Every man and woman in the republic has a personal interest in this department of the government. You pay two cents for a stamp, throw a missive into a box, and start the machinery which requires 100,000 persons to run it. If your letter is for the Philippines, you use the railroad and the ocean steamer, with many relays of men and engines to perform your bidding. If your letter is for Alaska, you use the railroad, the steamship, and the reindeer team to deliver it. Not an hour, day or night, the entire year through, but men are toiling to hurry your mail to its destination If your letter is for one of the large cities, skilful men board the train, and as it approaches its destination distribute the mail for each district, so that your letter will not lie for hours in the central office. If your letter is to a busy farmer who may be in the midst of his harvest and has no time to go for his mail, one of the government’s faithful servants takes that letter to him. Yet we are much more likely, withal, to growl at Uncle Sam than to remember the faithful service we receive for so little money.
The Post-office Department is one which is not yet self-supporting. The last annual report of the Postmaster-General shows that the receipts from ordinary postal revenue amounted to $146,531,778.67; the receipts from money-order business, including for post-office orders which were uncalled for, added to the usual revenues, amounted to $111,631,193.39. The government expended $3,923,727.48 more than it received. This deficit is occasioned by the second-class matter, which includes newspapers and magazines paying less than cost of transportation. It is also due partly to the glaring abuse of the franking privilege by members of the Senate and House. If a description of what some of these men commit to Uncle Sam to carry for them free of charge were published they would hide their heads in shame. While this abuse continues we are not likely to get a one-cent rate on letters, a rate which would greatly benefit the entire country. Poor people are paying the postage for these Congressmen.
The United States Post-office Department and the post-office for the City of Washington are in a building on Pennsylvania Avenue, which extends over an entire square from Twelfth to Thirteenth Streets, N. W.
The Postmaster-General is a member of the President’s Cabinet. He receives $8,000 per annum for giving to his country services which a railroad or great newspaper would consider cheap at $25,000 per annum. There are four Assistant Postmaster-Generals who receive each about half as much as their chief. These are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate.
The Postmaster-General makes postal treaties with foreign governments, by and with the advice of the President, awards contracts, and directs the management of the domestic and foreign mails.
The First Assistant Postmaster-General has charge of the salary and allowance division, free delivery system, post-office supplies, money-order division, dead-letter office, and the general correspondence.
The Second Assistant Postmaster-General has charge of the contract division, division of inspection, railway adjustment (which includes weighing and deciding on what pay shall be given railroads), the mail equipment division, and foreign mails.
The Third Assistant Postmaster-General has charge of postage stamps and postmasters’ accounts, registry office, and the special delivery system.
The Fourth Assistant Postmaster-General has the appointment of many postmasters and of post-office inspectors, and has charge of the bonds and commissions for postmasters. This last place is now filled by Mr. J. L. Bristow, of Kansas. During the first year of Mr. Roosevelt’s Presidency Mr. Bristow officially decapitated as many as fifty postmasters a day, and it is claimed it was a slow year in the business. Of course, for every one who lost his place some other fellow was made happy.