Louis Melius

“ From that memorable day in June, 1875, when Alexander Graham Bell discovered a faint sound emanating from the curious little machine over which three years of patient labor had been spent, until today, when the world is debtor to this great man for one of the marvels of the age, the telephone has been a constant wonder and especially so at this time, when its adaptability for the common uses of life has made it of value wherever civilization extends. ”

“ The Government is more ready to act than either producer or consumer seem to be; to extend every privilege and afford every accommodation which postal enterprise or the public purse can provide, that this, in some sense paternal relation of government to people in benevolent provision for their welfare, may secure all that its most sanguine projectors ever hoped to accomplish. ”

“ The introduction of the motor car in transforming conditions and producing wonderful changes is characteristic of this pushing age. Time is money. The motor has demonstrated its value, and dominates the field of all far-reaching enterprise. Business men recognize its tremendous possibilities and advantageous help in saving time and abridging distance. It spells efficiency in commercial life and men strain a point to bring themselves up alongside their pushing and wideawake neighbors in availing themselves of this great modern aid to the completest equipment. ”

“ How can we educate the public up to an appreciation of the necessity for trained and expert service in every branch of the Government? How can we order our public service so that it will attract the ablest men and women and guarantee progressive careers to those who prove loyal and efficient? ”

“ What rural delivery has done in other directions may be summed up as follows: It has broadened the field of industrial opportunity, touched as if with magic power the possibilities of human endeavor, and transformed conditions to a degree almost marvelous. It has brought special delivery almost to the door; secured good roads [27] and maintains them by official interest and concern; has attracted the attention of the various States to this question and obtained results; it has made farm lands more valuable and contributed to increased production; it has abridged time by rapid communication ”

“ There must be a limit to governmental interferency and happily it better suits the genius of the American people to help themselves than to depend on the State. To communicate intelligence and disseminate information are the primary functions of this Department. Any divergence from the legitimate sphere of its operations tends to disturb the just rule that, in the ordinary business of life, the recipient of a benefit is the proper party to pay for it, since there is no escape from the universal law that every service must in some way be paid for by some one. ”

“ This popular measure was, however, not to be secured for the public good without strenuous effort, even in these later days when its early adoption was so clearly foreseen. It still had to encounter opposition, the lingering echo of previous struggle. Its friends had to meet and combat resistance, within and without the halls of legislation and it was only by determined purpose and a concert of effort that criticism was finally silenced and the measure written into the statutes of the nation. ”

“ If promotions were more certain in the Government service there would be no dearth of competent men to fill the places higher up. To solve this particular phase of the problem, however, it will be necessary to have the Government pay higher salaries. Better pay is now available in private industry than in the public service, and the Government has not yet reached the point where there is any general realization of the sound principle that it is better in the long run to pay high salaries to efficient men than to employ mediocre men at smaller salaries. ”

“ The United States mail goes everywhere throughout the length and breadth of the country. Private expresses are governed by the avenues of profit. The Government is not concerned about profit but regards service as of paramount importance, hence it directs its activities to all regions alike, going where there are no express offices or ever likely to be. This is the great distinguishing feature of the parcel post and its benefits as can be plainly seen, are chiefly for the rural sections who would be denied these advantages were there no such service in operation. ”

“ When the comparatively comfortable conditions under which city delivery is conducted is considered, and the proportionate difference in appropriation taken into account, it will appear that the excess of cost in rural delivery is no greater than might naturally be expected from the peculiar nature of the service, the territory to be covered, and the almost insurmountable conditions with which it has to contend. Indeed, it is a matter of surprise that the cost of service per capita under the circumstances is so small. ”

“ The commercial shortage in the paper industry is being to some extent remedied, at least so far as the Post Office Department can aid and assist, by urging the cooperation of every employe in the conservation of the waste paper in all of the larger post offices of the country. Paper-baling machines are now supplied to the postmasters for this purpose, which not only contributes to economy in use and adds to the visible supply, but is a matter of revenue as well, for what was formerly regarded as waste, and destroyed, is now made a matter of profit. ”

“ Patriotic sentiment is not wanting in this country of ours, and the flag is ever the object of sincere and heartfelt devotion. The great strides in postal development from that day to this should make the pulse of every citizen, particularly every postal employe, great or small, quicken with civic pride as each successive anniversary of our great postal establishment brings the date to mind. ”

“ How the Post Office Department Helps the Farmer
Of all the great Executive Departments, the Post Office comes closest to the people and is of particular interest to the farmer living away from the great avenues of postal service supply. The Postmaster General, from his service in Congress, where the needs of the farmer are known, coupled with the opportunities of his present position, was able to render him a great service, and that he has done so, that his administration has shown his successful efforts in this direction cannot be questioned nor denied. ”

“ Postal service was intended for all the people, not a part, not merely for those who had chosen to live in cities but for those outside as well. This desire to share at least in the benefits so freely accorded to others became at length so outspoken and insistent that recognition could no longer be denied and the matter was finally introduced into Congress and an attempt made to secure legislation upon the subject. ”

“ The growth of the Railway Mail Service has been marvelous and its achievements unequalled in modern progressive developement. Three thousand five hundred railroad mail routes, aggregating 502,937,359 miles of service and employing nearly 19,000 postal clerks and supervisors with salaries amounting to over $26,000,000 attest the strength and greatness of this magnificent arm of the postal service. ”

“ Rural delivery in which the rural resident is so greatly interested will profit most by this liberal government provision, it being originally intended for post road purposes, of which rural delivery is now the principal and most important part. The rural life of the country is to be bettered in every way by the spread of this means of postal communication. The Post Office Department is always ready to listen to every suggestion which makes for greater comfort and convenience in this direction, and to act promptly when resulting advantages can be shown. ”

“ The fourth-class postmaster could, however, greatly benefit himself, even under present methods, by making an earnest and industrious effort to develop the parcel post idea in his community, embracing the opportunities of his official relation to the service by encouraging and taking an active part in every detail of postal management, of which, just now, the parcel post is so conspicuous a feature and whose more extended use among the people would so greatly advance his official as well as his personal interest. ”

“ No nation now neglects this very important part of its economic life, and the United States having become a power in universal civilization is fully alive to all the measureless advantages which good roads afford. ”

“ The duties of an inspector are not measured by the ordinary hours of employment, but depend altogether upon the nature of the work he is called upon to perform, day and night in successive order, being synonymous terms when especial service is required. Complaints are generally the basis of inquiry and operation, but the scope of duties takes a wide range, involving special work of any kind and in any direction. ”

“ The marvellous genius and industry which constructed its great highways of commerce and travel, works which have been the admiration of all succeeding ages, are yet splendid even in their decaying greatness. ”

“ Postmaster General Charles Emory Smith in his annual report to Congress in 1900, referring to the cost of carrying second-class mail matter as hindering the progress of rural delivery extension, said:
“In my last annual report it was shown that if a class of publications which now, under an evasion of the purpose of the law, pay the second-class rate of postage, were really made to pay the third-class rate, as they ought to do, it would bring an additional revenue to the Government of $12,343,612. This amount is lost through an abuse that can be and ought to be rectified. ”

“ The subject of Rural Free Delivery occupies so much public attention both in the press and among the people, and the Department has shown such interest in the matter and done so much to make the service popular and attractive as a public measure, that it is worthy of some considerable space in a work devoted entirely to postal affairs. Aside from tabular work which has no proper place in descriptive accounts of departmental operations, a very good idea of what rural delivery is and aims to accomplish, may be gathered from the articles which follow this introductory reference. ”

“ The study of economy in various forms during the past four years has made it possible to introduce many reforms in the manufacture of locks of which the above is a significant example. Steel is now largely used in all lock equipment on account of the high cost of brass. All equipment used in mail transportation is made by the Government.
Mail locks and keys were formerly made by contract, but during the administration of Postmaster General Dickinson it was decided to do this work under Government supervision. Public policy, no less than economy dictated this course. ”

“ The great success of rural delivery is peculiarly the farmers triumph. He is now on a par with his neighbor in the cities in all that enterprising postal service can give. Taken both together, the widely admitted success of the Parcel Post as well as the rural delivery, a chapter of achievement has been written of which the Department is justly proud and against which criticism can find no ground for righteous complaint. ”

“ How can we develop our civil service commissions into genuine recruiting agencies capable of supplying the Government with exactly the type of service needed for any given movement and of maintaining a loyal and efficient personnel? ”

“ This has distinguished Americans in all public employment, emphasizing the stirring words of Lord Nelson, England’s great naval commander, whose injunction to patriotic response upon a memorable occasion deserves to be remembered in civil life as well, for loyalty and patriotism are as much in accord there, as much demanded in ordinary civil functions as in the more heroic, but not less honorable and useful pursuit common to our national life. ”

“ The postmaster can help him by advice and counsel and it should be a pleasurable duty for the postmaster to advise and confer with, and put the producer (who is his patron) , in the way of profitable business intercourse with the man in the city who needs him and is only too anxious to find who he is, where he lives, and what he has to sell. ”

“ In the hurry and rush of modern life taking everything for granted and considering nothing uncommon, we are apt to pay little heed to the many comforts we now enjoy, and of which this Government provision for speedily supplying our wants and needs forms no inconsiderable part.
The local merchant also comes in for his share of advantage to which the telephone and parcel post so greatly contribute. ”

“ The per capita cost in the Rural Delivery Service has been a matter of considerable interest to those who are following the progress and extension of this branch of the public service. The great advance which has been made in this service and the still greater extent to which it is proposed to extend it, embracing ultimately all patrons wherever located, naturally raises the question of cost as a whole and the cost per patron. ”

“ The list of possible shipments of every conceivable kind and character could be indefinitely extended, for it is known that the scope of subjects that can be handled by the parcel post is practically limitless and only awaits proper enterprise for productive profit to those who will engage in it.
The parcel post is without question a great success. There is no other measure of interest connected with the service which presents so many economic possibilities. Its great advantage over the private carriers is apparent and the benefits quickly seen in practical operation. ”

“ While such complete service is the logical conclusion of all rural delivery effort and may be expected to engage public attention in the near future, as it is the only means left by which the thousands of people now deprived of such benefits can be reached and accommodated, such a tremendous advance must be seriously considered before any definite steps can be taken, but rural delivery will never reach the point of greatest usefulness until this country-wide extension is an accomplished fact and people everywhere are permitted to equally enjoy the benefit which it confers. ”