The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-11-24
MAILS ON STREET CARS.
An Idea Postmaster McCoppin
Is Eager to Have
Adopted.
Some Correspondence Anent It Between
Him and Postmaster. General
Wilson.


Wilson.
There has been considerable CORE
spondence between Postmaster Frank Nc
Coppin and Postm aster- General William
Wilson's department at Washington rela-
tive TO plan Mr.. McCoppin has in view of
utilizing the street railway facilities of this
City for the collection and distribution of
mails.
Experiments along the same line have
been made in St. Louis, Chicago, Brooklyn,
Boston, Philadelphia and Cincinnati, and
the author of the Wilson tariff is partial to
the idea.
Mr.. McCoppin has an eye on the future,
and hopes before a Republican President
shall succeed Grover Cleveland in the
White House that the new depot of the
Southern Pacific viii have been completed
and station d become the principal place
for the dIspatching of outgoing letters
and the distribution of incoming mails.
Station d is at the foot of Market street,
and the principle Mr.. McCoppin is pro-
ceeding upon is that the postal business of
the City must naturally trend toward the
point OF dispatch.
He is not in the habit of talking much
about it, nor are those closely associated
with him in the executive work of the
Postoffice; but from the Hobart building,
where the headquarters of the Market
street Railroad Company are located, it
was learned that negotiations are now
being made between the company and the
Postmaster having in view some expert
mentation as a preliminary. For some
reason the officials of the street railway
company are also inclined to be reticent,
and will not much more than admit that
"there has been some talk of it." and that
it can be put down among the probabili
ties of the future
Joseph L. Willcott, who, as secretary of
both the Southern Pacific and Market
street Railway companies, is interested in
securing all and whatever business COM
mon carriers can get hold Of has been, for
some time, an enthusiastic advocate of
street railway mail transit. There is one
great advantage the Market-street Rail-
way Com pany would gain by it, and that
is in the legal status of a system of local
rapid transit that would thus become
post road" and as such be on the same
footing as the mail-carrying railroads of
the country in the event Of any strike.
Dissatisfied employees would not fail to re-
member the lessons taught by the Pull
man strike.
When the new depot is built the Post
Office will have a room in it so by as feet in
size, if not larger. This much of room
has already been agreed upon, and there
the main work OF the Postoffice is to be
done, leaving the lighter and admlnistra-
tive business to be attended to in the new
building at Seventh and Mission streets
after it is completed, and in the present
accommodations until then.
If eventually the correspondence which
has been passing between Messrs. McCop-
oh
Max Pepper of some of the mail carrying
to and from the various stations by trans
ferring it to the street railways, Mr.. Will
cults idea of mail-boxes attached to the
dashboards of the cars is to be tried. Then
the City is to be so districted as, to enable
the gray-uniformed carriers to collect the
mails and put them on the cars as speedily
as possible, all to be conveyed to station d.
One OF these districts, for example,
might embrace several blocks square con-
tiguous to Market street. The carrier
would start at Market street and collect all
the mails in the little patch on the City's
map apportioned to him and get back to
Market street at an appointed time to
catch a car and put his mail in the DASH
board receptacle. On this plan the entire
City would be worked.
Then as to the distribution of the mails:
Instead of being ratified over the cobbles
as they now are in Max Peppers wagons,
they would all be placed in convenient
sacks in appropriate receptacles on the
cars at the foot of Market street and con-
veyed to the different stations. Thus
station BIS mail in sacks, properly marked,
could easily be transported up Market
street to the office near the City Hall !;
station C's almost as easily conveyed out
to Twentieth and Mission streets; station
Els to Third and Townsend streets; station
F's to Post and Devisadero; station G's to
Seventeenth and Castro; station HIS to
Laguna and Ivy; station KS to Palace
Hotel, and so on.
Arrangements with ali the street rail-
way lines of the City would follow, doubt
less, in time, so that every station would
be communicated with station A, on Polk
street, via the Sutter-street system, and
station J, on Montgomery avenue, by the
Union-street cars.
Like all contemplated innovations,
though, there are some difficulties in the
way. One is Max Peppers contract,
another the articles of incorporation of the
street railway companies and third the
mass of business which Postmaster Will
liam Wilson has to get off his hands be-
fore he can get around to Mr.. McCoppin's
idea. There is financial side, however,
to Mr.. McCoppin's idea. 1t cost not less
than $37 sos, sol % during the fiscal year
ending June 30 for the single item of
"routes" in this country, according to
Auditor George A. Towards report to
Secretary Carlisle.
The crocodile will sometimes 60 without
food for year. Upon waking up from a
nap of this duration he is something RI he