The Postal System of the United States and the New York General Post OfficeJefferies, Thomas C.
History
The Postal System of the United States and the New York General Post Office
Jefferies, Thomas C.
Postal service -- New York (State) -- New York; Postal service -- United States
Conceive, if you can, an organization that is incessantly and
perpetually going at top speed; that knows not a moment of rest the year
round, or generation after generation; which never sleeps, nor pauses,
nor hesitates; that disposes each day of a mountain of 14,300,000
pieces of ordinary mail, or more than any other office in the world;
that does a parcel-post business that makes the business of the express
companies seem small in comparison; that handles in excess of 41,500,000
pieces of registered mail each year; that issues nearly four million
money-orders annually, and pays over seventeen million more; that, as a
mere side issue does a banking business which is exceeded by but a few
banks in the whole State; that has in its safe custody the savings of
approximately 140,000 depositors, amounting to more than $44,000,000;
that employs an army of 15,000 men and women; that occupies one of the
largest buildings in the city, two blocks in length, and then overflows
into approximately fifty annexes, called "Classified Stations," and
nearly 200 sub-annexes, called "Contract Stations"; that has receipts in
excess of $52,000,000 per annum; that has doubled its business in ten
years. Having conceived this, you will begin to get some idea of the New
York post-office, the biggest thing of its kind in the world and still
growing.
The average man's conception of a post-office includes little more
than an impression of a letter-carrier in a gray uniform; a mail wagon
recently dodged by a narrow margin; a post-office station somewhere
in his neighborhood, and a hazy picture of a dingy place in which
men sometimes post letters. Of the details of the organization aside
from these things, the extent and complexities of the service, or how
it accomplishes what it does, or of the executive experts operating
the system, he knows practically nothing. He is aware, it is true,
that letters are collected and that letters are delivered, and that
continents and oceans may divide the sender and addressee; but by what
mystic methods delivery is accomplished he has never stopped to think.
Yet the organization that lies behind the words "New York post-office"
is one of the most complex, efficient, and interesting in the world, and
yet it operates with a simplicity and a smoothness that betoken master
design and perfection of detail.
_The Postmaster_
At the head of this great organization and directing its every movement,
watching its development, adjusting its activities, is one of the most
experienced and efficient postal experts in America, in the person of
Postmaster Edward M. Morgan, whose interesting statement is included at
the head of this section.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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