The American Postal Service / History of the Postal Service from the Earliest Times

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

	PAGE
Latest Facts	7
General Postal History	11
Beginning of Personal Communication	12
Postal History of England	12
Penny Postage	13
General Post Office in London	14
French and German Postal History	15
The American Colonial Period	16
Under the Continental Congress	16
The Crown Postmasters	17
Post Offices and Post Roads Established	18
The Period of Progress	18
Postage Stamps Introduced	19
Progressive Steps Taken	19
Historical Data	20

CHAPTER II

Questions of Finance. Postal Revenue—How Derived and Expended

Revenues and Expenditures	21
Method of Expenditure	21
Appropriations	22
Auditor	23

CHAPTER III

Departmental Operations—General and Detailed Descriptions and Cost of Service

History of Rural Free Delivery	24
Rural Delivery Defined	25
The Struggle for Rural Delivery	25
The Advantages of Rural Delivery	26
Rural Delivery as Viewed by President McKinley	27
First County Rural Delivery	27
Country-Wide Extension, Rural Delivery	28
How Rural Delivery Enhances the Value of Farm Land	28
Per Capita Cost, in Rural Delivery	29
Some Necessary Conditions, Rural Delivery	31
Annual Cost per Patron by States and Pieces Handled	31
Population and Extension, Rural Service	32
Motor Vehicle Routes, Rural Delivery	32
Village Delivery	34
City Delivery	35
Star Routes	35
Postal Savings	35
Money Order System	36
Stamp Books	36
Postal Cards	37
Division of Stamps	37
Classification	37
Purchasing Agent	38
Dead Letter Office	38
Mail Locks	39
Mail Pouches	39
Post Office Supplies	41
Special Delivery	42
Foreign Mail Service	42
Topography Branch	43
Division of Post Office Service	44
American Postal System	45
Considerate Treatment of Newspaper Mail	45

CHAPTER IV

Special Articles

Stamp Manufacture, Bureau Engraving and Printing	46
Post Office Inspectors	48
Railway Mail Service	48
Parcel Post, Opposition Thereto	49
Interesting Facts. Postmasters General	53
Withdrawal of Letters from the Mail	54
Handling of the Mail in Department	54
Cost Accounting	55
Cleansing Mail Bags	55
Farm-to-Table Movement	55
Postal Service in Alaska	57
Standardization of Post Offices	58
Postal Savings Circulars in Foreign Tongues	58
A Patriotic Editor	59
Damage, Parcel Post Mail	59
Opinion of Daniel Webster on Mail Extension	60
Blind Woman on Pay Rolls	61
Wanamaker—Four Postal Reforms	62
The Rural Carrier as a Weather Man	64
New Box Numbering System, Rural Routes	65
Wireless Telephones, Rural Service	68
Parcel Post Exhibits at County Fairs	70
The Great Express Service of the Government	71
The Telephone and Parcel Post in Cooperation	72
Speeding up the Service—Rural Mails	73
Training Public Officials	74
For the Benefit of the Fourth Class Postmasters	76
Public Work and Private Control	77
Protecting the Public Records	78
Registry and Insurance Service, 1916	78
Readjustment Rate, Second Class Mail	79
Peculiar Customs, European Rural Delivery	80
What Was a Newspaper in 1825?	81
Women in the Post Office Department	82
Railroad Accidents, Construction of Cars	83
Public Ownership of Telegraph and Telephone—Burleson	83
Liquor Carried by the Mails	84
How the Post Office Department Helps the Farmer	85
Expediting the Mails on Star Routes	87
Abraham Lincoln Postmaster in 1837	88
A Central Accounting Office for Each County	88
Millions of Money for Good Roads	89
$14,550,000 for Rural Post Roads	91
Mail Extensions by Air and Motor Truck Routes	92
Care Required in Preparing Contracts	93
Birthday American Postal Service	93
List of Postmasters General	94

CHAPTER V

Miscellaneous Matters

General and Financial Summary	95
Items of Interest	97
Old Laws and Regulations	104
Queer Collection Holiday Mail	108
Feeding the Cats	110
Couple of Distinguished Canines	110
Soldier’s Sister a Mail Clerk	112

Index to Items of Interest

112

THE AMERICAN POSTAL SERVICE

Clyx.com