1863-1888

The Modern Era Begins

The inauguration of free city delivery in 1863 marks thereal beginning of the history of the modern letter carrierand it indirectly marks the beginning of the history ofthe NALC.

Free city delivery was a product of the Civil War: One bitter win-ter day in Cleveland, Ohio, a long line of citizens was anxiouslywaiting at the post office to see if there were any letters from hus-bands, relatives or friends fighting in the war. The assistant post-master and window clerk, J. W. Briggs, was appalled at this sight.He felt the government should accommodate its citizens betterthan he could on that cold day in Cleveland. So Briggs canvassedneighborhood groceries to find out if mail could be brought tothese stores, sorted by post office personnel and then delivered tothe front doorsteps of patrons. Once he got the storekeepers’approval, Briggs marked out the first routes and delivered the mailhimself. The Cleveland experiment was an instantaneous success,and shortly thereafter Congress passed legislation establishing freecity delivery in every city with more than 50,000 people.A moment to be remembered: On July 1, 1863—the day the

savage battle of Gettysburg began—449 modern letter carriersbegan to walk the streets of 49 cities. One hundred and thirty-seven letter carriers delivered mail to the doors of patrons in NewYork City; three letter carriers delivered mail in Louisville,Kentucky; one letter carrier walked his route for the first time inNashua, New Hampshire. The history of the modern letter carrierhad begun.

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The Modern Era Begins Almost immediately, local associationsof letter carriers began to spring up incities across the country. A New York lettercarrier association was founded in 1863and a Chicago association in 1870.Originally organized as mutual benefitsocieties and social clubs, these early let-ter carrier associations quickly expandedtheir roles. They began to seek improve-ments in working conditions by enlistingthe aid of local politicians. For those prob-lems that could not be resolved locally, letter carrier associations would elect orappoint delegates and send them toWashington, DC to lobby their senatorsand representatives.Although these early efforts to effect

change were isolated and localized, theydemonstrated letter carriers’ determina-tion to improve their working conditions.But carriers were bucking a spoils systemthat was so deeply ingrained in the service that real change was impossible.Furthermore, as the history of workingpeople reveals, isolated and local effortsrarely move mountains. A national organi-zation representing all letter carriers wasneeded, but the spoils system stood in the way.

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Keep At It

When your load is getting heavy

And the miles are “cussed” long,

When your patrons start a-crabbing

And the world is going wrong.

Just pucker up your whistle

In some half-forgotten song,

And keep at it!

When the catalogs are piling up

And loads of circulars come in,

When you’re plowing through

the snowdrifts—

Maybe wet through to the skin—

Just try and pull your mouth

Into the semblance of a grin,

And keep at it!

If you’re tired and discouraged

And you think, “I’ll jack it up—

This is not the job for me:

I have drained life’s bitter cup.”

Say! Some other jobs are harder

Than the postman’s—don’t give up!

And keep at it!

“Lucy”

Derry, New Hampshire

1863-1888

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An ObstacleRemoved

A serious movement to reformthe spoils system did notdevelop until after the Civil

War. It gathered strength during the1870s and ironically benefitted fromthe shooting of President JamesGarfield on July 2, 1881, by what history books have long described as a “disappointed office seeker”—CharlesJ. Guiteau. Immediately, reformersargued that Garfield was a victim of thespoils system: If there had been a prop-er civil service system, there might nothave been a “disappointed office seek-er” turned assassin. Garfield’s death onSeptember 19 elicited an intenseresponse from the public, which prodded the Congress into action.

This country’s first civil service law,known as the Pendleton Act, waspassed by Congress in 1883, two yearsafter Garfield’s death. Among otherprovisions, it specifically required letter carriers and post office clerks inevery post office with 50 or moreemployees to take competitive examsto qualify for their jobs. It also includ-ed language which made their posi-tions permanent. Although the lawexcluded all postmasters and employ-ees in the smaller post offices, approx-imately half the postal workforce wascovered. So for the first time sinceAndrew Jackson’s administration, letter carriers were hired because theywere qualified for their jobs—notbecause they were members of a cer-tain political party. Furthermore, thesesame carriers could not legally be fired

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First lettercarriers of theHarrisburg,PennsylvaniaPost Office,1879.

The Postal Record, NALC’s officialmonthly journal, is slightly olderthan the union itself. First

published in 1887 as a privateenterprise by Alvin G. Brown ofMassachusetts, the Record wasdevoted chiefly to the concerns ofletter carriers, but also carried mate-rial of interest to all postal workers.

John F. Victory, a letter carrier electedNALC national secretary at the 1890 con-vention, purchased The Postal Record fromBrown in 1891. A talented writer, Victory edited the magazineand built up its subscribership during his term of office. TheNALC bought The Postal Record from Victory on December 1,1893, acting on a resolution of the Kansas City, Missouri con-vention that year.

“Raffles” was the namegiven by irreverent NALCmembers to the drawing ofthe rakish-looking postman(above right) which appearedon every cover of The Postal

Record for 31 years. Then, inAugust 1938, Editor MichaelT. Finnan came out with anew cover. It was still thesame blue-gray color but“Raffles” was replaced by adrawing of a vigorous-lookingmodern carrier. “Son ofRaffles” only lasted 41 con-secutive issues, replaced byphotographs starting in January 1942.

This “modernization” of The Postal

Record cover occurred only monthsbefore the union, in keeping with aresolution passed by the Los AngelesConvention of 1941, began mailingthe magazine to every member’s resi-dence instead of delivering it in “clubbundles” to union halls and post officeworkrooms for members to retrieve.Today, copies of the magazine alsoland on the desks of important deci-sion-makers in Washington, D.C. andthroughout the international labormovement. In a concession to the realities of the internetage, selected features and columns are also posted on theunion’s website.

for political reasons. As a result of thesereforms, the high turnover among lettercarriers began to diminish, and a perma-nent core of carriers with a stake in theservice developed.The passage of the Pendleton Act had

another effect on letter carriers—lessobvious, but just as important. The rela-tionship between Congress and letter carriers began to change. If letter carrierscould no longer be counted on to repre-sent the political interests of senators andrepresentatives at home, why should theCongress do anything for them? Congress’interest in the welfare of letter carriersquickly faded, and carriers found it neces-sary to unite to protect their interests.And now that letter carriers were nolonger dependent upon local and nationalpoliticians for their jobs, their loyaltiesshifted from the party and postmaster toeach other. The beginning of the end ofthe spoils system fostered a community ofinterests among letter carriers which hadnever existed before. The stage was set fororganization.

Litmus Testfor the Future

A lmost immediately after thePendleton Act went into effect in1883, letter carriers in the New

York area banded together to obtain anannual vacation law.Officially, letter carriers were not

allowed vacations. They were supposed towork 365 days per year, includingSundays. The postmaster in New York City,however, permitted his carriers to take tendays of vacation per year, providing theirfellow workers agreed to cover the routesof those on vacation. At the same time,federal employees in Washington, DC,including those working in the headquar-ters of the Post Office Department, wereallowed 30 vacation days per year, a privi-lege not extended to the employees of theWashington, DC post office.

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1863-1888

John F. Victory

The Postal Record

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Arithmetic

Question 1: A carrier makes 4 trips a day,carrying 64 letters and 32 papers each trip.The letters average in weight ¼ oz. eachand the papers 2 oz. each. How manypounds of mail does he deliver in a day?(16 oz. to the pound.)

Question 2: In an office employing 35 carri-ers, each carrier loses 20 minutes a day inidle talk. Suppose the average salary ofeach to be $2.50 for ten hours work, what isthe cost to the Government of the lost timeeach day, and what will it amount to in ayear of 313 working days?

Local Delivery

Question 1: Name the principal railroads(not exceeding five) which pass through orterminate in this city, and give the location(the street or streets on which situated) ofthe principal depot or ticket office of each.

Question 2: Name four streets which passnearest to the building in which this exami-nation is held, and mention one public build-ing or prominent business house on each.

Question 3: Name the principal hotels inthis city (not exceeding five) and the loca-tion (street or streets on which situated) of each.

Carrier Exam, late 1800sSample Questions from the Qualifying Examination for Letter Carriers

Frustrated with the discrepancy intreatment and newly blessed with theprotections the Pendleton Act had pro-vided them, Washington letter carrierspetitioned the Department for thesame leave privileges as otherfederal workers in the city.Petitioning the

Department wasunprecedented in thehistory of the service,and it did not reactfavorably to thisaggressive behavior.The Department’slaw officer issued astatement declaringthat no law existedunder which letter car-riers could be allowedany vacation days what -soever. The postmaster at theNew York Post Office wassoon ordered to cease giving carriersannual leave.The New York City letter

carriers did not passively accept this Departmental dictate, but ratherdecided to agitate for an annual vaca-

tion law. Together with letter carriersfrom several other cities, theyapproached Congressman Samuel“Sunset” Cox, and in 1884, after amonumental effort, Cox was able topersuade Congress to pass legislation

giving all letter carriers—not justthose in New York City orWashington —a 15-day vaca-tion, with pay, every year. Asurprising victory, it gaveletter carriers first-handexperience in the advan-tages of organized agita-tion. Letter carriersthroughout the nationwere vividly remindedthat in unity there is,indeed, strength.A word about “Sunset”

Cox. He was the one greatexception to congressional apa-thy, working long and hard to

improve the conditions of letter carri-ers. A Democrat, a former congress-man from Ohio, and a two-term con-gressman from New York, he took upthe cause of the letter carrier withinthe halls of Congress. It was Cox who

Samuel S. Cox

was responsible for persuading Congress in1879 to establish a regular pay scale for lettercarriers. Up until this time, letter carrier paywas set by each postmaster, and glaringinequalities extended from city to city. The1879 law created two grades of carriers inthe larger post offices, with salaries fixed at$800 and $1,000 a year. In the smaller postoffices, where letter carriers’ jobs were stillsubject to the spoils system, Congress limit-ed carriers’ wages to $850 per year, regard-less of years of service.

Carriers and the 8-Hour Day

T he struggle for an eight-hour day is alandmark in letter carrier history. Itwas also an intense nationwide move-

ment, one involving an enormous number ofworkers in addition to letter carriers.The movement began soon after the

Civil War. The nation was industrializing, the economy was expanding and labor wasbeginning to realize its potential strength.The Depression of 1873-79 interrupted thecampaign, but by the early 1880s, the move-

ment for an eight-hour day began to revive.Letter carriers’ involvement began as

early as 1868 when Congress passed aneight-hour law for federal “laborers, work-men and mechanics.” The Post OfficeDepartment, arguing that its employees didnot fit the description, refused to comply.Frustrated in their attempts to force theDepartment to reverse itself, angry lettercarriers in a number of large cities—NewYork, Chicago, Omaha, Buffalo, Brooklyn—turned for help in the 1880s to the NobleOrder of the Knights of Labor, the leadinglabor organization of the time. Letter carri-ers formed local Knights of Labor assem-blies and many became leaders within theorganization.By the mid-1880s, the Knights were at

the peak of their power. By 1886, more than 700,000 workers had joined this newly militant organization. The entire nationwas up in arms over the eight-hour day.Workers were striking and protesting.Employers were fighting back with avengeance, intent upon smashing both the Knights and the movement.Like private employers, postal manage-

ment also vigorously opposed the move-

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ment. And when an eight-hour bill for letter carriers, drafted by the Knights ofLabor, was introduced in Congress in1886, the Department harassed any andall active supporters. Some carriers who

led the campaign were fired forminor infractions of work rules.Others were either transferred toless desirable routes, assignedroutes far from their homes, givenextra duties or ordered to take vaca-tions with no advance warning. In New York City, 150 letter carrierswere suspended when the post -master discovered they were mem-bers of the Knights. They were laterreinstated, but only after thenational office of the Knights ofLabor interceded on their behalf.Confronted with the aggressive

opposition of the business commu-nity, the movement for an eight-hour daylost steam and finally dissipated. However,amidst the ruins of this major defeat forlabor, one group of workers—the nation’sletter carriers—used the influence of theirlocal associations to achieve success. Withthe help of their congressional champion,

“Sunset” Cox, supported by the lobbyingof local letter carrier associations, particu-larly those in New York and Philadelphia,Congress overrode the Department’sstrong opposition and passed the Knights’eight-hour bill for carriers in 1888. Thisvictory was jubilantly celebrated on July 4of that year by a massive parade of lettercarriers from Connecticut, Massachusetts,Maryland, New Jersey, New York,Pennsylvania and Washington, DCthrough the streets of New York City.For letter carriers, who at that time

were working at least 10 to 12 hours a day,seven days a week, the enactment of theeight-hour bill was an impressive and longoverdue victory. But perhaps more impor-tant than the passage of the law were theforces released by the intense ferment ofthe eight-hour day movement itself. Nowletter carriers began to see themselves—and each other—differently. “Eight hoursof work per day” was the issue aroundwhich many letter carriers organizedthemselves into a body of workers—workers fighting for a common goal.Letter carriers were now ready to organizea union.

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“Eight hours ofwork per day”was the issuearound whichmany carriersorganized into abody of workersfighting for acommon goal.