EQUIPMENT OF A POSTAL MOTOR TRUCK ROUTE
THE STORY OF UNCLE SAM
The Postal Service
FIVE
In the year 1790 there were 75 postoffices in the United States. In 1918 there were 54,345. The number of pieces of mail handled in a year approximates twenty million. In order to operate this vast business enterprise Uncle Sam requires the services of 300,000 people.
The Postoffice Department, constant in service, day and night, probably has no rival among Government institutions. In 1863 the free delivery of mail was undertaken in half a hundred cities, with 449 carriers. In 1918 there were 2,000 city delivery offices, with 35,000 carriers. The first rural free delivery routes, three in number, were established as an experiment in 1896. There are now considerably more than a million miles of such routes, employing over forty thousand carriers. Special delivery service was established in 1885. In an average year the number of pieces of mail handled by special delivery approximates fifty million. In 1865 there were 419 money-order offices and the money orders issued amounted to $1,360,122. In 1918 only a very small percentage of postoffices did not issue money orders, and the value of the orders amounted to $940,575,219.
The postal savings system was begun in 1911. Within six years there were upward of six thousand postoffices that received deposits and the amount to the credit of depositors was nearly $150,000,000. The smallest deposit accepted is $1, but smaller amounts may be saved by purchasing a 10-cent savings card and affixing 10-cent savings stamps. Interest is allowed at the rate of 2 per cent.
The parcel post system dates from 1913. It has gradually been made more serviceable to the public by the removal of restrictions regarding the size, weight, packing and nature of shipments and by the increased use of motor vehicles. The Department estimates that 3,000,000,000 parcels were handled in 1918.