The Winton M. Blount Postal History Symposia - Smithsonian ...

n u m b e r 5 5 • 5 3support for that program faded away and use of those servicesfell off markedly. Blakslee worked hard to salvagethe initiative, but it increasingly became a lost cause. Congressultimately eliminated the program in 1920, and subsequentattempts to bring it back later that decade and thenext went nowhere. 21The reasons for the initiative’s rapid demise are diverseand deep- seated. One likely cause is that the high- pitchwartime fervor bolstering the initiative quickly evaporatedonce the guns in Europe fell silent. Many farmers, for example,had embraced the program out of economic necessityand also because their president exhorted them tohelp save the world; with the exigencies of war now past,those same farmers and their prospective consumers werefar less inclined to tolerate any inconveniences that camewith the motor truck service. 22There was also competition from the private sectorthat blossomed more fully in the war’s aftermath. A numberof entities moving into the delivery business offeredto get the job done more cheaply. A case in point was theMaryland- based Farmers’ Cooperative Association HarfordCounty, which operated a lucrative franchise transportingfarm goods to Baltimore. Then there were theself- service grocery markets, which first sprang up at thistime and gave many consumers yet more food- shoppingalternatives. 23Another factor was unquestionably the tense relationsbetween the Post Office Department and Congress.It would be an understatement to say that Blakslee neverquite endeared himself with the lawmakers on CapitolHill. He could come across as hostile, self- righteous, andeven naïve. Back in 1916, several senators demandedBlakslee’s ouster after he charged members of the SenatePost Office Committee with inordinately favoring the railroadswhen it came to rural mail service. That uproar dieddown, and Blakslee kept his job, only after the committeechairman accepted his letter of apology. 24 Despite thatclose call, Blakslee continued his often confrontational approachwith Congress. He did not do himself or the motortruck routes any favors during the war, for instance, whenhe once characterized a proposed congressional appropriationfor that service as “ridiculously small.” 25 By 1920,with the war over and the Wilson Administration’s daysnumbered, Congress had even less reason than before toindulge Blakslee and keep his farm- to- table cause alive.Individually, any of these factors would have beenenough to seriously hobble the farm- to- table postal deliveryprogram in the wake of the armistice; collectively,they sealed that initiative’s fate. The initiative is worthremembering, though. First of all, it embodied both thespirit and the substance of food conservation efforts duringWorld War I. It also underscored how the Post OfficeDepartment’s commitment to mobilization efforts wentwell beyond just plastering “Food Will Win the War” announcementsin post offices. 26The initiative can also be seen in an even larger senseas a case study of postal operations in periods of nationalurgency, as well as a cautionary tale about how a wartimeenterprise does not always survive the peace that follows.In addition, the initiative exemplifies how any major war’simpact can last long after its battles have ceased. A keyresult of World War I was the dynamic growth of Americanhighways and surface transportation in the decadesever since. When the United States entered that conflict,the railroads constituted the preeminent form of transportation.The trains were soon overwhelmed, however, bythe demands of moving vital supplies throughout a nationgetting mobilized for war. Consequently, more and moretrucks were produced and deployed to fill that logisticalvacuum and guarantee that crucial shipments reachedtheir destinations.Trucks came into their own during World War I, andtheir increased numbers, coupled with the equally dramaticgrowth in automobiles, made it imperative thathighways be better able to accommodate heavier traffic.The war therefore laid the groundwork for major longrangeprojects that would create the stronger, wider, andsmoother roads we still use today. The Post Office Department,through such endeavors as the wartime farmto-table program, very much reflected this transportationtrend. Interestingly, it did so under a postmaster generalusually deemed to be among the worst in American history.Burleson’s tenure was without a doubt stormy, forreasons ranging from the harsh treatment of the rank- andfileemployees to his heavy- handed enforcement of the EspionageAct. 27One of the more progressive postal achievements duringthis time, however, was arguably that expanded use ofmotorized transportation. That chapter of postal historyis critical to understanding how the agency went frompossessing a handful of horseless carriages to becomingcustodian of the world’s largest vehicular fleet. 28 Blakslee,for all of his own professional and personal shortcomings,was the catalyst in that transformation. He readilygrasped the possibilities of motorized vehicles—especiallythose trucks he pressed into service for the farm- to- tableprogram—and the highways upon which they traveled. “Imay be considered visionary and a dreamer when I assertthat the use of the highways is the only present, practicablesolution of inadequate or inefficient transportation,”