kind of car| Number | Number| Clerks | Clerks | Clerks | Total
| of cars | of | killed | seriously| slightly| clerks
| in | clerks| or died | injured | injured | injured
| accidents| in | as | in these | in these| and
| | these | result | cars | cars | killed
| | cars | of | | | in these
| | | injuries| | | cars
-----------+----------+-------+---------+----------+---------+---------
Wood | 57 | 76 | 1 | 18 | 42 | 61
Wood-steel | | | | | |
reenforced| 18 | 25 | | 12 | 9 | 21
Steel | 67 | 258 | 1 | 28 | 86 | 115
Steel | | | | | |
underframe| 22 | 57 | | 9 | 21 | 30
+----------+-------+---------+----------+---------+---------
Total | 164 | 416 | 2 | 67 | 158 | 227
-----------+----------+-------+---------+----------+---------+---------
Public Ownership of Postal Telegraphs and Telephones
Opinion of Postmaster General Burleson
Postmaster General Burleson, in his annual report to Congress for 1916,
made the following statement regarding Postal Telegraphs and Telephones:
“As the former reports pointed out, the private ownership of telephone
and telegraph utilities places in private hands the control of
important vehicles for the transmission of intelligence, and therefore
infringes upon a function reserved by the Constitution to the National
Government. Operation of these facilities inherently as well as
constitutionally belongs to the Postal Service. Attention again is
called to the legal precedents and the attitude of former postmasters
general, as briefly stated in my report for 1914:
“That it has been the policy of this Government to ultimately acquire
and operate these electrical means of communication as postal
facilities, as is done by all the principal nations, the United States
alone excepted, is evidenced by the fact that the first telegraph line
in this country was maintained and operated as a part of the Postal
Service, and further by the Act of July 24, 1866, which provided for
the Government acquisition of the telegraph lines upon the payment of
an appraised valuation, and again by the act of 1902, which directed
the Postmaster General ‘to report to Congress the probable cost of
connecting a telegraph and telephone system with the Postal Service by
some feasible plan.’
“‘It is an interesting fact that, whereas policies of Government have
been advocated and some adopted, the constitutionality of which have
been seriously questioned, the principle of Government ownership and
control of the telegraph and telephone finds its greatest strength
in the Constitution. This opinion has been shared by practically all
Postmasters General of the United States, who have held that the
welfare and happiness of the nation depend upon the fullest utilization
of these agencies by the people, which can only be accomplished through
Government ownership.’”
Liquor Carried by the Mails
In view of the rapid spread of prohibition sentiment in the country
during the past few years, it may be of interest to know that the
activities then already apparent to check in every possible way
convenient access to this demoralizing evil, found in a limited sense
the aid and support of the Post Office Department.
There was a growing suspicion that traffic in the carrying of liquor
from one point to another on the lines of the star-route service
by carriers was being conducted, and this suspicion afterwards
developed into loud and persistent complaints which finally reached
the Department and attracted official attention. It was stated that
liquor was being conveyed by these carriers to points in local option
territory and even distributed among the Indians, a practice which the
Government was particularly anxious to prevent. The matter was finally
brought to the attention of Postmaster General Von Meyer who at once
took steps to interfere with this traffic. After some consultation as
to the best means of stamping out this evil, a clause was inserted
in the advertisement for star-route service and later embodied in
every contract upon which awards were made. This statement says: “It
is further agreed that the contractor or carrier shall not transport
intoxicating liquor from one point to another on this route while in
the performance of mail service.”
This positive Governmental interference with the traffic in liquor by
means of the mails may not be generally known, and it is mentioned here
that credit might be given to Postmaster General Von Meyer for an act
which destroyed a growing evil, covertly conducted, and put a stop to a
practice which was doing damage in a great many sections.
By Act approved March 3, 1917, providing for appropriations for the
Post Office, no letter, postal card, circular, newspaper, etc.,
containing any advertisement of spirituous, vinuous, malted, fermented
or other intoxicating liquor of any kind, or containing a solicitation
of an order for said liquors, shall be deposited in or carried by
the mails of the United States, or be delivered by any postmaster or
letter carrier addressed and directed to any person, firm, corporation
or association at any place or point in any State or territory of the
United States, at which it is by the law in force in such State and
Territory at that time unlawful to advertise or solicit orders for such
liquors or any of them respectively.
How the Post Office Department Helps the Farmer
Of all the great Executive Departments, the Post Office comes closest
to the people and is of particular interest to the farmer living
away from the great avenues of postal service supply. The Postmaster
General, from his service in Congress, where the needs of the farmer
are known, coupled with the opportunities of his present position,
was able to render him a great service, and that he has done so, that
his administration has shown his successful efforts in this direction
cannot be questioned nor denied.
The Parcel Post with all its beneficent possibilities and advantages
received early consideration. It meant so much to the farmer that
zealous and persistent attention was wisely directed to obtain the
utmost that could be accomplished. Weight limits were extended,
postage reduced by zone expansion, and the project put upon such
practical basis that great benefits are already assured and further
progress only waits legislative sanction. City and country are now
brought together. Suburban express, the result of motor service, gives
the farmer an easily reached and remunerative market and the consumer
finds upon his daily table the fresh products which this rapid means of
communication from the farm can so readily supply. The Parcel Post is
one of the most popular measures of this administration and everything
possible has been done to foster and perfect it.
The Rural Free Delivery with its millions of patrons, of which over
650,000 were added within the past three years, tells the story of
administrative accomplishment. The great success of rural delivery is
peculiarly the farmers triumph. He is now on a par with his neighbor in
the cities in all that enterprising postal service can give. Taken both
together, the widely admitted success of the Parcel Post as well as
the rural delivery, a chapter of achievement has been written of which
the Department is justly proud and against which criticism can find no
ground for righteous complaint.
But this is not all that this administration has done for the man in
the country. The energetic application of the experimental legislation
appropriating $500,000 for participation in the construction of
improved highways has brought forth an additional appropriation of
$75,000,000, which will be expended by the Federal Government, in
cooperation with the States, for the improvement of roads over which
mail delivery is performed, or on which it may be located hereafter.
The Rural Credit and Good Roads bills are subjects of profound
interest which even partisan prejudice cannot minimize or obscure.
The tremendous advantage which these two great measures afford the
farmer will be readily admitted and recognized when seen in practical
operation. The need of such beneficent help has long been felt and
these two bills should make the lot of the farmers much easier. They
have been getting reasonably good prices for their products and are
generally prosperous, but the fact remains that but few hold their land
free of incumbrance. Complete ownership will now be possible. With
federal aid to road construction and this new rural credits law, it
should not be long until the greatest prosperity the country sections
have ever known should be an accomplished fact.
Expediting the Mail on Star Routes
Attention is called elsewhere to the benefit of motor vehicle service
in rural delivery, and it is now proposed to introduce this advantage
in the star-route service as well. Until a short while ago there was
no authority for any particular form of conveyance to be used in this
connection. With the advent of automobiles and other motor vehicles, it
became evident that great opportunities presented themselves by which
the transportation of mails on this class of routes could be measurably
expedited and during the present administration the law was so amended
that the mode of transportation could be specified.
The demand of the day is for the rapid conveyance of mails in every
direction and people are no longer satisfied to put up with the
practices and methods of other days. That mails have been conveyed
in this service with “due celerity, certainty and security” was not
enough. Money is paid for service and the best that can be given is
required. So it was decided to expedite star-route service. While there
are a number of routes on which automobiles are now used in view of the
provision of law as covered by the order of the Postmaster General,
August 14, 1916, amending section No. 1424 to correspond with the law
as amended, steps are now being taken in connection with the award of
contracts for the four-year term beginning July 1, 1917, which includes
the contract section from Maine to West Virginia, to require the use of
motor vehicles wherever the importance of the route seemed to warrant
and weather conditions would permit the use of such conveyance. One
hundred and forty advertisements are now pending for such service in
this contract section.
This is going to be a great accommodation for all routes where such
service can be employed and will give the people the best mail
facilities that can be devised. It will hasten the receipt and dispatch
of mails by means of rural carrier connections, be of great advantage
to the business men along such routes, expedite newspaper delivery and
in many cases save twenty-four hours over the present method. Every
effort will be made to introduce this more rapid service as quickly and
widely as the laws will permit. If it is found to work well in this
first contract section where it is to be tried, it will be extended to
others in regular succession until the star-route service everywhere
has the benefit of this improved means of communication.
Abraham Lincoln Postmaster in 1837
So much has been said and written about Abraham Lincoln that it would
seem as if nothing new could be mentioned. In fact his history and
biography are as well known to the school children as that of George
Washington, but it is probably not generally known to the postmasters
of the country that he was at one time in the postal service as a
postmaster, and in a book devoted entirely to postal affairs it may be
of interest to state the fact that this additional incident in his life
and public career may be added to what is already known.
Mr. T. H. Bartlett, in the Boston _Transcript_, says:
It will interest Lincoln lovers to learn that, as far as known, probably
the first time that Abraham Lincoln’s name was mentioned in print was in
the United States Biennial Register for 1837. It was in the Post Office
Department, as “Postmaster at New Salem, Ill., Abraham Lincoln, 1 quar.,
10-19-48.” The Register contained the names of every officer and employe
for that year.
So people who keep scrap books in which to note peculiar events and
occurrences in the lives of great men may add this little item to their
collection, for everything connected with the life of Abraham Lincoln
is worthy of notice.
A Central Accounting Office for Each County
A very notable and far-reaching measure of public administration in the
conduct of the Post Office Department was enacted in the past session
of Congress by which, in order to promote economy in the distribution
of supplies and in auditing and accounting, the Postmaster General was
authorized to designate districts and central offices in such districts
through which supplies shall be distributed and accounts rendered. This
means in other words that one postmaster in a county is hereafter to
distribute supplies for the other post offices and render an account
to the auditor for all the offices in a certain county or district,
thus simplifying the whole subject and placing the business involved
at each of these offices under one central control. This is, however,
not to give such central office authority to abolish offices, to change
officers or employees in offices included in such district.
The law goes into effect July 1, 1917, and the Postmaster General will
appoint a committee, of which the First Assistant Postmaster General
will probably be chairman, to establish the system and select the
central office in each district or county to which the other offices
are to report, and under whose general control this plan is to be
conducted.
Millions of Money for Good Roads
That good roads are an important factor in the spread of civilization
is a statement which no one will dispute. Imperial Rome in the zenith
of its power perfectly understood this. The marvellous genius and
industry which constructed its great highways of commerce and travel,
works which have been the admiration of all succeeding ages, are yet
splendid even in their decaying greatness. Prescott, the historian,
in his romantic history of Peru, tells of the wonderful engineering
skill displayed in the reigns of the early Peruvian rulers in the
building of their great military roads, which served alike the purpose
of a peaceful people as well as the rapid assembling of its armies for
warlike action. No nation now neglects this very important part of its
economic life, and the United States having become a power in universal
civilization is fully alive to all the measureless advantages which
good roads afford.
Material prosperity waits upon road development and land values rise
in proportion to road improvement. A few striking instances may be
mentioned as illustrating this fact. _Wallace’s Farmer_ has stated that:
“In Franklin County, New York, where 24 miles of good roads have been
built, eight pieces of land selected at random increased 27.8 per
cent in value. In Lee County, Virginia, which built eighty-four miles
of roads, land advanced 25 per cent in value. Spottsylvania County,
in the same state, improved forty-one miles of roads, and the land
adjoining sold for $44.75 where previous to the improvement it had been
bought for just $20 less per acre. After Manatee County, Florida, had
constructed sixty-four miles of macadam and shell highway, the land
along the road increased more than $20 per acre in less than two years,
and the land a mile away from the road showed an increase of $10 an
acre. In Wood County, Ohio, where land has been drained and bounded by
limestone pikes, the values have risen from $70 to $250 per acre.”
The _New York Journal of Commerce_ says “there are few agencies that
are so fruitful of economic good, social and political solidarity,
and even national spirit.” The very great desire of the Post Office
Department to extend and improve the rural delivery service is an ever
present argument in favor of good roads, without which no extensions
or improvements are possible. The life of the country church, the
country school, the whole question of intensive and scientific farming
is involved in the subject of good roads, and in its wider and broader
aspect the question takes on a new and a very significient meaning.
Originally intended to promote and foster the arts of peace, military
needs now claim national attention. Quoting again from the _Journal of
Commerce_: “Mobilization, defense, and the transportation of troops,
munitions, and supplies, are in a large part dependent upon an adequate
system of highways, especially along the sea coasts and national
borders. The experience of all the warring nations of Europe in the
present conflict, are ample proof of this. Only the future will show
whether or not these objects have been kept in view when the national
appropriation is spent.”
The Government has set aside for the year ending June 30, 1919, the
sum of $14,550,000 as an apportionment to the States to aid in the
construction and maintenance of rural post roads in accordance with
the provision of the Federal aid roads law. $20,000,000 will be
apportioned for 1920, and $25,000,000 for 1921. This is the third
apportionment under the law, $4,850,000 having been apportioned for
1917 and $9,700,000 for 1918. The Bureau of Public Roads states that
the expenditures for road and bridge building in the United States have
increased from about $80,000,000 a year in 1904 to $282,000,000 in
1915, or more than 250 per cent.
These figures are as amazing as they are impressive, and they must
carry to the mind of the reader the solicitude of his government for
all that makes for national prosperity and advancement. There was a
time when good roads were a luxury and only a few States in the East
paid any attention to this question. With the advent of the automobile
came a great change. Rides for pleasure as well as for gainful pursuits
required better conditions, and for both purposes good roads became
everywhere a question of paramount importance. The farmer whose
improved surroundings permitted this now common luxury, wanted the
benefit of it, and the demand for better road conditions found its way
into the halls of legislation in the States, and in the Congress of
the Nation, and the answer to this demand upon the part of the Federal
government is the magnificent appropriation which is now available and
to be expended for this far reaching purpose.
Rural delivery in which the rural resident is so greatly interested
will profit most by this liberal government provision, it being
originally intended for post road purposes, of which rural delivery
is now the principal and most important part. The rural life of the
country is to be bettered in every way by the spread of this means
of postal communication. The Post Office Department is always ready
to listen to every suggestion which makes for greater comfort and
convenience in this direction, and to act promptly when resulting
advantages can be shown. Therefore, the sections where rural delivery
is not as fully introduced and developed as it might be, or inviting
fields for exploration and administrative action are not yet reached,
the people for whose benefit this money is to be used should get
in touch with the Department and bring to its attention whatever
information upon the subject they may possess which might be fashioned
into useful results. The Department has many eyes but cannot see all
and know all, and this is where outside assistance can be of great
advantage, and would be most gladly welcomed. Postal patrons are
the working partners of the Postmaster General in all that concerns
the improvement and extension of the service, and if they will take
the same active interest that he does and cooperate with the Fourth
Assistant Postmaster General, in whose Bureau this rural delivery work
is centered, great advances in all directions may be readily made.
$14,550,000 for Rural Post Roads
Apportionment to the States from government funds to aid in the
construction and maintenance of rural postroads in accordance with the
Federal aid roads law for the year ending June 30, 1919, is as follows:
Alabama $313,456 Ohio 558,043
Arizona 205,540 Oklahoma 346,489
Arkansas 250,018 Oregon 236,332
California 456,167 Pennsylvania 690,145
Colorado 257,278 Idaho 182,471
Connecticut 92,216 Illinois 658,323
Delaware 24,411 Indiana 406,230
Florida 170,723 Iowa 434,653
Georgia 403,909 Kansas 429,131
Maryland 130,871 Kentucky 292,984
Massachusetts 221,261 Louisiana 203,755
Michigan 435,356 Maine 144,807
Minnesota 425,865 Rhode Island 34,972
Mississippi 268,751 South Carolina 215,014
Missouri 508,603 South Dakota 243,175
Montana 298,520 Tennessee 340,663
Nebraska 319,445 Texas 876,986
Nevada 193,229 Utah 170,763
New Hampshire 62,610 Vermont 68,128
New Jersey 177,357 Virginia 298,120
New Mexico 238,634 Washington 216,530
New York 749,674 West Virginia 159,713
North Carolina 342,556 Wisconsin 382,707
North Dakota 229,585 Wyoming 183,805
Mail Extensions by Air and Motor Truck Routes
As the result of a recent conference between Postmaster General
Burleson and Secretary of War Baker, and with the approval of the
President, Congress has been asked to authorize the Secretary of War
to turn over to the Post Office Department all military aeroplanes and
motor vehicles not serviceable for military purposes, or which after
the war may be dispensed with for military service.
As soon as any aeroplanes are turned over to the Post Office
Department, aeroplane mail routes will be established in the country,
as they now are in Italy and France.
Italy has an aerial mail route from her coast to Sardinia, and is able
to deliver 500 pounds of mail in two hours. France has a similar aerial
route between her coast and Corsica.
The motor trucks procured from the War Department at this time or
at the close of the war will be available for the parcel post truck
service. In the view of the Postmaster General, the operation of these
motor-truck routes would add 100 per cent to the value of the parcel
post service in the vicinity of the cities where established.
The cost of living will be reduced, it is stated, by eliminating
useless and expensive operation in the postal means of communication
between producer and consumer; will permit the producer to continue
production and the labor incident thereto, instead of suspending
production or labor while conveying produce to consumers, and will
extend the postal zone of collection-and-delivery service in the
vicinity of large cities to the point where the actual farmer-producer
is domiciled rather than where only suburban residents and nonproducers
live.
Care Required in Preparing Contracts
Among the most important duties which a postmaster is called upon to
perform is seeing that contracts for star-route service are properly
filled out before being sent to the department. These contracts are
of a legal nature and while the necessary provisions are plainly
stated and simple enough to be easily understood, extreme care must be
exercised to see that the instructions are complied with. Spaces for
the signatures of the contractor, the sureties and witnesses properly
filled out, dates given, names plainly written wherever required and
the contractor should personally examine the contract to see that all
this is carefully done. Failure to note these necessary details causes
the return of the contract for correction, delaying its acceptance
and imposing extra and unnecessary work upon the contract clerk. It
may also be stated that as failure to perform service on the part of
the contractor is liable to bring these contracts into courts of law
for judicial determination, it becomes of the highest importance that
nothing required to be done is omitted in preparation and the contract
be correct in form and in every particular.
Birthday of the American Postal Service
On the twenty-sixth of July, 1917, the postal service of the United
States can celebrate the one hundred and forty-third anniversary of
its establishment. It was on July 26, 1775, nearly a year before the
independence of the colonies was proclaimed, that the freedom of postal
affairs was made an accomplished fact. The British control had existed
for eighty-three years, from 1692 to 1775. There was only one line
then in existence along the coast with but few branches and those far
between. This service was first managed by private interests under a
patent from William and Mary, but afterwards directly by the English
crown. The fullness of time had at length arrived, had brought the
auspicious day, and postal independence was born!
Patriotic sentiment is not wanting in this country of ours, and the
flag is ever the object of sincere and heartfelt devotion. The great
strides in postal development from that day to this should make the
pulse of every citizen, particularly every postal employe, great or
small, quicken with civic pride as each successive anniversary of our
great postal establishment brings the date to mind. Postmasters might
well signalize the day by conspicious display of the flag under which
such tremendous progress has been made not only in postal affairs but
in national greatness and glory.
List of Postmasters General
_Continental Congress_
Benjamin Franklin, Pennsylvania, July 26, 1775
Richard Bache, Pennsylvania, Nov. 7, 1776
Ebenezer Hazard, New York, Jan. 28, 1782
_Date of
_Presidents_ _Postmasters General_ _State_ Appointment_
Washington, Samuel Osgood, Massachusetts, Sept. 26, 1789
” Timothy Pickering, Pennsylvania, Aug. 12, 1791
” Joseph Habersham, Georgia, Feb. 25, 1795
Jefferson, Gideon Granger, Connecticut, Nov. 28, 1801
Madison, Return J. Meigs, Jr., Ohio, April 11, 1814
Monroe, John McLean, Ohio, July 1, 1823
Jackson, Wm. T. Barry, Kentucky, April 6, 1829
” Amos Kendall, Kentucky, May 1, 1835
Van Buren, John M. Niles, Connecticut, May 26, 1840
Harrison, W. H., Francis Granger, New York, Mar. 8, 1841
Tyler, Chas. A. Wickliffe, Kentucky, Oct. 13, 1841
Polk, Cave Johnson, Tennessee, Mar. 6, 1845
Taylor, Jacob Collamer, Vermont, Mar. 8, 1849
Fillmore, Nathan K. Hall, New York, July 23, 1850
” Samuel D. Hubbard, Connecticut, Sept. 14, 1852
Pierce, James Campbell, Pennsylvania, Mar. 7, 1853
Buchanan, Aaron V. Brown, Tennessee, Mar. 6, 1857
” Joseph Holt, Kentucky, Mar. 14, 1859
Lincoln, Horatio King, Maine, Feb. 12, 1861
” Montgomery Blair, Dist. of Col. Mar. 9, 1861
Johnson, Wm. Dennison, Ohio, Oct. 1, 1864
” Alex. W. Randall, Wisconsin, July 25, 1866
Grant, John A. J. Creswell, Maryland, Mar. 5, 1869
” Jas. W. Marshall, New Jersey, July 7, 1874
” Marshall Jewell, Connecticut, Sept. 1, 1875
” Jas. N. Tyner, Indiana, July 12, 1876
Hayes, D. M. Key, Tennessee, Mar. 13, 1877
” Horace Maynard, Tennessee, Aug. 25, 1880
Garfield and Arthur, Thos. L. James, New York, Mar. 8, 1881
” T. O. Howe, Wisconsin, Jan. 5, 1882
” W. Q. Gresham, Indiana, April 11, 1883
” Frank Hatton, Iowa, Oct. 14, 1884
Cleveland, Wm. F. Vilas, Wisconsin, Mar. 7, 1885
” Don M. Dickinson, Michigan, Jan. 17, 1888
Harrison, John Wanamaker, Pennsylvania, Mar. 6. 1889
Cleveland, Wilson S. Bissell, New York, Mar. 7, 1893
” William L. Wilson, West Virginia, April 4, 1895
McKinley, James A. Gary, Maryland, Mar. 6, 1897
” Charles Emory Smith, Pennsylvania, April 22, 1898
Roosevelt, Henry C. Payne, Wisconsin, Jan. 15, 1902
” Robert J. Wynne, Pennsylvania, Oct. 10, 1904
” Geo. B. Cortelyou, New York, Mar. 7, 1905
” Geo. Von L. Meyer, Massachusetts, Mar. 4, 1907
Taft, Frank H. Hitchcock, Massachusetts, Mar. 6, 1909
Wilson, Albert S. Burleson, Texas, Mar. 5, 1913