Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1906-08-17

E# 81 1 governments regu-
- lar military estab-
SAMUEL s. cox. lishment on land.
They are the letter carriers In almost
l 200 cities and large towns Of the Uni
ted States. Their number Is now ap,
$1,000. TO be exact, ac-
cording TO the last official count, they
were PITTS. They have doubled nu-
merically In the last fifteen years. In
the very last year-which in postoffice
parlance means the last fiscal year
they increased almost 8 per cent, which
Is very large increase. Could they all
be marshalled on Boston Common from
their 200 towns and cities they would
be as Imposing force, perhaps as ever
assembled on that historic ground.
Sunset Cox, lawyer, editor and leg
islator, a graduate of Brown Univer-
sity, who served several terms in Con-
gress, first from Ohio and then from
New York, was known as the father Of
the carrier service. 1t is, In consider
able part, due to his efforts that the
free delivery of mail was developed. 1t
was during the Fiftieth Congress, cover
ing the latter half of the first Cleve-
land administration, that the letter car
rier service began It's modern growth,
jumping 1913 per cent In one year and
30.1 per cent the following year, till
1t comprised S,257 men in 401 towns and
cities on June 80, 1889, just after Ben
jamn Harrison had entered the White
House.
But while those proportions seemed
large for those days, they were small
as compared with the present day. For
the fiscal year that ended June 30, 1889,
the carrier service was costing the
treasury $6957,942. The cost has
grown by leaps and bounds till last
year it was $20,919,07s The cost per
carrier then was $s43; last year at was
S961.
Ex-Representative Eugene F. Loud,
of California, who was long chairman
of the House Committee on Postoffices
and Post Roads, told recently how he
remembered the penny post In Boston
when young man before the Civil
War. Individuals delivered letters for
n penny each, the recipients paying for
the service. There was a similar SER
vice elsewhere. 1t led eventually to the
Postolficc Department taking over the
work. At first postmasters hired the
carriers and made the arrangements for
their salary. The present civil sevice
examinations for admission, and the
grading of salaries and the prescribing
of the strict eight-hour law, for which
Representative Cox was chiefly respon-
sible, and other latter-day laws and
regulations for the discipline and main
tenance of the big force were unknown.
1t Is frequent saying that postof-
flee receipts form a good gauge Of local
prosperity. The gross receipts Of free
delivery Offices have been climbing very
steadily. With few exceptions, the to-
tai has been larger every year, which
means that the carriers have had more
mail matter to collect and also to de-
liver. The gross receipts Of $1O9,SO1,-
335 in the Lila free delivery offices last
year were by far the largest ever
known. The number of carriers was
increased by 1,020 and the number Of
free delivery offices that year increased
by A.
Tie estimated population of the cities
and towns having free delivery was &c.
492 1853, almost half OF the entire popu-
lation Of the United States. Each of
these 21,I7S carriers served an average
of 1875 people, who had their mail put
down at the door from two to nine
times every weekday, according as they
received it in small or large city and
| I'm the business or residence section.
The consolidation Of service and the
! taking of towns adjacent to large CEN
ters Of population have helped swell
the army Of carriers In gray to de-
gree. Thus the area covered by the car
riers from q given office Is generally
larger now than 1t was ten years ago.
The largest area Is that in Chicago,
where the carriers, numbering 1919,
traverse 100 square miles. Before Bel
mont and Waverly were added, the free
delivery area in Boston was 95 square
miles, covered by 1,022 carriers, al
most a twentieth Of the G. tire free de-
livery carrier force. The addition of
Belmont and Waverly gives the free de-
livery district of Boston, comprising 3S
stations, an area of approximately 100
square mlles. New \oik City's 1883
letter carriers cover Il district of only
So 3-5 square miles.