The Washington herald., 1914-03-15
RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE
POSTAL PROGRESS FACTOR
Idea First Brought to Notice of Department in 1853
byS.K. Hobbie, Assistant Postmaster General,
and Adopted Nine Years Later.

The Railway Mail Service OF the United
states in its marvellous growth and de-
velopment Is the most stupendous fact
In the history of postal progress and
achievement. While other agencies have
grown as need required or opportunity
presented. an are dwarfed In comparison
with this. Its strides have been so rapid
and 50 great that one can scarcely real
ize the immensity of its progress from
It's very modest beginning.
The idea Of q railway post-office for
the United States first was broughtsof-
ficially to the notice of the department
by s. X. Hobbie. First Assistant Post
master General. In 1858, who. UPON his re-
turn from a trip to Europe. gave his i'm
pressions OF the travelling postoffice in
England. No action was taken. but after
various methods had been successfully
tried to meet the increasing difficulties
Of pouching and distribution on the rail-
roads without satisfactory result, Judge
Holt, Postmaster General IN 1s62, adopted
the plan of a travelling postoffice and
ordered It carried into, effect.
Overcamc All Obstacles.
Beginning its career at a period when
all the resources OF the government were
strained to the utmost to meet the exi-
gencies OF a great war and beset with
many obstacles. II overcame them all
and emerged from its early struggles with
the knowledge gained from experience
which eventually was to make II the
great factor in the postal history OF our
time.
Statistics ordinarily convey little or no
meaning to the uninitiated reader and
q mass OF figures expressing mileage or
pieces Of mail handled are not usually
.f H~. Sr,sA hut fhe Nror r.araf ffor,
which moves to endeayor and accom-
plishment. and which has marked the
progress Of the Railway Mail Service. as
seen in its quickening effect upon postal
conditions generally, Is OF interest and
worthy of note as illustrating what the
department. with all its vast concerns.
owes to the Industrial energy which this
life upon the wheels. has. by far-reach-
ing example, injected into the body OF
the workers. whether in the postoffices
OF the country or in other fields Ct postal
activity.
When Postmaster General wanamaker,
who had been an extensive employer OF
labor and knew by experience how to get
the best results. opened the door OF op-
portunity to the merttorious clerk in the
Railway Mail Service, first. by the offer
OF a golden reward in the shape or
medals to the most skillful and proficient.
and later by permitting transfer to the
departmental service. that marked i'm
provement in the character Of public
service began and has continued until
everywhere that the mail goes, or Is
handled, that progress, born OF promised
recognition and reward, has worked It's
benehcent result; not the recognition OF
the men in { Railway Mail Service
alone. but accepted in the wider sense Of
a liberal and generous policy to all alike
to the workers in the service every
where. 1t was the first real promise of
reward from those high in power and the
wisdom that prompted 1t was abundantly
justified by the effect 1t produced.
Cp-to-Date Methods Tried.
In the old days. before the railway
service began to develop the qualities
which its strenuous duties required. gov
ernment work generally was character
lied by the ordinary dull routine which
long precedent had established. and
which no one felt called upon to disturb.
Gradually, however. the custom and prac-
tice OF a more up-to-date and energetic
method of handling public business be-
gan to manifest itself as the men from
the road came into contact with their
fellow-workers in other branches, bring
ing with them those habits and methods
to which they were accustomed and
which their duties in a particularly exact
ing service made so entirely necessary.
The time had come for a change. and