The Washington herald., 1921-07-31
EVOLUTION OF POSTAL SERVICE
BY EDWARD w. COFFIN.

Francisco, or from village IN the Slate Oh WISH
ington to village in Florida But that trail is taken
several times day by messages, under the guild
ing hand and protection OF the governmental mail
service until have become accustomed to getting
letters the minute that it causes painful and
caustic comment when anything delays ar expected
commune alton
No other governmental institution is allied so
closely interviewer firmly with the daily lives OF
every person in this country the United States
mail. Yet it seldom occurs to any of us TO pause
moment in the hurly burly of modern life and con-
slider what it to carry letters from you and me
and the other fellow to friend relative or busi-
associate.
Somewhere in the ncighborhood of 2o.ooooooyooo
letters and packages will be handled this year by the
$1,000 or more postoffces which dot the nation Some
100000 people constitute the army which works day
and night Sundays and holidays day in and day out,
reading addresses, sorting letters and handling the
packages which mean much to sender and
receiver and little to any other person II is
this very impersonaity OF the mail service; the idea
that the mail, your mail, must be protested in
time OF trouble, at all costs, which has built up
higher morale among the postofhce employees than in
any civilian army of workers.
The term "postoffce" goes back thousands of
years to origin. In the old days OF the supremacy
OF the Roman Empire, the armies in the field were
linked with the powers back in Rome by couricrs
stationed every few miles along the highway. Each
OF these courier stations marked by post, and
the messages from the commanding generals
passed from hand to hand by the who be-
these post stations. Caesars messages to the
Roman thus delivered to the chagrin of
many school boy who has devotedly wished that
the couriers had stumbled into river been held
up by bandits their lonely trips from post post
But in those days punishment for interference
with the mails was swift and sure, sort Of fore
runner OF the early pioneer days in Western
regarded quick early grave
TIME first Colonial postmaster was one Richard
Fairbanks, who conducted office in his house
in Boston in 1859 to receive letters from ships.
An ordinance published in the General Court of
Massachusetts at that date that at is ordered
that notice be given Richard Fairbanks that his house
in Boston is the place appointed for all letters which
brought from and beyond the seas or are sent
thither be left with him, and that he is take
that they delivered according directions
and he is allowed for every letter a penny. and he
must all messages through neglect in this
kind"
In July. I77s, the Continental Congress established
the postoffce with benjamin Franklin the first
Postmaster General This system held until the Con-
stitution framed, when Samuel Osgood of Massa-
chusetts appointed Postmaster General by Wash
ington. He not member of the Cabinet them
and that office did not carry Cabinet membership
until 1929. Will Hays the forty-fourth Postmaster
General.
AS such he is the commander of the 100000 M
ployes who handle all details of the mail distribution
He directs the work OF 52,332 postohces, large and
small The work has grown from seventy-fve post
office stations in $780, at the start, to I3,468 in $780,
to 62,4oI in 1890 and the above smaller number in
1921. The greatest number of postoffccs ever in
existence was 76o45, in 1901, under the Mckinley
administration The extension of rural delivery since
its establishment in 1896 has caused a gradual de-
crease in the number of smaller postal stations
The gross postal revenues were, in round num-
bers, in I7oo $4,000, and expenditures $4,000; in
$780, revenues, $4s43soo and expenditures $47IS2oo;
in 1890. revenues. $6o8Soooo and expenditures, $780,