New-York tribune. [volume], April 09, 1905, Page 4, Image 28

About New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924

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4
THE value of the postal
service is understood
universally; there
fore, it is the one depart-
ment of the Government nearest to the
masses. The post is the oldest institu
tion founded by man, and antedates all
records of history, as letters found in
the oldest tombs, written on papyrus',
attest. The Scriptures are tilled with
references to its use: Hebrew and Per
sian kings sent their letters "by post,"
and horses of the best blood were
employed in relays. Assyrian and Persian mon
•rchs fixed their stations a days journey apart.
Letters were closed, for "sealing clay" is mentioned
in the book of Job. The sacredness of a sealed
letter generally has been respected in all ages.
Letter-carriers were known as early as the first
century. Ordinances of the sanhedrim were dis
tributed by the letter-currier, called "dawar " (lit
erally, "peddler," because he went from house to
house). Henry VIII. created the postmaster; but
the Koman Emperors had organized the first real
postal service. And yet, like religion, the employ
ment of written characters, or drawings, as a means
of communication between man and man would
appear to have had its origin in the heart of the
al>origine. The Spanish conquerors found a postal
service in active operation when they landed on the
coast of Peru.
Posts were established originally for the sole use
of monarchs and their administrative systems; but
nowadays the Government's mail is wholly lost sight
of among the immense volume of correspondence
due to trade and social life. The post now is con
ducted for the benefit of the people, not for the ser
vice of the Government. The progress of our postal
service parallels the development of the country.
The wilderness has become the granary of the
world; the remotest sections of our country are
reached by some form of postal service.
In this supremely important branch of the public
service the ideal is almost attainable. Constant,
tireless energy is necessary to maintain any system
at its best, no matter how well it be organized.
"Order is Heaven's first law," as it is of the Post-
Office Department, and when we begin to con
sider improvements in our system we cannot do
better than to study the high state of efficiency
already reached by the British. I am not an
Anglomaniac; but I have unbounded admiration
for the stability that characterizes the methods of
the British post-offices. Parliament does not
meddle with the details of the postal bureau. The
real head of the department in England
is not the member of the cabinet who
poses as its director, but a thoroughly
trained and practical man, who has
grown up in the work and is willing to
give it his whole life.
The problem of handling the mails of
the United Kingdom is not so compli
cated as that with which the Postmaster-
General of the United States has to deal
England, Scotland and Wales form a snug
little tract of territory, every square
mile of which is within striking distance
of the general post-office on Alders
gate-st. The executive chief can put
his finger on an error of detail and
correct it by telephone. The distance
from Land's End, in Cornwall, to John
o'Groafs, Caithness, is about seven hundred miles,
as the crow flies. That's approximately the dis
tance from New-York to Toledo. But an ex
amination of the postal system of the United
Kingdom ought to be made part of the training
for advancement in our service. It is possible that
American ingenuity can suggest improvements;
but the condition of the department there is such
that it forms a basis from which to work out the
most ambitious plans.
The English postal authorities have a theory
that is inculcated everywhere among the employees.
It is: A letter must always be kept in motion.
Under no conditions must it be permitted to lie
dormant at some office If it cannot be forwarded
at once by the usual route, send it back to the
first point, at which it can be started to its des
tination by another route. Keep it going. Such
a thing as a mislaid letter, or one that never reaches
a destination of some kind, is unknown. Of course,
many letters finally reach the Dead-Letter Office,
because of misdirection. That's not the fault of
the service, but of the writers.
Outside the great cities, the postal service in the
United States closely approximates that of Great
Britain, meaning the United Kingdom. When we
remember the extent of our postal ramifications,
its service certainly is the cheapest.
But in the large centers of population, where
one would think the problem easiest, we are far
SUNDAY MAGAZINE for APRIL 9. 190S
OUR POSTAL SERVICE
Faults of Uncle Sam's System
Contrasted Witn the BritisH
By THOMAS L. JAMES
Former Postmaster-General of the United States
behind the London administration. If the British
capital had a Sunday delivery, it would he ideal
in its completeness. Sir Arthur Blaekwood, who
was the real power behind the Minister of Posts
and Telegraphs, was a Sabbatarian, and would riot
hear of the distribution or collection of letters on
Sunday. He regarded it as a great concession for
the postal clerks to collect outgoing mail from the
boxes at the railway stations. This merely shows
how the conservatism of one man, at a certain
point, may cripple the greatest system, speaking as
to questions of detail, to-day known to mankind.
If the London office was to do no better than is
done in this city, namely, to collect all letters
placed in boxes during Sunday, up to rive o'clock,
the British postal administration would give such
letters twelve to twenty hours' start toward their
destination, whether at home or on the ("ontinent.
As I said, once the letter gets into the possession
of the British postal service, it is "pushed along'
every minute; but I have cited a point at which
criticism is permissible. The old-fogy idea that a
postman going his rounds on a Sunday night cannot
perform such service to the glory of God may be
accepted in England, but it is antiquated in this
land of Sunday newspapers.
Take the condition of the postal service in New-
York to-day. Its citizens pay into the Post-Orrice
Department of this Government nearly twenty
million dollars yearly. For a long while Greater
New-York has contributed about one fifth of the
postal revenue of the country. This office handles
money-onlers representing three hundred million
dollars annually. Therefore, the citizens of New-
York have a right to expect consideration from the
Department. Hours are consumed in delivering
letters from one part of the city to another. Some
thing is wrong in the present system.
The Government has watched the building of the
subway without securing any privileges beyond a
couple of tubes, atul these, I am informed, do not
work on Sunday. Sunday is the day in which every
AN ANGEL IN PILASTER
Dear, smiling, little, snub-nosed baby face
With angel wings.
Be thou the guardian of this house, and pace
Its sublunary things!
Look laughing down. O blessed babe, and lend
That guileless charm,
That beaming joy, to sweeten and defend
Our dwelling from all harm!
Bid sorrow shun the threshold of this door,
And memory
Cease in this place forever to deplore
What has been— and must be!
Come sun or storm, come merriment or tears.
No care can fret
Thy radiant spirit, nor the heavy years
Invade it with regret.
Surely thou art a traveler from a land
That knows no grief !
The life of men thou canst not understand —
So turbulent, so brief.
Yet thou must tarry here, thou darling one.
To smile and bring
Thoughts of the world's fair youth, a fadeless
sun
And a perpetual spring!
By Bliss Carman
detail of the week
should be cleared v:
the mail-chutes art
The (i.
mu.-iget us postal-can into Urn
at the earliest momei
be nothing but an afterthouj:
part of the I
should h..
mail-cars, tilled at the .
offices, could l>e sent direct
:ient of the fCSCfI
tuV>es will
always will prove inadequate at the hour when
most needed. Their present capacity need not be
increased, however, unless the efficiency at the
distributing points be improved. There has been
too much politics and too little attention to detail
in recent years. No criticism of individuals is
implied in this; it is the fault of the "system."
If the subway managers are shrewd, they will
use every endeavor to conciliate and oblige the
post-office authorities. There are many advantages
that will accrue to their leasehold if the subway
be made a post-road. It will enable them to treat
with strikers from an advantageous point of view.
Not that I think any hardship will be worked to
labor, but the mantle -of the Government over the
enterprise and the property will safeguard it from
many possibilities of destruction. When I was
Postmaster of New- York, I got the mails upon the
elevated railway, after much difficulty. They
were carried for sometime without cost to the
Government; then a contract was made, which, I
believe, still is in existence. I remember that I
tried to get a postal car on the old Third-aye. surface
road; but the president of the line fixed a prohibi
tive price. Years afterward, he came to tell me
that he had made a mistake.
I have referred to the promptitude with which
letters are delivered in London. The branch sta
tions are numerous, and most of them in the closely
built sections of the metropolis are connected by
tube. The moment a letter is deposited, a clerk
seizes it, cancels the stamps, slips it into a leather
box and puts it in the tube. In a few minutes, it
is at one of the distributing points. It may be sent
back to a station within a half-mile of the one from
which it was mailed, because that is the nearest
point of delivery. In other words, all the clerks
are efficient, and the sorting of the letters begins
the moment they reach the hands of the Depart
ment. Statistics can be kept at the branch offices
and forwarded to the general office later. The
old system, by which all mail-matter had to go to
a central point before distribution, was
abandoned years ago
The special-delivery system can be
•andoned years a
The special-delivery
greatly improved by the organization <>f
a more complete messenger service and
distinctive methods for separating the
high-priced letters from the two-cent
ones. The man or woman who pays
twelve cents for the immediate delivery
of a letter at its destination has a right
a letter at its <:
to expect a great deal of attention. It
is the dearest Government postage on
the face of the globe. 1 don't think the
superintendents of that bureau of the
Department realize their obligations to
the public. When two or three hours
are required to get a special delivery
letter across Park-row, from the gen
eral post-office to one of the large newspaper
offices, letter there are not sufficient messengers
nice to one of the I i
s, because there are not
in tendance, something is wrong in the manage
ment. That superintendent should know that the
American District Telegraph Company, for ex
ample, pays only three cents for delivering such
messages, and that he. as the chief of the bureau.
could equip a service of the same kind or make ar
rangements with that or some other company for
such emergencies. If the Government is not prepared
to perform the service, it ought not to undertake it.
Ordinary penny-paid letters are delivered in Lon
don with as great, or greater, promptitude than
"specials" in this city. I recall an instance th
last time I was abroad: A friend had invited me
to dine, and I accepted; but in the afternoon of the
day a business question arose that prevented me
from keeping my engagement. 1 sat down and wrote
a note of explanation and apology, sending it to
the nearest branch post-office. Hardly had it gone
before I felt that the hasty letter was inadequate.
I decided to go in person to my friend's house and
explain. The distance was several miles. I went
partly by the underground, and then took a cab.
Hardly had I been admitted to the house when the
bell rang and a postman delivered my letter. 1
investigated the travels of that letter afterward,
and ascertained that it had gone much greater dis
tance than I, in its underground trips, until it
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