Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-07-26
POSTAL SERVICES
ANNIVERSARY DAY
Founded 1873 Years AGO and
Helped to Unity American
Colonies.
FRANKLIN FIRST P. M. G.;
SALARY, 81, 900 A YEAR
Original Route Extended From Fal-
mouth, in New England, to
Savannah, Ga.

Today is the 13Sth anniversary Of the
founding of the United States postal
service, and although no formal cele-
bration is to be held by the Post Office
Department, those employees who re-
member the date are thinking Of the
contracts between the postal service then
and now. 1t was July 26, 1775, almost
one year before the independence of the
colonies was declared, that the freedom
Of the postal service was asserted.
Benjamin Franklin was the first Post
master General, and he received a salary
of $1,000 a year The first postal line
under independent supervision was from
Falmouth, in New England. to Savannah,
Ga. The British service existed in the
colonies from 1862 to 1775. 1t consisted
of one line paralleling the coast with
branches few and far between. This
service was administered by private
parties under grant from William and
Mary. and then directly by the British
government.
Spied on the Mails.
These crown postmasters had, or at
least they exercised, the right of spy
ing upon the mails intrusted to their
care. This made it difficult and danger
Gus for the lberty-loving colonists to
communicate with each other. The zeal
Gus representatives of England also pro-
fessed to exercise a supervising care
over the newspapers which We're printed
in the colonies. and made arbitrary
rules and regulations against those who
We're too liberal or outspoken in their
expressions of condemnation of things
as they then were and who dared to
urge the liberty and independence OF
the colonists. Some papers were shut
out of the mails and some were forced
20 tone down their utterances. A pound
sterling was demanded to carry go
papers 100 miles.
The post office led in the unification of
the colonists. Paul Revere was the con-
fidential post rider of Massachusetts. The
tea party in Boston Harbor would have
been but neighborhood affair but for the
agency of the post office and the patriotic
publishers who spread the news up and
down the Atlantic coast
The postal service did more than any
one other agency to unity and unite the
colonies. 1t brought their interests and
endeavofS to a common meeting point. 1t
brought the leading men and women to
know and exchange ideas one with an
other. Printing presses were established
about the same time that the postal serv-
ice was begun in America. Postmasters
enjoyed the privilege of sending their mail
free of postage, SO most postmasters be-
came publishers In this way the news of
the doings of the various jealous colonists
was disseminated and the opinions Of these
early postmaster publishers We're given
wide circulation. 1t added an incentive to
trade and intercourse. BY making the
colonists acquainted it dissipated jeal-
oussies. The growth of the post office
from the humble beginning of sturdy
carrier from New York to Boston loaded
with divers letters and small portable
packages" you see they had parcel post
even in those days.. solidified the colon
lists and made their independence pos
sible.