The methods, the best methods to obtain the end desired, both at the point of production, where the supply is found, and at the point of consumption to which this supply is to be transported, must be discovered by the actual results which the various methods that have been tried have produced, or were found to be most advantageous and most successful. Many plans have been suggested and tried out, but it must remain for experience to demonstrate and determine which of these is best and most likely to secure advantageous benefits.
The remaining question is the part the Government is called upon to perform to reap the most possible results and make the farm-to-table movement popular and profitable. The Government is more ready to act than either producer or consumer seem to be; to extend every privilege and afford every accommodation which postal enterprise or the public purse can provide, that this, in some sense paternal relation of government to people in benevolent provision for their welfare, may secure all that its most sanguine projectors ever hoped to accomplish. It has the support of Congress, and the Postmaster General has omitted no word or act which could in any manner contribute to its success and stands ready to do the utmost that his great office and his great opportunity afford, to make this measure a benefit and a boon to all the people.
The readjustment of prices will come, and the remedy appear, when the elimination of so much handling, packing, repacking and distributing with its consequent loss and its increased cost, decreases the cost which the consumer has to meet for all this added labor, and for which he pays the price, and from which burden the parcel post by its direct and better system of exchange aims to free and relieve him.
Postal Service in Alaska
Alaska is so far off that its interests do not commonly concern the people to any great extent. The Government, however, takes a more paternal view of its only territorial possession in North America, and has paid particular attention to its progress and development, especially in postal affairs and the means of communication among the people. Alaska has now 170 post offices of which 45 have money order facilities. It has 21 star routes with an aggregate length of 4,544 miles and an annual travel of 249,331.10 miles. Annual rate of expenditure, $260,518.50. Average rate of cost per mile traveled, $1.04. Average number of trips per week, 52.
Standardization in Post Office Methods
During this administration a very important change was made in the management and conduct of the larger post offices of the country. It was found that the delivery of parcel post matter by vehicle was costing from 1 to 6 cents each. Investigation showed that this varying cost was largely due to lack of uniformity in methods and equipment and that the need of standardization extended to every branch of post office service. Postal experts were accordingly sent to all sections of the country to study existing methods and recommend necessary changes. As a result, unnecessary independent divisions in post offices were eliminated and two divisions established, one in charge of records, accounts and financial services, the other to have charge of the mail handling operations. The personnel of the offices also received attention, that as far as possible, clerks could be assigned to the duties for which they were best fitted. Subsequent investigation confirmed the advantage of such standardization, and the large post offices which handle 75 per cent of the nation’s mail, have now been brought under such improved control that the benefit which such intelligent methods, properly carried out, should naturally develop, has been abundantly shown.
Postal Savings Circulars in Foreign Tongues
The Government has for years been anxious to reach citizens of foreign birth residing in the United States for the purpose of informing them relative to our Postal Savings System. Circulars have now been issued in the mother tongue to Bohemian, Bulgarian, Chinese, Croatian, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Magyar, Italian, Japanese, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Ruthenian, Serbian, Slovak, Sloverian, Spanish, Swedish, and Yiddish people here which have been widely distributed and are expected to be of considerable service. The foreign born population in this country, according to the census of 1910, numbers over 13,000,000 and it is believed that the business of the Postal Savings System would be greatly increased if the attention of these people could be properly directed to its advantages, and these circulars in their own language are intended for that purpose.
Postal Enterprise of a Patriotic Maryland Editor