The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-04-28
Uncle Sam's Railway Mail Service
BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN

1 the letter travelled s19 miles to go four
 miles, but got there two hours earlier than 1t would had it waited for the direct train.
 From the day the first travelling post l office was established the success of
 tn experiment was assured. It was but a few years until there were railway i postal cars on every railroad. One does
 not realize how the business of the coun- try has grown until he looks at the fig ures. In 1877 there were S64 100000 pieces , of mail handled by the railway mail
 service. In 1888 the number of pieces :, handled had increased to 6,52s, 772'00O. In other words, the service had increased i 750 per cent in eleven years. In 1897 1 ther were Il 51, ,540, ,6S0 pieces handled, or close 10 double the amount handled nine
 years before In 1906 there was handled, exclusive of registered matter, almost 20,0000 000 pieces. Thus it will be seen l that the service in the last twenty years has practically doubled itself every ten years.
 The occupation of the railway postal clerk is a most dangerous calling. It Is said on the best auth4rty that the per centage of mail clerks annually killed and wounded in the service is greater than that of the United States army in thu Mexican war and several times greater than that of the Spanish-Ameri
 can war. During the last year there were BPS wrecks in which mail clerks figured. The mail cars are usually run 1 directly behind the engine and when there is wreck the fire from the engine is usually communicated to these cars,
 with the result that many clerks and
 much valuable mail are incinerated an- nually.
 AnotLor oo,,so tbot odds to tba dan ger of the mail car is the use of gas and oil as a lighting agent. The moment there Is a wreck, l. oil be used for light, the contents of the lamps are strewn
 over the wreckage of the mail car, and the first spark starts a fire. In the case of gas, the pipes leading to the storage
 tanks are usually broken, with the re- suit that there is an explosion, which
 makes 1t even more dangerous than oil.
 Electricity as lighting agent would overcome all this, and steel cars which could not be smashed would also be a great protection to the clerks.
 There are perhaps more than hundred all-steel cars now building. The Harri- man lines have thirty-six under contract,
 The Pennsylvania has large number, and other roads have cars under construc- ton. The first all-steel postal car was built by the Erie, and was exhibited two years ago in Washington This car was in a wreck last year, and though 1t took somersault down a steep em- bankment while the train was running at high rate of speed, it came out none the worse for the experience and all of the clerks escaped serious injury.
 The railway postal clerks have two organizations. The principal one Is the Railway Mail association, with a mem bership of II 900. This association Is oT a paper of its own. the Railway Post Office, whose editor, MT. George A. Wood of Portsmouth, N. H.. is also sec retary and treasurer of the association. It was through him that the scope of the organization was ESQ broadened as to make 1t considered by the department valuablo adjunct to the railway mail service in the solution of the many prob lens that arise fin the continual effort to better the service. Wood has been reelected to his office nine successive timss
 Even to this day there are rival claims as to who originated the postal car service. The friends of the late w. A. Davis. assistant postmaster at St. Jo- seph, Mo, claim that he was the origi- nator of the idea. but. practically all the official testimony gives the credit to George B. Armstrong, at the time as- sstant postmaster at Chicago, and after ward superintendent of the Railway Mail Service. Necessity has ever been the mother of invention, and it was necessity that led MT. Armstrong to think out t. postofflce on wheels. He had charge of distributing the mall to the various railroads dlverging from Chicago, and found his office swamped with the work. This led him to tell the postmaster that instead of having the mail distributed in central postoffices. he proposed that it should be done on moving trains.
 We have the testimony of the postmas- ter that he began to fear that Armstrong was crazy. However, he assisted in get ting the idea before the department. and Postmaster General Blair agreed that the experiment should be made The first car used was an old baggage car arranged in very crude fashion. It was operated on the old Galena railway between Chicago and Rockford, H. monument now stands in the lobby of the Chicago post ice to the memory of the man who founded this wonderful system.
 CTomorrow, some facts about dogs,)