The Post Office Bulletin of Chicago, a publication similar in object to our own Post Office Circular, often contains very plain-spoken words. Unlike the authorities in England, the Chicago postmaster is quick to record, in his periodical reports of the work of his office, any humorous incidents which have come under his notice. The following lightens up a page devoted to departmental changes, hours of delivery, and new telephone services:—
“Twenty times a day some one calls at a post office or a station and requests the address of some dear friend, father, mother, daughter, wife, or delinquent debtor. The delinquent debtor is in the majority, and he usually covers his tracks successfully. To the Post Office, therefore, the creditor comes as a last resort, and he is often amazed when he is informed that addresses cannot be given; that the Post Office is not a court; is bound to respect the confidences imposed on it; that its sole business is to deliver mail; and that anyway it really has no time to ferret out addresses.
“On Monday a gentleman searching for a delinquent, hit upon the plan of sending out a special letter from the Twenty-second Street station addressed to the debtor. The debtor's residence had formerly been in this district, and the creditor was anxious to find out if he was still in the neighbourhood. So he began with a special letter. An hour after mailing he called at the station and inquired if the letter had been delivered. He was told that it had. Then he was aware it must have been delivered from this station, or the question could not have been answered off-hand. As a Sherlock Holmes he had made a great beginning. His next step was to write and address another special letter and announce his intention of following the special messenger and his wheel in a cab. The clerk in charge preserved a wooden countenance, and said that he could not prevent him following the messenger. In five minutes after the mailing of the letter two special messengers issued from the station. Each had letters to deliver. The man in the cab followed one of them. He followed the wrong one.”
If our Post Office Circular contained racy reports of this nature concerning the smart deeds of our officials, the vested interests of the halfpenny press would be imperilled, and an injunction would be demanded against the Postmaster-General to prevent him entering into competition with private enterprise.
The Postmaster-General in one report gravely stated that the postmaster of Sheridan, Wyoming, “had been removed from his office because he had an unfortunate habit of burning all mail matter which did not meet with his approval.” This action of the Postmaster-General seems certainly to have been justified: the Post Office has eccentric servants all over the world, but it draws the line at the destruction of mail matter. Wherever this happens the man is dismissed, and in England, at least, he would be prosecuted.
The South American post offices in many instances take after the mother country of Spain. The Monte Video Times in July 1896 made this pathetic complaint: “It is now some two years that we have been without postcards.”
The Japan Post Office is, as may be imagined, splendidly organised. Before the year 1854 the state of Japan resembled that of Europe in the twelfth century. A few nobles ruled the country with despotic authority, and their united policy was to exclude the foreigner. Then the United States fleet appeared off the coast and forced upon the nobles a treaty which brought their country into the family of nations. The gates were opened; and the advance has been one of the most extraordinary happenings in modern history. In 1872 Japan established her first Post Office, and in 1877 she joined the Postal Union. She is always eager to adopt the newest ways of transacting business, and for her Savings Bank work she has given up ledgers and has adopted the card system for keeping accounts. Her Postal Savings Bank is a wonderful success. Upwards of 8,000,000 accounts have been opened out of a population of about 47,000,000. Japan's telegraph system is equal to any in Europe. It may, perhaps, be interesting to state how Japan is related telegraphically to foreign countries. Of her messages about 40 per cent. are credited to Korea, 28 per cent. to China, 9 per cent. to England, 7 per cent. to the United States, 4 per cent. to India, 3 per cent. to Germany, 2 per cent. to France and Russia. Japan has peculiar difficulties to contend with in Post Office work owing to the great number of islands included in the Empire, the exceptionally mountainous nature of the country, and the wide areas covered by the cities in proportion to the number of their inhabitants. Of course the astonishing nature of the advance of Japan is that it has all taken place in recent years. The first effort at telegraphy was only made as recently as 1870. As in most countries, the sudden introduction of so mysterious an agency created great opposition on the part of the superstitious lower orders, and there were many attempts to cut the wires.
China has an interesting Post Office system. She has not yet joined the Postal Union, and has only partially assimilated Western ways of doing business. The service has been spoken of as “reasonably efficient.” The Post Office serves all the open ports and every important city in the interior. The Chinese Postal Guide, first published in 1900, is for completeness and utility not far behind our own. Postal communication with the outside world is carried on through the agencies of the various Postal Union countries located at the treaty ports. The great volume of the business is, however, conducted through Hong-Kong. “My message from Pong-King was the first that has been despatched from that office in the six years of its existence. This detail may serve as a sufficient description of the country,” wrote a correspondent of the Daily Telegraph in 1907. The Postmaster-General of the Straits Settlements received a petition for the reduction of rates to China. “If the prayer is not granted,” the petition went on, “the results will be that the wife, not receiving information respecting the whereabouts of her husband, will contract a new marriage, and taking her children with her to follow her new lord, leave no one behind to perpetuate that ancestral worship so dear to the heart of every Chinaman. The aged parents, not hearing from their son, will be occasioned to have a thousand anxious thoughts about him, will lose their appetite and die. The sister-in-law who is a widow, and depends upon her brother-in-law for support, will starve through receiving no remittances from him. In this way many Chinese homes will be rendered wretched.” In spite of this heartrending appeal the petition was not granted, and we suppose the melancholy results prophesied followed. Postal officials everywhere are supposed to be heartless, and to regard human beings as simply revenue-producing agents.
I have only attempted in this chapter to give to the reader glimpses of the Postal Administrations of a few big countries. To do anything else would require twenty chapters instead of one, and to give a complete account would involve countless statements in figures and comparative estimates. There are annual reports published by most of the Post Offices of the world, and they are very much alike in style and matter. The human touch has to be sought for in other ways and in other documents. Post Office history and economics are interesting to the student, but what interests us all are the men and women inside the Post Office, on both sides of the counter.