Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1923-01-14
Growth of United States Postal Service
Paints True Picture of Nations Progress

| States, and while they were crude and
the schedules maintained by their
trains extremely uncertain, no time
was lost in making use of them for
carrying the mails. A rather haphaz-
ard method of administration was
in vogue in the Post Office Depart
ment at that time. Contracts We're
let to private individuals to haul the
mails in the stage coaches. In some
instances poStm aSterS were allowed
certain sums to handle the trans
portation OF the mails over routes
from their own post office to others,
SO that when new railroad lines were
built these postmaSJers frequently
| made arrangements personally for
hauling the mails with the railroads
without even consulting the depart
! ment at Washington. In other cases
the private contractors simply trans
ferred their contracts to the railroad
companies, the compensation received
for carrying the mails by the steam
carriers being the same as was paid
to the owners of the stage coach
lines.
Several years later. however, when
construction of railroads passed the
experimental stage and regular net
work Of railroad lines was built up,
connecting the larger as we'll as the
smaller communities of the country,
the Post ONCE Department abolished
I these private contracts and took over
the entire management of mail trans
portation. This was necessary 10
assure connection between trains az
terminal points. The Postmaster Gen
eral himself negotiated with the rall-
roads, both through personal inter
views with the executives OF the
steam carriers and through CORE
| spondence, making direct contracts
between the companies and the gov
eminent. Among the files, OF the de-
| partment are quite number or docu-
ments dealing with these negotiations.
| Opposed to Night Trains.
The great difficulty in those early
days was to induce the railroads to
| operate trains at night for the pur-
pose of making connections with
other lines and thus obtaining a
speedier dispatch of the mails. The
railroad officials were extremely wary
They objected TO taking any chances,
and frequently refused to accede to
the requests of the Postmaster Gen
! eral to run trains after dark. They
were also very cautious in their nego-
/ tiations with the government not to
promise any service that they were
not certain could be performed.
! In 1886 there were only 200 miles OF
railroads in the nation carrying the
malls Since then, year after year, the
railroad mail service of the Post Of
| fee Department has grown along with
| the advancement in railroad construc-
! ton until the present time, when the
| mails are being transported over no
less than 2S1,981 miles of railroad
! trackage.
I From these small beginnings the
| service Of the United States gradual
ly developed into the greatest postal
machine ever known. When Benjamin
Franklin was Postmaster General of
the rebellious thirteen colonies fight
| ing the war of independence there
/, were seventy-flve post offices. Now
! there are $4,000. Then the gross re-
| ceipts totaled $4,000 annually, and
| gross expenditures were $30,240. Dur
mig the last fiscal year the post Of
/ flee revenues reached the astonishing
| figures of $4S4,S53,000. with gross ex-
| penses running to $545.644.000.
! The annual pay roll for postmaster
| that Benjamin Franklin made gu,
| and paid amounted each year to
about $4,000 to compensate the
seventy-five postmasters handling
| the mails at that time. The pay roll
of the Post Office Department for
postmasters last year necessitated an
outlay Of money mounting up to s43,-
So. 1000.
The postal service is now the big
eest business in the world. It en-
ploys around $4,000 workers.