CHAPTER IV

CHAPTER IVSpecial Articles on Postal SubjectsThe American Postal SystemThe 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 MailWhen General Gresham was Postmaster General in President Arthur’s administration, the Washington correspondent of theLouisville Courier-Journalcomplained to him about the non-deliveryof 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 PrintingStamp ManufactureThe 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 inthis 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 InspectorsThe 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 ServiceThe 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 PostmasterGeneral 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 EstablishmentThe 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 wheremonopoly 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 fieldof 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 GeneralExcluding 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 MailIt 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 MailOfficial 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 whichhad 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 AccountingBy 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 BagsThe 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 MovementAs the farm-to-table movement is now attracting a great deal of public attention and is directly connected with the postal serviceby 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 AlaskaAlaska 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 of249,331.10 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 MethodsDuring 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 TonguesThe 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 beproperly directed to its advantages, and these circulars in their own language are intended for that purpose.Postal Enterprise of a Patriotic Maryland EditorIt seems from old records on the subject as mentioned in theWashington 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 theMaryland 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 MailA 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 improperpreparation of the parcels by senders. The result of this investigation may be summarized as follows:Cases of damage caused by improper preparation of sender2,207Cases of damage caused by improper handling by postmaster107Cases of damage caused by improper handling by Railway Mail Service employes43Cases of damage caused by improper handling by railroad employes54Cases of damage from miscellaneous causes188Cases of damage from unknown causes1,620———Total4,219Cases of damage to—Eggs3558.41Butter992.35Hats1192.82Paint20.47Powders591.40Preserves1293.06Liquids92521.92Foodstuffs57513.63Merchandise1,00223.75China and glass3688.72Liquids92521.92Fruit1944.60Poultry511.21Flowers531.26Other articles2706.40——————4,219100.00Damage cases insured1373.25Damage cases on star routes3047.21An Opinion by Daniel Webster on Mail ExtensionIn 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 RollIt 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 ReformsMarshall 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 supportingarguments 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 ManIt 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 whenthe 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 RoutesIn 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

CHAPTER IVSpecial Articles on Postal SubjectsThe American Postal SystemThe 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 MailWhen General Gresham was Postmaster General in President Arthur’s administration, the Washington correspondent of theLouisville Courier-Journalcomplained to him about the non-deliveryof 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 PrintingStamp ManufactureThe 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 inthis 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 InspectorsThe 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 ServiceThe 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 PostmasterGeneral 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 EstablishmentThe 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 wheremonopoly 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 fieldof 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 GeneralExcluding 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 MailIt 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 MailOfficial 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 whichhad 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 AccountingBy 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 BagsThe 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 MovementAs the farm-to-table movement is now attracting a great deal of public attention and is directly connected with the postal serviceby 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 AlaskaAlaska 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 of249,331.10 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 MethodsDuring 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 TonguesThe 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 beproperly directed to its advantages, and these circulars in their own language are intended for that purpose.Postal Enterprise of a Patriotic Maryland EditorIt seems from old records on the subject as mentioned in theWashington 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 theMaryland 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 MailA 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 improperpreparation of the parcels by senders. The result of this investigation may be summarized as follows:Cases of damage caused by improper preparation of sender2,207Cases of damage caused by improper handling by postmaster107Cases of damage caused by improper handling by Railway Mail Service employes43Cases of damage caused by improper handling by railroad employes54Cases of damage from miscellaneous causes188Cases of damage from unknown causes1,620———Total4,219Cases of damage to—Eggs3558.41Butter992.35Hats1192.82Paint20.47Powders591.40Preserves1293.06Liquids92521.92Foodstuffs57513.63Merchandise1,00223.75China and glass3688.72Liquids92521.92Fruit1944.60Poultry511.21Flowers531.26Other articles2706.40——————4,219100.00Damage cases insured1373.25Damage cases on star routes3047.21An Opinion by Daniel Webster on Mail ExtensionIn 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 RollIt 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 ReformsMarshall 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 supportingarguments 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 ManIt 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 whenthe 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 RoutesIn 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

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 theLouisville Courier-Journalcomplained to him about the non-deliveryof 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 PrintingStamp 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 inthis 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 PostmasterGeneral 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 wheremonopoly 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 fieldof 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 whichhad 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 serviceby 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 of249,331.10 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 beproperly 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 theWashington 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 theMaryland 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 improperpreparation of the parcels by senders. The result of this investigation may be summarized as follows:

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 supportingarguments 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 whenthe 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

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