Evening star., 1941-01-20

roads, the financial assistance for which was
forthcoming from the Post Office Department
in the form of mail contracts.
With the advent of the steam train on
large scale, it was the Post Office Depart
ment, through its generous assistance in the
form OF contracts for carrying the mail on the
respective roads, which made it possible for
great railroad companies TO cover the country
from coast to coast with a vast system Of
trunk and secondary lines.
1t was the Post Office Department also that
played large part in the building up of
our merchant marine in the years prior TO
The establishment of the United States Mari
time Commission through the Governments
poHcy OF subSldHlng ocean carriers with mail
contracts which were based not on the cost
OF actually carrying the mails but on
strictly subsidy basis
Perhaps the best example of Government
assistance to any form of transportation was
that rendered by the Post Office Department
TO the aviation industry during the early
years of its development in this country.
With the establishment of the first airrllaJ
route between Washington and New York in
1918, the Post Office Department adopted the
policy that had been so successful in building
up the great network of railroads many wears
earlier. Encouragement III the form OF mail
contracts was afforded all private operating
companies, and in the short space of % wears
our commercial aviation has grown from a
single ZIo-mlle route 10 vast system of do
meStlc ana tranSoceanlC routes which today
make the United States airmail service the
envy of the world
OF all the implements of human deaocracv
Postal Service is, feel the most potent. II
is service without which We could not get
along, for 1t is the medium through which
men and nations have been bound tocether
Tor centuries and nowhere have We seen
more striking example OF this fact than here
in the United States
HERE is no business. regardless Of its size.
which could be carried on without Postal
service AS for the social aspect OF the Postal
Service, 1t is hardly necessary for me TO state
that 1t has been the ma jor influence IN MAIN
tanning family and friendly bonds down
through the years just as il viii continue
10 do Just so long as We have a civilization
Many are the descriptions that have been
used IN portraylng the Postal Service and its
functions, but to me of the most fitting
OF these is the one which has been carved
on the west facade of the new Post Office
Department Building in WASHINGTON Written
in 1859 by the then Postmaster General,
years as living symbol of this great depart
ment. 1t reads as follows:
The Post Office Department. in its cease
less labors pervades every channel of COM
merce and every theatre Of human enterprise
and, while visiting as it does kindly everv
hreslde, mingles with the throbbngs of almost
every heart in the land. In the amplitude
OF It's beneflcence, 1t ministers to all chmes
and creeds, and pursuits. with the same eager
readiness and with equal fullneSs of fidelity
1t is the delicate ear trump through which
alike nations and families and isolated indi-
viduals whisper their Joys and their sorrows,
their convictions and their synlpatnes, to all
who listen for their coming"
AS we look back on the part which the
Post Office Department has played in the
history of the United States it is little wonder
that We contemplate the future of this great
communication system with eye toward
even greater development and utility
The Post Office Department has ever been
alert to the march of progress, particularly
in the field of transportation Every new
mode of transportation has been employed
in the carrying of the mails and every new
mechanical device which had for its purpose
the speeding up of the mails has been utilized
as it made its appearance on the scientific
horizon
Within the past three years the Post Office
Department has crossed new frontiers of
transoceanic trade routes, including the SPAN
ming of both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans
with regular airmail routes. The institution
of these great Clipper airplane services, which
have meant so much to the United States
from an economic and national defense
standpoint, was made possible TO large de-
Office DPnarfn1pntS