The Morning Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Okla.) 1919-1927, 1922-05-28
THE HOUSEMAID
OF CIVILIZATION
Hubert Work Traces the
Growth of Postal
Service
ROMANCE OF The MAIL
Lincoln's First Public Service
Lincoln's First Public Service
Was as Postmaster at
New Salem, Ill.

SPRINGFIELD. ILL.,, May H.
instead OF a mere handful OF pos
tai employees In Benjamin Frank
Inns day, there are $4,000 skilled
workers, or about one-half the gov
srnment's civil service employees, en-
yaged In the service. while the an
nual revenue derived from the
mails has leaped from about s25.-
900 10 s464,000.000 In the same
period, Hubert Work, postmaster
club here.
Mr.. Work. who described postal
service as the housemaid OF civiliza-
ton and sketched its history from
tn dispatch bearer of Assyrian and
Roman times to airplane service of
the present day. said the American
postal service had doubled in the
last decade, but that the number Of
employees had increased by only 8
per cent.
This indicates that TO care for
the extra load an ever-increasing
standard of efficiency OF the indi-
vidual employe. as we'll as in the
methods OF administration and me-
chanical equipment has TO be main
tanned"
The postmaster general paid high
tribute to the American postal
worker, saying that he considered
him "as one of the most important
units in the country's business. |
do not believe any other public or
private employment demands such
high degree OF f~aithfulness. loyalty
and efficiency as we require of
those who handle tho mail.
ga. vrn tttrp tho yNa0au 90 htatprtr
we find the of the mails
running through the story OF mans
progress" said the postmaster gen
eral. For even in the dawn OF
history man learned to entrust his
message to others for delivery.
"As far back as the sixth century
r. c., ancient Assyrian apd Persian
monarchs could boast of postal sta
tons a days journey apart. The
lncas were able to transmit knotted
string messages at the rate OF $50
miles q day.
In England and France organ
lied postal systems are compare
lively modern. 1t was not until the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries
that they were adopted. and no,
until 1899 that England had a daily
mail to Paris.
Turning to America we find that
prior to 1889 there was no estab-
lished postal service. In that year
Massachusetts, decreed that the
house of Richard Fairbanks in Bos-
ton was to be a postoffice for re-
ceipt and dispatch OF ships mail.
The first regular mail was es'
tablished In the colonies between
New York and Boston in 1872 and
offered a monthly service. Until
franklin, In 1897, was appointed
postmaster of philadelphia, the
crown received little financial re
turn from the colonial postal sedv'
fee.
The number of postoffices ir
1875 was 2S, postage was high. and
the average days progress of a let
ter was something between 80 and
80 miles. When the constitution
was adopted in 1889, however. ex'
elusive control OF postoffices wa
placed upon the federal govern
ment.'
The postmaster general said
was not generally known that Abra
ham Lincoln's first public offic'
was that of postmaster, in 1888. un
der the Jackson administration a
New Salem, Ill.
During Lincoln's term as presi
dent" the postmaster general con
tinues, 1.-TWO great postal advance
were instituted, the introduction o
the money-order system, and a con
vention with foreign countries Z
make arrangements for a NOR
systematic and equitable handlin
OF foreign mails"