The Business of the Post Office
It is too often forgotten that State-owned or State-contro enterprises in time of war are to a great extent improvisations. suffer from the defects of schemes hastily arranged and pushed ward under conditions of exceptional strain. The muddle that oft arises under such conditions is not necessarily due to State mana ment, but should rather be taken as a warning against sudd drastic changes in the whole system of conducting industry. record of the Post Office is a salutary reminder of what may done by the State when a business is allowed to evolve gradu and build up its own methods and traditions. It will be gene agreed that the Post Office has stood up to the strain of war, efficiently accommodated itself to difficult times (when commit' tions were bombed and population dispersed) and exPan services (including a prodigious enlargement of the machinery national savings). During the past year its cash transactions amount to about £5,000,000 every week-day. The number of ernplo are 290,000, of whom rro,000 are women, more than half of ti recruited to fill temporary vacancies caused by the enlistment men in the Forces. The transmission of letters and parcels du most of the war period has not been slowed down senou and is amazingly regular and reliable. Here we see State mad in a sphere specially suited to it, at its best—with a maximum efficiency and a minimum of red tape.
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