1. Mission CHAPTER 23 POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT The mission of the Post Office Department is to afford the people of the United States a mail, parcel post, and postal savings service. 2. History 1 The Post Office was temporarily created September 22, 1789,* and was continued by later acts. Subsequently a General Post Office was established at the seat of government and provisions were made for the appointment of a Postmaster General, deputy postmaster at certain places, and other officers whose duties were prescribed. Although called a department from an early date, it was not until 1872 that it became an executive department. The offices of First and Second Assistant Postmaster General were created in 1810.6 This provision, authorizing the Postmaster General to appoint two assistants, was re-enacted in 1825.7 The Third Assistant was authorized in 1836,8 and the Fourth Assistant in 1891.9 The Assistant Attorney General for the Post Office Department, an office created in 1872,5 received his salary from the Department of Justice, but he was not an official of that department, as were the other Assistant Attorneys General. He was appointed by the Postmaster General and makes his reports to the Post Office Department only. The title of this office. was changed in 1914 to that of Solicitor for the Post Office Department,10 The Division of Dead Letters, popularly known as the Dead Letter Office, was established by the Act of March 3, 1825, supra. The Foreign Mail Service was carried on long before it was organized by law.11 It was a bureau making reports directly to the Postmaster General until placed under the Second Assistant. The Money Order Division was established in 1864.12 Every railroad in the United States was constituted a post route by the Act of July 7, 1838.18 The Railway Mail Service was established in 1865, reorganized in 1869 and many times since.14 A Topographer for the Post 1 See American Staté Papers, Post Office Department, Serial No. 027. 2 Act Sept. 22, 1789 (1 Stat. 70). 3 Act Aug. 4, 1790 (1 Stat. 178), and Act March 3, 1791 (1 Stat. 218). 4 Act Feb. 20, 1792 (1 Stat. 232): Act May 8, 1794 (1 Stat. 354); Act March 2, 1799 (1 Stat. 731); Act April 30, 1810 (2 Stat. 592); Act March 3, 1825 (4 Stat. 102). 5 Act June 8, 1872 (17 Stat. 283). 6 Act April 30, 1810 (2 Stat. 592). 7 Act March 3, 1825 (4 Stat. 102). 8 Act July 2, 1836 (5 Stat. 80). 9 Act March 3, 1891 (26 Stat. 944 [Comp. St. § 569]). 10 Act July 16, 1914, c. 141, § 1 (38 Stat. 497 [Comp. St. § 570a]). 11 Act July 27, 1868 (15 Stat. 196). 12 Act May 17, 1864 (13 Stat. 76). 135 Stat. 271. 14 See History of Railway Mail Service, Chapter in History of Postal Affairs in United States, 1885. Office Division was appointed in 1872,15 and placed under supervision of the Fourth Assistant by official order December 1, 1905, since when it has been known as the Division of Topography. It has prepared rural delivery maps (one inch to a mile) of counties in which rural delivery is completely established. These should not be confused with the post route maps regularly published for each state, the territories, Philippine Islands, Samoan Islands, Guam, the Canal Zone and the District of Columbia. The Salaries and Allowances Division was provided for by the Act of March 3, 1883,16 though its work was carried on before such authorization. Free delivery of mail was authorized by Act March 3, 1863.17 The first Superintendent of Free Delivery was appointed November 8, 1869, under the First Assistant. Under resolution of Congress approved October 1, 1890,18 experiments in village free delivery were begun under the direction of the Postmaster General. Under an appropriation bill approved April 28, 1902,19 permanent organization of the Rural Free Delivery Service was effected as a part of the Division of Free Delivery, under the First Assistant, July 1, 1902. The Division of Free Delivery, including the General Superintendent and the superintendents of city free delivery and rural free delivery, was transferred May 9, 1903, by order of the Postmaster General, to the office of the Fourth Assistant. After the lapse of the office of General Superintendent of Free Delivery, May 27, 1904, the two branches were gradually organized into separate divisions; the beginning of the Division of Rural Free Delivery as an independent division dating practically from the appointment of a new superintendent for that service January 1, 1904. Upon the reorganization by order of the Secretary, December 1, 1905, the name became Division of Rural Delivery. The act approved June 8, 1872, supra, authorized the appointment of a chief of division for office of mail depredations, though the work was carried on much earlier. The division has been known by various names and has been placed from time to time under different control: 1891-1904, under the supervision of Fourth Assistant, and known as Division of Post Office Inspectors and Mail Depredations; January 16, 1905, made an independent bureau under Post Office Department; since 1906, known as Post Office Inspectors' Division. A Pneumatic Tube Commission was appointed by congressional authority in 1908.20 The act of 1872 authorized the establishment of a blank agency, which later became a Division of Supplies under a superintendent subject to the control of the First Assistant, which control was transferred to the Fourth Assistant December 1, 1905, and the activity was called Supplies Division. 15 Act June 8, 1872 (17 Stat. 284 [Comp. St. § 572]). 16 22 Stat. 453. 17 12 Stat. 703. 18 26 Stat. 686. 19 32 Stat. 165. 20 Act April 21, 1902 (32 Stat. 114 [Comp. St. § 7428]); Act May 27, 1908 (35 Stat. 412). 230 3. Activities (a) Postmaster General.-The Postmaster General is the executive head of the Federal Postal Service. He appoints all officers and employees of the Post Office Department, except the four Assistant Postmasters General, the Purchasing Agent, and the Comptroller, who are presidential appointees. With the exception of postmasters of the first, second, and third classes, who are likewise presidential appointees, he appoints all postmasters and all other officers and employees of the service at large. Subject to the approval of the President, he makes postal treaties with foreign governments. He awards and executes contracts and directs the management of the Foreign Mail Service. He is the executive head of Postal Savings, and ex officio chairman of the board of trustees. (1) Chief Clerk.-The Chief Clerk of the Post Office Department is charged with the general superintendence and assignment of the clerical and subclerical forces of the department and the consideration of applications for leave of absence of such employees; the care, maintenance, and operation of the department and other buildings used in connection therewith and the care of all furniture and public property located in these buildings; of advertising; the supervision of the preparation of estimates of appropriations for the departmental' service and of requisitions upon the Treasury and the expenditure of the appropriations for the departmental service; the keeping of the journals and order books; the furnishing of stationery supplies for the departmental service; the consideration and signing of requisitions upon the Public Printer for the printing and binding required in the Postal Service and the department; the receiving, and inspecting on receipt, of the blanks required in the Post Office Department; the supervision of the receipt and inspection of supplies for the Post Office Department and the Postal Service which are delivered in Washington; general superintendence of the publication and distribution of the Official Postal Guide; the fixing of rates subject to the approval of the Postmaster General for the transmission of telegrams for all government departments; the miscellaneous business correspondence of the Postmaster General's office; and miscellaneous correspondence of the department not assigned to other offices; the giving of careful consideration to all matters affecting the proper administration of the civil service rules and regulations; the review of efficiency ratings of each and every employee in the department when promotions are being made; the supervision and control of fourteen appropriations; responsibility for the carrying out of the provisions of the reclassification and retirement acts; liaison officer between the department and the personnel classification board. The following sections are under the supervision of the chief clerk: Assistant chief clerk; disbursing clerk; board of inspection; appointment clerk; committee on form blanks; mail and supplies; printing; division of traffic; general files; telephones; telegraphs; charwomen; laborer force; watchmen force; mechanical force; carpenter force; and elevator force. There is also the division of surplus property. (2) Special Assistant to the Attorney General.-The Special Assistant to the Attorney General is charged with the duty of assisting in the defense of cases against the United States arising out of the transportation of the mails, and in other matters affecting the postal revenues. These include suits in the federal courts, involving claims of the railroads and other contractors for the carriage of the mails; the representation of the Postmaster General and the preparation and presentation of the department's cases in proceedings before the Interstate Commerce Commission for the determination by the commission of the basis for adjustment of railroad mail pay and the fixing of fair and reasonable rates for the transportation of the mails and for services in connection. therewith by railroads and urban and interurban electric railway common carriers, and in other matters of petition by the Postmaster General to the commission; the representation of the Postmaster General in hearings before the department on orders changing the mode of transporting periodical mail matter and in connection with reviews of such orders by the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia. (3) The Executive Assistant to the Postmaster General assists in matters of plans and policies and in correlating the work of the department. He is the personal representative of the Postmaster General in the execution of orders and the inauguration of policies; superintends the special functions of the department correlating costs and revenues of the service; represents the Postmaster General, when so directed, before committees of Congress on general postal matters and those not under jurisdiction of others. When so selected and directed, he represents the Postmaster General in International Postal Congresses. He also conducts such matters as may be specially assigned by the Postmaster General. (4) Division of Solicitor for the Post Office Department.-The Solicitor is charged with the duty of giving opinions to the Postmaster General and the heads of the several offices of the department upon questions of law arising upon the construction of the postal laws and regulations, or otherwise, in the course of business in the Postal Service; with the consideration and submission (with advice) to the Postmaster General of claims for damage done to persons or property by or through the operation of the Post Office Department, and of all claims of postmasters for losses by fire, burglary, or other unavoidable casualty, and of all certifications by the Comptroller for the Post Office Department of cases. of proposed compromise of liabilities to the United States, and of the remission of fines, penalties, and forfeitures under the statutes; with the giving of advice, when desired, in the preparation of correspondence with the Department of Justice and other departments, including the Court of Claims, involving questions of law or relating to prosecutions or suits affecting or arising out of the Postal Service, and with assisting when desired in the prosecution or defense of such cases, and the maintenance of suitable records of opinions rendered affecting the Post Office Department and the Postal Service; and with the consideration of applications for pardon for crimes committed against the postal laws which may be referred to the department; with the preparation and submission (with advice) to the Postmaster General of all appeals to him. from the heads of the offices of the department pending upon questions of law; with the determining of questions as to the delivery of mail the ownership of which is in dispute; with the hearing and consideration of cases relating to lotteries and the misuse of the mails in furtherance of schemes to defraud the public; with the consideration of all questions relating to the mailability of al |