Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-07-26
MILLIONS OF BAGS
TO HANDLE MAILS
Size of Defunct Equipment
Division Shows Growth
of the Service.

The mail equipment division Of the
Post ONCE Department which for eighty
years has had charge of the mail bags,
locks asd keys used in the postal serv-
ice has passed out of existence with It's
merger into the division of supplies.
The duties of this division was provid-
ing the necessary equipment for the rail-
way mail service and the service In the
rural sections of the country. This has
now grown to be. such a tremendous
proposition that the average citizen can
hardly form an idea of it's enormous
proportions.
Dry statistics show its size at present.
A recent tabulation showed that the
eight mail bag repositories of the United
States received and sent out again dur
ing the past year nearly 100000 sacks
and pouches. AS the real amount OF
such stock in the service is but 100000
pieces. 1t will be seen that this equipment
was handled ten times in that period by
the system of distribution devised to re-
lieve congestion at one point and meet
pressing demands at another. without
which the peculiar exactions of the serv-
ice could not be met with the stock car
ried by the department The rough
usage to which these mail sacks are sub
Jected while in transit makes frequent
fully and thoroughly done when they are
returned from service. 1t has been found
economical to make repairs when the
damage is but slight, and during the past
Year j 369.UU pieces of such material
nave been repaired and returned to the
service, and $4,000 new bags purchased.
Million Locks in Use.
Of the locks which secure this mail
IN transit there arc nearly 1000 900 in
use, and the same system of collection
and distribution followed based on re-
ports of accumulation and ordered away
to meet demands elsewhere When
these great totals of bags and locks
arc considered In connection with the
fact that the. National Museum has
among Its collections of postal curiosi-
ties a clumsy old leather pouch Of the
barrel pattern fastened with an iron
chain, which carried the entire south
ern mail from New York to New Or
leans prior to 1890. some idea can bt
formed OF the marvellous growth of the
country, measured by the postal serv-
ice.
There Is also some interesting hiStor.
connected with the old blank agency
now the division of supplies, which has
swallowed up the division OF equip
ment. The visitor about town who
surveys that great storage warehouse
the Post Office Depa rtment annex, al
ist and X streets northeast. with its
many thousand square feet of surface
and it's freight sidings to accommo-
date the vast quantities Of supplies
received and sent. the daily shipmen,
by freight alone being twenty-five
tons, might doubt the story that the
parent establishment originally con-
sisted of but three small rooms in the
basement of the old post office build
ing on f street and not particularly
crowded at that.
In 1872 Congrelss passed q law author
iZing the establishment of u blank agency
for supplying the smaller post offices OF
the country with blanks and the neces-
sary stationery for their use.
Started on Modest Scale.
The appropriation for this purpose was
1872 900. and Maj. Rhodes. then super
intendent, doubtless viewed with con-
scious pride this generous provision for
his little concern. In 1883 the scope OF
this enactment was enlarged and Con-
gress undertook the more serious task
of supplying all the first and second
class offices with such supplies. Before
this time these larger offices were al
lowed to purchase supplies as they needed
them. In 1887 the appropriation for this
purpose was ,$511.G0O. 1t now amounts to
something like S..OCOOOJ.
The mail equipment division was first
in charge OF Henry l.. Johnson. we'll re-
membered by older employees of the de-
partmcnt. He died in 1887. Mr. John
SON was an authority on all postal mat
tiers, having studied the subject in all its
details and being frequently called upon
by higher officials to establish some
mooted point by practice and precedent
which the written regulations failed to
cover.
Maj. Tyler. protege of Postmaster
General Dickinson, was his successor.
and he in turn was followed by Thomas
P Graham, whose resignation after six
teen years service there terminated an
Official career in the department extend
infr IN .fortv-fOur wears