1786 . . . . . . . . . . . $ 2,789.84
1873 (estimated) . . . . . 2,500,000.00
1922 . . . . . . . . . . . 54,109,050.61
According to a recent statement by Hon. Hubert Work, Postmaster-General,
the postal business now done in New York City alone is equivalent to
that of the United States twenty-five years ago, and is double that of
the Dominion of Canada.
During my personal experience with the postal affairs of this great
city, the service has been expanded from a post-office with eleven
stations and 973 employees to an enormous establishment having a total
of 362 stations, including fifty carrier and financial stations, 271
contract stations, and forty-one United States Warship Branches;
requiring a total force of 15,600 post-office employees. The postmaster
at New York is also the Central Accounting Postmaster for 1375 district
post-offices (365 third-class and 1010 fourth-class post-offices)
located in thirty-five counties of New York State.
The transactions of this important office are constantly increasing
in volume as a result of the great expansion and growth of New York
City, which is greatly influenced by the progress and growth of the
entire country. New York City, as the metropolis of the United States,
is taking her place at the head of the large cities of the world in
population, finance, and commercial affairs.
If the progress made in the past fifty years by the United States and
its possessions in the conduct of national and international business
continues, the postal business here will, no doubt, make tremendous
strides.
At the end of another fifty years, or in the year 1972, the postmaster
at New York will be the head of a much greater establishment than
the present office, which will be comparable to that organization of
the future as the first post-office in New York City, located in the
"Coffee House," Coenties Slip, in 1642, is comparable to the present
post-office. The future postmaster of New York, in 1972, will probably
be the head of a number of consolidated post-offices in the metropolitan
area, and, no doubt, other public services will be placed under his
supervision.
The further development and improvement of the aëroplane mail service
will no doubt result in a greater use of that facility for the
transportation of mails. The transportation of the mails through the
streets of New York is a great problem. At present motor trucks are
principally used for that purpose. It is anticipated that even with
this service augmented by the re-establishment of the pneumatic tubes,
future extensions to the underground method of transportation will be
necessary. It is likely that before many years are passed a system of
tunnels for the transportation of mails in pouches and sacks will be
built and placed in operation.
Congress and the Post-office Department are now looking into the
matter of providing the post-office at New York with a large amount of
additional room in new buildings specially constructed for post-office
purposes and it is the constant aim and purpose of all concerned in the
operation of the New York post-office to furnish its patrons the best
postal service.
E. M. MORGAN,
POSTMASTER.
_The New York Post-office_
Conceive, if you can, an organization that is incessantly and
perpetually going at top speed; that knows not a moment of rest the year
round, or generation after generation; which never sleeps, nor pauses,
nor hesitates; that disposes each day of a mountain of 14,300,000
pieces of ordinary mail, or more than any other office in the world;
that does a parcel-post business that makes the business of the express
companies seem small in comparison; that handles in excess of 41,500,000
pieces of registered mail each year; that issues nearly four million
money-orders annually, and pays over seventeen million more; that, as a
mere side issue does a banking business which is exceeded by but a few
banks in the whole State; that has in its safe custody the savings of
approximately 140,000 depositors, amounting to more than $44,000,000;
that employs an army of 15,000 men and women; that occupies one of the
largest buildings in the city, two blocks in length, and then overflows
into approximately fifty annexes, called "Classified Stations," and
nearly 200 sub-annexes, called "Contract Stations"; that has receipts in
excess of $52,000,000 per annum; that has doubled its business in ten
years. Having conceived this, you will begin to get some idea of the New
York post-office, the biggest thing of its kind in the world and still
growing.
The average man's conception of a post-office includes little more
than an impression of a letter-carrier in a gray uniform; a mail wagon
recently dodged by a narrow margin; a post-office station somewhere
in his neighborhood, and a hazy picture of a dingy place in which
men sometimes post letters. Of the details of the organization aside
from these things, the extent and complexities of the service, or how
it accomplishes what it does, or of the executive experts operating
the system, he knows practically nothing. He is aware, it is true,
that letters are collected and that letters are delivered, and that
continents and oceans may divide the sender and addressee; but by what
mystic methods delivery is accomplished he has never stopped to think.
Yet the organization that lies behind the words "New York post-office"
is one of the most complex, efficient, and interesting in the world, and
yet it operates with a simplicity and a smoothness that betoken master
design and perfection of detail.
_The Postmaster_
At the head of this great organization and directing its every movement,
watching its development, adjusting its activities, is one of the most
experienced and efficient postal experts in America, in the person of
Postmaster Edward M. Morgan, whose interesting statement is included at
the head of this section.
Mr. Morgan entered the postal service in 1873 as a letter-carrier, at
the foot of the ladder, and by an industry that was tireless and force
of character he worked his way up, round after round, to the very
top. In the course of his long public service he transferred from the
carrier force to the clerical force, and then graduated from this to the
supervisory ranks, discharging each successive grade with conspicuous
ability. His several titles in the course of this career were: carrier,
clerk, chief clerk, superintendent of stations, superintendant of
delivery, assistant postmaster, acting postmaster, postmaster. He was
first appointed postmaster by President Roosevelt, and reappointed by
President Taft. For an interval during President Wilson's administration
he was out of office, but was reappointed by President Harding. With
such a record of progress and experience it is very evident that he must
"know the game," but if one knows nothing of his history, and meets him
for a few minutes, his grasp of detail and vision of opportunity for
future development become at once apparent.
Postmaster Morgan has gathered around him as his heads of divisions a
corps of enthusiastic aides who have grown up in the service under his
tutelage, and each of whom has advanced step by step under the keenest
competition, demonstrating his competency for the position he fills
by the satisfactory manner in which he has discharged the duties of
the position of lower rank. Among his aides there are no amateurs; all
have been tried for a generation or more in positions of varying and
increasing importance, and they have stood the test; they are recognized
the country over as postal experts, and the work they are doing and the
efficiency they are showing are proof that their reputations are well
merited.
_The Organisation of the New York Post-office_
Next in rank to the postmaster are the assistant postmaster and the
acting assistant postmaster, the first at the head of the financial
divisions and miscellaneous executive departments, and the second at the
head of various divisions engaged in handling the mails proper.
[Illustration: _Postmaster, New York, N.Y., and Staff._
_Upper row (left to right)--Edward P. Russell, Postal Cashier; Arthur H.
Harbinson, Secretary to the Postmaster; Joseph Willon, Superintendent of
Registry; Albert B. Firmin, Superintendent of Money Orders; Justus W.
Salzman, Auditor. Lower row (left to right)--Peter A. McGurty, Acting
Superintendent of Mails; Thomas B. Randies, Acting Assistant Postmaster
(Mails); Hon. Edward M. Morgan, Postmaster; John J. Kiely, Assistant
Postmaster (Finance): Charles Lubin, Superintendent of Delivery._ ]
_The Assistant Postmaster_
The assistant postmaster is Mr. John J. Kiely, who has been in the
service thirty-seven years, and, like the postmaster, has worked up from
the ranks, advancing through the various grades as foreman, assistant
superintendent, superintendent, division head, etc., to the title he now
holds. For a number of years he was in charge first of one and then of
another of the great terminal stations of the city, where the greatest
volumes of mail are handled of any of the stations in this country,
and later was made superintendent of mails, from which position he was
recently promoted to the title he now holds.
[Illustration:
Post Office, New York, N.Y.
THIS POST OFFICE IS A BUSINESS INSTITUTION
_Patrons are entitled to and must receive prompt,
efficient and courteous service._
=If you think our methods or conduct can be improved, the
Postmaster wants to hear about it, personally.=
_EDWARD M. MORGAN, Postmaster_
_A new kind of sign in Government offices._
_The Acting Assistant Postmaster_ ]
The acting assistant postmaster is Mr. Thomas B. Randles, who is
responsible for the movement of the mails, and who, for several years
prior to his attaining his present rank, was assistant superintendent of
mails; prior to that, he was superintendent of different stations in
various parts of the city. He has seen twenty-eight years' service in
various ranks.
_The Division Heads_
Next in rank to the officials mentioned there is a group of division
heads, corresponding with the various major activities of the office,
including the Division of Delivery, the Division of Mails, the Division
of Registered Mails, and the Division of Money-Orders, followed by the
cashier, the auditor, the classification division, etc.
The duties of each of these heads are very clearly defined by Postmaster
Morgan, and each head is held to strict responsibility for the faithful
and efficient conduct of his division or department. The postmaster
himself is ever ready to give advice and counsel, and is the most
accessible of executives, not only to his staff, but to employees of all
rank and to the public. He in turn requires of all of his aides not only
a thorough knowledge of every detail of their work, but also that they
shall be as accessible to those under them and to the public as he is
himself.
_The Postmaster's Weekly Conference_
Once each week the postmaster meets his division heads and department
chiefs in formal council, when the problems of the service are freely
discussed and plans are formulated for such undertakings as may
require unity of action and coöperative effort. These conferences keep
the various heads apprised of what is of importance in the various
departments, and promote an esprit de corps and coöperative attitude
that explain the exceptional unity of effort that is characteristic
of the entire organization. One has only to study the organization
for a short time to discover that one of its strongest features is
the manifest team-work, the one animating and controlling influence
throughout it all being "the interest of the service."
_The Delivery Division_
Closest to the heart of the public of all the postal employees--probably
because they see so many of them and know so much of their faithful
work as they plod along day in and day out, in all kinds of weather,
with their heavy loads weighing down their shoulders and twisting their
spines--are the letter-carriers. These are all under the Division of
Delivery, the superintendent of which is Mr. Charles Lubin. Mr. Lubin
entered the service in 1890, as a substitute clerk, and is another
example of the executive who has risen, step by step, through all the
various clerical grades to supervisory rank, and then through the
various supervisory ranks to his present title. The Delivery Division
includes in its personnel, in addition to 2954 letter-carriers, 3621
clerks, 282 laborers, and 1800 substitute employees, so that it
constitutes a small army in itself.
The New York post-office covers both Manhattan and the Bronx, with
a postal population which greatly exceeds the population as shown
by the census. To New York gravitate daily hundreds of thousands of
people who are employed in Manhattan and the Bronx but who reside in
Brooklyn, New Jersey, Long Island, or elsewhere. Hundreds of thousands
of others reside at one address in Manhattan or the Bronx, but do
business at another, receiving mail at both addresses. Including these,
the transients, and the commuters mentioned, it is estimated that
the Delivery Division is receiving mail for approximately 8,000,000
addressees in the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx.
Adequately to meet the requirements of this vast number there are
scheduled, for the business section of the city, six carrier deliveries
daily, and four for the residential sections. Just what this means will
be better appreciated if one will pause and try to visualize what it
means to traverse every street and alley of the great area covered by
Manhattan and the Bronx from four to six times daily, stopping at every
door for which there is mail, and effecting delivery in apartments, in
tenements, in office buildings, and in factories.
Of the 2954 carriers mentioned above, 384 are employed in collecting
mail from the street boxes, both package and letter, and from the chutes
in office buildings, etc. From the boxes in remote suburban districts
three to five collections are made daily, from boxes in the residential
sections from seven to fifteen collections daily, while in the business
sections the collections run from fifteen to twenty-seven.
Even with the frequency of collection that takes place in the
intensively developed business sections, the boxes fill up as quickly as
they are emptied.
To appreciate how quickly, and to make clear the volume of mail
collected by the carriers, it may be stated that among the office
buildings equipped with chute letter-boxes are the Equitable Life,
thirty-nine stories, and the Woolworth, fifty-five stories, from each
of which fifty-five to sixty full sacks of mail are collected by the
carriers daily between 3 and 7.30 P.M. These sacks are conveyed by
wagons to the Varick Street Station for postmarking and despatch, four
carriers being engaged on the task.
The volume of mail collected at the close of business in the lower part
of the city, and largely from buildings equipped with chutes and boxes,
exceeds that handled by many first-class post-offices for an entire
twenty-four-hour period.
[Illustration: _Rear view of New York General Post Office and
Pennsylvania Railroad tracks. Manufacturers Trust Company, West Side
offices, nearby (in semi-circle)._]
_The Stations_
For greater efficiency in handling the mails, to shorten the trips of
carriers and collectors and to serve the public convenience, as the city
has grown, various classified or carrier stations have been established,
and of these there are now no fewer than forty-eight in operation and
also two financial stations. The classified or carrier stations are
practically complete post-offices, so far as the public is concerned,
affording full facilities for the sale of stamps, money-orders,
postal savings, registration of mail, acceptance of parcel post, the
distribution of mail, etc., and for the delivery and collection of
mail by carriers. The financial stations afford all the conveniences
mentioned for the benefit of the public, except that they do not make
delivery of mail nor effect its distribution.
It is estimated that the delivery division effects the delivery daily
through the carriers assigned to the general office and to the various
stations of approximately 5,000,000 letters, cards, and circulars,
800,000 papers, periodicals, and pieces of printed matter and small
parcel-post packages, and 65,000 bulky parcel-post packages, or, in all,
close to 6,000,000 pieces of mail of all classes.
But the delivery of mail is only part of the story, for it is estimated
that the public mail daily in the various chutes, classified station
"drops," and street letter boxes, etc., approximate 5,000,000 pieces of
first-class mail and several million circulars, all of which have to be
gathered together and put through the various processes of cancellation,
sorting, etc., before the actual work of delivery or despatch begins.
The tremendous magnitude of the business of the various stations is
shown not only in the volume of mail received and delivered, but in the
sale of stamps, the collection of postage on second-class matter, etc.,
constituting the receipts.
The receipts at the City Hall Station, for instance, are greater than
the receipts of any post-office in the United States except Chicago,
Ill., Philadelphia, Pa., and Boston, Mass., as shown by the table
below, giving figures for the fiscal year 1921. In the case of all the
offices named, the figures include not only the main office but all the
stations of the offices. In the case of the City Hall Station alone, the
figures are for this unit exclusively, and no other point.