Chapter IV · (continued 2)

Expediting the Mail on Star Routes

Attention is called elsewhere to the benefit of motor vehicle service in rural delivery, and it is now proposed to introduce this advantage in the star-route service as well. Until a short while ago there was no authority for any particular form of conveyance to be used in this connection. With the advent of automobiles and other motor vehicles, it became evident that great opportunities presented themselves by which the transportation of mails on this class of routes could be measurably expedited and during the present administration the law was so amended that the mode of transportation could be specified.

The demand of the day is for the rapid conveyance of mails in every direction and people are no longer satisfied to put up with the practices and methods of other days. That mails have been conveyed in this service with “due celerity, certainty and security” was not enough. Money is paid for service and the best that can be given is required. So it was decided to expedite star-route service. While there are a number of routes on which automobiles are now used in view of the provision of law as covered by the order of the Postmaster General, August 14, 1916, amending section No. 1424 to correspond with the law as amended, steps are now being taken in connection with the award of contracts for the four-year term beginning July 1, 1917, which includes the contract section from Maine to West Virginia, to require the use of motor vehicles wherever the importance of the route seemed to warrant and weather conditions would permit the use of such conveyance. One hundred and forty advertisements are now pending for such service in this contract section.

This is going to be a great accommodation for all routes where such service can be employed and will give the people the best mail facilities that can be devised. It will hasten the receipt and dispatch of mails by means of rural carrier connections, be of great advantage to the business men along such routes, expedite newspaper delivery and in many cases save twenty-four hours over the present method. Every effort will be made to introduce this more rapid service as quickly and widely as the laws will permit. If it is found to work well in this first contract section where it is to be tried, it will be extended to others in regular succession until the star-route service everywhere has the benefit of this improved means of communication.

Abraham Lincoln Postmaster in 1837

So much has been said and written about Abraham Lincoln that it would seem as if nothing new could be mentioned. In fact his history and biography are as well known to the school children as that of George Washington, but it is probably not generally known to the postmasters of the country that he was at one time in the postal service as a postmaster, and in a book devoted entirely to postal affairs it may be of interest to state the fact that this additional incident in his life and public career may be added to what is already known.

Mr. T. H. Bartlett, in the Boston Transcript, says:

It will interest Lincoln lovers to learn that, as far as known, probably the first time that Abraham Lincoln’s name was mentioned in print was in the United States Biennial Register for 1837. It was in the Post Office Department, as “Postmaster at New Salem, Ill., Abraham Lincoln, 1 quar., 10-19-48.” The Register contained the names of every officer and employe for that year.

So people who keep scrap books in which to note peculiar events and occurrences in the lives of great men may add this little item to their collection, for everything connected with the life of Abraham Lincoln is worthy of notice.

A Central Accounting Office for Each County

A very notable and far-reaching measure of public administration in the conduct of the Post Office Department was enacted in the past session of Congress by which, in order to promote economy in the distribution of supplies and in auditing and accounting, the Postmaster General was authorized to designate districts and central offices in such districts through which supplies shall be distributed and accounts rendered. This means in other words that one postmaster in a county is hereafter to distribute supplies for the other post offices and render an account to the auditor for all the offices in a certain county or district, thus simplifying the whole subject and placing the business involved at each of these offices under one central control. This is, however, not to give such central office authority to abolish offices, to change officers or employees in offices included in such district.

The law goes into effect July 1, 1917, and the Postmaster General will appoint a committee, of which the First Assistant Postmaster General will probably be chairman, to establish the system and select the central office in each district or county to which the other offices are to report, and under whose general control this plan is to be conducted.

Millions of Money for Good Roads

That good roads are an important factor in the spread of civilization is a statement which no one will dispute. Imperial Rome in the zenith of its power perfectly understood this. The marvellous genius and industry which constructed its great highways of commerce and travel, works which have been the admiration of all succeeding ages, are yet splendid even in their decaying greatness. Prescott, the historian, in his romantic history of Peru, tells of the wonderful engineering skill displayed in the reigns of the early Peruvian rulers in the building of their great military roads, which served alike the purpose of a peaceful people as well as the rapid assembling of its armies for warlike action. No nation now neglects this very important part of its economic life, and the United States having become a power in universal civilization is fully alive to all the measureless advantages which good roads afford.

Material prosperity waits upon road development and land values rise in proportion to road improvement. A few striking instances may be mentioned as illustrating this fact. Wallace’s Farmer has stated that:

“In Franklin County, New York, where 24 miles of good roads have been built, eight pieces of land selected at random increased 27.8 per cent in value. In Lee County, Virginia, which built eighty-four miles of roads, land advanced 25 per cent in value. Spottsylvania County, in the same state, improved forty-one miles of roads, and the land adjoining sold for $44.75 where previous to the improvement it had been bought for just $20 less per acre. After Manatee County, Florida, had constructed sixty-four miles of macadam and shell highway, the land along the road increased more than $20 per acre in less than two years, and the land a mile away from the road showed an increase of $10 an acre. In Wood County, Ohio, where land has been drained and bounded by limestone pikes, the values have risen from $70 to $250 per acre.”

The New York Journal of Commerce says “there are few agencies that are so fruitful of economic good, social and political solidarity, and even national spirit.” The very great desire of the Post Office Department to extend and improve the rural delivery service is an ever present argument in favor of good roads, without which no extensions or improvements are possible. The life of the country church, the country school, the whole question of intensive and scientific farming is involved in the subject of good roads, and in its wider and broader aspect the question takes on a new and a very significient meaning. Originally intended to promote and foster the arts of peace, military needs now claim national attention. Quoting again from the Journal of Commerce: “Mobilization, defense, and the transportation of troops, munitions, and supplies, are in a large part dependent upon an adequate system of highways, especially along the sea coasts and national borders. The experience of all the warring nations of Europe in the present conflict, are ample proof of this. Only the future will show whether or not these objects have been kept in view when the national appropriation is spent.”

The Government has set aside for the year ending June 30, 1919, the sum of $14,550,000 as an apportionment to the States to aid in the construction and maintenance of rural post roads in accordance with the provision of the Federal aid roads law. $20,000,000 will be apportioned for 1920, and $25,000,000 for 1921. This is the third apportionment under the law, $4,850,000 having been apportioned for 1917 and $9,700,000 for 1918. The Bureau of Public Roads states that the expenditures for road and bridge building in the United States have increased from about $80,000,000 a year in 1904 to $282,000,000 in 1915, or more than 250 per cent.

These figures are as amazing as they are impressive, and they must carry to the mind of the reader the solicitude of his government for all that makes for national prosperity and advancement. There was a time when good roads were a luxury and only a few States in the East paid any attention to this question. With the advent of the automobile came a great change. Rides for pleasure as well as for gainful pursuits required better conditions, and for both purposes good roads became everywhere a question of paramount importance. The farmer whose improved surroundings permitted this now common luxury, wanted the benefit of it, and the demand for better road conditions found its way into the halls of legislation in the States, and in the Congress of the Nation, and the answer to this demand upon the part of the Federal government is the magnificent appropriation which is now available and to be expended for this far reaching purpose.

Rural delivery in which the rural resident is so greatly interested will profit most by this liberal government provision, it being originally intended for post road purposes, of which rural delivery is now the principal and most important part. The rural life of the country is to be bettered in every way by the spread of this means of postal communication. The Post Office Department is always ready to listen to every suggestion which makes for greater comfort and convenience in this direction, and to act promptly when resulting advantages can be shown. Therefore, the sections where rural delivery is not as fully introduced and developed as it might be, or inviting fields for exploration and administrative action are not yet reached, the people for whose benefit this money is to be used should get in touch with the Department and bring to its attention whatever information upon the subject they may possess which might be fashioned into useful results. The Department has many eyes but cannot see all and know all, and this is where outside assistance can be of great advantage, and would be most gladly welcomed. Postal patrons are the working partners of the Postmaster General in all that concerns the improvement and extension of the service, and if they will take the same active interest that he does and cooperate with the Fourth Assistant Postmaster General, in whose Bureau this rural delivery work is centered, great advances in all directions may be readily made.

$14,550,000 for Rural Post Roads

Apportionment to the States from government funds to aid in the construction and maintenance of rural postroads in accordance with the Federal aid roads law for the year ending June 30, 1919, is as follows:

Alabama $313,456 Ohio 558,043

Arizona 205,540 Oklahoma 346,489

Arkansas 250,018 Oregon 236,332

California 456,167 Pennsylvania 690,145

Colorado 257,278 Idaho 182,471

Connecticut 92,216 Illinois 658,323

Delaware 24,411 Indiana 406,230

Florida 170,723 Iowa 434,653

Georgia 403,909 Kansas 429,131

Maryland 130,871 Kentucky 292,984

Massachusetts 221,261 Louisiana 203,755

Michigan 435,356 Maine 144,807

Minnesota 425,865 Rhode Island 34,972

Mississippi 268,751 South Carolina 215,014

Missouri 508,603 South Dakota 243,175

Montana 298,520 Tennessee 340,663

Nebraska 319,445 Texas 876,986

Nevada 193,229 Utah 170,763

New Hampshire 62,610 Vermont 68,128

New Jersey 177,357 Virginia 298,120

New Mexico 238,634 Washington 216,530

New York 749,674 West Virginia 159,713

North Carolina 342,556 Wisconsin 382,707

North Dakota 229,585 Wyoming 183,805

Mail Extensions by Air and Motor Truck Routes

As the result of a recent conference between Postmaster General Burleson and Secretary of War Baker, and with the approval of the President, Congress has been asked to authorize the Secretary of War to turn over to the Post Office Department all military aeroplanes and motor vehicles not serviceable for military purposes, or which after the war may be dispensed with for military service.

As soon as any aeroplanes are turned over to the Post Office Department, aeroplane mail routes will be established in the country, as they now are in Italy and France.

Italy has an aerial mail route from her coast to Sardinia, and is able to deliver 500 pounds of mail in two hours. France has a similar aerial route between her coast and Corsica.

The motor trucks procured from the War Department at this time or at the close of the war will be available for the parcel post truck service. In the view of the Postmaster General, the operation of these motor-truck routes would add 100 per cent to the value of the parcel post service in the vicinity of the cities where established.

The cost of living will be reduced, it is stated, by eliminating useless and expensive operation in the postal means of communication between producer and consumer; will permit the producer to continue production and the labor incident thereto, instead of suspending production or labor while conveying produce to consumers, and will extend the postal zone of collection-and-delivery service in the vicinity of large cities to the point where the actual farmer-producer is domiciled rather than where only suburban residents and nonproducers live.

Care Required in Preparing Contracts

Among the most important duties which a postmaster is called upon to perform is seeing that contracts for star-route service are properly filled out before being sent to the department. These contracts are of a legal nature and while the necessary provisions are plainly stated and simple enough to be easily understood, extreme care must be exercised to see that the instructions are complied with. Spaces for the signatures of the contractor, the sureties and witnesses properly filled out, dates given, names plainly written wherever required and the contractor should personally examine the contract to see that all this is carefully done. Failure to note these necessary details causes the return of the contract for correction, delaying its acceptance and imposing extra and unnecessary work upon the contract clerk. It may also be stated that as failure to perform service on the part of the contractor is liable to bring these contracts into courts of law for judicial determination, it becomes of the highest importance that nothing required to be done is omitted in preparation and the contract be correct in form and in every particular.

Birthday of the American Postal Service

On the twenty-sixth of July, 1917, the postal service of the United States can celebrate the one hundred and forty-third anniversary of its establishment. It was on July 26, 1775, nearly a year before the independence of the colonies was proclaimed, that the freedom of postal affairs was made an accomplished fact. The British control had existed for eighty-three years, from 1692 to 1775. There was only one line then in existence along the coast with but few branches and those far between. This service was first managed by private interests under a patent from William and Mary, but afterwards directly by the English crown. The fullness of time had at length arrived, had brought the auspicious day, and postal independence was born!

Patriotic sentiment is not wanting in this country of ours, and the flag is ever the object of sincere and heartfelt devotion. The great strides in postal development from that day to this should make the pulse of every citizen, particularly every postal employe, great or small, quicken with civic pride as each successive anniversary of our great postal establishment brings the date to mind. Postmasters might well signalize the day by conspicious display of the flag under which such tremendous progress has been made not only in postal affairs but in national greatness and glory.

List of Postmasters General

Continental Congress

Benjamin Franklin, Pennsylvania, July 26, 1775

Richard Bache, Pennsylvania, Nov. 7, 1776

Ebenezer Hazard, New York, Jan. 28, 1782

Presidents Postmasters General State Date of Appointment

Washington, Samuel Osgood, Massachusetts, Sept. 26, 1789

” Timothy Pickering, Pennsylvania, Aug. 12, 1791

” Joseph Habersham, Georgia, Feb. 25, 1795

Jefferson, Gideon Granger, Connecticut, Nov. 28, 1801

Madison, Return J. Meigs, Jr., Ohio, April 11, 1814

Monroe, John McLean, Ohio, July 1, 1823

Jackson, Wm. T. Barry, Kentucky, April 6, 1829

” Amos Kendall, Kentucky, May 1, 1835

Van Buren, John M. Niles, Connecticut, May 26, 1840

Harrison, W. H., Francis Granger, New York, Mar. 8, 1841

Tyler, Chas. A. Wickliffe, Kentucky, Oct. 13, 1841

Polk, Cave Johnson, Tennessee, Mar. 6, 1845

Taylor, Jacob Collamer, Vermont, Mar. 8, 1849

Fillmore, Nathan K. Hall, New York, July 23, 1850

” Samuel D. Hubbard, Connecticut, Sept. 14, 1852

Pierce, James Campbell, Pennsylvania, Mar. 7, 1853

Buchanan, Aaron V. Brown, Tennessee, Mar. 6, 1857

” Joseph Holt, Kentucky, Mar. 14, 1859

Lincoln, Horatio King, Maine, Feb. 12, 1861

” Montgomery Blair, Dist. of Col. Mar. 9, 1861

Johnson, Wm. Dennison, Ohio, Oct. 1, 1864

” Alex. W. Randall, Wisconsin, July 25, 1866

Grant, John A. J. Creswell, Maryland, Mar. 5, 1869

” Jas. W. Marshall, New Jersey, July 7, 1874

” Marshall Jewell, Connecticut, Sept. 1, 1875

” Jas. N. Tyner, Indiana, July 12, 1876

Hayes, D. M. Key, Tennessee, Mar. 13, 1877

” Horace Maynard, Tennessee, Aug. 25, 1880

Garfield and Arthur, Thos. L. James, New York, Mar. 8, 1881

” T. O. Howe, Wisconsin, Jan. 5, 1882

” W. Q. Gresham, Indiana, April 11, 1883

” Frank Hatton, Iowa, Oct. 14, 1884

Cleveland, Wm. F. Vilas, Wisconsin, Mar. 7, 1885

” Don M. Dickinson, Michigan, Jan. 17, 1888

Harrison, John Wanamaker, Pennsylvania, Mar. 6. 1889

Cleveland, Wilson S. Bissell, New York, Mar. 7, 1893

” William L. Wilson, West Virginia, April 4, 1895

McKinley, James A. Gary, Maryland, Mar. 6, 1897

” Charles Emory Smith, Pennsylvania, April 22, 1898

Roosevelt, Henry C. Payne, Wisconsin, Jan. 15, 1902

” Robert J. Wynne, Pennsylvania, Oct. 10, 1904

” Geo. B. Cortelyou, New York, Mar. 7, 1905

” Geo. Von L. Meyer, Massachusetts, Mar. 4, 1907

Taft, Frank H. Hitchcock, Massachusetts, Mar. 6, 1909

Wilson, Albert S. Burleson, Texas, Mar. 5, 1913