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THE ATLANTA SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GA., Tuesday, December 23, 1913,
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THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL
ATLANTA, GA., 5 NORTH FORSYTH ST.
Entered at the Atlanta Postoffice as Mail Matter of
the Second Class.
JAMES R. GRAY,
President and Editor.
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Atlanta Ga.
Counties and Towns in the
Good Roads Campaign.
According to records being compiled by the Na
tional Office of Public Roads, American towns and
counties have voted more than two hundred and fifty
million dollarb in highway improvement bonds, and
such funds are now increasing at a rate of from
twenty to thirty million dollars a year. This reck
oning does not include State appropriations, which
would probably carry the total amount of money
spent for good roads far into the billions.
The people of the United States are evidently
awake to the importance of highway development.
It is a rare thing that a bond issue proposed for the
building and maintenance of roads fails to receive the
necessary votes, and hundreds of such elections are
held the country over every year. When citizens are
willing to assume extra burdens of taxation we may
be sure that they are heartily interested in the mat
ter involved.
It is remarkable, too, that highway funds derived
from this source are increasing from season to sea
son. Public enthusiasm, far from waning after its
first impulse, is gathering strength and impetus. The
more money the people put into good roads, the more
they are willing to add. Such improvements as are
made simply point the way to others that are needed.
This, however, .s only what might be expected,
for, after all, the greatest incentive to good roads is
good roads. Let the work of development once begin,
and it speaks so persuasively that it will be con
tinued without ceasinc. A county that builds and
maintains good roads soon becomes a convincing ex
ample for its neighbors. Its land values increase, its
farms are more prosperous, its schools better attend
ed, its commerce quickens and extends and every
sphere of its interest pulses with new life.
Canada’s Food Problem.
Sir Wilfrid Laurier, leader of the Liberal party
in Canada and former Premier, who was defeated in
the last eletion on the reciprocity issue, has sounded
a battle call for tariff reduction as a means toward
relieving the burdensome cost of food. This problem
though felt today almost the world otter is particular
ly acute in Canada. The Montreal Daily Telegraph
asserts that there is grave danger to the national
wellty nig “in the unprecedented rise in the cost of
living*—a rise which within a few years from one of
the cheapest places to live in to absolutely the dear
est place in Christendom.”
Statistics quoted by the Literary Digest show that
the Dominion imports nine million dollars’ worth of
breadstuffs, more than five and a half millions worth
of tea, sixteen and a half millions’ worth of sugar
and four millions’ worth of other food products, in
addition to some two and a quarter millions’ worth
of livestock and nearly twelve millions’ worth of
fruits and nuts. It may be noted, incidentally, that
the conditions revealed through these remarkable
figures are not especially inviting to the homeseelter,
albeit Canada has made resourceful appeals for set
tlers from the United States and*has persuaded thou
sands of Americans to cross her border.
Sir Wilfrid Laurier, in inaugurating his campaign
for free imports, declared that within the last decade
the cost of living had increased only seven per cent
in Great Britain, where free trade obtains, but fifty-
one per cent in Canada. This advance is the more
amazing, he argued, in view of the fact that Canada
produces annually two hundred million bushels of
wheat, while the local consumption is only fifty mil
lion bushels, the surplus having to find foreign mar
kets. "If then,” he continued, “we reflect that Great
Britain has to import all the wheat she consumes and,
if'tve reflect further that the price of wheat and the
price of bread are cheaper in Great Britain than in
Canada, then you have to agree with me that there
must be something rotten in the State of Denmark."
The trouble lies, thinks the Liberal leader, in an
excessive tariff which, by “its exclusion of competi
tion” makes it possible for particular interests to "in
flate the price of food staples.” The issue is one that
is likely to appeal to the rank and file of Canadians.
It may be that it will open the way for the Liberal
party’s return to power and the restoration of Sir
Wilfrid which he held for so many years.
It was widely predicted at the time of his defeat
on reciprocity, which he championed, that the Cana
dian people would soon come to a sober second
thought over their rejection of this liberal policy and
would realize that it meant much to their wellbeing.
Should the end which was then sought through recip
rocal trade concessions, now be gained through direct
tariff reform, the United States, as well as Canada,
would have good cause for satisfaction.
Christmas may never be as gay a thing as the
magazine covers portray It, but we’ll enjoy it just the
same.
IIow Best to Develop the South.
While we are striving to utilize the material
resources of the South, to turn its coal and iron
and timber and water powers into wealth-cre
ating factors, it is even more important that the
vast undeveloped, unutilized resources of the un
trained and uneducated boys and girls of this
section should be utilized by fitting them by ed
ucation and by the training of work, and the ed
ucation that fit them for responsibilties of life,
to become greater factors in the world’s affairs
than all the coal and iron and timber of this or
any other section. While striving to improve the
soil of the South, still greater efforts should be
made to improve the souls and bodies of the un
developed and unimproved men and women and
boys and girls of the South.
This admonition, it is interesting to know, comes
not from a scholastic magazine^but from the Man
ufacturers’ Record, a publication concerned primarily
with the South’s industrial interests. When the rank
and file of business thinkers take this point of view,
the outlook for our material development Will be in
comparably brighter; for, after all, a country’s
wealth lies not so much in physical resources as in
human energy and skill.
The agricultural problems of the South are funda
mentally problems of education. The productive
power of the soil depends not simply upon chemical
elements but chiefly upon the mind and character of
the man behind the plough. If he is equipped with
scientific knowledge and alert to new ideas and sug
gestions, he will draw richer harvests from naturally
arid acres than his untrained, unprogressive neighbor
could raise in a garden of Eden. That homely old
proverb, “There’s more in the man than the land,”
carries a world of practical wisdom. It sums up the
whole gospel of efficient agriculture.
Georgia’s yield of corn this year was greater by
ten million bushels than in 1912, and as a result the
State was ten million dollars richer. This wonderful
increase was due entirely to education. The soil was
the same as in other reasons, the implements were,
for the most part, the same and so were the seed.
The difference lay in the amount and the intensity of
brain that weite applied to the fields. And, what
counted especially, they were the thought and enthu
siasm of youth. Thousands of young farmers, en
listed in the great army of the Boys’ Corn clubs, were
sent forth with discipline and order to wrest a new
victory from their native earth. They strove intelli
gently and along scientific lines. They worked with
the vim and sureness that true education gives. Their
achievement, remarkble though it was, was no more
than might logically have been expected.
What a vast deal it would mean to Georgia to have
every one of its farms conducted by methods like those
employed in the corn clubs! The State’s production
of food and of all other staples would Increase be
yond reckoning, and the interests of commerce and
industry grow accordingly.
Education pays, not only in ultimate, ideal results
but also in immediate, practical affairs. It means
foresight, power, progress and wealth. It tells for
the benefit of the community and the State no less
than for that of the individual. It opens new fields of
opportunity, releases new forces of development and
adds to the common fund of prosperity. If the
South would utilize its material resources, it must
first utilize its Human resources.
What is true of agriculture is true of every other
field of endeavor. The prime factors in commercial
and industrial enterprise are skilled energy and
thought. These, as the Manufacturers’ Record de
clares, mean more than all the coal and iron and tim
ber of this or any other section. Give us a sufficient
number of competent workers and leaders, and there
will be no difficulty or delay in developing the South’s
natural treasure.
The South’s problem of education may be reduced
to certain specific terms. The prime need, perhaps, is
that of a “more extensive and a more generously sup
ported system of common schools. The University
Club of Atlanta recently propounded this searching
question: \
“Do you know that the percentage of illiteracy
among white children of school age has increased
during the last five years in fifty-one counties of
Georgia—more than one-third of all the counties
of the State? Do you realize that Georgia is one
of the backward States in education—that our
educational development is not keeping pace with
our wealth?”
It might well be added that, unless onr educational
development does keep pace with our wealth, our
wealth itself will soon reach a limit and decline; for,
enduring prosperity is not built upon mental and
moral incapacity. It is a deplorable fact that the per
centage of illiteracy should have increased in fifty-one
counties of Georgia during the last five years, a fact
of which our Legislature should take serious note
when it is again presented a compulsory school at
tendance law. Such a condition is detrimental to the
most practical interests as well as the highest inter
ests of the commonwealth.
Agricultural and technological schools are of espe
cial importance in the South’s present stage of growth.
They should be liberally supported. The Agricultural
College of Georgia -and the Georgia School of Tech
nology are of incalculable power for the development
and enrichment of the State. Every dollar the Legis
lature appropriates to these and kindred institutions
is returned a thousandfold in good to the people.
Universities and colleges which measure up to the
true ideal of education are no less useful than institu
tions devoted to special training. “Fine spiritsi are
not touched but to fine issues,” said Shakespeare.
From colleges and universities come the inspirers
and the leaders of a people. There was once a pop
ular fallacy that higher education, instead of fitting
bo?s for life, dulled their sense of practical things
or at least delayed their progress in the world of af
fairs. Fortunately, however, that prejudice is melting
away under the light of scores and hundreds of shin
ing examples to the contrary. A glance through
“Who’s Who” in Americas will convince the most skep
tical that a rounded education, is a spur to leadership
and an aid to success.
Education, however, means more than common
schools, more than institutions for special training,
more than colleges and universities. It means the
illumination and enrienment, the quickening and de
velopment of the people’s common life. It means op
portunities for social enjoyment in rural districts; it
means social betterment in cities. It means the
united exertion of public and private agencies for bet
ter and happier living.
The great problem of the South, and for that mat
ter the problem of all sections, problem of human
development. It is very gratifying to hear a pub
lication like the Manufacturers’ Record—a trade
journal—lifting its voice in behalf of this ideal.
Things are bound to take a turn and some day
parents may be sent to bed in disgrace for talking
back to their children.
I
A WEALTHY MAN
‘ (Copyright, 1913, by Frank Cram-/
I have received a remarkable letter. It is so sig
nificant that I am going to giv e the greater part of it,
amended a bit, to my readers.
Here is a man, it seems to me, who has got himself
on the right side of the universe. He is so rich he
makes me ashamed of my poverty. He writes:
“I am very wealthy.
“Although you will look in vain for my name in
‘Who's Who' or the society ‘Blue Book,’ nevertheless
all the art treasures of Mr. Morgan or Mr. Altman are
trifles compared to my possessions.
“As I write I glance at one of them in rapt ad
miration and wonder. It is an inexhaustible source of
delight t6 me. Its gifts to me are so prolific that 1
can trample them under foot, yet still they come.
“My gems -are beyond # price. The pleasure they
supply to me is unalloyed, for they give me no worry
along with \helr enjoyment. I have no fear of bur
glars. Whoso would rob me would but enrich me
further.
“All this 'Vast wealth is confined within the small
area of a few hundred feet of the earth’s surface, a
portion of ground for which I have toiled the greater
part of my fifty years of life.
“The thing of beauty I refer to is a noble SUGAR
MAPLE TREE about sixty or seventy feet high, in all
the glory of its autumnal foliage.
“Today it is vermilion and green and gold in the
sunlight after a drenching rain.
“Every leaf is a jewel and every one different,
thousands upon thousands of them. No rare animals
can compare with them. They shame the porcelains
of China, the vases of Japan, the king's treasures
from Dresden or Sevres.
“The delicate tracery, the fantastic shapes, the
tumult of color in these leaves! They are full of the
craftsmanship-joy, the artist-delight, of the infinite
Creator. I feel by the joy I get in appreciating
them, what joy He must have in making them.
“They are falling one by one, and lie in splotches
of rich color upon the green of the grass, which
flashes with raindrops in all the hues of the prism, a
carpet of Oriental colors upon a background of dia
monds.
“And when all the leai’es have returned to the earth
from which they came, where they will help to fertil
ize new lives, I will still have my Tree to admire- Its
beautiful naked limbs will be etched against the sky,
its rugged bark upon its sturdy trunk will hide the
inner secret of life to come.
“I get rest from my Tree, arid high thoughts, and
winged fancies, which I cannot utter.
“I see two things in my Maple, the two things
which speak to my soul, and whisper to me the secret
of the world and of the world to come, and of all wor
thy living.
“The two things are STRENGTH AND BEAUTY.”
The heighth of irony would be to give your Christ
mas liquor to a stool pigeon.
It is foolish to become chummy with a man who
treats his dog better than he does his wife.
The Year’s Food Crops.
The national Department of Agriculture estimates
the value of American farm products this year to he
nine billion dollars. Fourteen crops were worth in
the aggregate nearly five billions, an increase of
about a hundred and eighty-three million dollars over
the record of the preceding year. There could be no
broader or soundfer basis, so for as natural conditions
go, for widespread prosperity.
It should be noted, however, that in the case of
several important food crops there was a considerable
decrease. Corn, for Instance, showed a falling off of
nearly six hundred and seventy-eight million bushels;
oats, two hundred and ninety-six million bushels,
and Irish potatoes, some eighty-nine million bushels.
These figures are rich in suggestion to the South.
They emphasize the importance of cultivating food
actes. A shortage in the corn crop of the West is
sharply felt in the South, if th‘e latter is dependent
on other sections for its grain supply. But, if the
Southern farmer utlizes the varied resources of his
own soil, drouths in other States will not seriously
affect his interests.
This has been happily illustrated in Georgia.
More corn was produced here in 1913 than ever be
fore, the increase in the yield being some ten million
bushnls, the equivalent of as many dollars. The re
sult is that Georgia’s profits from its cotton will not
have to be consumed in importing com at high
prices. It should be added, however, that the State
is still far short of producing as much corn as it
demands. Had its grain output been larger, its
present prosperity would be all the greater.
Food crops are the crops that tell the story. If
the South would achieve its due independence and
play its due part in the country’s economic lite, it
must develop its rare opportunities for food produc
tion.
An interesting story could be told of the habit
American presidents have of spending their vacations
in the south.
The old-fashioned express robber, commonly known
as the lone bandit, will hereafter confine his efforts
to the parcel post.
The Rural Life Commission.
King Hal’s remark at Agincourt, “There is some
soul of goodness in things evil, would men observ-
ingly distill it out,” is broad enough in its charitable
philosophy to Include even so pesky a parasite as the
boll weevil. The insect that ruined millions of dol
lars’ worth of cotton in States which were unaware
of its coming and unprepared to combat it is prov
ing, in Georgia, a keen incentive to agricultural im
provement. In protecting cotton against this partic
ular menace, farmers are learning new lessons and
applying new methods that will redound to the ad
vantage of all their interests.
A few days ago representatives of the State agri
cultural schools, the Georgia Chamber of Commerce
and the farmers themselves met at the capitol to per
fect plans for an educational campaign against the
boll weevil. In discussing this one matter, they were
drawn to divers related problems; and the result was
that before the conference ended, there was organized
a Rural Life Commission which promises to become
a far-reaching influence for the State’s material de
velopment.
This Commission will devote itself to the broadest
welfare of the farm. It will encourage heartier co
operation between farmers and business men. It will
aid all movements for the upbuilding of rural schools
and roads, will seek to promote the financial interests
of the farm and will gather data on which definite,
practical action can be based.
The Commission will afford a common meeting
point for such agencies as the State departments of
agriculture and entomology, the State College of Ag
riculture, the various district schools, farmers’ or
ganizations and the Georgia Chamber of Commerce—
each of which represents a particular field of en
deavor but all of which working toward the same
end. An alliance of such forces should accomplish
much for the State’s progress.
EXPERIENCE INCONGRESS
By Savoyard
As I have frequently sought to say, the weakness
of our parliamentary system in this gTeat and glorious
republic is the dependence of each member of either
house of congress on the support of a single constit
uency. It is true that any citizen eligible to a seat in
the house of representatives may be chosen to that
distinction from any district of the state of which he
is an inhabitant. For example, “Old Ben” Butler did
not live in the district that repeatedly sent him to
congress as a member from Massachusetts. Perhaps
it would be too much to expect from people who knew
Yim to send such a man to congress.
In New York City representatives in congress are
often chosen by constituencies among whom they do
not reside. There is a story that Amos Cummins of
fered to b£t Bounce Cockran a dinner that he could
not find his district after a day’s search.
* • •
A great Frenchman, about the Head of his race as
a man of letters, wrote: “Every profession has its
ha^r-shlrt and its tomahawk.” And perhaps it is truer
of none more than politics, but there is a fascination
about it like that the candle has for the moth, like the
dice for the gamester.
This winter and next spring and summer you are
going to hear a heap about “rotation in office.” You
will be told that Thomas Jefferson was the father
of the idea. Now, Jefferson favored frequent elec
tions, but you will nowhere find that he was of opin
ion that a capable member oi congress should give
way for a successor simply because he had served
long. TVTiat would you think of a man who, wanting
to have a house built, would refuse the job to an ex
cellent carpenter because he had built encugh houses
and it was time for him to cease building houses and
give another man, who had never built a house, a
chance? Rotation in office is as absurd as rotation
in material industry or in the learned professions.
Would you “rotate” a clergyman out of the pulpit with
no reason except the whim of the moment? How
about a physician or a lawyer—would you discharge
him solely in order to try a new man?
\ ; • • •
One of the leading men in congress today is Mr.
Cordell Hull. He is a modest, retiring gentleman, very
popular in the esteem of his fellow-solons rom every
section. I do not suppose Mr. Hull has opposition for
the renomination by his party for a seat in the sixty-
fourth congress. But stranger things have happened,
as when “Old Bill” Morrison, chairman of the ways
and means committee of the forty-ninth congress,
was deprived of his seat in the fiftieth.
And there Is Mitchell Palmer, who may succeed Os
car Underwood as leader of the house. It would be in
the nature of a crime if this man were made the vic
tim of a “rotation.” In intellectual capacity, Swager
Sherley, of Kentucky, has no superior \n the house of
representatives; as a debater he is a match for any of
them. He carries in his head a great reform, for we
may give him credit for being the father of the move
ment for 8 “budget,” the lack of which would have
made bankrupt this people scores of times had not
ours been the most productive country in the world.
His speech on the subject of the budget stamped him
as one of the profoundest thinkers now in public life.
Is e the nation to lose this man from the national coun
cil because of a piece of cant called “rotation of of
fice ”
• • •
The next session of congress Henry Clayton will
hr.ve in charge the measure that will prove the most
important legislation—the regulation of the trusts;
Mr. Clayton is the chairman of the judiciary commit
tee, In which position he has-.not only shown a pro
found acquaintance with our jurisprudence, especially
the constitutional phase of it, but. he is also an able
and adroit parliamentary leader. If Clayton goes out
it will be some time ere Alabama again gets the ju
diciary committee.
I am just speculating, trying to give warning. I
do not suppose any one of the leaders I name has op
position for the party nomination.
• • •
Of course, if you have a Calhoun or a Webster, a
Carlisle or a Ben Hill, a Tnurman or a Vest, a Bryan
or a Proctor Knott—why, sena him here. It is the
place for him; but in my time I have known many a
great man come here to this town with his mouth
wide open without setting the Potomac afire. Maybe
the old stream is inflammable.
Experience in public life is a great big asset when
possessed by a capable representative in congress.
Washington, November 28.
‘ ‘A nglo-Saxon Co-operation
and Peace ”
Whatever their tailings in the past, the Anglo-
Saxon peoples today stand out in unison as upholders
of this fundamental doctrine of self-government which
alone can guarantee the greatest amount of happiness
to the greatest number. The depth to which this
principle has taken hold Of them is borne out by the
fact that neither the United States nor the British
Empire could today be found willing to assume the
government of new conquests. On the contrary, both
government the less developed races whom the relent-
are unceasingly endeavoring to educate toward self
less onward march of civilization has placed under
their temporary control. . . . Though they cannot,
even if they so desired, prevent all wars, they are to
day in a position to hinder any disturbance of peace
on the two great oceans which form the highways of
international commerce. It is a position of great re
sponsibility, but also full of marvelous possibilities.
If' recognized and duly accepted, it is a position which
ultimately will lead not only to naval, but to military
disarmament. ...
The division of labor between the two is quite nat
ural. After the completion of the Panama canal it
will be easy for the United States to concentrate her
whole fleet in the Pacific and prevent any oversea
attack on China. There the open door means more to
America than to any other nation. . . .
With the whole American fleet in the Pacific, the
Canadian west, Australia and New Zealand, and all
the possessions of the British Empire in those waters
would be absolutely secure from oversea attack. Con
sequently, neither the British Empire nor the British
Dominions need to expend any money in providing
against attacks coming over the waters of the Pa
cific. ...
While the Stars and Stripes would secure the peace
of the Pacific, the white ensign would render the same
service in the Atlantic.—August Schvan, in the Decem
ber number of the North American Review.
Quips and Quiddities
Ralph Perkins, an artist making a sketching tour
through Rhode Island, chanced one day upon a pic
turesque old barn, so alluring to his eye that he sat
down on a stone wall and immediately set to work.
He soon became aware that he had two spectators
in the persons of the farmer and his wife, who had
come out to watch him.
Presently the artist discovered that he had lost his
rubber eraser, and, wishing to correct an error in the
sketch, he went up to the farmer’s wife and asked her
if he might have a piece of dry bread. This, as is uni
versally known, niakfes a good eraser.
The farmer’s ^rife looked at him with an expression
of pity not unmixed with surprise.
“Dry bread!” she repeated. “Well, I guess you won’t
have to put up w»th dry bread from me, young man.
I’ve got sons of my own out in the world. You come
right into the kitchtta with me, and I’ll give you a nice
slice of fresh breafe, with butter on it. No, not a
word,” she contlnued/Yraising her hand to tfard off his
expostulations. “I doil’t care how you came to this
state, nor anything about it; all I know is you’re hun
gry, and I’ve never yet allowed anybody to leave my
house craving food.”—Upplncotfs.
THE POSTAL SERVICE
VII. THE RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE.
BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN.
If you can imagine what it means to know the ex
act location of some 10,000 postoffices; to know by
what railroads they are reached, and by which of these
roads a letter will reach them quickest; through what
junction points it must travel, and a hundred and one
other things; and tnen to be able to throw letters into
a half hundred pigeon-holes, each pigeon-hole represent
ing a certain locality, and each letter going into the
right pigeon-hole, at the rate of a hundred or more a
minute, while the train is thundering along at a
forty '»i fifty-mile gait, then you can grasp what it
means to be a railway mall clerk.
•
It requires some 17,000 clerks to man the 3,400 rail
road postoffices*in the United States, and they draw a
total pay of about $20,000,000 a yepr. For many years
they were the poorest paid of all the servants of the
government, considering the strenuousness of their"
calling and the dangers to which they are exposed, but
today their average compensation ts more than $100 a
month, and $169 a year more than the average postal
servant gets.
...
The postal clerk in the past had to run a serious
risk of getting killed In the discharge of his duties.
The ordinary postal car was run up next to the en
gine, and was constructed of wood throughout. With
a heavy engine ahead of it and a heavy train behind
it, the result in case of a wreck usually was a mass
of kindling wood, with the clerks killed or wounded.
To add to the horrors of the situation, gas lighting
pipes suddenly severed would begin to pour their loads
of gas out over the mass of wood and mall, and irf
hundreds of Instances the horrorfi of Incineration were
added to those of collision.
...
The postal clerks begged the government to insist
upon the, equipment of all postal cars with electric
lights, but the railroads answered that electric train
lighting was still in the experimental stage, in face
of the fact that every one of them was even then fea
turing its crack trains as being electrically lighted
throughout, and the government accepted the state
ments of the railroads. Then, when the steel cars
came out, the clerks begged that the railroads be re
quired to furnish steel postal cars, pointing out that
the average postal car was being hired by the govern
ment for approximately $4,000 a year, a rental which
they considered high enough to entitle them to steel
cars. There was the usual protest, but finally con
gress required the gradual substitution of steel cars
for the old wooden ones.
...
The degree of proficiency demanded In the railway
mall service is remarkable. In other branches of the
government service a man has to take an entrance ex
amination, but that Is the end of It, unless It be for
promotion to some other grade. In the railway mail
service the clerks must constantly study and memorize
thousands of new postoffices and the quickest ways of
reaching them. Out of every 10,000 pieces of mail
handled by the railway mail service last year 9,997
were handled correctly. ,
...
Eo.ch clerk must undergo an average of about three
examinations a year. The department has books
printed giving full data about each postoffice In a giv
en territory, and showing the system of distribution
of mail so as to reach each one of them. The clerk
must memorize all these, usually for all the postof
fices In a given state at a time. Then he makes out
a card for each postoffice, on the front of which there
is the postoffice name and on the back the routing
particulars. He buys himself a little case of pigeon
holes to correspond, except in dimensions, to the big
cases seen In every postal car. This little case con
tains 288 holes. He labels each hole, doing it in such
a way that all letters going to certain Individual of
fices or to certain groups of offices are put Into their|
proper pigeon-hole.' Then he must take the packs of
cards he has made out, and throw each card Into its
proper pigeon-hole. Not only must he learn to do It
accurately, but rapidly as well. After he has satisfied
himself with his proficiency In distributing these cards
he goes before the authorities and distributes the
cards in their presence, being timed for speed and
checked up for accuracy.
In each of these examinations the clerk must "throw"
about a thousand cards, and he gets so many points
off for each error and so many off for each minute
above the standard it requires to “throw” a given
number of cards. A clerk running from Washington
to Greensboro, N. C., will, in the course of a few
years, be required to pass an examination on the 2,500
postoffices in Virginia, the 1,800 in North Carolina, the
1,300 in Alabama, the 1,300 In Georgia, and those of
three or four other states as well. Then, too, he must
know In what package to tie every letter addressed to
a street number In every one of three of four Impor
tant cities like Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, or
New York.
...
Every time a clerk "throws" a card in the wrong
box in taking an examination, it shows that he would
have missent a letter if he had been “throwing” them
In the mall’car pigeon-holes. And that Is regarded
as something almost beyond the point of toleration in
the railway mail service. One can scarcely expect any
person to perforin the same identical act 10,000 times
without making more than three mistakes, but when
each time represents a thinking process involving no
less than five different considerations, besides the phy
sical effort required to perform it on a fast moving
train, it will be realized to what high standards of
proficiency the railway mall service has attained; and
9,997 out of every 10,000 is the average, showing that
thousands of clerks do much better than this. Indeed,
some of them will correctly pigeon-hole 9,999 out of
every 10,000.
...
The real secret of the efficiency of the mail service
of the United States ts due mainly to the railway pos
tal clerk. Nearly all the mall that travels by rail must
be handled piece by piece by him. When a person
mails a letter in Washington for some one in St. Louis
he can depend upon it that ninety-nine times out of a
hundred, his letter will reach the addressee on the first
delivery from the first train into St. Louis from Wash
ington after the letter was mailed. The Washington
office makes up the St. Louis mail Into hags. These
are turned over to the railway mail service and go for
ward by the train due to arrive at the earliest possible
moment. When they are on the last leg of the jour-
ny—as from Indianapolis on the Big Fouz—the rail
way postal clerks empty their contents on the dis
tributing tables and begin the work of throwing each
piece into its proper pigeon-hole. A letter addressed
to a certain number on Olive street goes to a certain
carrier at the main office, and a letter to a suburban
address goes to a certain carrier from a lettered sta
tion. And fo each piece of mail goes into the pigeon
hole that will turn, it over to the men who are to de
liver it.
...
In these days of distributing mails by the billions
of pieces the old system of carrying all mail from the
city of origin to the city of destination without dis
tribution according to streets would swamp the post-
offices. The mail would have to be assorted piece by
piece in the postoffice and the hour of delivery delayed
greatly. So, while we wake and while we" sleeb the
thousands of railway postal clerks are working away
on the thousands of mail trains day and night, In order
that our mail may get to us at the earliest possfbjc
moment.
...
The railway mall service has been a matter of evo
lution. In 1864 George B. Armstrong laid out the
scheme for its establishment, and on August 28 of that
year, under authority from the postmaster general,
the first railway postal car in the history of the world
made its initial trip between Chicago and Clinton, Iowa.
In 1875 the first all-mail train between New York and
Chicago was run, and from that day forward one step
after another has been made in the improvement of
the railway mail service until today it stands without
a peer among all the institutions of the governmental
services of the world in efficiency.