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.
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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.
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Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words and are
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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:
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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.
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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
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it
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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
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can take the uncertainty out of your
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proper coordination of life insurance, fixed and variable
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suntan
THE GREATEST
SANDWICH
The greatest sandwiches in the Southwest are served from
11:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. each day Monday through Friday on
floor 11M, Conference Tower. The greatness of these sand
wiches is no accident. There are several types of meats and
you can select your choice and mix or match any three pieces
for your sandwich on the bread of your choice.
Two of the several types of bread are sour dough and baked
fresh daily in our Duncan bakery. Further, these breads are
prepared without shortening for the diet conscious guest. 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...
WHICH REMINDS ME
A LOT OF MVSELFI
Come To Diamond Country
Sankey Park Diamond Salon
21 3 s. MAIN
DOWNTOWN BRYAN
Engagement Rings
Wedding Rings
riY?”" ’ttt ‘^TTmiTiTTirii.r Timm