The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1911-05-31
]. 5. POSTOFF|CE.
ENORMOUS GROWTH Or SERVlC {,
DURING LAST HUNDRED
YEARS.
Receipts Multiplied 400 Times-Near'
w 100000 Men Empioyed--3.6oo
Mail Apartment Cars
in Use.

Washington May 3c-When the |
Congressional Committee that IS 10
investigate the workings OF the Post !
Office Department begins its lahors |
shortly its members will find that |
they are ielving into one of the most !
elaborate and complex business or.
ganizations in the country. Inc
tremendous expansion which has TAX |
en- place In the volume and extent OF
post office business may be seen by
comparison of the figures covering
some of It's transactions for 1919, the
first year for which general Stats
ties are available. and for 1910, the re-
port covering which wss issued re-
Gently. A century ago the entire
against the $3.50 in existence in
1910. In one respect, however. the
Post Office made better showing
hundred years ago than it has more
recently for it had q surplus OF $780,
IT'S from It's operations at the end OF
the year as compared to deficit OF
s5,S4S.56T last year. There are no
statistics available is the number OF
pieces of mail handled In the course
OF the twelvemonth of 1910, but the
total could hardly have been more
than that, while in 1910 1t fell just
short of 15,009,000,O00 pieces accord
ing to the estimate of the postoffice
authorities. Thus the volume OF
business transacted has increased
probably two-thousand fold, Another
| fold. Another way of measuring the
| increase in the amount of business is
/ by a COMPARISON of the number of
miles traversed in the transportation
| of mail which has increased from
FIVE and a half million miles in 1910
to 553,000,000 in 1900
Perhaps in no other particular rs
the expansion of the postal machinery
more marked than in this number OF
employees. Aside from the 2,30U
postmasters there were few employ
es In the various offices III 1919 and
mere handful of men directed the
department, then only a bureau, in
| Washington. Exact records of the
number of clerks of the different
classes run back only to 1900 but In
this single decade they have in
creased from 10000 to an army OF
10000, the greaFest growth neinv
naturally in the rural free delivery
service. This is ASIDE from the co.
900 postmasters, the inspectors and
other higher officers Of the Depart
ment and tose NOT In the classified
service. From the fact that the mem
bers of this army OF nearly 100000
men engaged in carrying on the pos
tai business OF the country are scat
tered throughout the land and ART
: brought into close touch with practl
: cally all the people, NJ Is easy 10 I'm
lerstand why this department of tht
government has been its main poll
: teal branch of its employees.
"While about 30 per cent of the
pay which the railroads receive iron
the government for the transportation
of mails is for the weight carried, ant
. only about 10 per cent for the spac.
occupied, it is nevertheless est
timated that about IS per cent o
all mail Is handled in railway pos
office cars and apartment are. Tn,
; average weight of mail carried In eaci
railway post office car is only abou
! three tons. Nearly twenty-five tom
of dead weight Is handled by the cor
D riers to each ton OF mail, a figur,
I very closely approximating that o
passenger service. In the case o
! freight, however, the dead weigh
! handled for each ton is only IL tons
' The act Of 1873, therefore, provided
that in railway post ONCE cars pay
ment should be made not merely 70
l. the weight carried but also for Tn,
(; space occupied, since no mere basi
of pay by weight could meet a con
p dition under which whole car Z
used for the transportation OF onl
it three tons of mail These payment
J. for space vary with the size OF TIL
car. No allowance is made for an,
space less than forty feet In length
!, although there are in service toda
, about $500 mail apartment ears q
, Against I4o9 railway postctice car