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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 18, 1975)
11 Page 2 THE BATTALION THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 197$ Aggietoons —Brad Foster MdSS transit Trolley may return Colonial postal service: cost low, service slow (EDITOR'S NOTE — Postal ser vice made its appearance in the col onies in 1639, but it wasn’t until 1782 that a law was enacted prevent ing postal authorities from opening the mail of private citizens.) To Americans facing the prospect of paying 13 cents to mail a letter, the charge of a penny a letter more than 300 years ago seems like a bar gain. Associated Press The cost was low, but the service was slow and uncertain. Communi cation in the American colonies was haphazard, as indeed it was in Europe in the same era. The postrider was the principal means of communication during the colonial period. Each rider was commissioned by the British gov ernment. One rider, Peter Mum- ford, was among those who rode the circuit from Boston to Newport, R.I., in 1773, a trip that required about 26 hours with three changes of horses. He received 40 pounds a year and was supposed to deliver and accept mail only. But many postriders also worked for newspaper publishers, soliciting subscriptions, collecting accounts and delivering bundles of papers to taverns - all illegal. These transactions slowed the service, already plagued by poor roads and a lack of bridges. Some riders also opened all their news papers at each stop, allowing the local printer to extract and sum marize the news for his own paper. The riders served as the main news carriers for the first 100 years of American journalism - until the early part of the 19th century. The post office made its first ap pearance in the colonies in 1639, when the general court of Mas sachusetts decreed: “It is ordered that notice be given that Richard Fairbanks, his house in Boston, is the place appointed for all letters, which are brought from beyond the seas, or are sent thither, to be left with him, and he is to take care that they are to be delivered or sent according to direction; and he is allowed for every lettter a penny A postal service was established in Virginia in 1657. Every planter was required to provide a mes senger to deliver dispatches to the next plantation. The penalty for fai lure: a hogshead of tobacco. New York set up a New York - Boston mail service in 1672, with one trip monthly. Connecticut es tablished a postal service in 1674. William Penn established a post of fice in Philadelphia in 1683, with weekly mail to places near the city. About the same time he set up ser vice from Philadelphia to the larger towns of Pennsylvania and Mary land. The American post proper dates . SLOUCH By JIM EARLE “Don’t think of polishing Sully as simply a polishing job! Think of it as a sacred privilege that has been entrusted to your class! from a patent on Feb. 17, 1691, is sued to Thomas Neale. He and the royal postmaster general appointed Andrew Hamilton as the colonial postmaster general. Service began on May 1, 1693, with weekly runs from Portsmouth, N.H., to New York, Philadelphia and points in Maryland and Virginia. The colonists disliked the system because of the cost of postage and because authorities could open the mail to see if it contained evidence of disloyalty to the king. Benjamin Franklin was ap pointed the first postmaster general by the Continental Congress on July 26j 1775, at a salary of $1,000 ayear. He switched to diplomacy a year later and was succeeded by his son- in-law, Richard Bache. Franklin, however, already had made important contributions to the mail service. Disturbed by its inadequacies, he had agreed to be come Philadelphia’s postmaster in 1737. He impressed the British government and in 1753 became deputy postmaster general for all the colonies. Franklin established the first city delivery service, the first dead-mail office, employed the fastest packet ships across the Atlantic, hired more postriders and required them to ride night and day. He also helped Canada set up its first postal service and inaugurated a Montreal-New York messenger service. In 1782, an act was passed au thorizing the postmaster general to set up a line of posts between New Hampshire and Georgia. In 1779 Congress repealed a law imposing the death penalty for robbing the mails. Flogging was substituted. Later the penalty' was reduced to imprisonment. The 1782 act also decreed that private letters could not be opened or delayed by postal authorities. Until then the mail service was primarily for use by the govern ment, and private citizens used it at their risk. Another of the founding fathers who insisted on an efficient mail service was George Washington. He personally helped in surveying post routes to speed the mails. Samuel Osgood was named the first postmaster general under the new Constitution. That was in 1789, when there were 75 post offices and fewer than 2,000 miles of post roads in the country. Postage was in money, with pre payment optional. The first stamps were not issued until 1847. They bore the likenesses of Franklin and Jefferson. Battalion Classified Call 845-2611 Cbe Battalion Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of the editor or of the writer of the article and are not necessarily those of the university administration or the Board of Directors. The Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting enterprise operated by students as a university and community newspaper. Editorial policy is determined by the editor. LETTERS POLICY Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words and are subject to being cut to that length or less if longer. The editorial staff reserves the right to edit such letters and does not guarantee to publish any letter. Each letter must be signed, show the address of the writer and list a telephone number for verification. Address correspondence to Listen Up, The Battalion, Room 217, Services Building, College Station, Texas 77843. Members of the Student Publications Board are: Bob G. Rogers, Chairman; Dr. Gary Halter: Dr. John Hanna; Roger P. Miller; Dr. Clinton A. Phillips, Jeff Dunn, Tom Dawsey, and Jerri Ward. Director of Student Publications: Gael L. Cooper. epre: New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles. The Battalion, a student newspaper at Texas A&M, is published in College Station, Texas, daily except Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and holiday periods, September through May, and once a week during summer school. Mail subscriptions are $5.00 per semester; $9.50 per school year; $10.50 per full year. All subscriptions subject to 5% sales tax. advertising rate furnished on request. Address. The Battalion, Room 217, Services Building, College Station, Texas 77843. The Associated Press is entitled exclusively to the use for reproduction of all news dispatches credited to it or not otherwise credited in the paper and local news of spontaneous origin published herein. Right of reproduction of all other matter herein are also reserved. Copyright (c) 1975, The Battalion Second-Class postage paid at College Station, Texas. MEMBER The Associated Press, Texas Press Association Editor Assistant Editor Managing Editor City Editor Campus Editor Special Section Editor Sports Editor Photography Director . .James Breedlo\ e Roxie Hear:. Ste\e Coble Steve Gray Karla Mouritsen Sandy Russo . . . Tony Gallucci Jack Holm TfTe c Iurquoise Q §lipp MANOR EAST MALL (Permanent Location) PRICES FROM $6.00 —UP 10% AGGIE DISCOUNT WITH I.D. CARD OPEN 11:00 A.M. DAILY it ALLEN Oldsmobile Cadillac SALES - SERVICE “Where satisfaction is * standard equipment" 2401 Texas Ave. 823-8002 OMBUDSMAN If you have a question or com plaint regarding news coverage please contact our Ombuds man’s office between 6 and 11 p.m., Monday through Thurs day. We established the office to help you with problems re quiring the attention of any top editorial personnel of The Bat talion. Call 845-2611 or write Ombudsman, The Battalion, Texas A&M Univer sity, College Station, Texas, 77843. Associated Press The trolley is making a comeback. Detriot is buying 19th century trolley cars with oak and mahogany interiors from Lisbon. Pittsburgh paints its streetcars in candy-cane stripes and gives them nicknames. Boston and San Francisco are ex panding their fleets. And fares in many cities are dropping. Less than 500 miles of trolley track remain in the United States. In 1917, 80,000 cars carried 11 bill ion passengers a year over 45,000 miles of track. Now gas prices, air pollutants and spiffy promotional campaigns are making people more aware of the trolley as mass transit. Six cities — Boston, Philadel phia, New Orleans, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Shaker Heights, Ohio — have kept at least part of their trolley systems working. Seattle has 50 trolleys on 30 miles of track and plans to add 25 miles and 50 electric buses soon. The rides are free downtown, and fares elsewhere have dropped a nickel to 20 cents. IS is ’WE GOT A UTILE BEHIMP Wfffl OUR SOCIAL SECURITY OVERFWMEMT REPAYMENT PAYMENTS THE PANTRY NATURAL VITAMINS & HEALTH FOODS PROTEINS •WHOLE GRAIN BREADS ORGANIC COSMETICS •DIETETIC FOODS 3525 TEXAS AVE. 846-6897 Ridgecrest Shopping Center "SERVING AGGIELAND SINCE 1947" Phil Gibson, CLU can take the uncertainty out of your financial planning. 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For the greatest taste tempting delight just make your sandwich exactly like you want it and pop it into one of the handy micro-wave ovens. This wonderful sandwich and a bowl of soup for only $1.50 plus tax will place you on cloud 11M. We agree this is a bit of a long story, but it is difficult to stop talking about our tasty sandwiches. Open Sunday 11:00 A.M. -1:30 P.M. for regular meal only. “QUALITY FIRST” Detroit and Dayton, Ohio, are committed to completely new sys tems, and at least nine other cities are considering streetcars as an al ternative to bus pollution and sub way expense. Trolleys, named for the arm atop the car that gathers power from the overhead wires, aren’t cheap. New cars to replace 1934-model cars in San Francisco and an aged and much-depleted fleet in Boston cost $300,000 each when ordered in 1973. But subway cars in Philadelphia cost $800,000, and figures pre sented recently at a U.S. Urban Mass Transit Administration - UMTA - conference indicate a sub way costs $5 million a mile to build. pi ANirrs '/W Sl/BJECT h TODAY 15 M V 6LACIERS.. M r i Costs fora trolley or light rail systen run between $4 million and$8nil ion a mile. The Boeing Vertol Co. plantout- side Philadelphia says ithasalislrf 10 cities, including Dayton, “study, ing or planning or requesting fund ing for new light rail vehicles.” They are Los Angeles, San Diego, New Orleans, Cincinnati. Baltimore, Portland, Ore.; Rock ter, N.Y.; Austin, Texas., and Kan sas City, Mo. New Orleans, whose once- splendid web of streetcar lines ia eluded the streetcar named Desire but now is limited to theloneSt Charles on a 13-mile route, is hint, ing about expansion to BoeingVer- tol. GLACIERS ARE HUGE RIVERS OF ICE J A GLACIER WILL FREQUENTLY move foruaw ONE FOOT WHILE RETREATING THREE FEET... 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