New Britain herald., 1923-02-02
GLOVER TELLS THE
 LETTERS HISTORY
Assistant Postmaster General Speaks to Postal EmplOyes

Washington, Feh, s,-From the use
 of the dFomedary in biblical times 10
 the swiftly flying mail plane Of today,
 the history of the letter, as a WFllteh
 means of communication between
 people, was traced by Assistant Post
 master General W, lrNing Glover m
 a speech recently 10 postmaslers and
 postal employees in postal confer
 enee convention at Minslon-salem'
 \, c,
 "0n the post office iab," he said,
 nothing can take the place Of the
 individual, While in many great
 industries the human equation has
 been reduced to a minimum no one
 has yet invented anything 10 take the
 place Of q man iH the delivery Of letters, Today, as q hundred years ago, VIC are dependent on the nerve
 and the sense Of loyalty Of a human
 being for the punctual delivery Of our mail regardless or the weather and everything else,
 Back to 600 R. [.
 ''ThN history Of the post service 1 goes back as far as the sixth een-
 tuey B. C.. and may be called tho l handmnid Of civilization and, tracing 1t from the dispatch bearer Of the Assyrian and Roman times 10 the airplanc service Of the present day, the postal business has doubled in the last decade while tho number Of employees has increased only nine per cent.
 .'fhe use Of postage stamps is now so comman and tho mailing Of let- ters so general that it seems as if there never was a time when this practice was unknown. But the stamp itself is comparatively new. while the sending Of letters is older than Solomon. |,
 ''Thc Book Of Esther in the Bible tells Of how King Ahausuerus learn ing from queen Esther that Haman had ordere the death of all the Jews. commanded Mordecai to call together the scribes and send letters 10 every province Of the kingdom forhidding ths massacre. This is the verse that desr.bes the sending of the messen- gers:
 And he wrote in the King Ahas- uerus' name. and sealed it with the kings ring; and sent letters by posts on horseback, and riders on mules, camels and young dromedaries."
 "The Romans, too sent their let ters by mounted couriers. The cour- i: fer carried the message about 20 !: miles when he would come to a 1: 'posta' where another messenger was l: stationed with a fresh horse. He. in turn, would be relieved by still a frhnS of ( lay the letter was sped on until at last it arrived at it's destined 'posta, meaning station or stopping place, and from that word we obtain the word post as found in post office, : postcard and many similar words. !
 Tn the times of Benjamin Frank { lin, each letter was charged for by ! the sheet instead of by weight, and !: also for the distance it was carried 1: Ten cents was charged for one sheet, ! 20 cents for two sheets; and so on. :: and for every 50 miles another full ! fee was added. Envelopes were not { used in those days. the letter simply { being folded up and sealed. {
 Growth of Business. {;
 And now we come to the stagger- !: ing figures showing the growth of :; this great business. In every single !. hour of the A there are mailed l. !; 100000 letters and in every day of !: the 365 of the year, 33.600 900 let {; ters slip into the box. To carry this !; great volume of letters, there was sold !; fourteen billion postage stamps, 57 ]; million special delivery stamps, 3S . million newspa per wrappers, 62 mill i: lion postage due stamps used on z short paid mail matter and billion {; postal cards printed and sold, and. all i: we used and sold IS billion !; units during the last fiscal year. And, z again. to carry this vast quantity of {: nail we operate a very large motor $S ruck service, having in operation to. !: lay 4,433 motor vehicles, and then in | he carrying of this volume of mail q 1y railroad it requires 21,O00 railway r nail clerks who cover 215, ,000 miles i. |