Daily Kennebec journal., 1910-04-20


chin All good work and good service
are furthered and improved by fraternity
and association. .
tho service. who know what 1t meant to
of tho Civil War, and perchance there are
some here who have gone into the peri.
of the fever camps OF Chickamauga ana
Santiago. If so. you know what union
means. And it is that spirit of fraternity.
of interest. that makes the association OF
wbatsoever kind of a beneficent. socia'
and economic factor when used for proper
nurposes in line with economic progress
You belong to an ancient and honorapio
profession. The most trusted men OF ai'
times have been the couriers who passeu
through perils as the emissaries OF kiiiso
and emperors. History is full OF romance
of the deeds they did. but not less nun
orable, tho less often told IN verso a.
story, have been the deeds OF tiie Aie
who, from the wreck of trains 'iio1
flood and fire, amid hostile trioes oi
dians. amid great storms and piiIzai"a' "
all lands. have fought on with the i.a'
for Uncle Sam that you ana l aiu NV
rest of us might read our mornihs iiies-
sage nv the fireside or our eVeHiis he"e
PAPERS by the lamps bright sio~'
beIieve that no profession mas en-
ro1,ed moro unknown heroes than yours;
that none exacts more explicit service;
none demands greater sacrifice and none
;s more worthy of an increasing wage.
wo are approaching the third centennial
of +be beginning Of the postal service of
tbi. country. an important arm of which
vou are. Ten years hence will be the
third centennial of the landing of the
pilgrim Fathers, and while I cannot
learn that the Pilgrim Fathers had any
great amount of mail the first few WIN
ters of their experience at Plymouth COL
ony, I think you will agree with me that
such as they did have was doubtless Dy
the rural free delivery.
The first message delivered to the Ply
mouth colony was by an Indian. Samoset'
am not going to say that ne was Tue
first letter carrier, or that any supse-
quent letter carriers have been lndlans
in any sense of the word. You know bet
ter about that than I do. But what
was coming to was the fact that IN 1859
the general court of Massachusetts ap-
nointed the house of Richard Fairbanks
in Boston as the place where letters Tor
or from beyond the seas were to be ie1t,
and that said Fairbanks was to be paid
a penny letter for taking care of them
and delivering them. That was the first
American postoffice. The beginnings of
the enormous system of which you are
part, and which will be self sustaining as
far as expenses go when the nation
learns to make a better form of con-
tract with the common carrier, and cuts
out the excessive use and misuse of the
franking privilege by public officials.
1 have already detained you too long
sympathize with you in your purposes
as l understand them to be characterized
by this session. My own lot has been
cast along the lines of toll. [ have got
ten nothing without work, hard work. /
feel that among men who work there is
a growing community of interests. SYM
pathy overstepping all relations of pub
lie official and private citizen, and meet
ing on the broader plain of general well
fare. l want to say to you that in every
way that may aid or comfort you in
your work I am with you and that
stand ready to serve you. and | am sure
I stand ready to serve others so far as
| am able toward securing by legislation
and in all other ways those things that
you know to be for your own uplift and
advancement
James a. Gallagher of Boston. repre-
sentative of the National Association,
followed In happy speech. and c. II.
Pendleton. postoffice inspector. of Jersey
City. also made pleasing remarks. The
other speakers were Postmaster Perham
S. Heald of Waterville; DR.. l.. 6. Bunker.
president of the Waterville Board of
Trade: Slas Adams of the railway post
office service: DR.. J. G. Towne and AS
sistant Postmaster J. f. Larrabee.
Capt Adams in his address gave many
interesting statistics regarding the rail-
way postolnce, showing that train clerks
have something to do In their respective
lines. He stated that on the New York
and Chicago run they have five working
cars and from three to five storage mail
cars On the Shore Line single train
has five working cars and three storage,
and the New York and Pittsburg is
about the same calibre. On the Boston,
Providence to New York run. six men
are kept busy and make up 81 pouches
WiIlCH dlc dtl leduy tHc new 1OrK
carriers. In coming to Boston 80 pouches
are made up. The expenditure alone in
this department shows a great increase.
The expenditure in 1880 was $38 900; in
1900 it was sl07, 100000. while in the past
year 1t was s221,0OO0OO. Capt Adams fur
nisled more statistics along similar lines
and stated that from Jan. o to 81. 1910
"a period of six days., 1882 sacks of
second class mail was dispatched. In the
same period in 1909 only zoos pouches were
dispatched. From Jan. % to 81 of the
present year 100000 letters were dispatch
ed compared with 5000 in the preceding
year During the same period in this
year 10000 pounds of second class mail
was handled.
The POST OFFICE CLERKS,
CONTINUED from Page Nine