1865 419 74,277 $ 1,360,122.52 1870 1,694 1,671,253 34,054,184.71 1875 3,404 5,006,323 77,431,251.58 1880 4,829 7,240,537 100,352,818.83 1885 7,056 7,725,893 117,858,921.27 1890 9,382 10,624,727 114,362,757.12 1895 19,691 22,031,120 156,709,089.77 1900 29,649 32,060,983 238,921,009.67 1905 36,832 53,722,463 401,916,214.78 1910 51,791 77,585,321 558,178,028.35 1915 55,670 105,728,032 665,249,087.81 1920 54,395 149,091,944 1,342,267,597.43 1921 54,183 144,809,855 1,313,092,591.08 --------------------------------------------------------------- No. of International Money-orders Postal Notes Issued Money- Issued in U. S. Fiscal order Year Offices Number Value Number Value 1865 419 1870 1,694 $ 22,189.70 1875 3,404 102,250 1,964,574.88 1880 4,829 221,372 3,463,862.83 1885 7,056 448,921 6,840,358.47 5,058,287 $9,996,274.37 1890 9,382 859,054 13,230,135.71 6,927,825 12,160,489.60 1895 19,691 909,278 12,906,485.67 1900 29,649 1,102,067 16,749,018.31 1905 36,832 2,163,098 42,503,246.57 1910 51,791 3,832,318 89,558,299.42 1915 55,670 2,399,836 51,662,120.65 1920 54,395 1,250,890 23,392,287.46 1921 54,183 876,541 16,675,752.16 [Illustration] _The Post-office of General Concern_ There is no governmental activity that comes so uniformly into intimate daily contact with different classes of this country's inhabitants, nor one the functioning of which touches practically the country's entire population, as does the United States postal system. Mr. Daniel G. Roper, in a volume highly regarded by postal executives, entitled "The United States Post-Office," called the postal service "the mightiest instrument of human democracy." This system, as we know it to-day, represents the growth, development, and improvement of over a century and a third. In the last seventy-five years this growth has been particularly marked; the total number of pieces of all kinds of mail matter handled in 1847, for instance, was 124,173,480; in 1913 it was estimated that 18,567,445,160 pieces were handled, and to-day about 1,500,000,000 letters are handled every hour in the postal service. In 1790 the gross postal revenues were $38,000 in round numbers and the expenditures $32,000. In 1840 the revenues were $4,543,500 and expenditures $4,718,200. In 1890 the revenues were $60,880,000 and the expenditures $66,260,000. In 1912 the revenues were $247,000,000 and the expenditures $248,500,000.