THE RAILROADS
and THE MAILS
Commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the first
Government-issued Postage Stamps for the
United States of America.
GRAND CENTRAL PALACE
NEW YORK, N.Y.
May 17th thru May 25th 1947
CHESAPEAKE & OHIO LINES
TRANSPORTATION of letters has been a concern of mankind for
at least five or six thousand years. In fact, if Adam was created
in the year 4004 before Christ, he was only about two hundred
years old when the first postal system was instituted. King Sargon
of Babylon reigned about 3800 B.C. He established a regular postal
service for his official letters, which he sent to his correspondents
everywhere in the world as it was then known. The Chinese had
not by that time invented paper, the king of Pergamum had not
developed parchment as writing material, nor the Egyptians the
pith of the papyrus plant. So the king's letters were cut on small
slabs of soft clay, which was then baked hard, covered with a
softer clay for protection, and then marked with the royal seal.
Here we see the counterpart of our modem envelopesthe soft
enveloping clayand of our postage stampsthe king's
seal. The royal couriers were the postmen of these ancient times.
Specimens of these ancient letters may now be seen in the Louvre
in Paris. From then on, we have postal history almost unbroken.
The kings of Egypt regarded the post as so important that there
are postmen depicted on the walls of a royal tomb dating about
1500 B.C. The Old Testament contains many, references to the post.
Herodotus, writing in the fifth century B.C., is the author of
that famous motto which appearstranslated from the Greek
originalon the front of the New York post-office:
"Neither rain, nor snow, nor heat, nor gloom of night
stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed
rounds."
The Romans had an elaborate postal system, which continued
until the Dark Ages almost put a stop to civilization.
WRITING BECOMES MORE GENERAL
In the time of the Renaissance letter-writing gradually became
more general, and regular postal systems were developed on the
Continent of Europe and in the British Isles. Transportation,
however, was still subject to the limitations of foot-couriers
or riders on horseback, and this made the sending of a letter
a very slow and very expensive undertaking. Not until 1839, in
England, following the plans of Sir Rowland Hill, was the sending
of a letter made so inexpensive that anyone who could write could
afford to send what he had written, by mail; using the penny post.
CONDITIONS IN AMERICA
In America the development was perhaps even slower, as post
riders had to travel through dangerous routes, often beset by
hostile Indians; and the same conditions for two hundred years
after the discovery of the country threatened the stage coaches
and even the boats which were employed between different ports.
The rates, too, were very high, as was natural in view of the
difficulties involved. By the Act of Congress, 1792, single letters
required up to twenty-five cents postage, and double and triple
letters two and three times as much. And these charges were for
distances comparatively short, for there was as yet no transcontinental
mail. A "single" letter, too, simply meant a single
sheet of paper. Not until 1845 was there really substantial relief
from this condition. Then five cents was made the rate for a single
letter up to three hundred miles, and ten cents for a greater
distance. The postmasters' provisional stamps (1845) and the first
regular United States postage stamps (1847), whose centenary we
are now celebrating, belong in this era. Four years later the
final basic change was made, and the ordinary letter rate became
three cents.
THE RAILROADS COME INTO BEING
Eighteen years before the United States Government issued its
first postage stamps, the first railroad train drawn by a locomotive
was put into operation by the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company,
and the next year, 1830, saw the first American-built engine draw
a train on the Baltimore & Ohio. This beginning, and the rapid
expansion of railroads in the United States, naturally encouraged
the use of the posts, and meant ever greater speed in the transportation
of the mails. In 1832 the Government allowed Slaymaker and Tomlins,
stage mail contractors, $400 extra per year for carrying the mail
from Philadelphia to Chester, Pennsylvania, by rail rather than
by coach. In 1782 the Government had declared a monopoly of the
postal service throughout the United States; in 1823 it extended
this monopoly to all navigable streams; and in 1838 all railroads,
for this purpose, were declared post-roads.
THE STAGE ROUTES ARE GRADUALLY ELIMINATED
Naturally the owners of the stage routes with mail-carrying
contracts did not readily yield their prerogatives to the railroads.
Shortly after the opening of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad
in the summer of 1830, the locomotive "Tom Thumb," driven
by Peter Cooper, was distanced in a race with a certain powerful
gray horse. This naturally brought fame to the horse, and satisfaction
to his owners, Stockton and Stokes, who were the most important
owners of stage routes in their day, and of the contracts for
carrying the mail. Soon, however, the railroad began to carry
mail, first by arrangement with the regular mail contractors;
and within two or three years the contractors were asking the
Government to agree to their having the mail transported by the
railroad. Specifically, a contractor in February 1834 engaged
the Camden & Amboy Railroad Company to convey the mails for
him. As the railways grew, they gradually displaced the horse
as a means of mail conveyance, and there was much dispute between
the Department and certain railroad companies as to what should
be fair compensation for their services.
CONGRESS ACTS
On July 7th, 1838, the Act of Congress just referred to declared
that "each and every railroad, which now is or hereafter
may be made and completed, shall be a post route; and the Postmaster
General shall cause the mail to be transported thereon not paying
more than twenty-five per centum over and above what similar transportation
would cost in post coaches." Mail routes, which had of course
been established for the stage coach transportation, were now
made much more detailed and elaborate as the railways took up
the work. The management of the mail en route was held by "route
agents," so called.
THE ROUTE AGENTS AND THEIR WORK
The first route agent, a government official, was appointed
in 1837, probably on the Mohawk & Hudson Railroad. He was
a post-office employee, with many of the duties of a postmaster.
The first recorded cancellation referring to railroads is on a
pre-stamp letter dated November 7th, 1837. This cancellation is
RAILROAD, on a letter sent by way of the Mohawk & Hudson line,
running out of Albany, New York. Many of the mail routes had a
route agent from the early days. On July first, 1882, every type
of railroad service which required the presence of a post-office
employee on the railroad cars became a Railway Post-office; their
names were not, except accidentally, associated with the names
of the railroads over which they operated. These early railroad
postmarks, as distinguished from RPO postmarks, constitute a very
interesting chapter in United States postal history.
CAMPAIGN FOR PENNY POST IN THE UNITED STATES
In 1848, when the five and ten cent rates were in force in
the United States, an Association was formed in New York with
the avowed purpose of campaigning for a literal equivalent throughout
this country of Sir Rowland Hill's Penny Post. It was urged that
the basic rate for letters for any distance in the United States
be set at two cents, if prepaid (this was still optional) and
weighing under half an ounce; and that newspapers be charged at
the rate of one cent a sheet, while letters be delivered free
of charge in all large cities and towns. This association met
with effective opposition, and became particularly bitter against
the railroads. In view of present practice in the matter of mail-carrying
by the railroads, a brochure of this organization, printed in
1848, may prove especially interesting.
RAILROAD TRANSPORTATIONTHE EVILS
"One of the most difficult points in the administration
of the post-office has been dealing with railroad corporations.
As these are bodies without souls, they can only be dealt with
on the footing of pecuniary interest. And as they are state institutions,
and local favorites, public opinion has been generally predisposed
to take sides with the railroad, and against the department. And
thus the railroads have been able to exact exorbitant allowances
for services which cost them next to nothing. Were the whole mails
of the country to be sent at once by a single railroad, what would
be the amount? The average number of letters mailed in a day is
142,857; which, at the average weight of one-third ounce, would
weigh 2,976 pounds. The average number of newspapers in a day
is 150,685, which, at the average weight of two ounces, would
give 18,834 pounds. The whole together make 21,815 pounds, equal
to 109 passengers, averaging, with their baggage, 200 pounds each.
These passengers would be carried by railroad 200 miles, from
Boston to Albany, for $545. The daily cost of railroad service
is $1,637, which shows that it is distance, not weight, that is
chiefly regarded. Or, in other words, that the weight of the mails
is of very little account to railroads. It is well known that
corporations regard the carriage of the mail as almost clear profit.
The whole daily mails of the United States could be carried by
the inland route from Boston to New Orleans, by the established
expresses, at their regular rates on parcels, for a little over
$3,000; while the whole daily expense of mail transportation is
$6,594. The expresses will carry from Boston to New York, for
$1.50, an amount of parcels which the Post-office would charge
$150 for carrying as letters, or $18.40 as newspapers and all
go by the same train, of course involving equal cost of transportation
to the company. The inference is unavoidable, that the government
is charged exorbitantly by these companies, from, the entire absence
of competition on almost every railroad route. While human nature
remains the same, it is to be expected that corporations will
take this advantage, unless some counteracting interest can be
brought to bear upon them as a restraint against extortion."
RAILROAD TRANSPORTATIONTHE REMEDY
"Now, let the post-office present itself to the people
as a system of pure and unmingled beneficence, studying not how
it can get a little more money for a little less service, but
how it can render the greatest amount of accommodation with the
least expense to the public treasury, and it will at once become
the object of the public gratitude and warm affection; men will
study how to facilitate all its transactions, will be conscientiously
careful not to impose any needless trouble upon its servants,
and will generally watch for its interests as their own. Such
is the benign effect upon all the considerate portions of society
in England. Then the government will be fully sustained in insisting
that all railroads shall carry the mail for a compensation which
will be just a fair equivalent for the service performed, in reasonable
proportion to other services. And if the corporations are perverse
in throwing obstacles in the way, the people will expect that
such coercive measures should be employed as wisdom may prescribe,
to make these creatures of their power subservient to the public
good, and not to mere private aggrandizement."
CONCLUSION OF THE ARGUMENT
The brochure proceeds to state that the cost of mail transportation
in England is about five and a quarter pence per mile; in the
United States about twelve cents per mile. Again, "the average
weight of passengers with their baggage is set at 230 pounds.
This would be equal to the weight of 7,360 letters, at half an
ounce each, the postage on which at two cents would be $147.20,
irrespective of distance." Against this the passenger fare
from Boston to New York is stated to be $4.00, and the express
freight of an equal weight to be $1.50. While even to Liverpool
per Cunard steamers the passenger fare is $120, and the express
freight $7.20. The cost of transporting a letter from London to
Edinburgh has been ascertained to be one thirty-sixth of a penny.
THE RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE
Until the year 1864 the only connection between the railways
and the postal service was the fact that the mail pouches were
carried on trainsand a record kept of the quantity, the
distance, and the speed. Only occasionally is there evidence of
further activity on the part of the route agent. From the beginning
of the Civil War the great increase in mail due to that conflict
resulted in long delays in transmission and delivery; letters
had to be sent to a distributing office, sorted there, made into
wrapped packages with the name of their destination written on
each, and forwarded from that point. A story is told of a mail
pouch sent from Chicago to the Green Bay distributing office in
Wisconsin, about 1855, whence its contents were to be shipped
to points in the Upper Michigan peninsula. When it was opened
at Ontonagon a month later, a nest of mice, parents and offspring,
was found to have established itself in the pouch. This violation
on the part of the mice of the rules of the Post-office Department
impressed at least one post-office official with the need of a
change in the handling of the mail.
GEORGE B. ARMSTRONG
George Buchanan Armstrong, assistant postmaster at Chicago,
conceived the idea of having the pieces of mail sorted and distributed
in mail cars en route. Through the help of Schuyler Colfax, then
Speaker of the House, and A. N. Zevely, Third Assistant Postmaster
General, he was authorized to test his plan. He prevailed upon
the officers of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway to equip
some of their mail-cars for service as his "traveling post-office";
and the first run was made August 28th, 1864, from Chicago to
Clinton, Iowa. In 1867, as this idea proved itself, the Chicago
& Northwestern introduced post-office mail cars, especially
built from plans furnished by Armstrong. The great saving of time
resulting from this service was at once apparent, other roads,
first in the middle west and then in the east, adopted the plan,
and before the end of Grant's first term as president the practice
had become general. Mr. Armstrong had been put in charge of the
entire railway mail service of the country, as General Superintendent,
in 1869. In the Government Building in Chicago stands a bronze
bust erected to his memory in 1881. He died August 5th, 1871.
It may truly be said that today, because of the developments following
his work as a pioneer, a letter may even reach its destination
before a passenger setting out from the same place at the same
time.
AT THE END OF THE LAST CENTURY
A thumbnail picture of the mail service of railways, as it
existed in the latter part of the nineteenth century, is given
in the following account. It is not anti-railway. Every railway
was a postal route. But the basis of compensation, for one thing,
was unsatisfactory. Cost was directly dependent upon weight, speed
of trains, and condition of the property. The government, however,
calculated the rate for each "mail route" from the average
weight of the mails for that route. The whole matter transported
was weighed once each four years, for thirty consecutive working
days, and this formed the basis of compensation for the four years
following. The Government alone determined the price it would
pay the carrier; and if it saw fit, it might change the rate at
any time, and the railroad would have no redress. The rate was
sharply reduced as the volume increased, so that "the price
for transporting 5,000 pounds daily was only four times as much
as that for transporting 200 pounds." The Government alone
took all charge, through its own personnel, but at terminal points
the railroad had to transport all mail matter between the station
and the post-office at the same rate as that set for transportation
on the railroad itself; and at local stations it had to perform
the same service without compensation, unless the distance was
over eighty rods. The Government also imposed fines for delays
or failure to meet schedules as ordered. And in deciding who was
at fault the Government was sole arbiter. "The development
of the railway postal service is altogether due to the generosity
of the carrier. But the Government has rarely dealt fairly with
the railway companies." The railway mail service was recognized
as particularly hazardous; and for this reason it was contended
by many that insurance and pensions should be provided by the
Government for those who handled the mails on railroads, in exactly
the same manner as it provided for those who had been soldiers
in their country's defense.
TWENTIETH CENTURY CONDITIONS
Conditions in the twentieth century are greatly improved over
the state of affairs existing about 1900. In 1916 the "weight
basis" of pay for the railroads' services, which had stood
from 1836, was in part replaced by the "space basis,"
and in 1920 was entirely superseded by it. Space was obviously
the important factor, for by 1943 there were over 3,500 mail cars
required to convey the mails in the United States alone. In 1925
for New England, and in 1928 for the country as a whole, Government
adjustments in the rate paid the railroads were made upward, in
order to bring the remuneration more directly in line with the
cost involved.
By 1943, the railroads carried the mails a distance of 486,466,650
miles in a single year, and received therefor a compensation of
over one hundred and ten million dollars. In this same year the
clerks in the mail cars handled and redistributed over twenty
billion pieces of mail (roughly seven million pounds) thirteen
billion of these being letters. This was in addition to about
two hundred million miles of transportation performed by the airlines
and motor vehicles.
In 1945, the latest date for which statistics are available,
the Post-office Department spent about eleven percent of its income
for railway transportation of the mails, and about six and a half
percent more for the railway mail service. Some two hundred and
thirty million dollars was the amount expended in these two categories.
Today a railroad gets two mills, one fifth of a cent, for carrying
a letter across the continent. And the railroads carry ninety-two
percent of all the mail transported in the United States.
SPECIAL SERVICES BY THE RAILROADS
On special occasions recently the railways have provided special
service. In 1939, at the time of the visit of the King and Queen
of Great Britain, a special postal car was attached to their train
from the time it left the Canadian border, June seventh, to the
time it returned to Canada via Rouses Point three days later.
Thus the Post-office Department was enabled to handle over one
hundred thousand covers, with a special postmark to commemorate
the occasion.
Similarly, during the months of the World's Fair in New York,
in 1939 and 1940, a postal car, in charge of railway postal clerks,
was on exhibition on a railway siding. Visitors to the car averaged
5,215 a day, sets of commemorative stamps were sold there to the
average daily amount of over a hundred dollars, and the daily
deposit of mail was over 2,000 pieces.
THE CHESAPEAKE AND OHIO
The Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, a trunk line from the Atlantic
seaboard at Newport News, the world's largest ice-free harbor,
to Chicago and the West, has had no small part in the development
of the mail service. Its route was originally the Midland Trail,
surveyed by George Washington. He planned a great East-West network
of canals and post-roads, through what is now known as the Chessie
Corridor. In 1785 the James River Company was organized, and was
the original predecessor of the C & O, which now traverses
the States of Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana,
as far as Chicago. An example of the present volume of mail carried
on this line is a statement by the postmaster of Huntington, West
Virginia, (pop. 85,000), that in a single month in 1945 his office
cancelled a total of 1,942,339 pieces of mail.
RAILWAY POSTAL CAR # 106
A further elaboration of present conditions in the Railway
Post-office system is provided by the description of a typical
mail route on the Pere Marquette Railway, a connection of the
C & O. R.P.O. car # 106 is attached to train #7, on the Grand
Rapids-Chicago run. This run is part of the Ninth Division of
R.M.S. (there are fifteen in all). On each run the clerks in #
106 distribute letters for Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin,
Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Chicago, including Mixed States
mail and airmail. Newspaper distribution includes all these States,
Missouri, South Dakota, (not Nebraska) and Mixed States. The average
distribution each night consists of seventy-six pouches, containing
approximately 1065 working letter packages, and 107 sacks of paper
mail. A full sized R.P.O. car is sixty feet long, provides 744
letter-case separations, 210 paper and pouch rack separations,
and about thirteen and a half feet available storage space.
"Apartment cars" are 15- or 30-foot ends of baggage
cars, especially fitted. "Storage cars" are those in
which the mail is not "worked." On this train the Government
allows eighteen to sixty feet of storage space extra. As railroads
are paid on the basis of storage space, very accurate records
must be kept. At non-stop stations on this route pouches are thrown
off, or picked up by a "catch-arm." These pouches are
"worked" immediately. Sacks are used for all except
first class mail; for first class mail, locked pouches. And all
this elaborate and detailed procedure sprang from the beginnings
made by George B. Armstrong in 1864.
OWNIE
A fitting conclusion to this story of the railroads and the
mails may be the history of a famous dog, the only one ever to
be adopted by the Post-office Department. "Ownie" spent
his life in mail cars; beginning in 1888 on the run from Albany
to New York City, he was a pet of the mail clerks, who kept attaching
tags to his collar till he had 1017. He visited Canada and Alaska,
and in 1895 took a trip to Japan, where he was decorated with
a medal by the emperor. He went on around the world, and got back
to Tacoma, Washington, after 132 days. Unhappily he met an ignominous
end, for he was shot on the orders of a postmaster in Cleveland,
Ohio, who had never heard of him. The postmaster nearly paid for
his ignorance with his own life. During his vacations Ownie had
travelled one hundred and forty-three thousand miles. And for
many a railway mail clerk the monotony of his labors must have
been broken by the presence of this dog, who appreciated the opportunities
afforded by the Railway Mail Service.
GILMAN KNOWLTON.
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