The war with Spain laid new and exceptional labors on the Post-Office
Department. The mustering of the military and naval forces of the United
States required special mail arrangements for every camp and every
campaign. The communication between home and camp was naturally eager
and expectant. In some of the larger places of rendezvous as many as
50,000 letters a day required handling. This necessity was met by the
prompt detail and dispatch of experienced men from the established force
and by directing all the instrumentalities of the railway mail and
post-office service, so far as necessary, to this new need. Congress
passed an act empowering the Postmaster-General to establish offices or
branches at every military camp or station, and under this authority the
postal machinery was speedily put into effective operation.

Under the same authority, when our forces moved upon Cuba, Puerto
Rico, and the Philippines they were attended and followed by the postal
service. Though the act of Congress authorized the appointment of
postmasters where necessary, it was early determined that the public
interests would best be subserved, not by new designations, but by the
detail of experienced men familiar with every branch of the service,
and this policy was steadily followed. When the territory which was the
theater of conflict came into our possession, it became necessary to
reestablish mail facilities for the resident population as well as to
provide them for our forces of occupation, and the former requirement
was met through the extension and application of the latter obligation.
I gave the requisite authority, and the same general principle was
applied to this as to other branches of civil administration under
military occupation. The details are more particularly given in the
report of the Postmaster-General, and, while the work is only just
begun, it is pleasing to be able to say that the service in the
territory which has come under our control is already materially