Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (July 17, 1904)
Uncle Sam's Postal Service fCopyrlght, 1904, by Frank O. Carpenter.) . -lASHINGTON. July -14. (Special I Correspondence of ' The Bee.) I P"tmaBler General Payne at his 1 residence In the old Charlts Sumner mansion, now a part of the Ar lington hotel, within a stone's throw of the White House. My visit was by an ap pointment made at, the Postofflee depart ment and the conversation covered a wide range of poatal bualneaa and personal mat ters. I first asked the general to tell me some thing about himself and his family, asking whether he came of the rich Cleveland Paynes of whom the late Senator Henry B. Fayne and Oliver H., the Standard Oil millionaire, were prominent members, or from the poor Paynes to whom the author f "Home, Sweet Home" belonged. He replied: "My family may have come from ths Hint stem aa thoae whom you designate as the poor Paynes, and the rich Paynes, but If so the relationship dates far back. J am one of the Massachusetts Paynes. My ancestors first came to Massachusetts About 1628 on the third ship after the May flower. They were among the flrat settlers Of Boston, but they afterward moved far ther Inland." "I see you were born at Ashfleld." "Tea. my people moved there after ths war between the colonists and the Indians, known as King Phillip's war. It took place about 100 years before our Declaration of Independence was signed. When It was ver a grant of land was made to the Soldiers who took part In it and my fam ily rot a share." "How did you happen to go westT" X ftsked. "The Paynes seem to haV? been Imbued with the emigrating spirit," said Mr. Payne. Borne of us early moved to the Hol land purchase and others, later, to the Western reserve. I lived In Massachusetts until I was 20 and then went to Wisconsin to take a position as a cashier and book keeper In a wholesale dry goods store." "What kind of a bookkeeper were you, general T" "I think I must have been fairly good," wai the reply. "I have a natural talent for mathematics and keeping accounts was easy or me. I know that when we took stock I could keep my footings so that I could give the totals within ten or fifteen minutes after the last Items were called out. This was considered rather remark able. I have met but few people who could do It." - "What did you do after your bookkeep ing experience," I asked. "Almost everything," said the postmas ter general. "Much of my work has been along the line of railways and railway management. In 1892 I was one of the receivers of the Northern Pacific railway, and I had much to do with the consolida tion and development of the electric street railway of Milwaukee. I am proudest of my success In that line. Ten or twelve years ago we had a dosen different street ear companies In Milwaukee. ' Some were run by horses Nand others by electricity. The roads had been built largely to aid In suburban development and they were poorly managed. I was made president of one of them and Improved It. Later on X became Interested In the others and planned to consolidate the whole. I got other men to Join me and we bought the roads and so reorganized them that we have, now one of thu best trolley systems of the United States. I was president of that system at the time I was made post master general." "You were at one time president of the American Street Railway association, were you not?" Tee, I was, but I am not now. I gave op active business of an kinds when I came here." " "How about our street cars, general; will the time ever come when we will have cheaper fsresT" "I hope not," was the reply. "Cheap fares are not for the good of the street ear service of the people. If you have low fares you must graduate them by a distance or by aones, as In Glasgow and other - European cities. You must charge 1 cent for. a certain distance, t cents for a little more and so on. The result la that the worklngmen, to save fares, . crowd themselves nearest their work. The cities become congested, the , suburbs' are not built up and the worktngman lives In the heart of the city Instead of In the coun try. It Is better to pay a (-cent rate per . ride and to allow the people to live, out. This Is an important consideration and one which conduces to the -making of bet ter American cltlaena "You have been a business man, handling large affairs, general. Is the postoffloe hard to manage as a business institution T" "Yes, It la, The chief trouble Is you cannot manage It as you can a private enterprise. The employes are selected for . you, and you cannot dismiss them, except by making charges and bringing them be fore what might be called the department court. There are many laws whloh hamper your Individual action. The moment you try to do something you find there Is s law ' against It, and the result Is there are all sorts of clogs In the way of progress." . r HENRY C. PAYNE, POSTMA8TER GENERAL OK THE UNITED STATES. "How about the postal service is It a good one?" . "Yes, with the limitations I have men tioned, and I do not know but that they are good limitations on the whole. One feature which prevents the system being efficient aa a private institution la the nam-' ber of superannuated clerks. We hnve some ' clerkb who have been serving the department for years, and who hnve given good service. They have grown old. and In an ordinary business they would have to, go. Here the process of removal Is such that they are allowed to stay." . "How about the PostofBre department, do you think It worse or better than the others of the executive departments?" "I think the postal service Is aa honest now as any In the United States, public or private," replied General Payne. "The fraud Investigations have purged it. " We had fifty or sixty postofllce inspectors at work for eight months examining Into every branch of the business. We hnve prosocuted every Irregularity, and have already seven of them Indicted and five sentenced to the penitentiary. Many others are under Indictment awaiting triul. In deed, I don't believe that any government department, in this or any other country, haa ever been more thoroughly Investigated than the Postofllce department. The result Is that It Is now In a thoroughly healthy condition." "Give me some Idea of the business of the department," I asked. "It is one of the biggest. If not the big gest, business of the kind upon earth," replied Postmaster General Payne. "It haa been estimated that the aggregate number of letters and newspapers which annually goes through the postotflces of the world Is 82,600,000.000. About 8.100,000,0 0 places g through our mails, so that we do about one fourth the postofllce business of the world. We have now almost 75,006 - poztofna.-s, and our postal routes are E00.0C0 miles in length. If you went all over all the lines you would have to travel as far aa twenty times around the world, and the annual travel over them Is almost 500,000,000 miles. The "service" Is now costing In round num bers more than 1160.000,000 a year, and we shall take In almost that much this year." "How about the postal receipts; do they show that the times are growing better or otherwise?" "The postal business' is one of the best of our financial barometers. It shows that the business of this country Is growing enormously and that It haa doubled within the past ten years. In i860 the gross re ceipts of the whole service were only about W. 000.000. In 1894 the receipts were 175,000,000, and this year they will be mors than tl50.000.000. That Is a wonderful rec ord." "Do you think .our postofllce business Is better managed from year to year?" "Yea1' In 18CT the receipts were about $8X000,000 and the deficit was over 111.000,000. la 1M the deficit had shrunken ts $J,0O0,eot A ) and in 1903 It was only 14,500,000. A largo part of the last deficit was caused by the great , additional expense of the new rural delivery service, which will cost us this year about 1:2,000,000. Were it not for that service the department would now be self . sustaining." "Is tho rural free delivery service a suc cess?" I asked. "Yes, Indeed," was the reply. "Few people know how great a success It la. We have now more than 23,000 rural delivery routes, giving a daily mall delivery to 2,300,000 families, or to more than 11,000,000 persona Estimating our population at 77,000,000, we are now serving one-seventh of all the people in the United States through the rural delivery." "Will that service ever pay its own ex penses?" "It may pay, but It will be far in tho future. It does pay already in the increase of business throughout the country and also in the growth of the postal business In those localities and to those localities. We find that In settled rural districts where there Is no such delivery the post office receipts are growing at the rate of about 2 per cent per annum. Where the rural delivery has been introduced they are anuully growing at the rate of 10 per cent. Besides that the circular and other small mail sent along such routes la very great. Some of the chief business institutions of the country get lists of the people along the routes and circularize' them." "AVI 11 the day come when every man In the United States will get his letters St bis own home?" "I don't know. Some parts of our coun try are very sparsely inhabited. I should not like to predict We now have the star routes. Men deliver mall to all the homes along their route and thereoy give mail to more than 107.000 families. They also col lect mail from those families and take it to the postofllce. That costs the govern ment nothing, as the star-route men are paid more for this additional service." "What new things are you doing for the people?" "We are Improving the service In every way possible, and our chief work this year has been done for New York. The mail Is ' greatly congested there and a great deal of time la consumed In getting It from ths postofllce to the railway stations. Ws havo arranged to build a postofllce over the tracks at the new Pennsylvania sta tion and also at the New York Central station. These two places will be connected by pneumatlo tubes with the other of fices. They will be so that the mails will be sorted In . them and dropped through chutes or by elevators right down to: ths doors of the cars. These two great depots will take , out W . per, cent of the mall of New York, and the - new arrangements, when completed, will save considerable time In . tho , forwarding of -the malls. "Then we are Improving the ocean aerr loe and our foreign postal arrangements," the postmaster general continued, "W now have mall clerks and postofflee tl the large steamers Just as In the railway cars. The clerks begin to sort ths mall for different parts and towns of ths United States as soon as they leave Europe, and when the ships arrive It Is shipped off by rail without rehandling. This saves about a day on every foreign letter. We are also Increasing the number of ships which carry the malls. We now have four regular malls across the Atlantic each way every week and we hope to soon send and receive malls dally. We want to cut down the foreign postage to the maritime nations to 2 cents a letter, and we believe that the revenues will be greater under this reduction than at the 6-cent rate as now." "How about postal savings banks? "We may have them some day for ths smaller towns and vil'ages where there are no such banking facilities. I think they would be good for such places. I have tried to have them Introduced Into Porto Rico, but sof ar congress has not adop ed my suggestion. We have no b inks In Porto Rico except at San Juan and Ponce. Ths people understand nothing about savings Institutions, and It seems to me that postal savings banks would do much to inculcate thrift and thereby better the condition of the island. Porto Rico has almost 1,000,000 people, and although the majority are very poor, many are well-to-do." "Will the Postofllce department ever control our telegraphs and telephones?" "I am not a prophet nor the son of a prophet," said the postmaster genera!, "and so I cannot answer that question. I be lieve, however, that such things unier a government like' ours are far better off in the hands of private parties. The govern ment machine Is already enormous, and this would multiply It. As it is, the tele graphs and telephones are very well man aged. There are competing .companies, and the rates are comparatively cheap. 1 should hesitate to take over these great institu tions if I had the power." "How about a postal express, so that poultry, butter and other small farm pro lucts as well as merchandise could be taken through the mail?" "I don't think that would do In our coun try. We have such magnificent distances and we should have to. have a uniform rats without regard to distance. The result would be that the private companies would' do all the profitable short haul business and the government' would have the Ions; hauls at low rates. It would enormously Increase the expenses without a propor tionate Increase of revenue. It w6"uld not pay." '"How about sending small sums by mall?" I asked. "We need some new arrangements for that," replied the postmaster general. "Ths postofllce money order is well enough fee larger sums, but we ought to have some thing for the sending of small change. Z am In favor of postal notes of the denom inations of fl and 13 with a payable-to-order provision on the back. If no name was written in the blank these notes would do for a common currency, and If the order was rilled in they would be only payable by the postofflee, which would cash them on presentation. Fractional parts of a dollar could be sent In notes or stamps made for the purpose. Ws should have some better way of sending small sums." . FRANK a CARPENTER. Our Barbers in London In an East End police court the other day a curious case of assault was heard. A youngster, it appears, was sent by his father to have his hair cut. The barber, according to the father, ' ran a pair of clippers all over the boy's head except in front, where he left an enormous fringe, to mark his displeasure the father gave the barber a sound thrashing. It Is, how ever, not only in the East End that bar bers show a great Ignorance of their trade. In New York or Paris It Is the easiest thins possible for a man to have his hair cut properly. In London it is hardly too much to say that there are only half a dosen. places where a barber ...lowa bis business. The average barber has only one method of cutting hair, which he invariably carries out. Irrespective altogether of tho wishes of his customers. I believe that If an American hairdresser were to open a dosen shops in different parts of London he would rapidly moke his fortune, provided, of course, he em ployed the right sort of men to cut his customers' halr.-London Tattler. Taxing Cats in London The returns In London for the quarter ending June SO show a decrease of revenue Of 2,600,000. A large meeting under . ths .presidency of a dignitary of the church of England, therefore, pointed out to the chan cellor of the exchequer that It would bs advisable to tax cats half a crown a head. . He estimated that this expedient would turn 600,000 annuaUy Into the treasury, "decrease the number of oats and elevate their social standing by removing ths sU taa of cheapness." Boston Globs,