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Title: The Postal System of the United States and the New York General Post Office

Author: Thomas C. Jefferies

Release date: November 13, 2013 [eBook #44171]

Most recently updated: October 23, 2024

Language: English

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE POSTAL SYSTEM OF THE UNITED STATES AND THE NEW YORK GENERAL POST OFFICE ***

The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.

The Postal System

of The United States

and

The New York

General Post Office

Prepared and Issued by

Manufacturers Trust Company

New York     Brooklyn     Queens

THE POSTAL SYSTEM

OF THE UNITED STATES

and

THE NEW YORK

GENERAL POST OFFICE

BY

THOMAS C. JEFFRIES

ASSISTANT SECRETARY

MANUFACTURERS TRUST COMPANY

Copyright, 1922, by

MANUFACTURERS TRUST COMPANY

Honorable Hubert Work, Postmaster General.

HONORABLE HUBERT WORK, Postmaster-General, was a practising physician for many years in Colorado prior to entering government service, and was also President of the American Medical Association. He served as first assistant postmaster-general under Postmaster-General Will H. Hays, his predecessor, who, upon assuming management of the Post-office Department, practically dedicated it as an institution for service and not for politics or profit. Since that time all possible efforts have been made to humanize it.

The administration of Mr. Hays was ably assisted by Mr. Work who had direct supervision of the 52,000 post-offices and more than two-thirds of all postal workers. By persistent efforts to build up the spirit of the great army of postal workers and bring the public and the post-office into closer contact and more intimate relationship, the postal system has been placed at last on a footing of service to the public.

Mr. Work is an exponent of a business administration of the postal service, and representatives of the larger business organizations and Chambers of Commerce, from time to time, are called into conference, in order that the benefit of their suggestions and their experience may be obtained and their fullest co-operation enlisted in the campaign for postal improvement.

Statement Prepared for the

Manufacturers Trust Company

BY HONORABLE HUBERT WORK, POSTMASTER-GENERAL

The need for a more general understanding of the purpose of the postal establishment, its internal workings and the problems of operation, is paramount if it is to afford the ultimate service which it is prepared to render.

The business man, whose success is definitely connected with its smooth operation, especially should be concerned with the directions for its use. The post-office functions automatically, so far as he is concerned, after he drops the letter into the slot; but before this stage is reached, a certain amount of preparation is necessary. He could scarcely expect to operate an intricate piece of machinery without first learning the various controls, and no more is it to be expected that he can secure the utmost benefit from such a diversified utility as the postal service without knowing how to use the parts at his disposal.

Accordingly our efforts have been directed to the circulation of essential postal information, and with the aid of the public press and the coöperation of persons and organizations using the service, the people throughout the country are now better informed on postal affairs than at any time in its history.

The recognition of the human element is a recent forward step in postal administration. Although the post-office has probably been the most powerful aid to the development of a social consciousness, the management until recently seems to have overlooked the relative value of the individual in the postal organism.

The individual postal worker is now considered to be the unit, and the effort to maintain the service at a high standard of efficiency is based upon the betterment of his physical environment and the encouragement of the spirit of partnership by enlisting his intelligent interest in the problems of management and recognizing his real value to the postal organization. Suggestions for improvement are invited and considered from those within the service as well as those without, and it is believed that a full measure of usefulness will not be attained until the American public, which in this sense includes the postal workers themselves, are convinced that the service belongs to them.

GENERAL OFFICERS OF THE

POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT

The postmaster-general is assisted in the administration of the Post-office Department by four assistant postmasters-general. The first assistant postmaster-general has supervision over the postmasters, post-office clerks, and city letter carriers at all post-offices, as well as the general management of the postal business of those offices, the collection, delivery, and preparation of mail for despatch. The second assistant postmaster-general is concerned entirely with the transportation of mail by rail (both steam and electric), by air, and by water. He supervises the railway mail, air mail, foreign mail services, and adjusts the pay for carrying the mail. The third assistant postmaster-general is the financial official of the department and has charge of the money-order and registry service, the distribution of postage-stamps, and the classification of mail matter. The fourth assistant postmaster-general directs the operation of the rural delivery service, the distribution of supplies, and the furnishing of equipment for the post-offices and railway mail service.

In addition to the four assistants there is a solicitor, or legal officer; a chief post-office inspector, who has jurisdiction over the traveling inspectors engaged in inspecting, tracing lost mail, and investigating mail depredations, or other misuse of the mail; a purchasing agent; a chief clerk, who supervises the clerical force at headquarters in Washington; and a controller, who audits the accounts of the 52,000 postmasters.

The Postmaster General and General Administration Assistants.

1—HON. HUBERT WORK, Postmaster General.

2—HON. JOHN H. BARTLETT, First Assistant Postmaster General.

3—HON. PAUL HENDERSON, Second Assistant Postmaster General.

4—HON. W. IRVING GLOVER, Third Assistant Postmaster General.

5—HON. H. H. BILLANY, Fourth Assistant Postmaster General.

UNITED STATES POSTAL STATISTICS

Year

Post-

Extent of

Gross Revenue

Gross Expenditure

(Fiscal)

offices

Post-routes

of Department

of Department

(Number)

(Miles)

1800

903

20,817

$ 280,806

$ 213,884

1850

18,417

178,672

5,499,985

5,212,953

1860

28,498

240,594

8,518,067

19,170,610

1870

28,492

231,232

19,772,221

23,998,837

1880

42,989

343,888

33,315,479

36,542,804

1890

62,401

427,990

60,882,098

66,259,548

1900

76,688

500,989

102,354,579

107,740,267

1910

59,580

447,998

224,128,658

229,977,224

1921

52,050

1,152,000

263,491,274

620,993,673

COMPARISON OF MONEY-ORDERS AND POSTAL NOTES ISSUED,

FISCAL YEARS 1865 to 1921, INCLUSIVE

Money

Domestic Money-orders Iss.

International Money-orders Iss.

Postal Notes Issued

Year

order

(Fiscal)

offices

Number

Value

Number

Value

Number

Value

1865

419

74,277

$ 1,360,122.52

1870

1,694

1,671,253

34,054,184.71

$ 22,189.70

1875

3,404

5,006,323

77,431,251.58

102,250

1,964,574.88

1880

4,829

7,240,537

100,352,818.83

221,372

3,463,862.83

1885

7,056

7,725,893

117,858,921.27

448,921

6,480,358.83

5,058,287

$  9,996,274.37

1890

9,382

10,624,727

114,362,757.12

859,054

13,230,135.71

6,927,825

12,160,489.60

1895

19,691

22,031,120

156,709,089.77

909,278

12,906,485.67

1900

29,649

32,060,983

238,921,009.67

1,102,067

16,749,018.31

1905

36,832

53,722,463

401,916,214.78

2,163,098

42,503,246.57

1910

51,791

77,585,321

558,178,028.35

3,832,318

89,558,299.42

1915

55,670

105,728,032

665,249,087.81

2,399,836

51,662,120.65

1920

54,395

149,091,944

1,342,267,597.43

1,250,890

23,392,287.46

1921

54,183

144,809,855

1,313,092,591.08

876,541

16,675,752.16

The Post-office of General Concern

There is no governmental activity that comes so uniformly into intimate daily contact with different classes of this country's inhabitants, nor one the functioning of which touches practically the country's entire population, as does the United States postal system. Mr. Daniel G. Roper, in a volume highly regarded by postal executives, entitled "The United States Post-Office," called the postal service "the mightiest instrument of human democracy." This system, as we know it to-day, represents the growth, development, and improvement of over a century and a third. In the last seventy-five years this growth has been particularly marked; the total number of pieces of all kinds of mail matter handled in 1847, for instance, was 124,173,480; in 1913 it was estimated that 18,567,445,160 pieces were handled, and to-day about 1,500,000,000 letters are handled every hour in the postal service. In 1790 the gross postal revenues were $38,000 in round numbers and the expenditures $32,000. In 1840 the revenues were $4,543,500 and expenditures $4,718,200. In 1890 the revenues were $60,880,000 and the expenditures $66,260,000. In 1912 the revenues were $247,000,000 and the expenditures $248,500,000.

The revenue of the postal service for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1921, including fees from money-orders and profits from postal-savings business, amounted to $463,491,274.70, an increase of $26,341,062.37 over the receipts for the preceding fiscal year, which were $437,150,212.33. The rate of increase in receipts for 1921 over 1920 was 6.02 per cent., as compared with an increase in 1920 over 1919 of 19.81 per cent.

The audited expenditures for the year were $620,993,673.65, an increase over the preceding year of $166,671,064.44, the rate of increase being 36.68 per cent. The audited expenditures for the fiscal year were therefore in excess of the revenues in the sum of $157,502,398.95, to which should be added losses of postal funds, by fire, burglary, and other causes, amounting to $15,289.16, making a total audited deficiency in postal revenues of $157,517,688.11. The material increase in the deficiency over that for 1920 was due to large increases of expenditures made necessary by reason of the re-classification act allowing increased compensation estimated at $41,855,000 to postal employees, and to increased allowances of more than $30,000,000 for railroad mail transportation resulting from orders of the Interstate Commerce Commission under authority of Congress.

The revenues of this department are accounted for to the Treasury of the United States and the postmaster-general submits to Congress itemized estimates of amounts necessary under different classifications; Congress, in turn, makes appropriations as it deems advisable.

In 1790 there were a total of 118 officers, postmasters, and employees of all kinds in the postal service. Postmaster-General Work to-day directs the activities of nearly 326,000 officers and employees. The number of post-offices in the United States in 1790 was seventy-five; in 1840 the number had increased to 13,468; in 1890 it was 62,401; and on January 1, 1922, there were 52,050. The greatest number of post-offices in existence at one time was 76,945, in 1901, but the extension of rural delivery since its establishment in 1896 has caused, and will probably continue to cause, a gradual decrease in the number of smaller post-offices.

The Post-office in Colonial Times

The first Colonial postmaster, Richard Fairbanks, conducted an office in a house in Boston in 1639 to receive letters from ships. In 1672 Governor Lovelace of New York arranged for a monthly post between New York and Boston, which appears to have been the first post-route officially established in America. Much of this route was through wilderness, and the postman blazed the trees on his way so that travelers might follow his path. This route, however, was soon abandoned.

In 1673 the Massachusetts General Court provided for certain payments to post messengers, although the first successful postal system established in any of the Colonies was that of William Penn, who, in 1683, appointed Henry Waldy to keep a post, supply passengers with horses, etc. In the following year Governor Dungan of New York revived the route that had been established by Governor Lovelace, and, in addition, he proposed post-offices along the Atlantic coast. In 1687 a post was started between certain points in Connecticut. The real beginning of postal service in America seems to date from February 17, 1691, when William and Mary granted to Thomas Neale authority to conduct offices for the receipt and despatch of letters. From that time until 1721 the postal system seems to have been under the direction of Andrew Hamilton and his associates. In the latter year John Lloyd was appointed postmaster-general, to be succeeded in 1730 by Alexander Spotsward. Head Lynch was postmaster-general from 1739 to 1743, and Elliott Berger from 1743 to 1753.

In July, 1775, the Continental Congress established its post-office with Benjamin Franklin as its first postmaster-general. Mr. Franklin had been appointed postmaster of Philadelphia in 1737. Samuel Osgood, of Massachusetts, however, was the first postmaster-general under the Constitution and Washington's administration. From Samuel Osgood to Hubert Work there have been forty-five postmasters-general, that official becoming a member of the President's cabinet in 1829.

Fast Mails of Pioneer Days

Post-riders and stage-coaches were the earliest means of transporting the mails, to be followed by steamboats, railway trains, and, in time, by airplanes.

In considering our modern mailing methods, no feature of the development of our postal system is more striking than the improvement that has been made in methods of mail transportation.

Up to a few decades ago, pony express riders sped across the western part of our country, and back, carrying the "fast mail" of the days when Indians and road-agents constituted a continual source of annoyance and danger to stage-coach passengers and drivers, and made the transportation of valuables extremely hazardous. The coaches carried baggage, express, and "slow mail," as well as passengers, while the "fast mail" was handled exclusively by pony riders.

The inimitable Mark Twain has given us a great word-picture of these pony express riders, from which we quote the following:

In a little while all interest was taken up in stretching our necks and watching for the "pony rider"—the fleet messenger who sped across the continent from St. Joe to Sacramento, carrying letters nineteen hundred miles in eight days! Think of that for perishable horse and human flesh and blood to do! The pony rider was usually a little bit of a man, brimful of spirit and endurance. No matter what time of the day or night his watch came on, and no matter whether it was winter or summer, raining, snowing, hailing, or sleeting, or whether his "beat" was a level straight road or a crazy trail over mountain crags and precipices, or whether it led through peaceful regions or regions that swarmed with hostile Indians, he must be always ready to leap into the saddle and be off like the wind! There was no idling time for a pony rider on duty. He rode fifty miles without stopping, by daylight, moonlight, starlight, or through the blackness of darkness—just as it happened. He rode a splendid horse that was born for a racer and fed and lodged like a gentleman; kept him at his utmost speed for ten miles, and then, as he came crashing up to the station where stood two men holding fast a fresh, impatient steed, the transfer of rider and mail-bag was made in the twinkling of an eye, and away flew the eager pair and they were out of sight before the spectator could get hardly the ghost of a look. The postage on his literary freight was worth five dollars a letter. He got but little frivolous correspondence to carry—his bag had business letters in it, mostly. His horse was stripped of all unnecessary weight, too. He wore a little wafer of a racing-saddle, and no visible blanket. He wore light shoes, or none at all. The little flat mail-pockets strapped under the rider's thighs would each hold about the bulk of a child's primer. They held many and many an important business chapter and newspaper letter, but these were written on paper as airy and thin as gold-leaf, nearly, and thus bulk and weight were economized. The stage-coach travelled about a hundred to a hundred and twenty-five miles a day (twenty-four hours), and the pony rider about two hundred and fifty. There were about eighty pony riders in the saddle all the time, night and day, stretching in a long scattering procession from Missouri to California, forty flying eastward, and forty toward the west, and among them making four hundred gallant horses earn a stirring livelihood and see a deal of scenery every single day in the year.

The Pony Express Rider.

Photo by Courtesy of American

Telephone & Telegraph Company

We had had a consuming desire, from the beginning, to see a pony rider, but somehow or other all that passed us and all that we met managed to streak by in the night, and so we heard only a whiz and a hail, and the swift phantom of the desert was gone before we could get our heads out of the windows. But now we were expecting one along every moment, and would see him in broad daylight. Presently the driver exclaims:

"HERE HE COMES!"

Every neck is stretched further, and every eye strained wider. Away across the endless dead level of the prairie a black speck appears against the sky, and it is plain that it moves. Well, I should think so. In a second or two it becomes a horse and rider, rising and falling, rising and falling—sweeping toward us, nearer and nearer—growing more and more distinct, more and more sharply defined, nearer and still nearer, and the flutter of the hoofs comes faintly to the ear—another instant and a whoop and a hurrah from our upper deck, a wave of the rider's hand, but no reply, and man and horse burst past our excited faces, and go winging away like a belated fragment of a storm!

So sudden is it all, and so like a flash of unreal fancy, that but for the flake of white foam left quivering and perishing on a mail-sack after the vision had flashed by and disappeared, we might have doubted whether we had seen anything at all, maybe.

Mail Transportation To-day

Mails are now carried over about 235,000 miles of railroads. Service on the railroads is authorized and paid for under a space basis system authorized by Congress and approved by the Interstate Commerce Commission.

The present post-office organization dates from about 1836, as the period that followed that year was one of transition from stage-coach to rail car for the transportation of mails. As railway mail service was increased and extended, sometimes railroad companies made arrangements with contractors to handle it. Occasionally contracts were transferred to the contractors at the same rates received by the railroads. Frequently the compensation was divided pro rata as far as the railroad covered the route. It was not uncommon for postmasters in large cities to make the arrangements for the department. Naturally such a lack of uniformity of procedure and control invited irregularities of one kind or another, although they were for the most part not serious ones, and were eventually corrected and a system of standards and of unified control put into effect.

Origin of Mail Classes

In 1845 any letter that weighed one half ounce or less was classified as a single letter without regard to the number of sheets it contained; a five-cent rate was charged for distances under three miles and ten cents for greater distances. In 1847 the postage-stamp was officially adopted and placed on sale July 1 of that year at New York. In the year 1848, 860,380 postage-stamps were sold; in 1890, 2,219,737,060 stamps were sold, and in 1921 there were issued to postmasters 14,000,000,000 adhesive stamps, 1,100,000,000 postal cards, 2,668,000,000 stamped envelopes, and 80,800,000 newspaper wrappers.

In 1850 the rates were reduced to three cents for any distance less than three hundred miles, if prepaid, and five cents if not prepaid, and, for a greater distance, six cents if prepaid and ten cents if not prepaid. The prepayment of postage was finally made compulsory in 1855. In 1863 a uniform rate of three cents for single letters not exceeding one half ounce in weight was adopted for all distances, and twenty years later, in 1883, the two-cent letter was adopted. In 1917 the rates of three cents on letters and two cents for postal cards were adopted, the extra cent in each case being for war revenue. On June 30, 1919, however, the three-cent letter rate and the two-cent postal-card rate expired by limitation, and the two-cent letter rate and one-cent postal-card rate returned.

When the parcel post was established in 1913, and the air mail service was inaugurated in 1918, special stamps were issued, although they were soon discontinued. Our friends who collect stamps may be glad to know that a philatelic stamp agency has been established under the third assistant postmaster-general at Washington, which sells to stamp-collectors at the face-value all stamps desired which are in stock and which may have special philatelic value to stamp-collectors.

Emergency Measures During the War

As a war measure, on July 31, 1918, by executive order issued in accordance with a Joint Resolution of the House and Senate, the telegraph and telephone systems of the United States were placed under the control of the postmaster-general, and on November 2, 1918, the marine cables were also placed under his control. These utilities were conducted by a wire control board, of which the postmaster-general was the head. The marine cables were returned to their owners May 2, 1919, and the telephone and telegraph lines were returned to their owners in accordance with an act of Congress on August 1, 1919, having been under government control just one year.

When the telegraph was invented, in 1847, the first line between Washington and Baltimore was built through an appropriation authorized by Congress. Then, as now, there were public men who advocated government ownership of the wire systems as a means of communication, the same as the postal service. It was placed in private control, however, one year after its inauguration, and has grown up under that control. The Government's operation during the war of both the wire and railroad systems seems to have cooled the ardor of even the most enthusiastic advocates of government ownership of such utilities.

Early in 1919 the Post-office Department used the wireless telegraph in connection with air mail service. A central station is located in the Post-office Department Building at Washington, and other stations are located in cities near the transcontinental air mail route from New York City to San Francisco. Experiments are being made with the wireless as a means of directing airplanes in flight, especially during foggy and stormy weather, and it is expected planes will ultimately be equipped with either wireless telegraph or telephone outfits. On April 22, 1921, the Post-office Department adopted the use of the wireless telephone in addition to the wireless telegraph service, and is now using both in the air mail service, and also for the purpose of broadcasting to farming communities governmental information such as market reports from the Agricultural Department and the big market centers. It is not contemplated, however, that the Post-office Department will maintain the wireless telegraph and telephone except as an aid in the development of the air mail service; only when not in use for this purpose is it utilized to broadcast the governmental information referred to for the benefit of farming communities and without expense to them.

The Post-office in the War

As may be imagined, the work of the Post-office Department consequent upon the war was enormous; it participated in and did war work for practically all other departments of the Government. Besides the great increase of ordinary mail as a result of the war, it assisted in the work of the draft, the Liberty Loans, the Red Cross service, food, fuel, and labor conservation, the enforcement of the Alien Enemy and Espionage laws, and nearly every war activity placed upon it some share of the burden. The Post-office Department, whose function is purely civil, with responsibility for a business service that must not be interrupted, kept open channels of communication upon which the vital activities of the Nation depended, and unquestionably made material contributions toward the successful prosecution of the war.

The department was of assistance to the Department of Justice, the Bureau of Intelligence of both the Army and the Navy; the Department of Labor, in collecting data relative to firms and classes of labor in the country; the Department of Agriculture, the Shipping Board, and various independent bureaus of the Government. Under proclamation of the President, postmasters of towns having populations of 5000 or less had the duty of registering enemy aliens. The department collected all the statistics and lists of aliens for the Department of Justice. A similar work was performed with respect to the duties of the Alien Property Custodian. Nine million questionnaires were distributed for the War Department, each being handled three times during the first draft; about thirteen million questionnaires were distributed in the second draft. The department distributed literature for the Liberty Loans and the Red Cross, and assisted in the sale of War Savings Stamps and Internal Revenue Stamps. New postal service was established for the soldiers at nearly a hundred cantonments in this country. When the American forces went abroad an independent postal service was established in France by the Post-office Department which was later turned over to the military authorities. That the United States postal service was the only one in the world that did not break down during the war might well be cause for pardonable pride.

Beginning of Registered Mail, Postal Money-orders,

Savings, Free Delivery, Special Delivery,

Parcel Post, and Air Mail

The registry service was established in 1855 and the money-order service was established in 1864. About $1,500,000,000 is transmitted by money-orders annually. Postal-savings service was established January 3, 1911, and during the first year the deposits reached a total of $677,145. The increase in this department has been continuous each year, and in a recent year the amount was over $150,000,000. The parcel-post system was established January 1, 1913, and now nearly three billion parcels are handled annually.

In 1863 the innovation of free delivery of mail in forty-nine cities was undertaken, for which 449 carriers were employed. In 1890, 454 cities enjoyed free delivery of mail and 9066 carriers did the work. In 1921 there were about 3000 city delivery post-offices and about 36,000 carriers. The Post-office Department owns and operates almost 4000 automobiles in the collection and delivery of mail in cities, but this is a small part of the number operating under contract. The regular use of the automobile in the postal service dates back only to 1907. The feature of special delivery of mail was inaugurated in 1885.

The first regular air mail route was inaugurated May 15, 1918, between Washington and New York, a distance of about 200 miles, the schedule being two hours, compared with about five hours for steam trains.

Airplane mail equipment.

An air route between Cleveland and Chicago was inaugurated May 15, 1919, and between New York and Cleveland July 1, 1919. The Transcontinental Air Mail Route from New York to San Francisco, inaugurated September 8, 1920, is the only route at present in operation. This coast-to-coast route is 2629 miles in length, passing through Cleveland, Chicago, Omaha, Cheyenne, Salt Lake City, and Reno. Relays of planes are used, but, contrary to the general impression, mail is not carried all the way by air; instead, planes pick up mail which has missed trains and advance it to points where it will catch through trains.

Three rural routes, the first ones, were established in 1896 in West Virginia. By 1900 there were 1259; in 1906, 32,110; 1912, 42,199; on January 1, 1922, there were 44,007. Rural routes now in operation cover a total of 1,152,000 miles and the number of patrons served is about 30,000,000. The Rural Free Delivery Service brings in but about one fourth of its cost. There are also about 11,000 contract mail routes (star routes) serving communities not reached by rail or rural routes.

Postal Business Increases

In the five years from 1912 to 1917, the increase in the volume of business as reflected by the annual gross receipts of the post-office was 33.64 per cent., and in the ten-year period from 1912 to 1921, inclusive, it was 87.84 per cent. During this decade there was a decrease in postal receipts in but one year as compared with the previous year, and that was in 1915, when the percentage of decrease was 0.23 per cent. For the ten years mentioned the percentage of increase in receipts for each year over the previous year was as follows:

Percentage

1912

3.72

1913

8.65

1914

7.59

1915

.23[1]

1916

8.63

1917

5.66[2]

1918

4.47[3]

1919

5.91[4]

1920

19.81

1921

6.02

[1] Decrease.

[2] Additional revenue on account of increased postage rates incident to the war not included.

[3] Additional revenue on account of increased postage rates incident to the war not included.

[4] Additional revenue on account of increased postage rates incident to the war not included.

The Post-office and Good Roads

The pony express riders, to whom reference has already been made, rode over trails and cow-paths made by herds of buffaloes, deer, or cattle. To-day, however, as part of our post-office appropriations, large sums are included for construction and keeping in repair public roads and routes used by different branches of our mail service. For the present year there was appropriated for carrying out the provisions of the Federal Highway Act the sum of $75,000,000 for what is known as Federal aid to the States in road construction, and $10,000,000 for forest roads for 1923. A comprehensive program has been adopted and, in order that the States may make adequate provisions to meet their share for the Federal appropriations, they know in advance just what Federal appropriation they can depend upon.

The total Federal aid funds which have been apportioned to the States from 1916 to 1921 amount to $339,875,000. On February 1, 1922, $213,947,790 had been paid on actual construction, leaving a balance for new construction of $125,927,214. Between February 1 and July 1 of this year about $40,927,000 more was put into construction.

Washington Headquarters

The main Post-office Department Building is located at 11th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. What is known as the City Post-Office Building is at North Capitol Street and Massachusetts Avenue in that city, and the mail equipment shops are located at 5th and W Streets, N.E. The total number of employees in the General Department is 2025.

The clerks throughout the department, in character, intelligence, and dependability, are above the average. Not only must postal clerks be familiar with the location of several thousand post-offices, but they must know on what railroad each post-office is located, through what junction points a letter despatched to that office must pass, and many other important details. The schedules of railroads affect the method of despatching mail, and these are constantly changing so that postal clerks must be up to the minute on all schedules, etc.

Red Corpuscles for Our Postal Arteries

A new post-office policy that is well expressed by the words "humanized service" has been inaugurated. The postal educational exhibits which have been conducted in many of the larger offices for the purposes of teaching the public how to mail and how not to mail letters, parcels, and valuables were but single manifestations of this new spirit. Some persons may think—and with good reason—that only recently have postal authorities indicated concern in what the public did; but that the present interest is genuine is evident to any one. The department is likewise interested in its workers and makes an effort to understand them. Says the head of the department in his latest report: "We are dependent on the nerve and the sense of loyalty of human beings for the punctual delivery of our mail regardless of the weather and everything else. To treat a postal employee as a mere commodity in the labor market is not only wicked from a humanitarian standpoint, but is foolish and short-sighted even from the standpoint of business. The postal employee who is regarded as a human being whose welfare is important to his fellows, high and low, in the national postal organization, is bound to do his work with a courage, a zest, and a thoroughness which no money value can ever buy. The security which he feels he passes on to the men and women he serves. Instead of a distrust of his Government, he radiates confidence in it. I want to make every man and woman in the postal service feel that he or she is a partner in this greatest of all business undertakings, whose individual judgment is valued, and whose welfare is of the utmost importance to the successful operation of the whole organization. We want every postal co-worker to feel that he has more than a job. A letter-carrier does a good deal more than bring a letter into a home when he calls. He ought to know the interest which his daily travels bring to the home. We have 326,000 men and women with the same objective, with the same hopes and aspirations, all working together for the same purpose, a mutual appreciation one for the other, serving an appreciative public. If we can improve the spirit and actual working conditions of these 326,000 men and women who do this job, that in itself is an accomplishment, and it is just as certain to bring a consequent improvement in the service as the coming of tomorrow's sun."

Welfare Work

Few people know that to-day a welfare department is in operation throughout the postal system which is directly interested in improving the working conditions of all the postal workers. The department was organized in June, 1921, by the appointment of a welfare director. Councils of employees meet regularly to consider matters affecting their welfare and to discuss plans for improving the postal service. The National Welfare Council has been formed of the following postal employee organizations:

National Federation of Post-office Clerks

The Railway Mail Association

United National Association of Post-office Clerks

National Rural Letter-Carriers Association

National Association of Letter-Carriers

National Federation of Rural Carriers

National Association of Supervisory Employees

National Federation of Federal Employees

National Association of Post-office Laborers

Mutual aid and benefit societies with insurance features are conducted, athletics are encouraged, sick benefits are provided, retirement pensions are in effect, and postal employees to-day can well believe that somebody cares about their comfort and welfare. Incidentally, savings aggregating many thousands of dollars annually have been effected through the suggestions and inventions of employees in the service.

One of the important divisions in the postal service is that which pertains to the inspection work, much of which does not attract outside attention and only comes to public notice when some one has gotten into trouble with the postal authorities. In a large measure, inspection work pertains to the apprehension of criminals and the investigation of depredations, but that is only a comparatively small part of the division's activities.

Post-office inspectors investigate and report upon matters affecting every branch of the postal service; they are traveling auditors and check up accounts and collect shortages; they decide where an office should be located, how it should be fitted up, and how many clerks or carriers may be needed.

The rural carriers, for instance, must be familiar with the regulations that cover the delivery of mail, registration of letters, taking applications for money-orders, sale of stamps, supplies, etc., but the inspector must also know all of these and also be able to determine when the establishment of a route is warranted, to lay out and fix the schedules and prepare a map and description of the route, also measure the routes if the length is in dispute, inspect the service, ascertain whether it is properly performed, and give necessary instructions to the carriers and postmasters.

Carriers must know their districts, understand regulations covering the delivery of mail, handling of registry, insurance and collection on delivery matter, collection of mail and handling of change of address and forwarding orders. The inspector, however, determines when conditions are such at an office that city delivery service may be installed, the number of carriers necessary, and the number of deliveries to be made. He lays out the routes, locates the collection boxes, and fixes the schedules. He is also called on to investigate the service when extensions are desired or when carriers are deemed necessary, and is concerned with clerks, supervisory officers, postmasters, new post-offices, railway mail service, contracts for transportation of mail and furnishing of supplies, as well as the enforcement of criminal statutes covering train robberies, post-office burglaries, money-order forgeries, lottery men, the transmission of obscene literature, mail-bag thieves, embezzlers, etc.

The following regular employees were in the Post-office Department and Postal Service on July 1, 1922:

Post-office Department proper

1,917

Post-office inspectors

485

Clerks at headquarters, post-office inspectors

115

Employees at United States Envelope Agency

10

First Assistant Postmasters:

First class

834

Second class

2,808

Third class

10,407

Fourth class

37,899

51,948

Assistant postmasters

2,730

Clerks, first and second class offices

56,003

City letter carriers

39,480

Village carriers

1,111

Watchmen, messengers, laborers, printers, etc., in post offices

3,063

Substitute clerks, first and second class offices

11,283

Substitute letter carriers

10,765

Special delivery messengers (estimated)

3,500

Second Assistant:

Officers in Railway Mail Service

149

Railway postal clerks

19,659

Substitute railway postal clerks

2,419

Air mail employees

345

Fourth Assistant:

Rural carriers

44,086

Motor-vehicle employees

3,177

Substitute motor-vehicle employees

447

Government-operated star-route employees

64

Total

252,756

The following classes or groups are indirectly connected with the Postal Service in most instances through contractual relationship, and take the oath of office, but are not employees of the Post-office Department or the Postal Service:

Clerks at third-class offices (estimated)

13,000

Clerks at fourth-class offices (estimated)

37,899

Mail messengers

13,128

Screen-wagon contractors

201

Carriers for offices having special supply

349

Clerks in charge of contract stations

4,869

Star-route contractors

10,766

Steamboat contractors

273

Total

80,485

THE POST-OFFICE IN NEW YORK

List of New York City postmasters from 1687 to date:

WILLIAM BOGARDUS

April 4, 1687

HENRY SHARPAS

April 4, 1692

RICHARD NICHOL

(Postmaster in 1732)

ALEXANDER COLDEN

(Postmaster in 1753-75)

EBENEZER HAZARD

October 5, 1775

WILLIAM BEDLOE

(Postmaster in 1785, appointed after close of Revolutionary War)

SEBASTIAN BAUMAN

February 16, 1796

JOSIAS TEN EYCK

January 1, 1804

THEODORUS BAILEY

April 2, 1804

SAMUEL L. GOUVERNEUR

November 19, 1828

JONATHAN I. CODDINGTON

July 5, 1836

JOHN L. GRAHAM

March 14, 1842

ROBERT H. MORRIS

May 3, 1845

WILLIAM V. BRADY

May 14, 1849

ISAAC V. FOWLER

April 1, 1853

JOHN A. DIX

May 17, 1860

WILLIAM B. TAYLOR

January 16, 1861

ABRAM WAKEMAN

March 21, 1862

JAMES KELLY

September 19, 1864

PATRICK H. JONES

April 27, 1869

THOMAS L. JAMES

March 17, 1873

HENRY G. PEARSON

April 1, 1881

THOMAS L. JAMES (acting)

April 21, 1889

CORNELIUS VAN COTT

May 1, 1889

CHARLES W. DAYTON

July 1, 1893

CORNELIUS VAN COTT

May 23, 1897

EDWARD M. MORGAN (acting)

October 26, 1904

WILLIAM R. WILLCOX

January 1, 1905

EDWARD M. MORGAN (acting)

July 1, 1907

EDWARD M. MORGAN

September 1, 1907

EDWARD M. MORGAN (reappointed)

December 14, 1911

ROBERT F. WAGNER

April 22, 1916. Declined

THOMAS G. PATTEN

March 16, 1917

EDWARD M. MORGAN (reappointed)

July 1, 1921

Some of the Early Postmasters of New York City.

Early New York

The first ships which arrived after the settlement of New York as New Amsterdam brought letters, and the first post-office, such as it was, began to function about the time the city was founded.

When vessels arrived, those letters relating to the cargoes were delivered to merchants; persons who welcomed the ships received their letters by hand. If a letter was unclaimed, it was left with a responsible private citizen until called for.

In time a system of voluntary distribution was developed, which became known as the "Coffee House Delivery." It was naturally popular and continued for over a century. At first this method of delivery was used by vessels and by people from distant points who left their mail for delivery at some well-known tavern. Here it reposed in a box accessible to all, or it was tacked to the surface of a smooth board with tape or brass-headed nails and placed in a conspicuous part of the tavern.

In the year 1710 the postmaster-general of Great Britain designated a "chief letter office" in the City of New York, Philadelphia having been the headquarters of the Colonial organization up to that time. In the following year arrangements were completed for the delivery of Boston mail twice a month, and a foot-post to Albany was proposed.

In 1740 a complete road was blazed from Paulus Hook, Jersey City, to Philadelphia, over which the mail was carried on horseback between Philadelphia and New York.

Alexander Colden was postmaster here at the time of the Revolution, but when the British troops took possession of New York, the office was abolished by the provost-marshal and for seven years little correspondence not connected with the movement of troops was handled.

William Bedloe, after whom Bedloe's Island was named, was the first postmaster after the war, but in 1786 Sebastian Bauman succeeded him.

The New York General Post-office To-day

The world's greatest post-office to-day is the New York General Post-office, located at Eighth Avenue and West 33d Street, but a short block from the West Side Office of the Manufacturers Trust Company, and we are glad to be able to include in this booklet a message to our readers from Hon. E. M. Morgan, Postmaster, who directs the activities of that great organization.

THE NEW YORK GENERAL POST-OFFICE OF

THE PAST, THE PRESENT, AND

THE FUTURE

BY E. M. MORGAN, POSTMASTER

The growth of business transacted by the New York post-office is illustrated by the following statement showing the postal revenues for the years mentioned. It appears that the first account of revenues of the New York post-office was published in the year 1786, and the first city directory was also published in that year, and contained 926 names.

Year

Amount

1786

$  2,789.84

1873 (estimated)

2,500,000.00

1922

54,109,050.61

According to a recent statement by Hon. Hubert Work, Postmaster-General, the postal business now done in New York City alone is equivalent to that of the United States twenty-five years ago, and is double that of the Dominion of Canada.

During my personal experience with the postal affairs of this great city, the service has been expanded from a post-office with eleven stations and 973 employees to an enormous establishment having a total of 362 stations, including fifty carrier and financial stations, 271 contract stations, and forty-one United States Warship Branches; requiring a total force of 15,600 post-office employees. The postmaster at New York is also the Central Accounting Postmaster for 1375 district post-offices (365 third-class and 1010 fourth-class post-offices) located in thirty-five counties of New York State.

The transactions of this important office are constantly increasing in volume as a result of the great expansion and growth of New York City, which is greatly influenced by the progress and growth of the entire country. New York City, as the metropolis of the United States, is taking her place at the head of the large cities of the world in population, finance, and commercial affairs.

If the progress made in the past fifty years by the United States and its possessions in the conduct of national and international business continues, the postal business here will, no doubt, make tremendous strides.

At the end of another fifty years, or in the year 1972, the postmaster at New York will be the head of a much greater establishment than the present office, which will be comparable to that organization of the future as the first post-office in New York City, located in the "Coffee House," Coenties Slip, in 1642, is comparable to the present post-office. The future postmaster of New York, in 1972, will probably be the head of a number of consolidated post-offices in the metropolitan area, and, no doubt, other public services will be placed under his supervision.

The further development and improvement of the aëroplane mail service will no doubt result in a greater use of that facility for the transportation of mails. The transportation of the mails through the streets of New York is a great problem. At present motor trucks are principally used for that purpose. It is anticipated that even with this service augmented by the re-establishment of the pneumatic tubes, future extensions to the underground method of transportation will be necessary. It is likely that before many years are passed a system of tunnels for the transportation of mails in pouches and sacks will be built and placed in operation.

Congress and the Post-office Department are now looking into the matter of providing the post-office at New York with a large amount of additional room in new buildings specially constructed for post-office purposes and it is the constant aim and purpose of all concerned in the operation of the New York post-office to furnish its patrons the best postal service.

E. M. MORGAN, Postmaster.

The New York Post-office

Conceive, if you can, an organization that is incessantly and perpetually going at top speed; that knows not a moment of rest the year round, or generation after generation; which never sleeps, nor pauses, nor hesitates; that disposes each day of a mountain of 14,300,000 pieces of ordinary mail, or more than any other office in the world; that does a parcel-post business that makes the business of the express companies seem small in comparison; that handles in excess of 41,500,000 pieces of registered mail each year; that issues nearly four million money-orders annually, and pays over seventeen million more; that, as a mere side issue does a banking business which is exceeded by but a few banks in the whole State; that has in its safe custody the savings of approximately 140,000 depositors, amounting to more than $44,000,000; that employs an army of 15,000 men and women; that occupies one of the largest buildings in the city, two blocks in length, and then overflows into approximately fifty annexes, called "Classified Stations," and nearly 200 sub-annexes, called "Contract Stations"; that has receipts in excess of $52,000,000 per annum; that has doubled its business in ten years. Having conceived this, you will begin to get some idea of the New York post-office, the biggest thing of its kind in the world and still growing.

The average man's conception of a post-office includes little more than an impression of a letter-carrier in a gray uniform; a mail wagon recently dodged by a narrow margin; a post-office station somewhere in his neighborhood, and a hazy picture of a dingy place in which men sometimes post letters. Of the details of the organization aside from these things, the extent and complexities of the service, or how it accomplishes what it does, or of the executive experts operating the system, he knows practically nothing. He is aware, it is true, that letters are collected and that letters are delivered, and that continents and oceans may divide the sender and addressee; but by what mystic methods delivery is accomplished he has never stopped to think. Yet the organization that lies behind the words "New York post-office" is one of the most complex, efficient, and interesting in the world, and yet it operates with a simplicity and a smoothness that betoken master design and perfection of detail.

The Postmaster

At the head of this great organization and directing its every movement, watching its development, adjusting its activities, is one of the most experienced and efficient postal experts in America, in the person of Postmaster Edward M. Morgan, whose interesting statement is included at the head of this section.

Mr. Morgan entered the postal service in 1873 as a letter-carrier, at the foot of the ladder, and by an industry that was tireless and force of character he worked his way up, round after round, to the very top. In the course of his long public service he transferred from the carrier force to the clerical force, and then graduated from this to the supervisory ranks, discharging each successive grade with conspicuous ability. His several titles in the course of this career were: carrier, clerk, chief clerk, superintendent of stations, superintendant of delivery, assistant postmaster, acting postmaster, postmaster. He was first appointed postmaster by President Roosevelt, and reappointed by President Taft. For an interval during President Wilson's administration he was out of office, but was reappointed by President Harding. With such a record of progress and experience it is very evident that he must "know the game," but if one knows nothing of his history, and meets him for a few minutes, his grasp of detail and vision of opportunity for future development become at once apparent.

Postmaster Morgan has gathered around him as his heads of divisions a corps of enthusiastic aides who have grown up in the service under his tutelage, and each of whom has advanced step by step under the keenest competition, demonstrating his competency for the position he fills by the satisfactory manner in which he has discharged the duties of the position of lower rank. Among his aides there are no amateurs; all have been tried for a generation or more in positions of varying and increasing importance, and they have stood the test; they are recognized the country over as postal experts, and the work they are doing and the efficiency they are showing are proof that their reputations are well merited.

The Organisation of the New York Post-office

Next in rank to the postmaster are the assistant postmaster and the acting assistant postmaster, the first at the head of the financial divisions and miscellaneous executive departments, and the second at the head of various divisions engaged in handling the mails proper.

Postmaster, New York, N.Y., and Staff.

Upper row (left to right)—Edward P. Russell, Postal Cashier;

Arthur H. Harbinson, Secretary to the Postmaster;

Joseph Willon, Superintendent of Registry;

Albert B. Firmin, Superintendent of Money Orders;

Justus W. Salzman, Auditor.

Lower row (left to right)—Peter A. MCGurty, Acting Superintendent of Mails;

Thomas B. Randies, Acting Assistant Postmaster(Mails);

Hon. Edward M. Morgan, Postmaster; John J. Kiely,

Assistant Postmaster(Finance): Charles Lubin, Superintendent of Delivery.

The Assistant Postmaster

The assistant postmaster is Mr. John J. Kiely, who has been in the service thirty-seven years, and, like the postmaster, has worked up from the ranks, advancing through the various grades as foreman, assistant superintendent, superintendent, division head, etc., to the title he now holds. For a number of years he was in charge first of one and then of another of the great terminal stations of the city, where the greatest volumes of mail are handled of any of the stations in this country, and later was made superintendent of mails, from which position he was recently promoted to the title he now holds.

A new kind of sign in Government offices.

The Acting Assistant Postmaster

The acting assistant postmaster is Mr. Thomas B. Randles, who is responsible for the movement of the mails, and who, for several years prior to his attaining his present rank, was assistant superintendent of mails; prior to that, he was superintendent of different stations in various parts of the city. He has seen twenty-eight years' service in various ranks.

The Division Heads

Next in rank to the officials mentioned there is a group of division heads, corresponding with the various major activities of the office, including the Division of Delivery, the Division of Mails, the Division of Registered Mails, and the Division of Money-Orders, followed by the cashier, the auditor, the classification division, etc.

The duties of each of these heads are very clearly defined by Postmaster Morgan, and each head is held to strict responsibility for the faithful and efficient conduct of his division or department. The postmaster himself is ever ready to give advice and counsel, and is the most accessible of executives, not only to his staff, but to employees of all rank and to the public. He in turn requires of all of his aides not only a thorough knowledge of every detail of their work, but also that they shall be as accessible to those under them and to the public as he is himself.

The Postmaster's Weekly Conference

Once each week the postmaster meets his division heads and department chiefs in formal council, when the problems of the service are freely discussed and plans are formulated for such undertakings as may require unity of action and coöperative effort. These conferences keep the various heads apprised of what is of importance in the various departments, and promote an esprit de corps and coöperative attitude that explain the exceptional unity of effort that is characteristic of the entire organization. One has only to study the organization for a short time to discover that one of its strongest features is the manifest team-work, the one animating and controlling influence throughout it all being "the interest of the service."

The Delivery Division

Closest to the heart of the public of all the postal employees—probably because they see so many of them and know so much of their faithful work as they plod along day in and day out, in all kinds of weather, with their heavy loads weighing down their shoulders and twisting their spines—are the letter-carriers. These are all under the Division of Delivery, the superintendent of which is Mr. Charles Lubin. Mr. Lubin entered the service in 1890, as a substitute clerk, and is another example of the executive who has risen, step by step, through all the various clerical grades to supervisory rank, and then through the various supervisory ranks to his present title. The Delivery Division includes in its personnel, in addition to 2954 letter-carriers, 3621 clerks, 282 laborers, and 1800 substitute employees, so that it constitutes a small army in itself.

The New York post-office covers both Manhattan and the Bronx, with a postal population which greatly exceeds the population as shown by the census. To New York gravitate daily hundreds of thousands of people who are employed in Manhattan and the Bronx but who reside in Brooklyn, New Jersey, Long Island, or elsewhere. Hundreds of thousands of others reside at one address in Manhattan or the Bronx, but do business at another, receiving mail at both addresses. Including these, the transients, and the commuters mentioned, it is estimated that the Delivery Division is receiving mail for approximately 8,000,000 addressees in the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx.

Adequately to meet the requirements of this vast number there are scheduled, for the business section of the city, six carrier deliveries daily, and four for the residential sections. Just what this means will be better appreciated if one will pause and try to visualize what it means to traverse every street and alley of the great area covered by Manhattan and the Bronx from four to six times daily, stopping at every door for which there is mail, and effecting delivery in apartments, in tenements, in office buildings, and in factories.

Of the 2954 carriers mentioned above, 384 are employed in collecting mail from the street boxes, both package and letter, and from the chutes in office buildings, etc. From the boxes in remote suburban districts three to five collections are made daily, from boxes in the residential sections from seven to fifteen collections daily, while in the business sections the collections run from fifteen to twenty-seven.

Even with the frequency of collection that takes place in the intensively developed business sections, the boxes fill up as quickly as they are emptied.

To appreciate how quickly, and to make clear the volume of mail collected by the carriers, it may be stated that among the office buildings equipped with chute letter-boxes are the Equitable Life, thirty-nine stories, and the Woolworth, fifty-five stories, from each of which fifty-five to sixty full sacks of mail are collected by the carriers daily between 3 and 7.30 P.M. These sacks are conveyed by wagons to the Varick Street Station for postmarking and despatch, four carriers being engaged on the task.

The volume of mail collected at the close of business in the lower part of the city, and largely from buildings equipped with chutes and boxes, exceeds that handled by many first-class post-offices for an entire twenty-four-hour period.

Rear view of New York General Post Office and Pennsylvania

Railroad tracks. Manufacturers Trust Company, West

Side offices, nearby (in semi-circle).

The Stations

For greater efficiency in handling the mails, to shorten the trips of carriers and collectors and to serve the public convenience, as the city has grown, various classified or carrier stations have been established, and of these there are now no fewer than forty-eight in operation and also two financial stations. The classified or carrier stations are practically complete post-offices, so far as the public is concerned, affording full facilities for the sale of stamps, money-orders, postal savings, registration of mail, acceptance of parcel post, the distribution of mail, etc., and for the delivery and collection of mail by carriers. The financial stations afford all the conveniences mentioned for the benefit of the public, except that they do not make delivery of mail nor effect its distribution.

It is estimated that the delivery division effects the delivery daily through the carriers assigned to the general office and to the various stations of approximately 5,000,000 letters, cards, and circulars, 800,000 papers, periodicals, and pieces of printed matter and small parcel-post packages, and 65,000 bulky parcel-post packages, or, in all, close to 6,000,000 pieces of mail of all classes.

But the delivery of mail is only part of the story, for it is estimated that the public mail daily in the various chutes, classified station "drops," and street letter boxes, etc., approximate 5,000,000 pieces of first-class mail and several million circulars, all of which have to be gathered together and put through the various processes of cancellation, sorting, etc., before the actual work of delivery or despatch begins.

The tremendous magnitude of the business of the various stations is shown not only in the volume of mail received and delivered, but in the sale of stamps, the collection of postage on second-class matter, etc., constituting the receipts.

The receipts at the City Hall Station, for instance, are greater than the receipts of any post-office in the United States except Chicago, Ill., Philadelphia, Pa., and Boston, Mass., as shown by the table below, giving figures for the fiscal year 1921. In the case of all the offices named, the figures include not only the main office but all the stations of the offices. In the case of the City Hall Station alone, the figures are for this unit exclusively, and no other point.

RECEIPTS FOR FISCAL YEAR 1921

Chicago, Ill.

$ 42,711,561

Philadelphia, Pa.

15,588,738

Boston, Mass.

11,597,061

City Hall Station

9,749,018

Saint Louis, Mo.

8,722,633

Kansas City, Mo.

6,490,018

Cleveland, Ohio

6,218,695

Detroit, Mich.

5,742,835

Brooklyn, N. Y.

5,695,037

San Francisco, Cal.

5,623,409

Pittsburgh, Pa.

5,298,504

Cincinnati, Ohio

4,663,323

Minneapolis, Minn.

4,606,689

Los Angeles, Cal.

4,580,969

Baltimore, Md.

4,323,525

Washington, D. C.

3,661,760

Buffalo, N. Y.

3,438,497

Milwaukee, Wis.

3,311,922

From these figures it will also be seen that the receipts of the City Hall Station are greater than the receipts of the entire city of Saint Louis, as great as the receipts of Cleveland, Ohio, and Buffalo, N. Y., combined, as great as the receipts of Detroit, Mich., and Washington, D. C., combined, as great as those of Brooklyn, N. Y., and Milwaukee, Wis., combined, or those of Cincinnati, Ohio, and Minneapolis, Minn., combined.

The rapid increase in the volume of business at the City Hall Station is shown by the following figures of receipts:

Calendar Year

1915

$  6,587,228.98

1916

7,124,138.76

1917

7,544,849.70

1918

8,162,774.76

1919

9,188,449.66

1920

10,253,435.42

Increase in five years—55.65 per cent.

City Hall is not the only station of great receipts, as the following statistics show:

RECEIPTS FOR FISCAL YEAR 1921-2

Madison Square Station

$ 5,458,705.90

Grand Central Station

4,582,718.87

Wall Street Station

2,815,963.56

Station "D"

2,354,165.33

Times Square Station

2,323,791.88

West 43d Street Station

1,742,125.04

Station "P"

1,688,795.83

Station "G"

1,540,499.66

Station "O"

1,523,785.14

Station "F"

1,432,161.03

Station "S"

1,192,883.02

Station "A"

1,138,459.07

In addition to the actual receipts of the various stations, made up by the sale of stamps, etc., as described, their financial transactions incident to the money-order and postal-savings business are tremendous, as will later be shown in detail under the heading "Division of Money-Orders" and "Postal Savings"; suffice it to say here that the City Hall Station issued last year money-orders to the value of $3,183,209, and the Madison Square Station money-orders to the value of $2,004,273, while Station "B" had to the credit of its postal-savings depositors $6,786,622, Tompkins Square Station, $5,580,389, and Station "U," $4,595,974.

How greatly the business of the stations has grown is evidenced by the fact that in 1875 the gross receipts for the year amounted to but $3,166,946.19, which is less than the receipts for one month at the present time, the receipts for last July amounting to $3,821,095.94.

To those who are now enjoying the advantage of free delivery service it seems that it is the natural thing, and it is difficult for them to realize how a busy community could get along without it, yet as a matter of fact it was not established until 1863, when it was experimentally installed in forty-nine cities, with but 449 carriers, which number is about a seventh of those employed at the present time in New York alone.

The number of stations has also increased rapidly. In 1889 there were but eighteen classified stations and twenty contract stations in New York, while to-day, as previously mentioned, there are forty-eight of the former, two financial, and 271 contract stations authorized, and also forty-one Warship Branches.

Foreign Mail for City Delivery

The receipts of foreign mail from Europe is increasing very rapidly. During the month of July, 1922, there was received for delivery in New York City from foreign countries 3,372,767 letters and 2577 sacks of foreign papers.

Few people who hasten through the

New York General Post Office building notice its

architectural beauty of design and perspective.

The task of handling the city mail received from steamers is particularly trying, since many of the addresses are difficult to read, insufficient postage is prepaid in many cases, and it comes not in a steady flow but in quantities at one time; and it is, of course, always in addition to the regular daily quota of domestic matter. In exemplification of this it may be said that on August 11, 1922, a single steamer, the Mauretania, brought in 8553 sacks of letters.

The Division of Mails

The Division of Mails embraces the Division of Delivery, which has already been described, the great terminal stations, that is, the Grand Central Station (including the Foreign Station Annex); also the Division of Registered Mails and the Motor Vehicle Service. All of these, as previously mentioned, are under the general supervision of Acting Assistant Postmaster Randles. The Division of Mails proper, exclusive of the Division of Delivery and of the Division of Registered Mails, is under the acting superintendent of mails, Mr. Peter A. McGurty. Mr. McGurty was formerly assistant superintendent of delivery, and has been in the postal service in New York since 1897. Mr. McGurty, like other division heads, served first as a clerk, and rose gradually, grade by grade, to his present position. In the Mailing Division there are 4942 employees. The duties of the Mailing Division are many and varied. In the main it is responsible for the distribution and despatch of all outgoing mail, including the parcel post. It is in itself a complex organization, employing not only the army of men above mentioned but an enormous fleet of motor vehicles and complex mechanical equipment for the conveyance of mail from one part of an office to another, and the loading of it upon railroad cars, ships, etc. The average daily transactions of the division are as follows:

Outgoing letters

3,965,023

Circulars

1,917,190

Second-and third-class matter

1,620,250

Parcel-post matter

363,805

Customs due matter

800

Collections on customs due matter

$ 2,500

One duty of the Mailing Division is the weighing of second-and third-class matter to determine the postage required thereon. The daily average of the matter thus weighed is approximately 343,000 pounds, and on this postage is collected to the amount of approximately $10,500.

In order to make clear what is involved in the handling of a great volume of mail such as is disposed of daily in this division of the New York office, it may be well to describe the course that is followed by a single letter. Assume that a letter is mailed in a street letterbox, in the district of a great terminal; it is brought in by a collector, who deposits it upon a long table surrounded by many employees. The table is likely to be what is known as a "pick-up table," which is one equipped with conveyor belts and convenient slide apertures for letters of different lengths, and into these apertures, with nimble fingers, the clerks grouped around it separate the mass of letters received, placing the letters with all the stamps in one direction. As quickly as they do so, the conveyor belts carry the letters, according to the different sizes into which they have been separated, to the electrically-driven canceling machines. These canceling machines are operated by a second group of employees, who feed in the letters, which are canceled at the rate of approximately 25,000 letters per hour. The whirling dies by which are imprinted the postmarks which cancel the stamps revolve at almost lightning speed. These postmarks are changed each half-hour, and the aim is to postmark the letters as rapidly as they come to hand, so that but a few minutes intervene between the time of mailing and time of postmark. This postmark is, in fact, the pace-maker. Once it is imprinted upon a letter, it can be determined by the postmark at any time just how long a time has been required for it to reach a particular point in the progress toward despatch.

From the postmarking machine the letters are carried, sometimes by conveyors, sometimes by hand, and sometimes by small trucks, to what are known as the "primary separating cases." These cases are manned by employees who separate the letters into groups, according to certain divisions which facilitate the secondary and further distributions. Thus at the primary cases the letters are likely to be broken up into lots for the city delivery, for many different States, for foreign countries, and for certain large cities. Each separation on the primary case will likely be followed by a secondary separation almost immediately. A sufficient number of men is kept on the facing or pick-up tables, on the primary cases, and on the secondary cases and pouching racks, to maintain a continuous movement of the mails. The aim is to keep the mail moving not only continuously from the point of posting to the point of delivery, as nearly in a direct line as practicable, but rapidly also, and with only an arresting of the movement when this is made necessary by awaiting the departure of the next train.

From the secondary cases the letters are carried to the pouching rack. By the time they reach the pouching rack they are made up into bundles, various letters for the same localities having been segregated and tied together. In some instances the packages of letters are tagged or labeled for States, in others for cities, and still others for railroad lines or for sections of such lines.

The handling of papers and circulars is much the same, so far as distribution is concerned, as the handling of letters, though there is considerable variation as to the details of segregation.

Carriers sorting mail in the General Post Office.

With this distribution of the mails there goes a system of despatches. In respect to these it may be said that it is essential that various clerks engaged in the process as described shall know the time of departure of the many trains leaving New York for different points. They must know how much time in advance of departure is essential between "tying out" the packages of letters and the actual departure of the train from the station, and thereby allow sufficient time, but no more time than is absolutely necessary, to make the connection. Every detail of the work is plotted; nothing is left to chance. At a certain hour and at a certain minute every clerk engaged in the same distribution at the same station ties out for the same office or route, and likewise at the pouching rack the pouches are closed, locked, and despatched according to a fixed schedule. If the pouch has to be carried from the rack to the truck a given number of feet, a time allowance is made. At a set time the truck that conveys the pouches to the station whence the train is to depart must leave. The time for the vehicle to traverse the prescribed route is fixed; sufficient time for this and not more is allowed. Also the time for unloading the truck and loading the train is fixed. When it is understood that this course has to be followed by every one of the millions of letters handled, and that there are 50,000 offices in the United States to which mail is forwarded, and that in addition to this it is being distributed for practically every city, town, and hamlet in the world, the complexity of the task becomes apparent. From the General Post-office alone there are as many as 457 despatches of first-class mail daily, and forty-five despatches of second-, third-, and fourth-class matter.

Within the last few years the burden of the parcel post has been added to the duties of the post-office. It is estimated that 75,000 pieces of parcel-post matter are handled at the General Post-office daily, and that 65,000 additional pieces of this matter are received at the same point from the stations.

Parcel-post packages are commonly very bulky. Such may now be mailed for local delivery and for delivery in the first, second, and third zones, that is, within three hundred miles of the place of mailing, if they do not exceed seventy pounds in weight, while packages not in excess of fifty pounds may be mailed to any address in the United States. The handling of these packages necessitates the use of entirely different character of equipment. As far as it is practicable to do so, this matter is segregated from mail of the other classes. Many of the packages are too large to be inclosed readily in mail sacks, and are forwarded "outside." In the distribution of parcel-post matter, sack racks are used into which all parcels which are small enough to be sacked are separated. The distribution, as in the other classes, is made at primary and secondary racks.

A feature of the Mailing Division is the handling of such equipment, as pouches, sacks, etc., intended to be used for the transportation of the mails. Approximately 69,000 sacks and 18,000 pouches are shipped by the New York General office daily.

The Mailing Division—Incoming Foreign Section

In this section mails are handled which are received from foreign countries. These arrive chiefly on steamers that make New York their port of destination. Some of the foreign mails, however, reach New York via Boston, Philadelphia, Key West, New Orleans, Laredo, San Francisco, Seattle, and Vancouver. The number of pieces of mail received from foreign countries weekly by this section approximates 3,639,000 letters and cards, 2,631,000 pieces of printed matter, 15,000 packages of parcel post, and 568,500 registered articles. These are forwarded to their destination after distribution. Many of the letters and cards are not prepaid, or are prepaid but partly, and the postage charged on such matter approximates $14,200 each week.

Carriers leaving the General Post Office

on an early morning delivery.

Owing to the unsettled conditions in Europe the rates> of postage in foreign countries are continually changing. As a result of the depreciation of Russian currency, letters coming from that country have recently been prepaid at the rate of 450,000 rubles per ounce or fraction thereof. Prior to the war a ruble was worth approximately 51.46 cents. The 450,000 rubles are now equivalent to fifty centimes of gold, or ten cents in United States currency.

Mail at the Post Office ready to be

loaded onto trucks.

Many peculiarities are noted in the addresses of incoming foreign letters. Very frequently a letter will bear upon the envelop a copy of a business letter-head or bill-head. This is accounted for by the fact that some one in this country when writing to Europe will direct his correspondent to address the expected answer according to the address on the letter-head or bill-head he uses, and the foreigner, not knowing what to select from whatever is printed, takes what he regards to be the safe course and copies all. A letter will sometimes be found to bear a full list of everything sold in a country store, including hardware, provisions, clothing, shoes, and periodicals and newspapers. In other cases the senders cut short the addresses and are satisfied if, in addition to their correspondent's name, they give "America" spelled in any way that suits them best, and the ways are legion.

Mailing Division—Motor Vehicle Service

The Motor Vehicle Service of the New York post-office is in charge of Mr. William M. Taggart. The fleet consists of 329 vehicles. All these are owned by the Government. The Government likewise makes its own repairs, employs its own chauffeurs and mechanics, painters, upholsterers, and various artisans incidental to the operation, repair, and maintenance of the vehicles. There are two garages, and in all 727 men are employed. The garages include fully equipped machine-shops, and stock-rooms in which are constantly kept duplicate parts for all the machines in use.

The magnitude of the service will be realized when it is known that during the last fiscal year the vehicles traveled 4,330,102 miles, or 174 times the distance around the world.

During the last fiscal year the motor vehicle service made 646,967 trips, according to predetermined schedules, and 67,053 trips which were not scheduled but of an emergency character. This gave a total of 713,020 trips. Of this vast number of trips, scheduled and emergency, there were but 747 which were but partly performed and but 1323 which failed.

Mail trucks loaded with parcel post matter to be

transported to different stations in the city.

These trucks are maintained in a condition for operation at all hours of the day and night. No matter what weather conditions prevail, the mails must be moved, and the motor vehicles must be maintained in a condition of efficient repair to permit of their utilization in this work. Every detail of expenditure for the fleet is maintained on a strictly scientific cost accounting basis, the number of gallons of oil, the service of the tires, the cost of operation per mile, with and without chauffeur, are all a matter of record. The repairs made on each machine are carefully recorded, with the cost for the parts and the cost of the mechanical help figured separately, so that it is ascertainable from the records what was spent under this heading for each vehicle during each month and year.

Mailing Division—Transportation Section

The Transportation Section, under Assistant Superintendent of Mails John J. McKelvey, is closely coördinated with the motor vehicle section. The duty of this section is to effect the loading of the vehicles and to arrange the schedules so as effectively to move the mails from the point at which they are made up to their despatch by train, or delivery to some station or group of stations. How great is the volume of mail handled will be understood when it is said that from the General Post-office alone the average number of pouches received and despatched daily is approximately 16,000, while the average number of sacks received and despatched is approximately 80,000. The pouches contain first-class mail and the sacks contain mail of other classes. The average number of pieces received and despatched daily, too large to be inserted in either sacks or pouches, is approximately 15,000. At each of the great terminals there are very extensive platforms; the one at the City Hall Station is a block long; that at the General Post-office two blocks long, and these platforms are under the control of the transportation department. During the hours when the mails are being despatched they are among the busiest spots in the postal system. As many as 1200 trucks commonly receive and discharge mail from the General Post-office platform daily. Other platforms are correspondingly busy.

The Pneumatic Tubes

The pneumatic tube service has now been resumed between the General Post-office, the terminals, and certain of the principal stations of the New York postal system, which was discontinued June 30, 1918, owing to the antagonism to this method of transportation on the part of the then postmaster-general, Mr. Albert Burleson. Legislation has been enacted and departmental action taken within the last year to bring about the resumption of operation of this valuable system. The pneumatic tubes form what is practically a great loop running north in two branches from the City Hall. One branch goes up the east side of the city, east of Central Park, and the other up the west side, west of Central Park, the two lines being joined together at 125th Street by a line running east and west. This loop and its extensions link the General Post-office and the following named stations: A, C, D, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, N, O, P, U, V, W, Y, Grand Central, Madison Square, Times Square, Wall Street, City Hall, and Varick Street. The City Hall Station is also connected with the Brooklyn General Post-office. The pneumatic tubes are located four to six feet below the surface of the city's streets, and through these tubes cylindrical steel containers are forced by compressed air. The containers are approximately seven inches in diameter and twenty-one inches long, and the pressure of air is sufficient to impel them at the rate of about thirty miles per hour. Containers carry from 500 to 700 letters each, and can be despatched as frequently as one every eight or ten seconds. It will be seen, therefore, that by means of the pneumatic tubes a practically continuous flow of the mails can be maintained between stations. The pneumatic tubes are not owned by the Government, but the service is leased on a yearly rental basis. Under the terms of the lease the company that owns the tube system operates it, and the Government delivers to the despatching points within the different stations and terminals the mail to be transported. Upon arrival at its destination the mail is again delivered to the postal employees, who are ready to receive it.

There are approximately twenty-eight miles of double tubes, so that mail can be despatched in both directions at the same time. During the period the system was in operation before the tubes conveyed the mails with remarkable efficiency, and it is said that as to stoppages and breakdowns, etc., their operation was 99.79 per cent. perfect. In one day 27,243 containers were despatched through the tubes, with a total capacity of more than 10,000,000 letters. They averaged for a year, though not used to maximum capacity, 5,000,000 letters a day. One advantage of the pneumatic tubes is their freedom from interruption by inclement weather. As the tubes are below the surface of the street, conditions of ice, snow, and sleet, which are embarrassing to motor vehicles, do not interrupt operation. At different times in several of our cities vehicles conveying the mails have been "held up," but with the tubes, robbery is practically impossible. It is anticipated that with the tube system resumed a large percentage of the letter mail intended both for city delivery and for despatch to other points will be materially advanced in delivery.

The Foreign Station of the New York post-office stands out among the postal activities of the country for it is the station at which are made up all the mails intended for foreign countries, with few exceptions, such as Canada. The superintendent of the station is Mr. Thomas J. Walters, who has been connected with it for many years. It is a busy place, particularly just before the departure of a steamer, when every effort is exerted to despatch all mail that can be crowded in, up to the very last minute. This station has grown in a comparatively short time and from a very small beginning. In 1885 the average weekly number of sacks made up for all parts of the world was only 1200; by 1890 the number had grown to 1900; by 1900 it had reached about 4500; in 1910 the figures were 10,000, and at the present time the average is approximately 18,000 sacks weekly. Mail is forwarded to the Foreign Station from all parts of the United States, and is here distributed for the various foreign countries and cities for which it is intended. In this distribution expert knowledge of foreign geography and political divisions is required, for a large percentage of the mail received is indefinitely directed, and only an expert could determine for what points much of it is intended. The shifting map of Europe has added greatly to the difficulties, for many correspondents in this country are still ignorant of the new boundaries.

In the equipment of this station are hundreds of distribution cases, and many of the letters which the experts at these cases rapidly sort are actually so poorly written that the average man would not be able to decipher them without much study.

Exhibits used for educational work in postal improvement campaign.

One interesting feature of the Foreign Station is the parcel-post section. The United States now has parcel-post conventions with many foreign countries, and the volume of this business is growing very rapidly. The rate of postage is but twelve cents a pound, and for this small fee a package will be accepted, even in distant California or Oregon, transmitted across the continent, over the ocean, and to a destination in South America, Europe, or elsewhere. In the early days of the parcel-post it was used chiefly by the person who had friends or relatives in Europe and wished to send a present to them, but it is now being used very extensively in commercial transactions. By this means goods ordered from abroad are forwarded by the great mail-order houses, and the total volume of this business is large.

Much difficulty is experienced in inducing senders of mail matter to wrap it securely. A long campaign of education has been conducted, but there is still room for improvement, as evidenced by the fact that four clerks are engaged repacking, rewrapping, and repairing packages not properly and safely wrapped, and supplying addresses in the case of indefinite directions, etc.

With the increase in the volume of the mail there has been an increase in the number of ships carrying the mails, and so, while in August, 1873, there were but thirty-four vessels carrying mail that sailed from New York, during July, 1922, 180 such vessels sailed; on a single day twenty ships left this port carrying a total of 11,299 sacks. During the month of July, 1922, 97,000 sacks of mail were shipped, a quantity that would tax the capacity of a large warehouse.

A special feature of the service is the operation of post-offices on U. S. naval vessels. There are more than fifty such post-offices, serving the convenience of the boys in blue. Whether the naval vessels are equipped with post-offices or not, the Foreign Station is kept posted as to their movements by the Navy Department, and special efforts are made to so forward all mail received as to reach the addressee at the first port of call.

During the war the Foreign Station experienced many trying times in its efforts to get American mail to destination. The sailing time of ships was seldom known much in advance of actual sailing, and the utmost secrecy was maintained as to vessel movements. The Navy Department advised the Foreign Station of the intended sailing of vessels by cipher, though such information was most jealously guarded. The utmost caution was taken in the making out of address tags, etc., to conceal the identity of the various units, the mail for which had to go out by the different ships, and throughout the war there was not a single leak. The service performed during this trying time by the employees of the Foreign Station were so conspicuously efficient as repeatedly to win approbation.

A recapitulation of the several classes of mail despatched from this station to foreign countries is shown below and indicates the rapidity of its growth:

1914

1921

Letters

110,121,846

140,654,326

Printed Matter, etc.

53,940,035

101,905,335

Circulars

12,170,937

15,477,570

Registered Articles

4,372,889

10,238,298

Parcel Post

571,997

1,920,580

Total number of articles despatched.

181,177,704

270,196,109

The Registry Department

One of the most important departments of the New York post-office is the Registry Division, which is under the supervision of Mr. Joseph Willon. Mr. Willon has been long in the postal service, and for many years prior to his present assignment was superintendent of some of the larger stations of the city, including the one at Times Square.

In the Registry Division at the General Post-office 550 persons are employed; at the City Hall Station, 130; and at the Foreign Station there is a large force, assigned exclusively to the handling of the foreign registered mails.

The registered mails are the most important and the most valuable. Just how valuable they are no one knows, but millions of dollars in cash and securities are handled daily, and the banks as well as other financial and commercial interests of the country would be seriously affected if the registry system ceased to operate, even for a brief period. Some idea as to the enormous values handled by the registry department may be gained from the fact that during the last fiscal year 7546 packages containing diamonds only were received from abroad, the dutiable value of which approximated $150,000,000. In all, 73,000 packages were received that were regarded as dutiable. Notwithstanding the enormous values handled, the percentage of losses is exceedingly small.

According to the last report of the postmaster-general, throughout the United States the number of registered pieces amounted to 78,205,014. The New York post-office handled 41,592,423, or more than half of the total. As stated, the percentage of losses is small, and in the case of first-class registered matter of domestic origin there is an indemnity up to fifty dollars, and for the matter of the third class an indemnity up to twenty-five dollars. Under the agreements that prevail with certain foreign countries provision is also made for indemnifying the owners under certain circumstances where foreign losses occur.

The handling of registered mail differs chiefly from the handling of ordinary mail in the extra care which is taken to safe-guard it. The aim is to record it at the time of receipt, and to thereafter require all persons handling it to account for it as it passes through their hands along its route. Receipts are required at all points, and the letters are forwarded in pouches secured by "rotary locks," provided with certain numbers running in sequence, controlled mechanically, the mechanism being such that the lock cannot be opened without raising the number at which the lock was set. If the lock is tampered with in transit, since record is made of the number set when it was despatched, the circumstance is apparent.

REGISTERED ARTICLES HANDLED AT

NEW YORK, N. Y., YEAR ENDING

DECEMBER 31, 1921

Station

N. Y. City

Distribution

Foreign

Total No.

of Pieces

Handled

G. P. O.

10,927,723

12,144,069

2,331,683

25,403,475

City Hall

2,848,002

2,832,993

230,124

5,911,119

Foreign

132,250

10,143,579

10,277,829

Total

13,775,725

15,109,312

12,705,386

41,592,423

The Division of Money-orders and the Postal Savings

The financial transactions of the New York post-office are of enormous volume. Through its Division of Money-orders it issues and pays money-orders of a value comparable with the business of the large banks of the city. The Postal Savings System also has on deposit a sum which is exceeded by the deposits of only nine savings-banks in Manhattan, and is operated as part of the organization of the Division of Money-orders.

This division is under the supervision of Mr. Albert Firmin, who has been connected with the postal system within a few months of forty years, and in point of service is dean among the division heads. It has been through Mr. Firmin's especial assistance that we have been able to obtain so complete a story of the New York post-office, although every office and every executive has coöperated in every possible way, for which extended courtesies we hereby make grateful acknowledgment.

The New York post-office issues more money-orders than any office in the United States. The volume of money-order business, domestic and international, for the last five years, is shown below:

DOMESTIC MONEY-ORDERS ISSUED

Year

Number

Amount

1918

2,504,473

$ 25,014,403.41

1919

2,762,021

32,206,933.02

1920

3,306,613

43,457,921.55

1921

3,549,742

46,699,314.76

1922

3,846,676

45,339,319.17

Total

15,969,525

$ 192,717,891.91

INTERNATIONAL MONEY-ORDERS ISSUED

Year

Number

Amount

1918

194,349

$ 2,807,166.44

1919

192,655

2,839,846.28

1920

122,088

1,824,007.11

1921

76,292

1,161,793.74

1922

92,303

1,344,494.51

Total

677,687

$ 9,977,308.08

DOMESTIC MONEY-ORDERS PAID

Year

Number

Amount

1918

16,869,819

$ 115,059,322.85

1919

16,544,345

132,692,080.13

1920

18,321,840

174,530,250.50

1921

16,379,250

155,812,988.47

1922

17,345,209

134,217,183.37

Total

85,460,463

$ 712,311,825.32

INTERNATIONAL MONEY-ORDERS PAID

Year

Number

Amount

1918

51,443

962,232.03

1919

65,605

1,349,771.29

1920

73,660

2,560,337.36

1921

47,493

803,782.14

1922

50,553

605,932.87

Total

288,754

$ 6,282,055.69

During the fiscal year last past, 722,321 international money-orders, amounting to $9,583,425.62, were certified to foreign countries, and 112,292 such orders were certified from foreign countries to the United States, the total amount of these being $1,802,902.66.

Occasionally in excess of 100,000 money-orders are paid in a single day, and it is the rule that this volume of business must be balanced to a cent daily.

Money order accounting machines in use at the

New York General Post Office.

The employees engaged in handling these millions of orders are held strictly accountable for the accuracy of their work, and if error occurs resulting in loss, it must be borne by the person at fault.

The most modern methods of accounting are in use, mechanical labor-aiding equipment being utilized wherever it is practicable. The method followed is to perforate a card by means of a small electric machine, so that the perforations show the various data upon the paid money-order that are required to record the payment, the amount, etc. These machines are operated by skilled women employees, trained in methods of accuracy and speed, and whose rating and advancement depend on their efficiency.

The cards are then fed into electrically-driven adding- and printing-machines, known as tabulators, which automatically print upon sheets, in columns, all the data shown by the perforations in the card. From this machine the cards are transferred to sorting machines, which operate at great speed and automatically set the cards up numerically according to the numbers of the offices which issued them. Thereupon other sheets are printed by the tabulators showing the orders in their new and correct numerical sequence, these sheets being used for searching purposes in the event of applications being made for duplicates, etc.

Various other mechanical devices are employed in other branches of the work, and the equipment is in all respects up to date, and minimizes clerical work to the greatest extent.

The Country's Foreign Exchange Clearing-House

In addition to the work which is usually done in a post-office in the issue and payment of money-orders, the New York post-office is the International Exchange Office for the United States, handling all money-orders passing between this country and Europe, South America, Africa, etc. The volume of this business has been materially reduced since the war, and is affected by the unsettled condition of the old world finances, but it is nevertheless large, as shown by the figures given below for the last fiscal year.

Number

Amount

International money-orders certified

to foreign countries

722,321

$ 9,583,425.62

International money-orders certified

from foreign countries

112,292

1,802,902.66

The duty of purchasing foreign exchange also falls upon the New York post-office, and the transactions in this are at times very heavy. The total financial transactions of the Division of Money-orders, exclusive of the postal savings, amounted last year to $235,133,669.03.

The Postal Savings

At practically all the stations of the New York office there are postal-savings depositories which are open to the public from 8 A.M. to 8 P.M. The rate of interest on postal savings is but two per cent., but the advantage of absolute safety which the system affords appeals to those who utilize it. Not more than $2500 is accepted from one depositor, but a deposit as small as one dollar is accepted, and this may even be accumulated by the purchase of ten-cent postal-savings stamps, which are obtainable at all stations.

New York has on deposit close to one third of all the postal-savings deposits in the United States. There are approximately 140,000 depositors in Manhattan and the Bronx, and they have to their credit in excess of $44,000,000. Thus it will be seen that the New York office is not only a colossus among post-offices, viewed from the standpoint of postal facilities and postal business, but that as a financial institution as well it is a giant.

Office of the Cashier

The cashier is the disbursing officer of the New York office, and he likewise receives all money derived from the sale of postage-stamps, stamped envelops, postal cards, and internal revenue stamps which are disposed of at the different stations and in all the third-and fourth-class post-offices in thirty-five counties in the State of New York. The cashier is Mr. E. P. Russell, and his financial responsibilities are great. The New York post-office is the depository for surplus postal funds from all first-and second-class post-offices in New York State, and it likewise provides hundreds of offices with treasury savings stamps and certificates, and accounts for the revenue received therefrom. How great is the volume of business of the cashier's office will be seen from the statistics given below, which are for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1922.

STAMPS

Kind

Number

Ordinary

1,317,465,292

Postage due

8,584,300

Parcel post

150,750

Proprietary (revenue)

1,768,763

Documentary (revenue)

7,240,444

Stamps in coils

337,852,500

1,673,062,049

Books of stamps

1,403,100

International reply coupons

30,000

POSTAL CARDS

Denomination

Number

Postal cards—1¢.

147,515,077

Postal cards—2¢.

29,242,551

Postal cards—4¢.

1,163,209

177,920,837

STAMPED ENVELOPS

Kind

Number

Low-back

95,826,243

High-back

29,411,708

Open-window

4,671,750

Extra-quality

466,000

Special-request

95,371,000

225,746,701

TREASURY STAMPS AND CERTIFICATES

SINCE DECEMBER 15, 1921

$  1.00

stamps

43,017

25.00

certificates

12,471

100.00

certificates

11,403

1000.00

certificates

1,195

If the postage and revenue stamps shown above could be placed lengthwise, in one single line, it would reach a distance of 26,876 miles, more than enough to encircle the earth.

Pay-roll Worries of Magnitude

The cashier's office pays the salaries of the 15,000 employees of the New York office, which in the last fiscal year amounted to $23,594,824.60. It also pays many of the employees of the Railway Mail Service, this salary list for the year totaling $5,103,717.11; also all the rural delivery carriers in New York State, their earnings being $3,394,540.56 for the year.

A feature of the parcel-post system is the indemnity which is paid in the case of damage or loss to insured parcels. When applications for indemnities are received from the public they are investigated by the Inquiry Section, and when it is determined that payment should be made, the cashier's office makes the disbursement. Approximately 200 drafts are drawn daily to cover these cases.

Mention has been made of treasury savings certificates handled by the New York office, which in the month of July were sold to the value of about $600,000. These certificates, as the name indicates, while issued by the Treasury Department are handled largely by the Post-office Department as a convenience to the public and in the interest of the government to better promote the sales.

The large amount of one month's sales indicates the measure of service thus provided and the extent to which it is used.

Office of the Auditor

The auditor is the checking officer of all receipts and disbursements of the New York post-office. The position is held by Mr. Justus W. Salzmann, another postal veteran, and his corps audits the postal, money-order, and postal-savings accounts, prepares statements of these accounts for transmission to the comptroller of the Post-office Department, and verifies the money-order and postal accounts of mail clerks in charge of post-offices on naval vessels. He also audits the accounts of approximately 1400 post-offices in the State of New York known as "district offices," of which New York City is the Central Accounting office, and he corresponds with the postmasters of these offices in connection with the conduct of their offices.

The auditor also supervises the examination of financial accounts at the main office and at all stations, made by station examiners, corresponds with and prepares statements for the Commissioner of Pensions in connection with refunds under the Retirement Act, and with the United States Employees' Compensation Commission in connection with injuries sustained by employees while on duty. He has charge of contracts requiring expenditures, as well as correspondence relating to leases of post-office stations and to repairs and additional equipment required at these stations.

The organization of the auditor's office is divided into two sections, each under the supervision of a bookkeeper; one has charge of the general accounts of the New York office and the accounts of district post-offices; the other has charge of the auditing of the money-order and postal-savings accounts, the preparation and verification of pay-rolls, and second-class and permit-matter accounts.

The auditor has immediate charge of six station examiners who report on the financial accounts of all stations; they also investigate and report on the need for establishing and maintaining contract stations and attend to complaints received concerning the operation of such stations.

The auditor, as the checking officer of the New York post-office, audits receipts and disbursements totaling over $700,000,000 annually. The postal receipts for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1922, were $54,089,023.99, as compared with $52,292,433.91 for the previous fiscal year, a gain of $1,796,590.08.

The Appointment Section

The Appointment Section corresponds to a well-organized personnel bureau of a modern business establishment. This section is under the superintendency of Mr. Peter Putz. All appointees from the Civil Service list report to this section, and from here they are assigned to the various divisions and departments, according to the requirements. In a force of 15,000 men there are, of course, many changes daily, caused by deaths, resignations, promotions, and demotions. Whatever action is involved in the changes is taken by the Appointment Section. The efficiency records of all employees are filed here, and likewise the bonds covering their financial responsibility. From the day a person enters the service to the time he or she leaves it, a record is kept of all ratings, of qualifications as determined by his superior officers, and of all delinquencies.

The Drafting Section

How diversified the requirements of the postal service are is illustrated by the work of the Drafting Section, under the direction of Mr. John T. Rathbun, whose corps of draftsmen are constantly engaged in laying out new stations, replotting equipment in different units as various changes incident to the growth of the city necessitate, or as changes in the regulations affect the volume of business at different points. This section includes also a corps of mechanics engaged in the repair and maintenance of mail-handling apparatus and equipment.

The Supply Department

The Supply Department of the New York post-office corresponds to a well-equipped store and printing establishment. It is under the superintendency of Mr. William Gibson. By this division supplies are furnished not only to the New York office and its stations, including those on naval vessels, but to post-offices throughout New York State, as many as 2200 points in all being cared for. Among the items supplied are 5,000,000 penalty envelops and 1700 different varieties of forms and books, of which approximately 60,000,000 copies are used annually. This department furnishes 250 different items of stationery and of janitors' supplies, and innumerable repair parts for a great variety of mechanical contrivances used in the postal system. The aim of the official in charge of the department is to keep in touch with the latest labor-aiding mechanical devices that can be utilized in the service, and among the various bureaus and sections will be found more than 300 type-writers, eighty adding-machines, cancelling machines, check-writing, check-protecting, accounting, and duplicating machines. For these numerous repairs are required and parts have to be secured, all of which is attended to by this department.

A feature of this department is a well-equipped printing section, which prints a daily paper or bulletin containing instructions, orders, and information for the employees, as well as numerous forms, posters, placards, etc., utilizing in this work a monotype type-setting machine, two cylinder and five job presses. A detail in its workshop is the precancellation of postage-stamps, to meet the requirements of large mailers who desire to purchase them, of which the yearly output is approximately 250,000,000.

The Classification Section

In the Division of Classification all questions involving rates and conditions of mailing are passed upon. At the head of this section is Mr. Frederick G. Mulker, whose experience with these matters is probably unequaled.

All applications for the entry of publications as "second-class" matter are handled here, and to this bureau publishers come to arrange for the acceptance of their magazines and papers. After a publication is admitted to the mails at the second-class rate its columns are scrutinized to detect anything that infringes upon the regulations, and if anything is found, action is taken by this section. The law defines various classes of mail matter, and innumerable questions arise as to the class in which certain articles belong, many of the questions being difficult of determination and involving numerous technicalities, but here, sooner or later, all questions are settled.

It is to this point, also, that the public comes for information as to the preparation of matter for the mails, how it should be wrapped, addressed, and posted; this section passes upon the mailability of matter under the lottery laws, which cover everything relating to prize schemes, contests, competitions, drawings, endless-chain schemes, etc. Many are the plans submitted, and while the law is rigid in respect to these matters, the field is alluring, and each day some novel proposition is submitted with the hope that it will not infringe the law, yet be attractive to the public through some subtle appeal to its gambling proclivity.

The Inquiry Department

This is one of the most interesting departments of any post-office. The one at New York is under the supervision of Mr. William T. Gutgsell, and its functions are many. It handles all inquiries for missing mail, and during the year ended June 30, 1922, this amounted to 243,457. The number of inquiries, however, by no means equals the number of letters and packages which are found to be undeliverable. Undeliverable mail is disposed of by the Inquiry Section, and the magnitude of its work may be appreciated from the fact that no fewer than 150,000 letters were mailed without postage during the year. Among the other items that loom large in the report of the Inquiry Department is the number of letters directed to hotels which were not claimed by the addressees. Of these there were 1,200,000; 18,000 parcels of fourth-class matter were found without address, the delivery of which could not be effected, and 56,000 pieces of unaddressed matter were restored to the owners. In former years all letters and packages of value found to be undeliverable throughout the country and not provided with the cards of the senders were forwarded to the Division of Dead Letters at Washington, but on January 1, 1917, branch dead-letter offices were established at New York, Chicago, and San Francisco. The branch at New York is conducted by the Inquiry Section, and its work concerns Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New York, 5074 offices being included. From this area last year there were received 3,518,604 pieces of undeliverable matter of domestic origin. A very large part of this mail had to be opened in order that restoration to the owners could be effected. Many of the letters, etc., were found to contain valuable enclosures, as indicated by this tabulation:

OPENED DEAD MAIL WITH VALUABLE

ENCLOSURES

Number

Amount

Money

10,352

$  27,559.93

Drafts, checks, money-orders, etc.

35,178

2,528,844.19

Postage-stamps

98,413

4,641.67

Many letters found to contain drafts, checks, money-orders, etc., are restored to the owners, for if the contents do not themselves disclose the address of the owners, the banks upon which the checks are drawn are communicated with to secure the information desired.

The Inquiry Department includes the Indemnity Bureau, which reviews, adjusts, and pays claims involving loss or damage to insured or C. O. D. parcels. Of these claims 112,432 were filed during the last fiscal year, and the amount paid on the claims was $544,314.46.

Another bureau of this department is charged with the duty of examining all misdirected letters and parcels which cannot be distributed or delivered by the employees regularly engaged in sorting the mails. The carelessness of the public in the matter of addressing mail is apparent from the statistics of this bureau for the year just passed, which show that it handled 1,576,366 letters with the very creditable result that of this number it succeeded in correcting and forwarding 686,233, from which it is evident that the post-office took more pains than did the senders. Of the number handled it also restored to the senders approximately 424,000.

Order and Instruction Section

This department is under the supervision of Mr. Edward R. McAlarney and is maintained for the issuance of various bulletins of information, public announcements, news items, and the circulation through official publications of instructions, orders, and intelligence regarding postal matters. It is "the office of publication" to the post-office; it issues posters, bulletins, news of the service, notices announcing the change in rates and conditions, the sailing and arriving of ships, changes in time of despatch and routing of the mail, etc. It is a busy department and the magnitude of its service corresponds to the great volume of work that it performs.

The Examination Section

HOW THE EMPLOYEES ARE TRAINED

A survey of the post-office quickly illustrates the fact that it could only be successfully conducted by the agency of skilled employees, especially trained for the work. The distribution of the mail is dependent upon employees who certainly must closely apply themselves to the mastery of the schemes of separation, and we should imagine that these are rather tedious to study, for it seems to be largely a matter of "grind" and memory taxation regarding absolutely unrelated names and places, times of train departures, etc. It is a work to which men must devote a good part of their lives and must have constant practice in order to maintain speed, and the duty of standing eight hours a day in front of a case and boxing letters by the thousand, year in and year out, must sometimes be closely akin to drudgery. To add to the difficulties of these men there are constant changes in the list of post-offices, in the timetables, etc., so that a scheme of separation is no sooner mastered than it is necessary to memorize new changes.

A department devoted to the training of the employees engaged in this work is known as the "Examination Section," and is under the supervision of Mr. H. S. McLean. As soon as a substitute is appointed he is sent to this section, where he is drilled in the fundamentals, in the rules and regulations, and in proper methods of performing the duties ordinarily performed by new employees. Later the employees are graduated to practical work, and are assigned certain schemes to study on which they are examined from time to time and required to attain a certain standard of proficiency to justify their retention and advancement in the service. In the examinations, which continue as long as the employees are engaged in the distribution of mail, they are tested not only as to accuracy but as to speed, and if an employee fails to maintain the required efficiency, demotion follows.

A feature of the work is the endeavor to impress upon the employee the importance of his employment, the necessity for devoting to it his best efforts and of not only maintaining but improving the standard.

The following statistics in a way show the extent of this work:

Number of regular clerks subject to examination

5,956

Approximate number of substitute clerks subject to examinations

2,000

Total

7,956

Number of examination schemes issued to regular clerks subject to examination

10,051

Approximate number of examination schemes issued to substitute clerks subject to examinations

2,000

Total

12,051

Number of examinations conducted July 1, 1921, to June 30, 1922

15,140

Number of cards handled in conducting case examinations

12,334,812

Average case examinations, daily

50

Number of clerks instructed in post-office duties July 1, 1921, to June 30, 1922

4,636

Average instructions, daily

16

Number of study schemes in use in Examination Section

119

which are divided into examination sections

140

Mail schedule

4

divided into examination sections

26

Number of schemes examined July 1, 1921, to June 30, 1922

564

Welfare Work in New York

In the New York post-office there is a Welfare Council, which consists of representatives elected by the clerks, carriers, laborers, motor-vehicle employees, and supervisors. This council considers all matters pertaining to the welfare of the employees and makes recommendations in regard to them to the postmaster.

At the General Post-office there has been established a clinic of the Government Health Service. This clinic is equipped with an operating table, surgical instruments and supplies, two cots, and the other appurtenances of a first-class dispensary. Three doctors and three nurses are in attendance. The clinic is open throughout the twenty-four hours with the exception of a short interval at night. Approximately fifty patients are treated each day and without charge.

The employees also own and operate a coöperative store and cafeteria in the general office, and among the terminals and stations there are numerous other similar undertakings.

The employees also maintain numerous associations formed to better their conditions. Several of these include sick benefits, insurance features, etc. Some of these organizations are of national extent, others are local; every station and department has its own association or associations in addition to the major organizations of large membership.

At the newer stations well-equipped and well-lighted "swing rooms" are provided. These are utilized by the men during their lunch periods and by the employees who are awaiting the time to go on duty.

The Manufacturers Trust Company

Cordially invites the officials and employees of the United States Postal System, wherever located, to make use of its facilities and services, whenever their interests may thus be advanced.

This Company conducts eight banking offices, at convenient locations throughout the City of New York, and at each of these offices it cares for the needs of its customers in every department of commercial, investment, and thrift banking.

Our officers welcome opportunities to be of service, or to advise with you regarding your banking needs.

NATHAN S. JONAS,

President.

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Table of Contents

The Postal System of The United States and The New York General Post Office

Statement Prepared for the Manufacturers Trust Company

GENERAL OFFICERS OF THE POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT

THE POST-OFFICE IN NEW YORK

THE NEW YORK GENERAL POST-OFFICE OF THE PAST, THE PRESENT, AND THE FUTURE

THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE