The Mailroom Mountain: A Postal Crisis in 1892
Seattle residents and postmasters struggle to keep up with the city's explosive growth as federal officials ignore pleas for a larger workforce.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Five months ago, the Seattle postmaster found it impossible to keep up the work of his office with the allowance provided him by the postal authorities. The citizens complained first to the postmaster, then to the inspector, and finally to the central authority in Washington. After enduring the annoyance and loss of a large unserved mail, it became unbearable. A sum of money was raised by subscription, and three extra clerks were employed for five months' service, it being hoped that during that period the postal authorities would come to understand the situation and provide relief.
But the time has passed and there is no relief. On the 1st instant, the three clerks paid by the merchants were laid off, and the whole work of the office thrown upon the force provided by the department. It is impossible for this small force to do the work. They have been working night and day, but the unsorted heap before them has grown to a mountain. Last night, they were two days behind, and there is no hope of their catching up. The work is too great for five men to do. Here, indeed, is a situation shameful to the administration as an illustration of its want of intelligence and its incapacity to transact the business of the government. A city of thousands is allowed for many months to support its own mail service and is finally left without a service at all adequate. The facts have been put before the department with full detail by the postmaster, by the inspectors, and by responsible citizens, but still they will not be understood. The plain truth is that the officials of the department are so ignorant of affairs that they cannot understand how the business of a post office can double in a brief time as it has here.
“The work is too great for five men to do. Here, indeed, is a situation shameful to the administration as an illustration of its want of intelligence.”
The frustration of a rapidly growing city outpacing its federal infrastructure is a recurring theme in Seattle history. Just as 1892 Seattle residents were forced to crowdfund their own mail service, modern residents continue to navigate the friction between a boom-town economy and the slow, bureaucratic response of local and national governing bodies.
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