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.

Inc mall eQu pment 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 Its
| merger into the division of supplies.
The duties of tbs division was provid-
ing the necessary equipment for the rail-
way mail service and the service In the
rura, 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 it's 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 40OOO,OOO sacks
and pouches AS the real amount of
such stock In the service is but 100000
pieces, it will be seen that this equ pment
was handled ten mes In that period by
the system Of distribution devised TO re-
iieye congestion at one point and meet
pressing demands at another, thout
which the peculiar exactons of the serv-
ice could not be met with the stock car
ried by the department The rough
usage to VIII oh these mali sacks are sub
jeeted While in transit makes frequent
inspection necessary, and this s care
iulIy and thoroughly done when they are
returned from service. 1t has teen found
economical to make repairs when the
damase is but slight, and during the past
year $4,000 pieces of such material
have been repaired and returned to the
service, and $4,000 new baes purchased.
Million Locks in Use.
OF the locks which secure this mail
in transit there are nearly 100000 In
use, and the same system of collection
and distribution followed, based on re-
ports OF accumula ton and ordered away
to meet demands elsewhere. When
these great totals of bags and locks
are considered in connection with the
tact 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, Wnicn carried the entire SOUTH
ern mail from New York to New Or
leans prior to 1880, some idea can be
formed of the marvellous growth OF the
country, measured by the postal sery-
Ice.
There is also some interesting history
connected with the old blank agency.
now the division OF supp les, whicn has
swallowed up the division of equip
ment. Inc visitor about town VINO
surveys that great storage warehouse,
the Post Office Department annex, at
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 shipment
by freight alone being twenty-five
tons, mignt doubt the story that the
parent establishment originally cone
sisted or but three small looms In the
easement of the Old post Office buAd-
ing on street and not particularly
crowded at that.
In 1872 Congress passed a law author
izin- the establishment OF blank agency
.or supp.yin. The smaller post o.iices of
the country with blanks and the .neces-
-ary stationery for their use.
Started on Modest Scale.
The appropriation for this purpose was
sL2, 500, and Maj. Rhodes. then super
intendent, doubtless viewed with con-
scious pride this generous provision for
mis- little concern. In 1883 the scope Of
this enactment was enlarged and Con
81 ess undertook the more serious task
of supplying all the first and second
class oiices with such supplies. Before
This time these lar. er oHices were al
low ed to purchase supplies as they needei
.atm. In 1875. the Appropriation for tn
parpoSe was 45lI 40. 1t now amounts to
something like s2,UO0,COJ.
TIE mail equipment division was first
n charse of Henly l.. Johnson. well re-
meinb.red by oder employees Of the oe-
partment He died in 1887. Mr.. john
son was an authority on all postal mat
tiers, having studied the subject in all it's
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.
Mai. Tyler. a 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
ing to forty -four years.