Los Angeles herald., 1909-06-27
The Government Mail
BY Frederic j. HaSkin

u n
! a bicycle cyclometer. Every time that
/ lock is opened the register moves up
one number. Two men fill a pouch
with registered matter. Each checks
/ 1t off and certifies to its contents, keep
! ing one copy of this for their record
| and enclosing another in the pouch.
! Then they fasten the pouch with the
lock, having placed the number of the
4 lock and its rotary number on the GER
/ tificate of contents. When this pouch
! arrives at it's destination the clerks
who receive it first look to see if the
rotary number corresponds with what
it was when it was locked at the be-
ginning of it's Journey. If 1t does, all is
we'll; If it does not they know that
someone has opened it who had no
/ right to do so. If they find the contents
all right a voucher to that effect is sent
to the men who filed the pouch, and
/ this is filed with the original statement
of contents It is through this method
/ that nearly all the stamps sent to post
masters and the revenue stamps we
| buy are distributed by the postoffice
and treasury departments respectively
The last count of pieces of mail re-
ceived by senators and representatives
! showed an average of from $4,000 70
| 900 letters a day and about twenty
/ bushels of newspaper and circular mail.
]
off in the mail received by the average
senator and representative. Two things
have been principally responsible for
| this-the decrease in pension corre-
spondence and the civil service laws.
| 1t used to be that every constituent
who thought he had a chance for a gov
ernment job got after his representa-
tive, bombarding him with indorse-
ments and other things designed to help
| him to the place. The civil service
rules have changed this, and the APP
plicants for pensions write to the
bureau instead of to their members Of
| congress.
If one could look over the mail of the
average senator and representative he
would find Ii full of human interest
stories and mirth- provoking messages.
| Not long ago "Uncle Joe" Cannon re-
ceived letter from a Virginia corre-
spondent who signed himself "Ex-State
! Senator Joseph o. CoVode." The letter
set forth that inasmuch as the writer
! thereof was the man who had found
the bones of Pocahontas his requests
ought to receive particular attention
The request was that when Congress
man Rixey gets up his bill to improve
Lower Machodoc creek let her go
through, Uncle Joe, let her go through.
"JJncle Joe" indorsed on the back of the
letter: Respectfully referred to Hon:
John f. Rixey for his information.
But Lower Machodoc creek failed to
/ get the appropriation. so Uncle Joe
has never '1et her go through
Perhaps there never was a change
| in administration in which there was
such a remarkable change in the vol
ume and tenor of the White House
! correspondence as there was Wheh
Taft succeeded Roosevelt. There
never was a president who main
tanned the large personal CORE
spondence that was kept up by Mr..
Roosevelt. Interested in every sub
ject under the sun, with friends IN
| every walk of life and in every quar-
ter of the globe, the minute he as
! sumed the reins of government the
White House staff saw that there We're
| going to be strenuous years ahead.
! He wrote almost twice as many per-
sonal~letters as Mckinley or any
| other predecessor. The same condl-
ton obtained with his official mail.
| Under the Taft regime conditions have
come back about to what they were
| during the Mckinley and Cleveland
| administrations. Mr.. Taft sees but
comparatively few of the letters re-
| ceived at the White House. A system
of rules has been framed for the
! guidance of the executive clerical
staff Those letters which can best
be answered by the departments are
sent there even before Mr.. Carpen-
| ter secretary to the president, sees
them. Others go to Mr.. Carpenter,
and out of these he selects the com
| paratively few which need to be
| brought to the attention of the presi
dent himself. If Mr.. Taft gave his
entire correspondence personal atten-
! tion, he would be busy every hour of
the twenty-four and would still be
unable to read all his letters.
When former Secretary Shaw came
i -. a ~ mn hn hnH
that notion common to country bank
ers that he must give his attention To
every little detail of the treasury work.
| SO vast is the amount to be done
there that one man could not look
after the thousandth part of the de-
tails, much less do 1t all and the inn
portant things besides. But Mr.. Shaw
was up by the break of day and in
his office by the time Washington
| was at breakfast. There he wrote
| and wrote. He also insisted that he
should sign everything that went out,
so far as it was possible. But he soon
had as fine case of writer's cramp
as was ever the lot of man, and
thereafter he found that the treasury
wheels would not stop revolving just
because his writing hand was out of
! commission.
The postoffice department is the
| greatest producer of government mail,
the agricultural department next,
then the treasury department. The
treasury department alone receives
from 5000 to 5000 letters a day. One
word saved in every letter mailed by
the government would lay off enough
stenographers to man the office of a
company doing a business of a million
dollars year.
Copyright 1909, by Frederic J. Haskin.)
/