Evening star., 1901-05-06
! GEN { ION
The Contrast in the Washington City
Post Office.
FORTY THREE CLERKS RAN II ALL
Extraordinary Changes Within a
Short Span of Time
THE SERVICE

THROUGHOUT THE SERVICE
| "Of the many changes which have mark
| ed the closing of the present genera ton
none are more conspicuous than those in
| the postal branch" said an official to a
| Star reporter this morning.
"A generation is 4 comparatively short
| period. and many Of residents look
| back upon the days of the war and the ap-
| pearance of Washington with vividness.
| All of these will recall that the city post
| office was situated in the street wing of
| the old Post Office Depa tment building. 1t
appeared busy scene then, and the old
| post office room, with its balcony. seemed
! eommodious and lofty. Today it would
scarcely hold tenth of the force.
Handful of Clerks.
| AT that time Montgomery Blair was
Postmaster General, and ]. A. kasson of
| Vermont first assistant postmaster general.
| Lewis Clephane was postmaster of Wash
| ington. There were but forty-three clerks
| in the city office. In fact, in the entire
| Post Office Department there We're under
! 100 clerks employed to manage the affairs
| of the whole postal system of the country
| The department got along with only three
Wachmen. one messenger and three assist
ant messengers.
There are at present 791 persons of all
| grades employed in the Washington city
| post office, and about $50 clerks in the Post
Office Department. AT that time there
| were only four post offices in the District
| of Columbia - Washington, GEORGETOWN
| Tenleytown and Oak Grove TODAY there
are eighteen post offices in the District. of
| Which thirteen are money order offices
| though Brookland, Tenleytown and Ana-
| costa are stations of the Washington CITY
post once. t1aOryatOWn. that
| separate office, is row station A. There are
| also hfty-hve subStatiOns scattered through
| the city, making in all about seventy-three
/ post ofhces, large and small. in the District
! as compared with four only a little over
! thirty years ago.
"LOOkins Backwards''
| progress at like ratio during the en-
suing generation will revolutionize postal
| methods and build up a service at which
| We may now oniy conjecture, but which
will be giantic. 1t must not be lost sight
| of that l am speaking of only a generation.
| The service is already the strongest arm of
the government in point of numbers and
| has an army double the size of the regular
| army of the United States if the maximum
| of that body is fixed at 10000 men.
1T VIII be interesting to observe whether
! thirty years hence We will look back upon
| the postal service of today in the same
| light of Wonderment that We contemplate it
| as operated sc recently as in 1861. At
| that time the people paid less in twelve
months to the government for transporting
! their mail than they paid in one month in
! lSD In 1850 the total receipts were only
! Ss,.aA'op'. and the service cost us Slg lon
! GOO, proving that the postal officials Of the
| time We're struggling with the bugab of
! a deficiency just they are today and
! will no doubt be q generation hence Last
year the people paid $1u2 .:s.st .oo into the
/ treasury towards the support of the sys-
tenn, and the government had to add So
| :'S',cn to make both ends meet. II the
! cost of operating the service has increased
! SS'rh',oD during the past thirty years at
! the present great strides of national ad-
| Vancement ii would not be unrea Sonabla To
/ say that this latter sum will be eatlaled
/ within the next fifteen years, if not within
! the next ten. and prubably doubled if pot
| tripled, by 1882
| Interesting Subdivisions
Thousands of people living today recall
! the first money order they pun chased in
| 1860 In that year there were but "A 2Go
orders issued. to the amount Of S1,:.Go.uo
Today the government issues over b 10
| "O money orders annually. to the amount
| of S2''.GW,om, and will in al: probability
shortly do the enormous business of 81 600
| HO day in money orders. A force of
| about fifty clerks in the Post Office De-
partmenL manage this great system.
In 1865 the free delivery system all
| over the country did business in the few
| cities where established with only 6S5 let
IL
| get the peoples mail delivered directly in
| their hands. We will pay in 1901 over s11-
100000 for this Indispensable service and
| VIII require approximately 16,JUO carriers
| to perform it, or a body of men over one
| half of the size OF the United States army
before the Spanish war. Washington has
III carriers, or one-third as many as the
whole force a generation ago
AT the close of the civil war there were
only about 5000 post offices in the United
states, or less by several thousand than
there are money order offices today With
IN the past generation 1850 new offices
have been established. or % coo more than
were created from the birth of the republic
up to 1865.
From COrpOrafs Guard to an ARMY,
In 1860 the entire force of the railway
mail clerks amounted to only IS clerks
The service now costs annually sS $50 900
and an army corps of $500 men have sue
ceeded the original corporars guard
In passing more recent DEVELOPMENT
of one branch of the service must no, bs
omitted to show what may be expected of
the future, as the forecast l have inst
given You may be considered somewhat ey
agserated The special delivery service
was established in 1856, vet & 600 Hn of
these letters are delivered in a year now
each year showing heavy increase
a generation ago the government ey
pended only 2.JU,vD for the salaries of
presidential postmasters, or offices which
pay 81. 900 year and over, and there were
but 4:' of such federal appointments in the
United States President Mckinley has
appointed 1850 of these postmasters and
Congress has appropriated over 2ONO 900
for their salaries. In fact the single state
or New ork has almost as many of these
offices as the entire country a generation
ago. having at present $50. as against 90
during the civil war. Pennsylvania has :,04
as against 80, and Illinois has o7S. as
against 80.
Universal Free Delivery.
THE rural free delivery win spend next
year S,'0OoO in service which will
place mail matter directly in the hands OF
farmers and others living in the country |
\ generation ago the entire raco;,,+, % . /