Evening star., 1924-06-29
POSTAL PAY INCREASE
PROGRAM FOR CONGRESS
Rate Read justment to Continue Service
on Self-Supporting Basis Also
Due Next Session.

brought into existence the old Bos-
ton-New ork-PhiladelphiaeBa Baltimore
turnpike-the first great American
highway. Benjamin Franklin, as
deputy postmaster general, made this
post road serving the scattered CO.
lonfal settlements show a greater in
come than the principal post road
between England and Scotland. Rich
ard Fairbanks, who conducted an
office in a Boston tavern in 1888 to
receive letters from ships, was the
first colonial postmaster
1t was in 1775, year before the
Declaration of independence, that the
postal system Of the American colonies
was established by the Continental Con-
grees and placed in charge Of BENJAMIN
franklin Later when the Constitution
was adopted, the system was taken over
bodily and made the Post Office Depart
ment Of the United States.
Has Followed Pioneers.
Benjamin Franklin, as the first Post
master General, received the rnunificent
salary Of $1,000 year. The first annual
report made by Postmaster General
Samuel Osgood to President George
Washington showed the gross receipts
for the United States as $4,000. The
service has kept pace with the growth of
the country. With a population of no.
100000 the postal receipts for the fiscal
year ended June so, 1928, were s532,-
s27,s25.
Railroads were pauonized By the
postal service from the time the first
few miles Of track were laid. Subsidies
through the postal service made possible
the maintenance Of many of the early
railroads. The railway post office was
adopted in the United States in 1854
Postmaster General Montgomery
Blair initiated the movement in 1851
which has resulted in the formation OF
the Universal Postal Union. A concrete
example of this international co-opera-
ton is found in the fact that the letter
sent for cents to Australia today cost
s2.04 in 1857.
1t was the demands Of the postal
service which first brought night trains
on the railroads, and the first fast mail
trains" were followed by fast passenger
trains
Postmen today bring mail to the doors
Of millions Of homes. Free delivery OF
mail service in cities began in 1858. The
money order system was adopted in 1854.
In 1922 the amount of money sent by
money orders was s1,2o5, 900, 900. There
were more than 100000 orders is
sued. These figures do not include the
funds sent abroad by international
money orders, which totaled $50, 900.
At the same time s14,ss1, 900 in money
orders issued abroad were paid in the
United States.
The postal savings bank. the great
est savings bank in the world. was
in 1922 were s14o.43o,167.s3. The
United States government stands back
Of this bank.
Rural free delivery service brings
the city to the country. This rural
service was started in 1896.
Parcel post was adopted in 1913.
Air mail service was started May Is,
1918. For three years it has been
operating on a transcontinentA route
5000 miles long, from New York to
San Francisco, and earned in 1922
the honor of making the greatest
contribution to the progress Of Amer
lean aviation.
Almost every conceivable type OF
transportation is used to move the
mails-railroads, steamboats,, auto
mobiles. airplanes, motor boats,
wagons horses, pneumatic tubes, belt
conveyors, motor cycles, bicycles, the
sled of the Arctic and even the dog
car"
In 1922 the air mail planes, flying
100000 miles without a fatal acci-
dent, carried more than 100000
pounds of mail. Although interstellar
service has not yeen established by
the Post Office Department, it is
fact the routes covered by the rail
way mail cars in 1922 reached the
planetary proportions Of 212,o1s,23s
miles. This transportation cost $s2,-
$4,000. The postal service now uses
5000 postal cars.
Automobiles are running q race for
numerical supremacy with the rail
way postal cars. There are now 4,s12
in operation carrying the mails.
Every year the United States postal
service handles $4,000. .000. 900 articles.
Every year the increase in number Of
articles in the mails is more than a
billion. OF the total mail submitted
IL 900, 900, 900 pieces are letters.
Every year the postal service. on
laIt
every man, woman and child in the
United States. Atlas would have had
a tough time, indeed. lifting the an
nual load of letters alone that tho
postal service moves. 1t is estimated
to total 133,350 tons. Every second
of the twenty-four hours of every
day there are $50 letters dropped into
letter boxes, every minute 1884. and
every hour 100000.
In fact every business and every
home in American cities is served by
the $500 postmen. The farmer, too
about whom Congress Is so much
these days, is not neglected
by the postal service. Today 44,1sS
rural routes supply mail to 6.425,71
families, or 29,70o,00o individuals
Out west the postal service has estab-
lished veritable automobile rail-.
road 125 miles long to the fruitful
Uintah Valley, Utah, to which no
private rail line has penetrated.
The receipts of the postal service
for the fiscal year ended June 80,
1928, were s5S2.s27.s25, an increase OF
9S9 Der cent over 1929
Isn't that an amazing and most
gratifying panorama of big business
and efficient service dur
ing the last $50 years?
1t was tireless devotion to duty,