Home Cultural Studies Five. The Triumph of the Moral Economy: Finance, Parcels, and the Labor Dilemma in the Post Office, 1908–24
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Five. The Triumph of the Moral Economy: Finance, Parcels, and the Labor Dilemma in the Post Office, 1908–24

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The Forging of Bureaucratic Autonomy
This chapter is in the book The Forging of Bureaucratic Autonomy
FiveThe Triumph of the Moral Economy: Finance, Parcels, and the Labor Dilemma in the Post Office, 1908–24Why should we have a system of postal savings?Primarily, because as a nation we need to cultivatethe quality of thrift. Thrift is an old-fashioned,homely virtue not so highly regarded, perhaps, asby our fathers.... Thrift is the exercise of soundjudgment, not the deprivation of necessary anduseful things for the sake of a useless bank ac-count. Thrift implies the strengthening of charac-ter, the sacrifice of smaller pleasures for larger.. . . The postal savings bank is absolutely safe,it provides for the smallest sums, it involves noadvance decisions about purchases, it pays a mod-erate rate of interest, and it is at hand wherever apostage stamp can be bought. Moreover, even ifall the existing agencies for the promotion of thriftwere above criticism, they are not sufficient.—“Postal Savings,” The SurveyIn the first two decades of the twentieth century, the United States Post Of-fice Department became an integral participant—perhaps the central player—in the Progressive moral reform movement.1No other agency of governmentwas as involved in regulating and suppressing pornography and other erotic lit-erature, “green-goods” schemes and consumer fraud, lotteries and gambling,the provision of abortion and contraception, and the cultural subversion of Vic-torian morality, including the free-love tracts of Margaret Sanger and the playsof George Bernard Shaw. Indeed, no private or ecclesiastical contributor tomoral reform was engaged in such a wide swath of activity, and none had at-tacked moral reform’s detractors with such teeth. Few, if any, organizations laymore squarely at the movement’s center, with ongoing affiliations to its mostpowerful members—the vice-suppression societies, the Women’s ChristianTemperance Union, the Anti-Saloon League, the American Medical Associa-
© 2020 Princeton University Press, Princeton

FiveThe Triumph of the Moral Economy: Finance, Parcels, and the Labor Dilemma in the Post Office, 1908–24Why should we have a system of postal savings?Primarily, because as a nation we need to cultivatethe quality of thrift. Thrift is an old-fashioned,homely virtue not so highly regarded, perhaps, asby our fathers.... Thrift is the exercise of soundjudgment, not the deprivation of necessary anduseful things for the sake of a useless bank ac-count. Thrift implies the strengthening of charac-ter, the sacrifice of smaller pleasures for larger.. . . The postal savings bank is absolutely safe,it provides for the smallest sums, it involves noadvance decisions about purchases, it pays a mod-erate rate of interest, and it is at hand wherever apostage stamp can be bought. Moreover, even ifall the existing agencies for the promotion of thriftwere above criticism, they are not sufficient.—“Postal Savings,” The SurveyIn the first two decades of the twentieth century, the United States Post Of-fice Department became an integral participant—perhaps the central player—in the Progressive moral reform movement.1No other agency of governmentwas as involved in regulating and suppressing pornography and other erotic lit-erature, “green-goods” schemes and consumer fraud, lotteries and gambling,the provision of abortion and contraception, and the cultural subversion of Vic-torian morality, including the free-love tracts of Margaret Sanger and the playsof George Bernard Shaw. Indeed, no private or ecclesiastical contributor tomoral reform was engaged in such a wide swath of activity, and none had at-tacked moral reform’s detractors with such teeth. Few, if any, organizations laymore squarely at the movement’s center, with ongoing affiliations to its mostpowerful members—the vice-suppression societies, the Women’s ChristianTemperance Union, the Anti-Saloon League, the American Medical Associa-
© 2020 Princeton University Press, Princeton

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents vii
  3. List of Illustrations ix
  4. List of Tables xi
  5. Acknowledgments xiii
  6. Abbreviations xv
  7. Introduction 1
  8. One. Entrepreneurship, Networked Legitimacy, and Autonomy 14
  9. Two. The Clerical State: Obstacles to Bureaucratic Autonomy in Nineteenth-Century America 37
  10. Three. The Railway Mail, Comstockery, and the Waning of the Old Postal Regime, 1862–94 65
  11. Four. Organizational Renewal and Policy Innovation in the National Postal System, 1890–1910 94
  12. Five. The Triumph of the Moral Economy: Finance, Parcels, and the Labor Dilemma in the Post Office, 1908–24 144
  13. Six. Science in the Service of Seeds: The USDA, 1862–1900 179
  14. Seven. From Seeds to Science: The USDA as University, 1897–1917 212
  15. Eight. Multiple Networks and the Autonomy of Bureaus: Departures in Food, Pharmaceutical, and Forestry Policy, 1897–1913 255
  16. Nine. Brokerage and Bureaucratic Policymaking: The Cementing of Autonomy at the USDA, 1914–28 290
  17. Ten. Structure, Reputation, and the Bureaucratic Failure of Reclamation Policy, 1902–14 326
  18. Conclusion: The Politics of Bureaucratic Autonomy 353
  19. Notes 369
  20. Archival Sources 459
  21. Index 465
  22. PRINCETON STUDIES IN AMERICAN POLITICS 481
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https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691214078-010

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents vii
  3. List of Illustrations ix
  4. List of Tables xi
  5. Acknowledgments xiii
  6. Abbreviations xv
  7. Introduction 1
  8. One. Entrepreneurship, Networked Legitimacy, and Autonomy 14
  9. Two. The Clerical State: Obstacles to Bureaucratic Autonomy in Nineteenth-Century America 37
  10. Three. The Railway Mail, Comstockery, and the Waning of the Old Postal Regime, 1862–94 65
  11. Four. Organizational Renewal and Policy Innovation in the National Postal System, 1890–1910 94
  12. Five. The Triumph of the Moral Economy: Finance, Parcels, and the Labor Dilemma in the Post Office, 1908–24 144
  13. Six. Science in the Service of Seeds: The USDA, 1862–1900 179
  14. Seven. From Seeds to Science: The USDA as University, 1897–1917 212
  15. Eight. Multiple Networks and the Autonomy of Bureaus: Departures in Food, Pharmaceutical, and Forestry Policy, 1897–1913 255
  16. Nine. Brokerage and Bureaucratic Policymaking: The Cementing of Autonomy at the USDA, 1914–28 290
  17. Ten. Structure, Reputation, and the Bureaucratic Failure of Reclamation Policy, 1902–14 326
  18. Conclusion: The Politics of Bureaucratic Autonomy 353
  19. Notes 369
  20. Archival Sources 459
  21. Index 465
  22. PRINCETON STUDIES IN AMERICAN POLITICS 481
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