heavily involved in
debt. They are said to be insolvent. Now, it is but just that such
property as they have should be divided in some equitable way among
the creditors. A bankrupt law secures such a division, and the
debtor is, at the same time, freed from all legal obligation to pay
the debts which cannot be met in this way. The first law of
Congress on this subject was passed in 1802, and repealed in 1803.
Since that time there have been three other bankrupt laws, but the
total time during which they have been in force amounts only to
some twenty years. The last law, that of 1898, is still in
operation.[29]

[Footnote 29: See "Government in State and Nation," p. 193, for a
further discussion of bankrupt laws--especially that of 1898.]

Some States have also passed insolvency laws. However, these must not in
any way conflict with the provisions of the National bankrupt laws.

II. THE POSTAL SYSTEM.

Organization of the Post-office Department.--We can appreciate
somewhat the advancement made in the postal service rendered by the
government when we read that an Act of Congress in 1782 directed that
mail should be carried "at least once in each week from one office to
another." Our well-organized postal system, declared recently by the
Postmaster-General to be the "greatest business concern" in the
world,[30] has been evolved through laws made in carrying out the
provision of the Constitution that _Congress shall have power to
establish post-offices and post-roads._

[Footnote 30: The total receipts of the Post-office Department for 1910
were $224,128,657.]

As is well known, the Postmaster-General, a member of the President's
Cabinet, is at the head of this department of government. One of the
chief burdens of the Post-office Department was formerly the
appointment of the so-called fourth-class postmasters, intrusted to the
Fourth Assistant Postmaster-General. Executive orders of Presidents
Roosevelt and Taft placed 50,000, or about five-sevenths, of these
postmasters in the _classified_ service. An order of President Wilson,
in 1913, applied the _merit_ system to these offices, by which these
postmasters were compelled to demonstrate their fitness for these
appointments. This order included all fourth-class postmasters except
those paying less than $180 a year. The other three classes, in which
are included those postmasters whose salaries are not less than $