Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-09-15
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
!. C.. M.

plcCOIl O. w.
Written and sealed, the letter.
Weighty, maybe, with matters Of deep
import to many or TO few. Light,
more likely, with friendly gossipings
and home news. Sharp, possibly, with
reprosch and accusation. In any case
it is helpless thing, lying there on
desk or table.
A little pink stamp, set to its upper
right hand corner, however; a slip into
| the mail chute outside the once door
or into the letter-box at the corner, and
this scrap of paper becomes of i'm
mediate concern to the great Govern
ment itself Swift train or ocea n
vessel or flying carrier waits to bear it
round the world. across continent,
past a border State line or merely
tended by an srmed guard as in fact
it is. To trouble this messenger on its
way becomes an offense against the
rules of the land and is punishable as
such. All for a letter.
Every day, every hour Of the day,
| these unseen hosts are spreading the
news, public and private, important and
| inconsequent alike, to the wide four
quarters of the earth. Under a regi-
mented control of the highest efficiency
these armies OF communication move.
playing havoc with ell prior claims OF
| time and distance upon their powers of
separation and isolation. We are used
| TO the great mail service, as We are
used to many another clear benefl-
! cence-air, sun, rain and science APP
| piled to daily life at innumerable
points. But stop the mails for day,
for an hour Stop them everywhere
| Panic would seize the world.
| A great institution. the Postal Ssrv-
ice. Very great. Does it pay? oh,
no; it does not pay. Not only are
/ its pockets habitually inside out empty
and dangling, but it Is in debt woe
fully in debt: maybe hopeleSsly. in that
unhappy state. Yes, know. The most
of us have come TO think that any
enterprise must pile up a surplus OF
! gold TO get into the class great"
Here is an exception. A steadily losing
bCsiness-yet 1t pays. At least so the
Hon. Clyde Kelly, member of Congress,
| affirms in a book devoted to declara-
| ton of certain imponders bic profits
that have, time out of mind, heen the
coin in which idealists have measured
the gains and losses of life.
/ Here is the story Of our postal system
Next, in general interest, to any tale of
account stands the one telling 1t. Does
Re know? Was he there in any part of
! its action? Did he lend a hand. both
hands. at critical moments of choice
and decision? Is he in close touch with
| how il began and under what influence
it went ahead, or Jagged. or halted ?
/ Beside all that, can this one tell the
! story with vim and vigor. in its own
colors and with its own drama?
! This is going TO be popular story
/ Pnin6 n hn FIR tho entire cifizanFy
/ Of the country has direct and partak-
( ing share in it. BY way of post once
and friendly carrier, the United States
itself Is a neighborhood OF ready eX-
/ change in matters Of every sort OF re-
I port
The Hon Clyde Kelly-nowadays
called Father Of the Air Mail in trib-
ute to his competent zeal-has for years
given interest. support and wide knowl-
edge, both general and special, to the
postal system Probably the most use
! fully great of Federal institutions. BY
! virtue of his personal devotion. coupled
with legislative zeal and power. this
Representative has put the people OF
! the United States in debt to him. And
| he has, moreover, qualified himself to
| speak with authority upon the mail
| service.
Here. in sum. is Affirmative answer
! to the queries set a couple OF paragraphs
! back.
The seeming inability OF the postal
! depal tment to make money-that
! life-devcloped an alternative in the
purpose of the institution itself. A
/ business concern or an agency Of Serv-
I ice? Which shall it be? Money must
| count as answer to the first of this dis
agreeing pair. The Second explains it
! self If both cannot be secured under
expert management. which shall stand
| paramount?
Mr.. Clyde Kelly takes a sturdy stand.
of course. beside the idea Of service TO
the people-and profits be hanged If
need arise.
This dilemma Of decision and action
began long ago. 1t still serves as the
to and fro of political strife no less
than as a point of serious disagreement
among statesmen themselves.
To serve the intent of an adequately
complete survey of the theme Mr.. Kelly
spreads American, history out from the
colonial period to the present. Over
this long and wide area Of time ana
circumstance in the New World he
traces the course of Our postal system
from its origin on TO the current dis
agreement as TO policy for its future.
Like the netting of national motor
roads today does this interlaclng llne OF
post roads run to embrace the country
now out of that early starting point on
the Atlantic Coast. We were English
men then and King William made
present of us, postally speaking, 10
friend of his, one Thomas Neale. away
back in 1891 And Thomas accepted US.
merely as coin of the realm, for the
money we could deliver to him by way
of our need to get in touch with friends
and home. Right there our postal syS-
tenn. as a business. took its start. Busl-
ness is to yield profits. What else?
Then came a war. And We were no
longer Englishmen. A fascinating story.
the part of the couriers and riders in
the war itself. Everybody knows Paul
Revere. Well. he was mail carrier
and lot besides. Then. in no very
long time, Benjamin Franklin became
the head of the system. Wisdom as
we'll as war was needed in the case OF
the confused and not quite reconciled
Colonials. suddenly turned political in
dependents in a new kind OF govern
ment New to them. So the story runs
along the way stations Of this postal
route ever reaching farther into the
heart Of the amazing new country. till
at laSt-not so very long ago in terms
of Federal development-it came out.
Tie STORY Vi pOSLdl cAPdASiOi, StSol Oh
the other side of the United States
itself. And there it paused for while,
Possibly with a mildly speculative eye
still ranging westward. of islandward,
say. toward Hawaii or the Philippines
At every stage of this expansion there
were. you may be sure. discussions in
Congress. The efficiency men drawn up
against the idealistS. AS they have ever
been since the world b2gan. The one
counting costs, dwelling lugubriously
upon shortages and deficits The other
regretful. to be sure, and hoping to
remedy the financial infelicity of the
case, but resolute, nevertheless, on the
side Of service to all the people of this
big stretch of country. Hill men,
desert men, forest men-the isolate
ones all over the land must