The post office and its story an interesting account of the activities of a great government department

Von Stephan was for twenty-five years the head of the German Postal Administration, and he attended more than one of the Congresses subsequent to that at Berne. At the Vienna Congress of 1891 he modestly resisted the idea that the Postal Union originated from his action. He said: “Ideas are not originated by any individual. They float in the atmosphere for a whole epoch, at first vaguely, then in a more distinct form, until they condense and precipitate themselves in taking body and life. The idea of unification is in harmony with the aspirations of our century: it prevails to-day in many of the domains of human activity: it constitutes the true motive power of human civilisation. As for our great machine of international exchange, it was, moreover, stimulated by this irrefutable fact, that the enormous masses which devolved upon it to handle, which increased from day to day, and extended from frontier to frontier, and to the furthest seas and latitudes, urgently demanded a simplification of the entire mechanism as the only means of making headway against its almost unlimited requirements and of maintaining indispensable rapidity and regularity. Such are the natural elements which were the true founders of the Universal Postal Union.” The Treaty of Berne has been described as the greatest manifestation of the spirit of solidarity in the history of the world, and the Conference of Berne has been spoken of as the first Parliament of Mankind. It is always a temptation to speak in exaggerated terms of great advances in humanity and civilisation. International Conferences had been held before in the history of mankind, notably those of the Catholic Church, but their tendency had been rather to stultify human thought, and they had done little or nothing to promote the peace of the world. But here at Berne had been called into existence a Postal Parliament, and in the different Congresses which have been held since at various capitals, debates and discussions have taken place between delegates from all the nations participating in the Union. The work these Congresses do is quietly and unostentatiously performed, but it is a real portion of that great movement in favour of peace and goodwill among nations which, in spite of great armies and huge navies, is leavening the life of Europe at the present day.