Evening capital and Maryland gazette., 1915-08-26
HAS BEEN CARRYING
MAIL FOR l4O YEARS.
Uncle Sans Postal Service Was In
augurated in July, IT'S.

Just one hundred and forty years ago
last month the American postal sys-
TEN, which now stretches from the At
lantic TO the Pacific owe a close mesh
ed net Of fast mail routes had its birth
as a limping service along a narrow
strip Of the Eastern sea coast, its fast
est transportation agency being a gall
Looping horse.
Few OF the millions of Americans
who make use of the postal service
know of its historic aspect But those
familiar with postal history recall
each yeara the striking contrasts be-
tween facilities and methods of the
early days and those of the present.
The private mail system that was
taken over in July, 1775. by Postmas-
ter General Benjamin Franklin con-
sisted of thirty postoffices, nine post
riders and slow schooner line 10 At
lantic coast points. July, 1915, found
the same system with more than Sc
900 postoffices and 800. 900 employees.
transportation of mail trains and over
few experimental routes even by ae-
roplanes; city distribution and collec-
tion by motorcycles, motorcars and
pneumatic tubes and preparations in
progress for beginning soon the mo-
torization OF the rural free delivery
service.
The anniversary also fell this year
just after the announcement that be-
fore the end of the year the last horse
drawn mail wagon will disappear fron
the service of the Washington city
postoffice-the laboratory of the pos
tai service-says the New York Sun.
In Franklin's day. only letters were
carried officially in the mails, though
few weekly papers and small pack
ages were taken by the carriers as
matter of accommodation. All over
land mail was carried either on horse
back or in stage coaches, and because
the latter were capable of making the
trip between New York and Boston at
their best in two days they were con
sidered extraordinarily fast and were
dubbed flying machines" by the writ
ers of the day. Postage charges for
greater distances than one hundred
miles often amounted TO several shil-
lings and the dispatch of letter was
considered a matter of some import
ance those days.
One of the crudities of the early pos
tai service which contributed to high
postage rates was the method of pay
ment, the postal agents collecting in
cash for each piece of mail Postage
stamps were unknown i'm the United
States until 1S47. Their introduction
made a decrease in postage rates pos
sible, since much clerical work was
eliminated
In the decade before stamps were
used rates ranged from six cents for
thirty miles to twenty-five cents for
over 400 miles. When stamps came
into use fiat rate was put into effect
and five and ten cent stamps were
printed. In 1851 the letter rate was
placed at 3 cents, and in 1883 the
present 2-cent rate was adopted Now
more than ,000,000,000 stamps of all
kinds are issued annually.
The first Postmaster General would
find, in fact, few things in the mail
handling system of today that were
known when he took charge of the
nucleus from which all of the devel-
opments has come. One of the closest
links to the past he would find is the
use of the horse. which, though il has
been forced from its original place as
primary carrier of mail is still ex-
tensively used in final delivery sys-
tens. 1t is not improbable, however
that after the passage of few more
years even this connection with the
past will be lacking.