A form of Government democratic in all its parts and tendencies requires fidelity and patriotic purpose in performance from every one to whom any trust is committed, and in every successful accomplishment of any given plan or purpose, the measure of success is always in proportion to the interest taken or the industry with which such plan or purpose is pursued. Loyalty alike to administrative endeavor or the public welfare is imperatively required and unless this is faithfully and ungrudgingly given no plan can succeed, even the best devised must surely fail. There is such a thing as patriotic devotion to public duty and no man is fit to hold an office of trust no matter how small it may be who does not consider this as an obligation to be met and honestly discharged. If any one thing has contributed to make our postal establishment prosperous and great it is the conscious acceptance of the full meaning of such an obligation. This has distinguished Americans in all public employment, emphasizing the stirring words of Lord Nelson, England’s great naval commander, whose injunction to patriotic response upon a memorable occasion deserves to be remembered in civil life as well, for loyalty and patriotism are as much in accord there, as much demanded in ordinary civil functions as in the more heroic, but not less honorable and useful pursuit common to our national life.
Considerate Treatment of Newspaper Mail
When General Gresham was Postmaster General in President Arthur’s administration, the Washington correspondent of the Louisville Courier-Journal complained to him about the non-delivery of newspapers mailed by private individuals. “What do you think is the reason?” asked General Gresham. “I attribute the failure,” said the correspondent, “to the carelessness of post office officials. A newspaper in their mind is a very small thing and it is handled accordingly. If the address is the least unintelligible no effort is made to decipher it and it is tossed on the floor and if the wrapper happens to be torn it shares the same fate, and I believe that newspapers are often torn open and read without any conscientious scruples whatever.”
“I am glad you told me about the alleged carelessness that exists in post offices in the country,” said General Gresham. “I shall give the matter prompt attention. If I cannot work out a reform in that respect, I would remove a postmaster for breaking the wrapper of a newspaper or making away with it as quick as I would if he had torn open a letter. One is as sacred as the other.”
Bureau of Engraving and Printing
Stamp Manufacture
The Bureau of Engraving and Printing in which all the postage stamps used by the Government are manufactured is a wonderful institution every way. Every known appliance and all that the mechanical skill and ingenuity of the Director, Hon. Joseph E. Ralph, and his very capable expert and designer, Mr. B. R. Stickney, could devise, have been brought into requisition for the purposes the Bureau is intended to serve.
The various operations required in printing postage stamps alone, of which such enormous quantities are annually required, would seem a great undertaking, but when to this is added the printing of all the paper money, bonds and securities used by the Government, the magnitude of the task may be understood. Between four and five thousand people find employment within the Bureau, the greatest establishment of its kind in the world. Thousands of visitors annually witness the wonders therein displayed and come away impressed with the marvels they have seen in the adaption of means to a definite purpose. The care and comfort of the employes is a matter of deep concern to the Director and every possible method of providing for both, by approved means of sanitation and ventilation, is availed of. The air is washed and strained to cleanse it of all impurities and full hospital provision made for those who may need medical care and attention. Nothing seems to have been forgotten or overlooked in this most wonderful of all government establishments and the result is that under favorable working conditions the utmost that may be expected is fully realized.
The ordinary postage stamps are in denominations of from 1 cent to $1 and of nineteen kinds. The output is 40,000,000 daily, or something like thirteen billions per annum, with a face value in 1915 of $221,875,000. They are printed in sheets of 400 each, which are divided and subdivided until the sheet contains 100 stamps in which amount they are sent to the post offices for public use. The various processes used in manufacture, the printing, gumming and perforating, are separately performed on the sheets of stamps; those intended for slot machines are printed and perfected on a rotary press which performs all the operations at once. This press, the invention of Mr. Stickney, after seven years of labor, will save 65 per cent of the cost of printing stamps per annum or $280,000, and will completely revolutionize stamp printing from intaglio plates. It combines twenty-three operations in one. It prints, gums and perforates the stamps, cuts them into sections of 100 stamps each, or will finish the stamps in coils of 500 and 1,000 stamps per coil. It turns out the finished product ready for shipment to the postmasters of the country. As an object lesson to further show the tremendous proportions of this postage stamp industry, it may be stated that the daily output would cover approximately eight acres of land if laid flat or make a chain of stamps 703 miles long if laid end to end. The sheets of 100 stamps each sent to post offices in 1915, piled up one upon another, would make a shaft over 6 miles high, and placed end to end would make a strip over 16,000 miles long and as there are ten rows of stamps on each sheet, a strip of single stamps would be more than 160,000 miles long, enough to girdle the earth six times with something over.
The paper required to print these stamps for the year 1915 amounted to 1,200,000 pounds, and to make this paper and to obtain this amount, 3,500 spruce trees were ground to a pulp. Converted into lumber this would have built fifty houses complete. The amount of ink required was 670,000 pounds.
When the post office inspectors, unannounced, visited the Bureau at the close of the fiscal year of 1915 to check up the accounts, they were found correct to the last one-cent stamp, a high compliment to the excellent accounting system in practice at that institution.