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Show Our Government How It Operates By William Bruckart HANDLING THE MAIL IT IS a fur cry from stage coaches to tninsocean mall planes, but this century has witnessed that development. develop-ment. There are regular malls now between North and C-entral and South America, service operating with much more frequency than did the transcontinental transcon-tinental mails a little more than half a century ago. And there Is the projected pro-jected transatlantic mall, something much nearer realization than Is generally gen-erally anticipated. These facts are cited merely to show that the postal service never stands still, either literally or figuratively. It Is growing at all times, even as our nation expands. I believe Its history Justifies the assertion that no service of our government has greater flexibility, flexi-bility, none that can adapt Itself so quickly to conditions, as can this agency of government. Credit for the development must go, In a large measure, meas-ure, to those men and women who make up the rank and file of the service. serv-ice. More than 90 per cent of the workers work-ers of the postal service hold their places by reason of having met civil service tests, making their appointment appoint-ment one of permanency. So much attention has been devoted to tills class, the bulk of the postal service, as a means of contrasting them with the political appointees who hold higher posts by title but whose Importance to you and to me Is not nearly so great. I believe that the majority of the political appointees among the postmasters throughout the country render a patriotic service. It is unfair to criticize all of them for the shortcomings of some of their number, num-ber, but too often has it been found that a postmaster, supported by the political leaders of a community, Is not the person whom the majority of the patrons of that oflice would select But In our country, the spoils of a political victory go to the winning party at the polls, and postmaster-ships postmaster-ships constitute no small part of the patronage that can be used to pay political debts. The flexibility of the postal service has permitted it to operate on a basis as nearly like private business as possible. pos-sible. It has to have general rules, of course, and these have to be rather rigid, but consider how a postmaster Is authorized to arrange for the receipt re-ceipt of letters from an established firm without requiring them to be stamped and how It receives the newspapers news-papers without payment of the postage In advance. Private business would operate that way; it would "extend credit," so to speak to reputable patrons. pat-rons. So the postmaster is permitted to arrange for "metered" mail, avoiding avoid-ing the use of stamps, and for collection collec-tion of the postage at stated times. Newspapers are handled the same way. The "metering" of mail Is a comparatively com-paratively new practice. Arrangements Arrange-ments having been made by the firm or individual who desires to use the privilege, the letters are received at designated points, either the main or branch office, and they are run through a meter for counting and cancellation of the place where the stamps are placed by individuals posting only one or a few letters. That machine stamps a cancellation that avers that the required re-quired postage has been paid, which, of course, It lias not been, but the postmaster post-master knows it will be. Millions of pieces of first-class mail are sent that way each year and the practice is increasing in-creasing because it does away with labor to attach the stamps, It avoids losses from theft or destruction of stamps, and it saves money for the government In printing stamps. In handling newspapers, weight Is the governing factor, and the postmaster postmas-ter requires periodical rewelghing to arrive at a determination of postage due. It avoids weighing every shipment, ship-ment, thus saving time, and the postage post-age Is paid at Intervals, thus avoiding bookkeeping and transfer of smaller amounts of money. Congress has kept Its finger on the pulse of the postal service by retaining retain-ing the right to fix the rates that shall be charged, except with respect to the airmail service. It has granted many privileges, such as those mentioned above, however, to meet everyday business busi-ness requirements. Control of the rates, It must be said, properly remains re-mains In congress because the federal legislators are supposed to represent their constituents, and rate changes have such a far reaching effect that the power to make them sfcsraid rest with the representatives of those who pay the toll. With the airmail, a different circumstance circum-stance exists. It is in the nature of a special service. It must be done by special contract, and none knew when It was initiated how successful it could be made or what the cost would have to be. So the postmaster general fixes the rate we all pay when we want to send a letter or package in such 'a hurry that we mark it for dispatch by airplane. This delegation of power to the postmaster general has enabled the gradual expansion of the air mail service until now it not only reaches from coast to coast, from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, and dozens of Intermediate In-termediate lines, but from North American Amer-ican cities to the Argentine. And the end of this expansion is far off, for more and more air companies are seeking seek-ing contracts to transport the mail , 1932, Western Newspaper Wi. |