Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1906-07-17

y
the very last year-which In postofice
parlance means the last fiscal year
they increased almost per cent, which
Is very large increase. Could they all
be marshaIled on Boston Common from
their 1920 towns and cities they would
be as imposing a 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. II Is, in consider.
able part, due to his efforts that the
free delivery Of mail was developed. 1t
was during tho Fiftieth Congress, cover
ing the latter half of the first Cleve-
land administration, that the letter car
rier service began its modern growth,
jumping 1913 per cent In one year and
S0.1 per cent the following year, till
1t comprised S,257 men in 401 towns and
cities on June 80, 1889, just after Ben
jamin 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 S6957,94 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.
misrepresentation 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 a young man before the Civil
War Individuals delivered letters for
penny each, the recipients paying for
the service. There was a similar SER
vice elsewhere. 1t led eventually TO the
Postoifica 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 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 4 frequent saying that postof-
fee receipts form 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 SlO9,SOl,-
335 in the ia free delivery offices last
year were by far the largest ever
known. The number Of carriers was
increased by 1920 and the number of
free delivery offices that year increased
by A.
The estimated population of the cities
and towns having free delivery was &c.
49,, 1853, almoE half OF the entire popu-
lation OF the United States. Each of
these pits carriers served an average
Of 1915 people, who had their mail put
down at the door from two to nine
times every weekday, according as they
received il in a snail or large city and
in the business or residence section.
The consolidation of service and the
taking of towns adjacent to large CEN
ters of population bayt helped swell
the army CT carriers in gray to a de-
gree. Thus the area covered by the car
riers from given Office is generally
larger now than it 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 twentieth of the g tire free de-
livery carrier force. The addition of
Belmont and Wayerly gives the fyre de
livery district of Boston. comprising 80
stations, an area of approximately 1u0
square miles. New Noik City's 1883
letter carriers cover 4 district of only
So SIS square miles, but the Postofilce
Department people say that New York
| is city butt upou city, which is lit
orally true in some points as far as the
free delivery service is concerned.
For instance, take the great Syndi-
cate Building, thirty stories high, or
whereabouts, and located one block from
the postoffice. These are three letter
carriers who do nothing else in their
working hours but carry the mail to
that building. where $500 people have
offices. One carrier takes the elevator
10 the top floor and works down ten
| stories. Another takes the elevator TO
the Goth story and works down ten
stories. The third takes the elevator
TO the tenth story and works down TO
the ground. There are scores of other
similar cases In New York. The build
ing of skyscrapers there has called for
a larger army of letter carriers. The
same is true in other cities clear across
fhe country.