Congress was given power by the Constitution “to establish post-offices and post-roads.”  There had been a postal service in the colonies before the Revolution.  During the Revolution Benjamin Franklin was made Postmaster General, and he made the service as effective as it could well be made under the conditions that existed in those times.  The plan that he devised was continued after the Constitution was adopted.  In those days mails were sent from New York to Boston and to Philadelphia two or three times a week.  They were carried on horseback or by stage and by boat.  Sometimes a month was consumed by a trip that can now be made in a half-day.  Postage cost from six cents to twenty-five cents for each letter, according to the distance it was carried, and had to be paid in cash in advance.  Postage stamps were not introduced until 1847.  Often mail was allowed to accumulate until there was enough to pay for the trip.  The isolation of a remote rural community can well be imagined where the difficulties of communication were so great, and where the scarcity of money made postage an important item.

RURAL MAIL ROUTES

In 1918 there were 54,345 post-offices in the United States managed by the Post-Office Department at Washington, besides nearly 600 in the Philippines managed by the war Department, and a few in the Panama Canal Zone.  Of the 3030 counties in the United States, 3008 had rural mail routes aggregating more than a million miles in extent, serving more than 6 million families, and costing for operation more than 53 million dollars.  This cost, however amounts to only about $1.90 for each person served, or a little more than one cent for each piece of mail handled.  The aim is to make the postal service pay for itself, and in 1918 the receipts exceeded the expenditures by more than 60 million dollars.

SPECIAL SERVICES OF THE POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT

The Post-Office Department not only provides for the transportation of ordinary mail, but through its post-offices it sells money orders for the transmission of money safely through the mails; it operates the parcel post by which merchandise may be transported, including farm produce of many kinds; it administers the postal savings system.  One of the interesting divisions of the Post-Office Department is the Division of Dead Letters, to which is returned all mail that fails to reach its destination.  In 1918 there were returned to the Dead-Letter Division 14,451,953 pieces of mail.  In these “dead letters” there were drafts, checks, money orders, and loose money, amounting to $4,194,839.68.  The failure of this mail to reach its proper destination is due in very large measure to carelessness in addressing and to failure to place on the envelope or package a return address.  A great deal of loss and inconvenience could be avoided, and much labor and expense saved for the postal service, if every one would see that every piece of mail sent out is properly addressed and stamped, and has a return address in the upper left-hand corner.