New Britain herald., 1922-05-20
THE OBSER YER
Makes Random Observations
 On the City and Its People


 pie In n varied line of sports. Tt tamous scotch pastime has not reach. ed that point of popularity where it could hope to gain the support of the people for an appropriation of s2b,000.
 1 Knocking the public service is one Of the most popular of all mental exercises In America. This is par ticularly true in the case of the post office department. A man will spend several dollars for a dinner and declare that "everything's fine" for fear of offending the walter. But when he spends two cents for a stamp he expects all the employees in the post-office department to stay awake nights until his letter is de- livered.
 When you feel inclined to harpoon the post-office department remember that
 It is the largest business institu- tion in existence.
 It handles one-third of the mail Of all the world.
 There are posted each hour of the day an average of more than 1.5o0,- GOO letters 200 tons of parcel post and seventy-five tons of newspapers and magazines.
 Each piece of mail matter Is handled an average of eight times up to its delivery.
 More than seventy-ive per cent. of all mail is handled between the hours of and 9 p. m.
 If the entire number of letters mailed each year in the United States were laid end to end, it would make belt that would encircle the globe about seventy times.
 The revenues of the postal service amount to more than $450, ,000, 900 annually.
 The postal receipts of New York City or Chicago are more than twice those of the entire Dominion of Canada
 The postal service does a business of half billion dollars yearly, mostly in one and two-cent items.
 The money order business amounts to a billion, two hundred and fifty million dollars (s1,250, 0,0o0,000) an- nually.
 The postal savings system has on deposit more than 175 million dol lars.
 The parcel post handles and trans ports three and one-half billion pounds of merchandise annually.
 One billion, two hundred and fifty million pounds of second-class mail are handled each year.
 Eighty-five millions are spent each year on rural free delivery, a sum which far exceeds the gross receipts of the business originating on rural routes.
 More than 52,0OO post offices are people are employed.
 Now go ahead and knock.
 Exit the sacred cow" In large droves it is departing from the green pastures where it has been chewing it's ruminative cud for 10 these many years.
 You don't know what a sacred COW" is? We'll, sacred COW" is g development of the passing order of things in our industrial institutions, a product especially of [ e fat years when money was plentiful and titles as thick as leaves and every we'll conducted factory was divided and sub-divided until it consisted of one large mass composed of many little pieces. In each division man was in charge. He took his title very seriously was jealous of his preroga- tives and thought it was beneath his dignity to perform any menial labor which could be done by subordinate. If he wishes to communicate with man in the next office, even though he could see him through a glass panel, he called a stenographer, cleared his throat and dictated for half an hour. Then he ran his index finger up and down the row of pearl buttons on the side of his desk, bringing an army of office boys and girls on the run, and dispatched ms communication with all the pomp be- fitting his station. He could easily have stood up, rapped on the glass panel and shouted: Hey, Bill, has that steel come yet?" but he couldn't forget that he had title and it would be very undignified to do such thing. Besides, it would set a bad ex- ample for the plebeians.
 And so the sacred COW" came into existence. He was full of orders and issued them like machine gun. un- fortunately for him, he was singled out for slaughter when executives be- gan to cast their eagle eyes over the