Postmaster General

“ A Postmaster-General, whilst he of necessity is deeply engaged in day-to-day problems connected with his work, is sometimes rewarded by association with new ideas, discoveries, and inventions remarkable in themselves, and potent for good or for evil. Happily, my tenure of office' as Postmaster-General was marked by close contact with a development of scientific knowledge, and the practical application of it that has brought and will continuo to bring, great happiness into a vast number of British homes. ”

“ The Postmaster-General not only enjoys by law an exclusive monopoly of the conveyance of all letters, but he is also entirely protected from all responsibility for any default in the service which the Post Office undertakes to render to the public, and correspondents are left to rely, in the last resort, on the protection of the severe penal laws against the servants of the Post Office. ”

“ Postmaster-General Blair, in his Annual Report of the Post-Office Department, 1862, winds up with these words:—
“It is my purpose to adhere firmly to my determination to displace incompetency and indifference wherever found in official position under my control, without any discrimination in favor of appointments which I may myself have made under misinformation of facts. The postal business must be conducted, if successful, upon the same principles which control the operations of the upright and sagacious man of business. ”

“ The Postmaster-General has to defend the policy and conduct of his Department in Parliament, 262and he has to pilot through the House in which he may be sitting all measures relating to the Post Office. He has magnificent opportunities, and as he is the largest employer of labour in the country, his policy on all industrial and working-class questions is a matter of national concern.
We often hear the question asked, “Does a change of Postmaster-General make any difference to the Post Office?” A change certainly makes sometimes a great difference to the staff. ”

“ It has been repeatedly urged in Parliament and in the public press that the office of Postmaster-General should cease to be political and become permanent; and, as already intimated, I cannot but consider such change highly desirable; seeing that a permanent head of the Department would have ample time and motive to make himself thoroughly acquainted with the business of the office, and would naturally be led to select his subordinates with more direct reference to their probable efficiency ”

“ Gouverneur asked the Postmaster General for instructions. The Postmaster General, Amos Kendall, late of the Kitchen Cabinet, answered that the law had not vested any power in his department to exclude any species of newspapers or pamphlets from the mail, for such a power would be “fearfully dangerous;” but if any postmaster took the responsibility of stopping those “inflammatory papers,” he would “stand justified in that step before the country and all mankind.” His instructions to the postmaster at Charleston were of the same tenor. ”

“ Upon the recommendation of the Postmaster-General, I have included in the classified service all assistant postmasters, and I believe that this giving a secure tenure to those who are the most important subordinates of Postmasters will add much to the efficiency of their offices and an economical administration. A large number of the fourth-class postmasters are now in the classified service. ”

“ Persons who hold the office of Postmaster abroad are of so great quality that they disdain to correspond with a man of his mean condition. Some satisfaction may be given him, but he has very much enriched himself upon the place. He is said to be worth £800 a year in land. The office of Postmaster-General being now vested in the Secretaries, the carrying of letters is a business of State. If Witherings shall insist upon his patent, His Majesty may sequester the place into the hands of the Secretaries. ”

“ The duties of the postmaster general were “to superintend and direct the postoffice in all its various departments and services ... agreeably to the rules and regulations” of the ordinance. He was given the power to appoint an assistant and deputies, for whom he should be responsible; to station them, and to fix their commissions, with a maximum limit of 20 per cent. on money “to arise from postage in their respective departments.” He was given the further power of appointing postriders, messengers and expresses. ”

“ The New York Evening Post of March 4 contains a letter which Postmaster-general Granger, in accordance with the Jeffersonian penchant for explaining the motives of the administration, wrote to a postmaster to be removed. “From repeated complaints from the country, and from opinions which are entertained by persons who have been long in office, together with the reasons upon which those opinions are founded, I was soon convinced that as a general rule the printers of newspapers ought not to be employed as postmasters, because they have a special interest.” ”

“ After his withdrawal from business he remained postmaster of Philadelphia, and in 1753, after he had held that office for sixteen years, he was appointed Postmaster-General of all the colonies, with William Hunter, of Virginia, as his colleague, and he retained this position until dismissed from it by the British government in 1774, on the eve of the Revolution. There was some salary attached to these offices, that of Postmaster-General yielding three hundred pounds. ”

“ The Postmaster General may appoint the periods at which each Postmaster or person authorized to receive postage or any class or number of Postmasters or persons respectively, shall render his or their accounts,—And if any Postmaster or any such other person neglects or refuses to render his accounts, and to pay over to the Postmaster General the balance by him due at the end of any such period, the Postmaster General may cause a suit to be commenced against the person or persons so neglecting or refusing. ”

“ It must always be remembered, too, in considering what is expected of a Postmaster-General, that he usually comes to his duties without any experience of the technical work and routine of the Department, and if he takes his work very seriously he is perpetually being obliged to acquire knowledge at very short notice. ”

“ The Act sets forth that "Experience having shown that the settling a Post Office is the best means to maintain trade, convey dispatches, and discover dangerous designs, it is enacted that there shall be but one Post Office, and one Postmaster-General and Controller to settle Posts, who shall carry all [Pg 236] letters except those sent by known carriers, or merchants' letters of advice sent by ship-masters; also, except private letters sent by messengers. He is to have the horsing of all who ride by post." ”

“ The genius of the American Postal System is found in the harmonious cooperation of its several parts, in direction and in operation; wise policy and purpose as seen in the formulation of plans, with willing assistance in operation to render such plans effective. The Postmaster General directs the policy, the bureau heads execute what is determined upon and the benefit or failure is seen in practical administration. All alike share in achievement, the mind that conceives, the heads that direct, and the force upon whose faithful and intelligent effort the outcome depends. ”

“ No one who was under him ever felt his self-respect wounded by his chief. It is not yet forgotten in the Post Office how, many years ago, one of the higher officers was summoned to the room of the Postmaster-General to give an explanation on some [415] difficult matter. He found his Lordship and the Secretary sitting at the table, but he himself, though he was likely to be kept some time, was not invited to take a chair. ”

“ Talk to your business men about it; the Postmaster General is going to win this fight because he is in the right. Tell the business men that the Postmaster General feels that he is entitled not only to their moral but their active support. ”

“ It will be seen that the Postmaster-General suggests certain improvements in the establishment designed to reduce the weight of the mails, cheapen the transportation, insure greater regularity in the service, and secure a considerable reduction in the rates of letter postage—an object highly desirable. The subject is one of general interest to the community, and is respectfully recommended to your consideration. ”

“ For the Postmaster General by no means intend to depart from the principle which they have been ordered to adopt, of considering it to be the duty of the Packets to outsail the enemy whenever they can, and by no means to fight when it can possibly be avoided. ”

“ Indeed, their experience in the matter of petitions to the Postmaster-General had up to the present amply proved that the authorities were intended to serve as a breakwater or a barrier to resist all such appeals, and provide the public head with ample excuses for refusal or an ignoring of the claims of all humble subordinates. As has already been noted, it took many dreary years of waiting or slow climbing to reach what is to-day regarded as a decent living wage. ”

“ 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. ”

“ If, as Maitland had intimated, the wishes of Upper Canada would be satisfied by the appointment of a separate deputy postmaster general for Upper Canada, the postmaster general, Freeling informed the governor, would make no difficulty on the point, but would naturally select for the position one of the more experienced officers such as the postmaster of York or of Kingston. ”

“ The Railway Mail Service not only adds to the promptness of mail delivery at all offices, but it is the especial instrumentality which puts the smaller and way places in the service on an equality in that regard with the larger and terminal offices. This branch of the postal service has therefore received much attention from the Postmaster-General, and though it is gratifying to know that it is in a condition of high efficiency and great usefulness, I am led to agree with the Postmaster-General that there is room for its further improvement. ”

“ In view of the impending General Election, presumably the Postmaster-General took the association’s adoption of the new line of policy as a challenge to his administrative authority, for almost immediately afterwards a Post-Office Circular, dated June 17, 1892, was issued as special information for postal servants. The Postmaster-General desired to warn Post-Office servants that it “would be improper for them, whether in combination or otherwise, to extract promises from candidates for election to the House of Commons with reference to their pay and position.” ”

“ The Director or Deputy Director, or, in his absence, the Postmaster-General under whose orders he is to work, should, on receipt of the first intimation that a force is to be mobilized, take the earliest opportunity to consult the General Officer appointed to command the force as to the postal requirements of the force in respect of the number of field post offices, the classes of postal business to be undertaken, the establishment to be provided, etc. ”

“ Raikes had been the first Postmaster-General who had condescended to receive a deputation of lower subordinates for the purpose of discussing points of difference between them and the department. He had also been the first to set aside an old-established rule, and to allow postal [197] servants a fuller liberty to meet in places of their own selection, where they might engage in discussion amidst more congenial surroundings than the Post-Office could offer. ”