The Topeka state journal., 1909-03-10
NEED new THINGS
Congressman Victor YurdOck
Discusses Postal Service.
Would Have Prizes Offered by
Postmaster General.
POINTS OUT DEFECTS.
Too Much Inertia i'm the Govern.
ment Service.
Says That Rural Delivery Was
an Accident.
POINTS OUT DEFECTS.

| Washington, D. c., March 10.-''In
thinking of future improvements in the
postal service and particularly in re-
spect to rural free delivery, this idea
has often come to me: Provision for
three annual awards by the postmaster
general; $1,000 for the best suggestion
for an Improvement in the existing
service; $1,000 for the next best sugges-
ton, and $1,000 for the next" observed
Congressman Victor Murdock-
THE trouble with government ser
vice of all kinds is and always has
been the element of inertia in it," con-
luctance to flexible adoption to chang
ing conditions, manufacture, commerce.
| transportation constantly call to their
aid the genius of thousands of in
ventors, organizers, and managers. The
postal service on the other hand, SHES
| from innovation, clings to the old way.
and, should it be forced by conditions
! to adopt a new branch, halts and hesi-
| tates in its development
THE theory which brings aid to man
ufactureS, aside from the force of COM
petition, is the incentive of personal re-
ward. 1t is present only in the slight
est degree in the postal service. Why
not supply it?
Il am more impressed with the need
and value of some such plan because
rural delivery itself was, at the moment
OF It's 1nduSuTdI1On, que 10 WIldL was
almost a legislative accident.
Just previous to the first small be-
ginning of rural free delivery there was
in congress a spirited attempt to in
class postmasters. 1t was bitterly op-
posed by the men, who afterward re-
sisted the inauguration of rural free
delivery. The demand for the increase
for the postmasters in small postoff1ces
was from the country; it was voiced
by congressman from agricultural dis
tricts. A Providence that Is wiser than
any man put it into the hearts of the
leaders to oppose this proposition. Had
they accepted it, the fine edge of the
demand for recognition from the coun-
try would have been temporarily turn
ed and rural free delivery would have
tury.
"The country was denied and angered
and returned to the attack with rush.
and carrying the banner of rural free
delivery, pushed on to the most nota-
BILE postal achievement in history. For
rural free delivery, as time is reckoned,
is the work of a day. The young man
of q today may say that he can re-
member when it did not exist. All other
branches of the service of kindred mag
nitude were slow in growth. The first
40 years of the postal service were al
most featureless in development. Post
master General Meigs contribution to
the systems growth was order,
about 1904, that books should be ex-
cluded from the mail as their sharp
corners rubbed the addresses off the
envelopes. In 1928 the service began to
show signs of vigor. Under Postmaster
General Mclean, a surplus of more than
ordinary size accumulated and he did
not turn 1t into the treasury but asked
leave and received 1t to use it in the
extension of the star mail routes.
Like d Great Plant.
'I have often thought of the postal
service as a great plant, with slowly
opening buds. The first bud that open
ed was the star route. AS / said Nc
Lean used the surplus to extend this
kind of service Congressnen and SEN
ators were guaged by constituents by
their ability to get star routes. There
was tremendous demand. Barry sue
ceeded Mclean. He received the full
shock of congressional demand He
improved the service and extended it.
and one morning woke up with a de-
felt of $400. 900 on his hands and con-
gressfonal investigation which forced
him out of office. This was in 1884
by 1910 the service had recovered
from star route excesses and was put
ting forth its next bud-the railway
mail service. It was slow and diff
cult flower. The express companies
took the transportation of the mails
away from the government and at one
time there were many thousand more
letters received and distributed at the
hotels in Boston and New York than
by the local postoffices of both places.
The government finally asserted its
monopoly but it was years before the
railway mail service developed its
marvellous function of distribution in
transit and the route agent, standing
guard over pile of mail bags and
sacks was supplanted by the busy rail-
way postal clerk with his head full of
routings, connections, and distribu
tions.
TT was at the period of the struggle
with the express companies that a lit
tie bud on the postal plant withered
and died. More is the pity. The gov
ernment had the telegraph and threw it
away.
1T was shortly after this period that
another bud appeared-city free deliv
cry. A private citizen in New York OBJ
tanned the consent of several mer-
chants along Broadway to go to the
postoffice, get their mail and bring it
to them. He charged small fee and
his patronage f1ourished. A postmaster
general saw, called that citizen into
consultation, took over his system. and
gave him a departmental job at $1,000
year. But city free delivery was
not in full flower until many years
later when the extra postage for deliv-
cry was eliminated. The adhesive post
age stamp came and vitalized the
whole system. For many years after
he civil war the star route service, the
railway mail service. the city delivery
service were developing and the nation
kept up an almost constant demand for
lower first class postage. This came at
last in the early eighties
The Rural Delivery Bud.
AT the beginning of the last decade
of the last century" said Mr.. Murdock
''the rural free delivery bud began to
show. 1t was nothing in 1896. Ten
years later it was the greatest blossom
on the bush. Has it attained its
growth? No more than the star route
service had reached its fullness in
1880 or the railway mail service in
1S40. or the city delivery in 1850 And
-l1raI free delivery will not reach full