Palisadian., 1924-08-15


"a M Chicago the robbers not only had an
SxxAfTS airpane and four automobiles, nitro
glycerne, dynamite sawed-off shot
guns and automatic pistols but also gas masks and
gas bombs. So ten or dozen robbers had an
easy time in holding up the 80 mail clerks on
solid mail and express train on the st. Paul and
getting away with registered mail containing two
millions so. 1t the gas bombs and gas
masks that did the business
To be sure, Uncle Sam has caught most of the
robbers and got back most Of the money, but such
things make lots of trouble And Uncle Sam mas
plenty of mail troubles 1t Is.
Just look at the size of his mail business. He's
got something like 10000 post offces-and more
being established every day Of the year. except
Sundays and legal holidays There are nearly
85O0O0 workers In the Post Office department and
they handle $3,OO00O0,0O0 every year. And Uncle
Sam, not being In the business to make money, has
all kinds of trouble In making both ends meet. In
the fiscal year Of 1923. for example, 1t cost him
over $550.0OO00O and he took in only about $780,
100000.
And think Of the things he has to attend to-
stamps and envelopes; newspaper wrappers and
postal cards; money orders, foreign and domestic;
postal savings banks first, second and third-cass
matter and parcel post airplane, railway, carrier
and rural route service and so on. Why. Post
master General New has just been receiving bids
for 11O00.000,000 stamped envelopes and newspa-
per wrappers The postal savings banks have
There are $4,000 rural routes and more than 10000
star mail routes, the latter involving an aggregate
annual travel by automobile and wagon Of $4,000
600 miles, Little things like these give hint Of
some Of Uncle Sans mail troubles.
A thing that keeps Uncle Sam on the jump every
minute in his mail business Is increase In pop
ulation That from about 92,OOOOO0 to 1O6.-
100000 in the ten years, 1910-20. And an esti-
mate by the census bureau puts our population on
July 1, 1924, at 112,078611, an increase OF about
100000 in the last four years. And that with
restricted immigration! This means more towns,
more post offices. more letters-more everything
This new estimate of the population also shows
that there are now 70 cities having population
of 100000 or more, as compared with 6S last year.
This means that Uncle Sam is hard put to 1t to
keep up with the procession in the large cities.
His post sofice facilities have way of becoming
Inadequate over night. Here's illustration
Years ago. he built the great federal building In
Chicago. occupying whole block in the loop 1t
was to be the last word in post offices-and the
massive pile was out of date before 1t was COM
pleted In other words, Chicagos mail business
grew faster than Uncle Sam built. Congressman
Britten of Illinois will introduce bill at the next
session of congress to sell the building ana site
for approximately S22OO0OOO and use the money
for two modern post offices, one on the South
side and one on the West side
Another thing that keeps Uncle Sam awake
nights is the incessant, ever-increasing uehano
for speed and more speed Time ls money sayS
the adage: It comes pretty near being literally
true in the mails. The experts have calculated
that the new transcontinental air mail service
saves anywhere from $1,000 to $4,000 day, rep
resenting interest on money transported across
the country. Congressman M. Clyde Kelly OF
Pennsylvania goes so far to hold that the serv-
ice by saving three days, increases our available
cash reserve by $150000,000 each day. He Is there
fore sponsoring bill In congress greatly increas-
ing its scope. In the meantime requests for air
mail service are pouring in on Second Assistant
Postmaster General Henderson for air service.
Even Alaska wants It,
1t Is no wonder that the Chicago post office was
out of date before finished AS the railroads sup
planted the stage and pony express In the trans
portation of the mails, Chicago-because 1t soon
came 10 be the railroad center of the country
came to be the mail center. Through II now
moves the mightiest of mail matter that is
centralized anywhere on earth
Mail operations quickly outgrew facilities The
situation got so bad In 1910 that committee Of
the railway mail service made thorough study
Of the operations at Chicago. As result of this
study, the necessary facilities were figured out
and comprehensive scheme of terminal opera
tion was adopted. The plan called for site con-
veniently located for both railway mail cars and
auto trucks; a building of adequate dimensions
and design in which to handle the mail economic
cally; and extensive application of mechanical
apparatus
The result of all this is that there has just been