Old Orchard Beach High School - Oceana Yearbook (Old Orchard Beach, ME)

Page 32 text:

0 c satin! P HISTORY OF PARCEL POST SYSTEM During a session of Continental Congress in 1789, Parcel Post was born. This body of Legislature gave authority to the Postmaster-Genera11'to fix such rates per pound weight as he thought would make the people of .the United States use the mails to send their packages. At this time there were only twenty-five oostoffices in arerica, less than one-hundred people employed in these firms, and receipts of less than 835,000 for a year. One can see that under these conditions the Parcel Post System did not become a flourishing institution. To be sure, the sending of packages through the mails did not cease. During the presidency of Abraham Lincoln merchandise allowed to be sent at this time was garden seeds, bulbs, slips and cuttings. The real inauguration of Parcel Post came in 1912. Congress passed a bill setting this system up as a l department of the United States Post Office Department. This became a law in l9l5, .During the ensuing twenty-five years Parcel Post has risen to second place in prominence of revenues of the United States Post Office Department and more pieces of Parcel Post are handled than the total mail of some classes of foreign countries, Two divisions in Parcel Post have been made, those ' being C.O.D. and Insurance of packages. -

Page 31 text:

3 'OCQJ-N.N'X. W 'S n ' 'fx ff Q f- V L 'X if Q , 1 'U ,'f I f If E , fl' P 4 ff F N X, W X Z XP f , j 4 ff f V2 ff g la .1.,. - 'gif - t ' L ' will l, X' y i If S353 , 1,4 i 3 ,Nr Q 1 W ,, I RNA! NM I 'pf 'N' I I f r V 1 h ' 4 IWMML i 1 l. . J A Jr-- ' ,J Ag .f ......, , Nga'-me 115355

Page 33 text:

OCBANA At the oresent time Parcel Post is celebrating its tnenty-fifth anniversary and has grown to such extent that a nackage may be sent from any point in the United States to any other point inclusive of the Dossessions of the United States. Perhaps the time that the oublic becomes most conscious of Parcel Post is at Christmas time when this decartment is flooded by thousands and thousands of pack- ages sent tw oeople who trust this institution explicitly in sending their packages safely and swiftly and econ- omically. It certainly must be with nride that the Parcel Post can say, WFrom anywhere to everywhere.n --Virgil Wood V40 'FIRST PRIZE IGOING THROUGH PARCEL POST Just recently I sent a small package to Boston by Parcel P05114 I aidnw think much about if until I went to school the following Konday and found that the Parcel Post Service was celebrating its Twenty-Fifth Anniversary and that there were to be two prizes offered for the best essay written on any phase of this service, I thought for a while, in fact quite a while, and then I said to myself, nJohn,W I said, UWhy don't you find out about the trip that a package takes when it goes from Old Orchard to Boston? WWell, I did because that very night I went and found Ed Winston and he told me