Office Department. The mail service was widely extended over the Northwest and Southwest; the opening of the railroads to the Pacific coast made it possible to abandon the old mail stage coach; the Atlantic mail steamship service was improved; the Pacific mail steamship service was begun; and the railway postal system was greatly extended. In 1873 the franking privilege was abolished, but later it was conferred upon officers of the Government and members of Congress for official correspondence. Letter postage was reduced to two cents in 1883, and postal cards were authorized in 1872. During this period (1865-1912) there was a gradual extension of the mail service to include the carriage of printed matter and merchandise, and in 1912 a parcels post system was established, to take effect on January 1, 1913, which by an elaborate "zone plan " of graduated payments, will greatly reduce the cost of transportation of merchandise in packages. The free delivery service was constantly extended and in 1896 the experiment of free rural delivery was inaugurated. A postal savings bank system was advocated by Postmaster-General Creswell in 1869, but this was not established until August of 1910, when banks. were opened in New York, Chicago and Boston. On January 3, 1911, one bank was opened in a single designated place in each of the 48 States and Territories, with a promise that the system should be extended as rap

VOL. X-31

469

idly as the necessary funds were appropriated by Congress. In the Philippine Islands, however, postal savings banks were started in 1906 and 1907, where within two years 251 banks had 8,782 accounts and $724,479 deposits. In 1872 there were 31,863 post-offices in the country; in 1882, 46,231; in 1892, 67,119; in 1902, 75,924; and in 1910, 59,580. In the corresponding years the receipts of the department were $21,915,426, $41,876,410, $70,930,475, $121,848,047, and $224,128,657; while the expenditures were $26,658,192, $40,482,021, $76,980,846, $124,785,697, and $229,977,224. From William Dennison in 1865 to Frank H. Hitchcock in 1912, there have been 24 Postmaster-Generals.

The broad scope of the Department of the Interior in the opening years of the Twentieth century has made it one of the most active, most influential, and most important departments of the Government. Prior to 1878 it had charge of public domain, patents, pensions, Indian affairs, education and the census. In 1911 it retained all those bureaus, except the census, and also had supervision of the geological survey, the distribution of public documents, subsidized railroads, the Territories of the United States, the National parks and reservations, some of the public institutions of the District of Columbia, and other smaller affairs. Since John P. Usher and James Harlan in 1865 to Walter L. Fisher in 1911, the Secretaries of the Interior have been 17 in number,

among whom Carl Schurz (18771881), Ethan A. Hitchcock (18991907), and James R. Garfield (19071909) were particularly notable.

The ninth and latest executive department is that of Commerce and Labor, which was established in 1903. It took over several bureaus from other departments, notably the Bureau of Statistics (in the Treasury since 1820); the Light-House Board (in the Treasury since 1852); the Coast and Geodetic Survey; the Bureau of Immigration (established in 1891); the Department of Labor (established in 1884); the Bureau of Corporations; the Bureau of Navigation; the Steamboat Inspection Service; the Bureau of Standards; and the Census Office from the Interior Department; the Fish Commission; the Bureau of Foreign Commerce of the State Department, and a Bureau of Manufactures. There have been four Secretaries of this Department, George B. Cortelyou, Vincent H. Metcalf, Oscar S. Straus, and Charles Nagel.

From the organization of the Federal government until 1886 no provision existed for succession to the Presidency in case of the death, resig

nation, or disability of both the President and Vice-President. The possibility of such a contingency had been seen at various times, notably at the death of Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley. In the first session of the Forty-ninth Congress an act was passed providing that, in such an event, the Secretary of State should act as President until the disability should be removed or the vacancy filled by election, and that the order of succession after the Secretary of State should be the Secretary of War, the Attorney-General, the PostmasterGeneral, the Secretary of the Navy and the Secretary of the Interior.*

*

George N. Lamphere, The United States Government: Its Organization and Practical Workings (Philadelphia, 1880); L. D. Ingersoll, A History of the War Department of the United States (Washington, 1880); Charles Lanman, Biographical Annals of the Civil Government of the United States During Its First Century (Washington, 1876); D. D. Leech, The Post Office Department of the United States of America (Washington, 1879); B. P. Poore, The Political Register and Congressional Directory, 1776–1878 (Boston, 1878); The American Journal of International Law, vols. i.-v. (New York, 1903-09); The Department of State of the United States (Washington, 1893); annual reports of the sev eral departments; Marshal Cushing, The Story of Our Post Office (Boston, 1893).