United States Post Office Department

“ Nowhere is inviolability of letters more respected than in England and the United States, and by the constitution of the latter, adopted in 1789, exclusive power is given to congress to establish post offices and post roads, thus preventing the difficulties which would have resulted from leaving this department to the several states. ”

“ Under our system, where vacancies in Presidential appointments occur, by death or resignation, there is usually a deputy or some other officer who is authorized by law to perform temporarily the duties of the office. In the cases of post-offices where there are no deputy postmasters, the Post-Office Department is authorized to send special agents to take charge until the 591vacant postmastership can be filled. ”

“ 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. ”

“ But a gradual approach to this end from year to year is confidently relied on, and the day is not far distant when the Post-Office Department of the Government will prove a much greater blessing to the whole people than it is now. ”

“ The Postal Service shall provide a maximum degree of effective and regular postal services to rural areas, communities, and small towns where post offices are not self-sustaining. No small post office shall be closed solely for operating at a deficit, it being the specific intent of the Congress that effective postal services be insured to residents of both urban and rural communities. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ There is more involved here than realigning the wheels and smoothing the gears of administrative machinery. The Congress rightfully-expects the Executive to take the initiative in discovering and removing outmoded functions and eliminating duplication.
One agency, for example, whose head has promised early and vigorous action to provide greater efficiency is the Post Office. One of the oldest institutions of our Federal Government, its service should be of the best. Its employees should merit and receive the high regard and esteem of the citizens of the Nation. ”

“ It should be clearly understood that the post office is not responsible for the safe delivery of a registered letter or parcel. The registration simply makes its transmission more secure, by rendering it practicable to trace it, when passing from one place to another in Canada, from its receipt to its delivery; and when addressed from any place in Canada to any place in the United States, the United Kingdom, or parts abroad, if not to its delivery, at least to the frontier or port of despatch. ”

“ The success of the meeting from the first moment was beyond all expectation. If any had fears that the men would be too suspicious of attending a gathering of this kind within the precincts of the building, and under the shadow of the department, they were mistaken. Almost directly the despatches were finished, and the duty done with for the night, they swarmed in from every part. From every other branch in the building—for the General Post-Office is a nest of branches, like a Chinese puzzle-box—and from outside offices they swarmed up the stairs and through every means of entry. ”

“ To the extent that the Postal Service and the Department of State conclude it to be feasible and in the public interest, the Postal Service may establish branch post offices at United States diplomatic missions in locations abroad for which branch post offices are not established under section 406, and the Department of State may enter into an agreement with the Postal Service to perform postal services at such branch post offices through personnel designated by the Department of State. ”

“ The Postal Service has no intention to discontinue . . . that valuable service [of providing a place for the display of public notices and announcements] to local communities. The adopted regulation contains, as did the proposed rule, language insuring that the authority of postmasters to allow the placement in post offices of bulletin boards for the display of public notices and announcements, will continue as before. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In the enumeration of those privileges, there is not a syllable tending to exonerate them from their share of the common burden of postage; they have no constitutional claim to such an immunity, and if they assumed it they would increase the burden on their constituents. The post office, if unable to maintain itself, must derive its support from other sources of revenue. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”