Grand Rapids herald. [volume] (Grand Rapids, Mich.) 1892-1959, 1892-01-10
JOHNS BUSY DAY
Julian Hawthorne Spends an
Hour With Wanamaker.
HIS FAMOUS DOUBLE RECORD
How the Enormous Business of the Possa
Department is Hsndlsd--improve-
ments Made and Contemplate.

There Is q moral to Mr.. wanamaker's
Washington career; il may be tormn-
lated as business VS. politics He has
been for fifty years identified with busi-
ness, and has risen 10 be the greatest
dry-gocds dealer in the world. Presi-
dent Harrison. amidst general cutcries
of doubt and warning. put him in his
cabinet as chief of the post once: and
now Mr.. Wanamaker bids fair 20 gain
the title Of the best postmaster general
we have ever had. This is an age of
records" Mr. Wanamakcr's double
record will not soon be broken, either
in Philadelphia or in Washington.
The idea of putting q business man
irto the very hot-bed eud head center
OF political intrigue in the national cap
ital, 1t wes gu audacious conception.
The employees Of the post Office number
no less than 100, 600 persons What an
opportunity for ''politics." II Is true
that Mr.. Wanamaker is SO rich that
money cannot bride him. He pays out
more than a quarter of his Official salary
on the employment OF private secre-
tary. Mr.. Marshall Cushing. who is
WORTH indeed. as much as the whole
salary out OF which he is paid. Mr..
Wanamaker's home in Washington
formerly the Frelinghausen mansion,
then occupied by the Whitneys, Of
magnificent memory has cost him. for
change and improvement, more than he
will ever make ont Of the post office.
How are you TO approach ian whose
business nets him q million l. year? No;
Mr.. Wananaker makes nothing out OF
the vast patronage OF his Office. Pecun-
iarily. the whole BUSINESS il rather a
loss to him than otherwise. Why, then,
did he accept it?
1t must, of course, have been ambi-
ton. Mr.. Wanamakcr is ambitious
He Is q strict Presbyterian, a rigid NOR
alist, an honest shopkeeper; but he can
not deny that he is ambitious. Al
though. however, this was accounted a
sin in julius Caesar, it can hardly be SO
regarded in Mr. Wanamaker. For Mr..
Wanamaker's ambition, so far as
Washington is concerned, is confined to
giving this country the best post oface
administration IL has ever had. Some
wise persons will here smile sagaciously
and say: "And what about the prcsi-
dcncy?" Well, l am free to admit
that / don't believe Mr.. Wanamaker
wants the presidency. It has been
stated that no man can live who is
capable of refusing it, were he sure Of
getting it. Mr. Wanamaker is not sure
Of getting it, far from it, but l believe
he is more than content that it should
be so. He doesn't want it. Were he
nominated and elected. he might think
he did want IL. But he doesn't want il
now; and it is very likely that. when
his term is up, he will retire with much
content into private life, even giving up
his shop perhaps. and show the world,
in common with George Peabody and
G. W. Chiids, how much good money
can do.
To give an idea Of what the post Of
fice growth has been since it was
started under old Samuel Osgood n
hundred and odd years ago it is enough
to say that in 1850 two thousand letters
were posted in dsy, whereas now