CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

PAGE
Latest Facts[7]
General Postal History[11]
Beginning of Personal Communication[12]
Postal History of England[12]
Penny Postage[13]
General Post Office in London[14]
French and German Postal History[15]
The American Colonial Period[16]
Under the Continental Congress[16]
The Crown Postmasters[17]
Post Offices and Post Roads Established[18]
The Period of Progress[18]
Postage Stamps Introduced[19]
Progressive Steps Taken[19]
Historical Data[20]

CHAPTER II

Questions of Finance. Postal Revenue—How Derived and Expended

Revenues and Expenditures[21]
Method of Expenditure[21]
Appropriations[22]
Auditor[23]

CHAPTER III

Departmental Operations—General and Detailed Descriptions and Cost of Service

History of Rural Free Delivery[24]
Rural Delivery Defined[25]
The Struggle for Rural Delivery[25]
The Advantages of Rural Delivery[26]
Rural Delivery as Viewed by President McKinley[27]
First County Rural Delivery[27]
Country-Wide Extension, Rural Delivery[28]
How Rural Delivery Enhances the Value of Farm Land[28]
Per Capita Cost, in Rural Delivery[29]
Some Necessary Conditions, Rural Delivery[31]
Annual Cost per Patron by States and Pieces Handled[31]
Population and Extension, Rural Service[32]
Motor Vehicle Routes, Rural Delivery[32]
Village Delivery[34]
City Delivery[35]
Star Routes[35]
Postal Savings[35]
Money Order System[36]
Stamp Books[36]
Postal Cards[37]
Division of Stamps[37]
Classification[37]
Purchasing Agent[38]
Dead Letter Office[38]
Mail Locks[39]
Mail Pouches[39]
Post Office Supplies[41]
Special Delivery[42]
Foreign Mail Service[42]
Topography Branch[43]
Division of Post Office Service[44]
American Postal System[45]
Considerate Treatment of Newspaper Mail[45]

CHAPTER IV

Special Articles

Stamp Manufacture, Bureau Engraving and Printing[46]
Post Office Inspectors[48]
Railway Mail Service[48]
Parcel Post, Opposition Thereto[49]
Interesting Facts. Postmasters General[53]
Withdrawal of Letters from the Mail[54]
Handling of the Mail in Department[54]
Cost Accounting[55]
Cleansing Mail Bags[55]
Farm-to-Table Movement[55]
Postal Service in Alaska[57]
Standardization of Post Offices[58]
Postal Savings Circulars in Foreign Tongues[58]
A Patriotic Editor[59]
Damage, Parcel Post Mail[59]
Opinion of Daniel Webster on Mail Extension[60]
Blind Woman on Pay Rolls[61]
Wanamaker—Four Postal Reforms[62]
The Rural Carrier as a Weather Man[64]
New Box Numbering System, Rural Routes[65]
Wireless Telephones, Rural Service[68]
Parcel Post Exhibits at County Fairs[70]
The Great Express Service of the Government[71]
The Telephone and Parcel Post in Cooperation[72]
Speeding up the Service—Rural Mails[73]
Training Public Officials[74]
For the Benefit of the Fourth Class Postmasters[76]
Public Work and Private Control[77]
Protecting the Public Records[78]
Registry and Insurance Service, 1916[78]
Readjustment Rate, Second Class Mail[79]
Peculiar Customs, European Rural Delivery[80]
What Was a Newspaper in 1825?[81]
Women in the Post Office Department[82]
Railroad Accidents, Construction of Cars[83]
Public Ownership of Telegraph and Telephone—Burleson[83]
Liquor Carried by the Mails[84]
How the Post Office Department Helps the Farmer[85]
Expediting the Mails on Star Routes[87]
Abraham Lincoln Postmaster in 1837[88]
A Central Accounting Office for Each County[88]
Millions of Money for Good Roads[89]
$14,550,000 for Rural Post Roads[91]
Mail Extensions by Air and Motor Truck Routes[92]
Care Required in Preparing Contracts[93]
Birthday American Postal Service[93]
List of Postmasters General[94]

CHAPTER V

Miscellaneous Matters

General and Financial Summary[95]
Items of Interest[97]
Old Laws and Regulations[104]
Queer Collection Holiday Mail[108]
Feeding the Cats[110]
Couple of Distinguished Canines[110]
Soldier’s Sister a Mail Clerk[112]
Index to Items of Interest[112]

THE AMERICAN POSTAL SERVICE