Postoffice

an office for the reception, delivery, and transmission of mail. A post-office was originally a station at which horses and men were posted to relieve each other in the carrying of government dispatches. Even in Scriptural times, relays of carriers were arranged to forward messages with all possible speed from outlying provinces to the various capitals. Scriptural references are numerous. Job says, "Now my days are swifter than a post. They flee away." In Jeremiah li: 31, we find, "One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to shew the king of Babylon that his city is taken at one end."

Cyrus the Great had a complete system of messengers. Saddled horses stood ready at a day's journey apart to carry him tidings from the remotest portions of his empire. The excellent military roads which extended toward each part of the empire enabled the Roman courier to make good time. All the earlier postal systems were intended primarily for the transmission of government reports. Private persons depended on special messengers or intrusted their communications to travelers going that way. The emperor Diocletian is praised for permitting government couriers to carry letters for private parties. Charlemagne maintained a postal service between the larger cities of his extensive empire. The earlier universities of Europe appear to have had postal systems of their own. Beginning with the thirteenth century, the University of Paris had a regular system of carrying letters and moneys for its students to and from all parts of the civilized world.

The early introduction of the public postal system is credited usually to France. A public system of posts was founded June 19, 1464, by an edict of Louis XI. It covered the principal roads of the empire. Within the next 100 years we find that similar systems were set in operation in Spain, Germany, and Great Britain. In 1522 the Emperor Charles V established a postal system extending from the Netherlands to Italy.

The postal system of Great Britain is of especial interest to Americans. With the accession of James I to the English throne, communication between England and Scotland became more frequent. In 1603 the lawful charge for horses for the use of those riding post haste was fixed at five cents a mile. The keeper of each post was required to have no less than two horses in readiness for the conveyance of government dispatches. These letters were not to be detained at any post above a quarter of an hour. The riders were to set forth at the rate of seven miles an hour in summer and five miles in winter. In 1635 a public post was established between London and Edinburgh. The schedule was three days. At the same time other routes were established to Wales, Ireland, and to parts of England, in all eight main routes. The charge for a letter was fixed at from four cents to sixteen cents according to distance, the latter charge paying the postage on a letter from London to Edinburgh. Private messengers were prohibited from competing with the government service.

At this date the postal system was looked upon rather as a possible source of revenue than otherwise. We find, for instance, in 1653, that a John Manley paid the government $40,000 a year for the privilege of carrying the mails and collecting the postage. It is also interesting to note that it was not until 1663 that a proclamation was issued commanding that "no postmaster or other officer that shall be employed in the conveying of letters or the distributing of the same, or any other person or persons, except by the immediate warrant of our secretaries of state, shall presume to open any letters or packets not directed to themselves."

In 1784 a system of carrying letters by means of mail coaches was put into operation. Special vehicles were built. They were accompanied by guards for the greater security of mail. During the first twenty years of the English mail coach system the gross yearly income of the postoffice department grew from $2,000,000 to about $6,000,000. The next great improvement was the postal reform of the period from 1836 to 1842. Briefly stated, the charge for letters was made uniform between any two postoffices of Great Britain and Ireland. A low rate of one penny or two cents per letter was adopted. The abuse of the franking privilege was curbed. During the next two decades the number of letters grew by leaps and bounds from 75,000,000 in 1840 to 504,000,000 in 1857. In other words, cheap postage multiplied the number of letters by six fold during eighteen years.

As early as 1792, primarily in order to transmit small sums for soldiers and sailors, a money order system was added. Savings banks were established in connection with the British postoffice in 1861. Within two years' time there were 319,669 postoffice depositors with total deposits of over $80,000,000. In twenty years' time the total deposits, made chiefly by wage earners, rose to $2,000,000,000. It may be said in passing that a similar system in France assisted the French government materially in paying off its enormous war indemnity to Germany. In 1882 the British postal system undertook to pay annuities and to insure life.

In 1868 an act of Parliament authorized the postmaster general to purchase such telegraph lines as might be required and to take over the telegraphic system of the country. The telegraphic companies very naturally placed every possible obstruction in the way of the transfer of the business. Within six years the government controlled 63,000 miles of wires. The number of messages rose rapidly from 6,000,000 to 20,000,000. Still another undertaking of the British postoffice was the management of a parcel post system. The rural letter carrier is now everywhere provided with a horse and van for the carrying of parcels, valises, game, baskets of bread, butter, cheese, laundry, and fruit. The thousand and one different articles that in this country are sent by express are transmitted through the British postoffice at nominal expense. The revenue from thickly settled parts of the country, where parcels are numerous, helps to pay the expense of sending carts through the more sparsely settled sections. In a recent year the British postoffices handled 2,579,500,000 letters, 488,000,000 post cards, 810 book-packets, 175,000,000 newspapers, and 90,000,000 express parcels.

The first postoffice in the United States was opened in Boston in 1639. The General Court sent out this proclamation:

It is ordered that notice be given that Richard Fairbanks, his house in Boston, is the place appointed for all letters, which are brought from beyond the seas, or are sent thither, to be left with him, and he is to take care that they are to be delivered or sent according to direction: and he is allowed for every letter a penny, and he must answer all miscarriages through his neglect in this kind.

Virginia established a postal service in 1657. New York established a monthly mail between New York and Boston in 1672. The first regular mail carrier on the American continent set out on horseback from New York on New Year's Day for Boston. He rode via Stamford, New Haven, Hartford, and Springfield. Once a month this postman made the trip by ferry, ford, and bridle path. On his return he emptied his bag on the table of a coffeehouse.

Immediately on arriving at Philadelphia William Penn established a postoffice with weekly mail to Maryland and to various settlements near by. In 1691 a Thomas Neale was granted royal authority to establish an American postal system for what he could get out of it. Neale's postal service began May 1, 1693. It extended from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to Virginia. The entire route was divided into five stages. Mails were carried weekly. The route was under the general supervision of the London postoffice. In 1707 the British postoffice purchased the rights of the American proprietors. Mails appear to have been carried between the principal coast cities weekly or fortnightly. In 1737 Benjamin Franklin was made postmaster at Philadelphia. The English deputy postmaster for the colonies had much confidence in Franklin's sagacity and took his advice in introducing improvements in the service. In 1752 Franklin was himself appointed American postmaster-general, a position which he held until the outbreak of the Revolutionary War.

One of the first steps of the Second Continental Congress was to establish a colonial system of mails. Franklin was placed in charge until other more important duties took him away. His salary was $1,000 a year. A main route was laid out from New Hampshire to Georgia, with such branch lines as were deemed necessary. Up to 1799 the penalty for robbing the mails was death. In that year flogging was substituted, a punishment which has since given way to imprisonment. Sunday delivery of mails was begun in 1810. It met with the most strenuous protest. Various religious bodies passed resolutions condemning the practice vigorously. The horse and rider and mail coach were supplemented in 1813 by steamboats.

In the earlier years of our national postal service the charge for letters was from eight to twenty-five cents, according to distance. In 1845 a new scale was adopted: under thirty miles, six cents; under eighty miles, ten cents; under one hundred and fifty miles, twelve and one-half cents; under four hundred miles, eighteen and three-fourths cents; maximum charge, twenty-five cents. Further reductions came gradually. The next rate established was five cents for distances not exceeding three hundred miles, and ten cents for greater distances. In 1851, the rate was reduced to three cents under three thousand miles and ten cents for greater distances. In 1863 a uniform rate of three cents for all distances was made. Two cent postage came in the year 1883. Postal cards were authorized in 1873. The system of registering letters was adopted in 1853. The fee was at first five cents. It was raised to twenty cents during the Civil War, but has since been fixed at ten cents.

In 1825 authorized carriers were permitted to deliver letters at homes and offices at a special charge of two cents each, to be collected from those to whom the letters were addressed. In 1836 these carriers were permitted to deliver newspapers and pamphlets and to collect a special charge of half a cent each. In 1863 the present system of free delivery was introduced into all cities having a population of 50,000 or over. The present basis is the amount of postal business rather than the population. Rural free delivery, or delivery by wagon in rural districts, was established in 1897. Forty-four routes were laid out as an experiment. In 1903 Congress made an appropriation of $8,054,400. Since that date the number of routes has increased rapidly.

Our present system of sending small sums by postal money orders originated in 1864. Like the British system it was intended originally to accommodate soldiers and their friends. Only a few offices were permitted at first to issue orders. It has proved so popular, however, that, in 1909, 69,304,395 domestic and 3,175,014 foreign money orders were issued. The sum transmitted in this way reached the enormous total of $567,829,646 for the year.

Railway postoffices were adopted in England before they were in this country. In 1864 cars were fitted up by our leading railways with facilities for postal clerks, enabling them to sort and bag mail for immediate delivery. When a trainload of mail reaches New York, for instance, it is not necessary to send it to the central postoffice to be sorted. Train clerks have already placed it in bags marked with the destinations. Some bags go aboard steamers, others are placed on trains. Even mail for the postal sub-stations of the cities is sent direct from the railroad station. Mail cars also receive mail from private parties. Merchants desiring to mail letters too late for the postoffice are permitted to take their mail direct to the train. There are now over 10,000 postal clerks employed on trains and boats. Between 4,000 and 5,000 cars and apartments are used in the service. To avoid the frequent calls made for compensation by relatives of clerks who are killed in the railway service, Congress has made a standard appropriation and authorizes the payment of $1,000 to the legal heirs of those who lose their lives. The first postal car ran between Chicago and Clinton, Iowa, August 28, 1864. The next experiment was made between New York and Washington, District of Columbia.

The postal system of the United States is under the general supervision of the postmaster-general. Since 1829 he has been a member of the president's cabinet. His department is divided into four bureaus, each bureau under the supervision of an assistant postmaster. One bureau has charge of the carriers and all matters pertaining to the delivery of mail; a second bureau looks after the transportation; the third bureau handles the postage and keeps all accounts; the fourth bureau looks after the appointment of postmasters and inspects their work.

UNITED STATES POSTOFFICE STATISTICS, 1908.

It is said that, placed end to end, the stamps canceled in American offices annually would girdle the earth five times.

An interesting feature of the postoffice department at Washington is the dead letter office. It was established in 1825. It is the duty of local postmasters to advertise all letters uncalled for. At the expiration of a certain length of time, usually three months, they are sent to the dead letter office. All misdirected letters and parcels, whose senders have neglected to write their own addresses, are sent here also. About 7,000,000 pieces reach this office a year. About 5,000,000 of these are unclaimed letters. Half a million letters are returned to foreign countries annually. A force of clerks is employed opening letters and packages to the sender's address of which there is no outside clew. Many thousands of dollars in money, drafts, and notes are in this way returned to the sender. After the office has done its best to return the property, there is still a vast quantity of merchandise of all descriptions. It is disposed of periodically at public auction.

In 1874 an international congress was held at Berne for the purpose of forming a postal union. According to arrangements proposed at that time, and since ratified by other governments, postage may be prepaid on letters to all parts of the world. The rate is uniform: five cents per ounce or fraction of an ounce for letters, two cents for postal cards, and one cent for newspapers. Samples of merchandise may be sent at the rate of four ounces for two cents. Letters may also be registered on the additional payment of eight cents. By a special arrangement, domestic rates of postage apply also to Germany, United Kingdom, Canada, Mexico, and Cuba. A letter, for instance, may be sent from the United States to any office in these countries at the regular rate of two cents. Mail for the Philippines, Porto Rico, and other American possessions is charged domestic rates also. A United States postal agency has been established at Shanghai, China. Letters intended for over twenty Chinese cities may be sent through this agency at the domestic rate of two cents per ounce. At present the postoffices of the world are transmitting about 30,000,000,000 letters and 15,000,000,000 newspapers yearly.

The following table of postal distances and time from New York City is taken from the Official Postal Guide, showing the distance by shortest routes and time in transit by fastest mail trains from New York City:

See Express; Postage Stamps