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THE ATLANTA SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GA., Tuesday, December 23, 1913, 4 ' 4 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. SUBSCRIPTION PRICE Twelve months 75c Six months .. 40c Three months . . 25c The Semi-Weekly Journal is published on Tuesday and Friday, and is mailed by the shortest routes for early delivery. It contains news from all over the world, brought by special leased wires into our office. It has a staff of distinguished contributors, with strong departments or special value to 'he home and the farm. Agents wanted at every postoffice. Liberal com mission allowed. Outfit free. Write R. R. BRAD LEY. Circulation Manager. The only traveling representatives we have are J. A. Bryan, B. F. Bolton, C. C. Coyle, L. H. Kim brough, W. W. Blackburn and J. W. Brooks. We will be responsible only for money paid to the above named traveling representatives. NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS. The label used for addressing your paper Shows the time your subscription expires. By renewing at least two weeks before the date on this label, you insure regular service. In ordering paper changed, be sure to mention your old, as .veil as your new address. If on a route please give‘the route number. We cannot enter subscriptions to begin with back numbers. Remittances should be sent by postal order or registered mail. Address all orders and notices for this de partment to THE SEMI-WEEKLY" JOURNAL, 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.