In the next place, corporate control moves within narrower limits and exercises its power in more direct fashion. In theory a corporation is composed of its stockholders, a majority of whom nominate the board of directors. This board in turn appoints the permanent officials and they exercise full control in operation. Wide powers are given to these men and the policies advanced for extending influence and gaining profit are generally adopted. It is quite different dealing with Congress. New policies are not always accepted, sometimes rejected or ignored. It therefore follows that private concerns, having a freer hand and no complicated management to contend with, can institute experiments and try methods, and if well conceived, obtain results which a more restricted authority could only perhaps with difficulty secure.
A striking contrast between public and private control is seen in the appropriation system by which the Departments are governed. Aside from the difficulty often experienced in securing additional help when required, which would be readily given in great private concerns because of expected advantages to follow, Department needs are sometimes left unsupplied and the dispatch of business hindered by delay in this respect, or in the installation of mechanical appliances so generally used now, and which have in recent years to a very large extent, taken the place of human agencies in the business world.
Perhaps one of the greatest difficulties which obtains in public work aside from what has been already mentioned and which has hampered more rapid progress in the Post Office Department, was the tendency and practice to adhere to old-established rules and precedents. These lax methods, which were particularly apparent in the business customs and official procedure of the Department, were so firmly imbedded in its official life that it required a firm hand and a positive purpose to dislodge them. The present Postmaster General had both the courage and the desire to sweep away these relics of a bygone period and substitute newer and more suitable methods to meet progressive conditions and the Department is now conducted as it should be, and public complaints caused by these obsolete and unsuitable measures is now largely avoided.
These are some of the things that confront and have confronted the Department in its efforts towards greater efficiency. Conditions must be taken into account and understood. The Department must always be a public function and under Government control and be conducted, more or less, according to public usage. While red-tape rules and customs will to some extent remain, great progress has been made in many directions and public methods, by skilful management, brought nearer to the successes of business life, and the time is near at hand when the answer to the interrogatory first propounded, may be made in the affirmative.
Protecting the Public Records
Among the many useful and necessary reforms accomplished by the Postmaster General may be mentioned the institution of a hall of records for the protection of the files and valuable papers which belong to the Department. These records contain the history of postal administration from the beginning and deserve the most careful attention, not only on account of their sentimental but their historical value as well. The rise and progress of this index to our developing greatness in postal progress from the days of Benjamin Franklin to our own times, is recorded in the volumes which form the great official library of the Department. The opinions, acts and State papers of every Postmaster General are found here and a complete history of the whole postal administration could be compiled from these records.
It is a matter of some surprise that preceding administrations paid so little attention to the care and proper housing of these valuable files and papers. For years they were stored in the garrets and attic of the old Post Office Building, inconvenient of access, and so limited in space that any semblance of order was next to impossible. Lying there for years practically undisturbed, a prey to the ravages of dust and decay, it is a wonder that they are in any condition of preservation whatever. The traces of neglect and ill-usage has left its marks visibly upon these old volumes, and but for the quality of the material then used and the care in binding then demanded for public documents, they would be of but little service now.
To Postmaster General Burleson belongs the credit of rescuing these valuable archives of his Department from ultimate destruction. Space was found on the first floor of the building for storage and arrangement. A force of clerks from each Bureau was detailed for this work. The books and papers were removed from the nooks and corners to which they were relegated and under careful supervision located in the place provided for them. Accumulations of dust brushed off, bundles of documents neatly arranged and tied anew, frayed edges and loosened covers attended to, and the more important historical records set apart for rebinding when necessary. Protected now from danger, easy of access and convenient for reference, with space and light to assist in general preservation, these records can now be readily consulted, time is saved in search and conditions in every way made serviceable and satisfactory. With an elaborate and carefully devised system of indexing, this official record is perhaps the most complete of any of the Departments of the Government.
Registry, Insurance, and Collect-on-Delivery Services for the Fiscal Year 1916
The number of pieces of mail registered, insured, and sent collect on delivery during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1916, is shown in the following statement: