The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1915-09-02
Post Office Department Is
Now Over lao Years Old
and No Celebration Held.
FRANKLIN FIRST POSTMASTER

One hundred and forty years and a
month ago the American postal system
had its birth as limping service
along a narrow strip of the eastern
sea coast, its fastest transportation
agency galloping horse.
The anniversary, that has gone
begging for recognition for nearly a
century and a half, was not formally
observed In spite Of it's significance.
The recent anniversary brought a
more emphatic reminder Of the differ
ences than ever before because Of the
far reaching innovations that are
about to be made in the service.
The private mail system that was
taken over On July 26, ITS, by Post
master Benjamin Franklin, consisted
OF thirty postofices, nine post riders
and slow schooner line to Atlantic
coast points. July 26, 1915, found the
same system, with over ffty-six thous-
and postofices and three hundred
thousand employees, transportation Of
mail by express trains and over few
experimental routes even by aero
planes; city distribution and collection
by motorcycles, automobiles and pneu-
matte tubes, and preparations in pro-
gress for beginning the motorization
of the rural delivery service.
The anniversary this year also fell
just after the announcement that be-
fore the end of the year the last horse
drawn mail wagon will disappear from
the service of the Washington city
postoffice-the laboratory of the pos
tai service.
In Franklin 8 day only letters were
carried officially in the mails, though
a few weekly papers and small pack
ages were taken by the carriers as a
matter of accommodation. The pres
emit elaborate classification of mails
was unnecessary. The tons of maya
zines and trade journals that are car
ried today had no counterpart, and
neither had the millions Of correspond
ence, business and souvenir post cards
that now pass through postal channels.
All overland mail was carried either
on horseback 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 regarded as especially speedy
and were dubbed "fying machines
by the writer's of the day.
Postage charges for greater dis
tances than hundred miles often
amounted to several shillings, and the
dispatch of letter was considered a
matter of some Importance.
In the decade before stamps were
used rates ranged from six cents for
thirty miles to twenty-five cents for
over four hundred 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 three cents and in 1883
the present two cent rate was adopted.
Among the other services now per-
formed that were wholly unknown to
the postal system when it became
-osAASoASA VI UAAO OuO uuuO-
red and forty years ago, are the regis
tration and insurance of mail the issu-
ance of money orders, the maintenance
of postal savings banks, the furnishing
of city, village, rural and special de-
livery service, and the transportation
of single parcels heavier than the en-
tire mail carried by early post riders.
The plan to replace horse drawn
vehicles by motor equipment gives an
indication Of what may be expected in
Kenosha and other cities. And at
the same time the transportation of
nearly two hundred rural delivery
wagon routes into half as many auto
mobiles routes will make, it is believ-
ed, the first. step toward the ultimate
elimination of the horse as factor in
mail distribution in the country dis
tricts.