{{Short description|American politician (1863–1937)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=June 2019}} {{Infobox officeholder |name = Albert Burleson |image = Albert S. Burleson.jpg |caption = Burleson in 1914 |office = 45th United States Postmaster General |president = Woodrow Wilson |term_start = March 5, 1913 |term_end = March 4, 1921 |predecessor = Frank H. Hitchcock |successor = Will H. Hays |state1 = Texas |constituency1= {{ushr|TX|9|9th district}} (1899–1903)<br>{{ushr|TX|10|10th district}} (1903–1913) |term_start1 = March 4, 1899 |term_end1 = March 6, 1913 |predecessor1 = Joseph D. Sayers |successor1 = James P. Buchanan |birth_name = Albert Sidney Burleson |birth_date = {{birth date|1863|6|7}} |birth_place = San Marcos, Texas, C.S. |death_date = {{death date and age|1937|11|24|1863|6|7}} |death_place = San Marcos, Texas, U.S. |party = Democratic |education = Texas A&M University<br>Baylor University (BA)<br>University of Texas at Austin (LLB) }}
'''Albert Sidney Burleson''' (June 7, 1863 – November 24, 1937) was a progressive Democrat who served as United States Postmaster General and Representative in Congress. He was a strong supporter of William Jennings Bryan and Woodrow Wilson and so Wilson appointed him to the cabinet role heading the U.S. Post Office. He expanded parcel post, rural free delivery, and air mail service. After America entered World War I in 1917, he stopped the mail delivery of anti-war publications and clamped down on free speech, actions that have been heavily criticized ever since.
==Early life== Born in San Marcos, Texas, Burleson came from a wealthy Southern planter family. His father, Edward Burleson, Jr., was a Confederate officer. His grandfather, Edward Burleson, was a soldier and statesman in the Republic of Texas and the early State of Texas. In his early political career, Burleson represented Texas in the House of Representatives, where he was active in promoting the development of agriculture.<ref>Seymour V. Connor, 2020.</ref> According to his biographer Adrian Anderson, his 1898 platform showed:<blockquote>evidences of agrarian liberalism. He called for a reduction in the tariff, prison terms for violators of antitrust laws, restriction of immigration, limitations on the use of injunctions against labor unions, and a national amendment allowing the enactment of an income tax. He denounced national banks and repeated his plea for free coinage of silver.<ref>Adrian Anderson, "President Wilson's Politician: Albert Sidney Burleson of Texas." ''Southwestern Historical Quarterly'' 77.3 (1974): 339-354 at p. 341.</ref> </blockquote>
==Postmaster General== left|thumb|1920 Postmaster General Albert S. Burleson thumb|upright|Albert Sidney Burleson in the 1910s Burleson played a major role in securing the Texas delegation for Woodrow Wilson in 1912, and he became one of the President's most trusted advisors.<ref>Samuel Walker, ''Presidents and civil liberties from Wilson to Obama: a story of poor custodians'' (Cambridge University Press, 2014) p. 15</ref> In 1913, he was appointed Postmaster General. To his credit, he initiated the parcel post and air mail services, increasing mail service to rural areas.<ref name="Hochschild">Adam Hochschild, "The Censor". ''Mother Jones'' (sept-Oct 2022) 47#5: 55–59, 69. [https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/10/hochschild-woodrow-wilson-censor-journalism/ online]</ref> Samuel Walker states, "Burleson holds the dubious distinction of being the worst member of the entire Wilson administration on civil liberties."<ref>Walker, ''Presidents and civil liberties'' (2014) p. 15</ref> According to historian G. J. Meyer, Burleson "has been called the worst postmaster general in American history, but that is unfair; he introduced parcel post and airmail and improved rural service. It is fair to say, however, that he may have been the worst human being ever to serve as postmaster general".<ref name="Hochschild"/>
In 1913, Burleson began segregating the postal employees by race. Burleson also fired black postal workers in the South. He drew criticism from labor unions by forbidding postal employees to strike.<ref name="Anderson, 1974">Anderson, 1974.</ref>
[[File:1509 16th Street.JPG|thumb|left|upright|Burleson lived in this apartment/hotel on 16th Street NW while in Washington, D.C.]] thumb|upright|One of the first letters delivered by U.S. Airmail, written by Burleson In 1913, Burleson aroused a storm of protest, especially on the part of the large daily newspapers, by declaring that he would enforce the law requiring publications to print, among other things, a sworn statement of paid circulation, which had been held in abeyance by his predecessor until its constitutionality might be confirmed. The Supreme Court enjoined him from doing so.<ref name=eb>{{Cite EB1922|wstitle=Burleson, Albert Sidney}}</ref>
After the United States entered the World War in 1917, Burleson vigorously enforced the Espionage Act, ordering local postmasters to send to him any illegal or suspicious material that they found. The distribution by mail of major anti-war magazines, such as Emma Goldman's ''Mother Earth'' and Max Eastman's ''The Masses,'' was slowed drastically, and often, were never delivered. Burleson banned anti-war material from being delivered by Post Office personnel. It was impossible to draw an ideal line, and the result was a general alienation of the press.<ref name=eb/> From June 1918 to July 1919, the Post Office Department operated the nation's telephone and telegraph services,<ref>{{cite news |title=Reach Agreement On U.S. Wire Control. President Vail of American Tel. & Tel. Co. Announces Result of Conferences with Burleson. Bell System Head Says Stockholders Are Protected and Dividends Continue at Existing Rates. Pleased by Government's Attitude. Security Holders Protected. |date=October 7, 1918 |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1918/10/07/archives/reach-agreement-on-us-wire-control-president-vail-of-american-tel.html |access-date=August 10, 2008 }}</ref><ref>[http://www.cybertelecom.org/notes/telephone.htm Cybertelecom :: Telephone<!-- bot-generated title -->] at cybertelecom.org</ref> an arrangement Burleson had advocated at least as early as 1913.<ref>{{cite news |title=Federal Ownership Halts. But Lewis of Maryland Makes a Move to Keep Up the Fight. |date=December 21, 1913 |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1913/12/21/archives/federal-ownership-halts-but-lewis-of-maryland-makes-a-move-to-keep.html |access-date=August 10, 2008 }}</ref>
Following the war, he continued to advocate permanent nationalization of telephone, telegraph, and cable services. He acknowledged that Congress would be hostile to the idea, and he oversaw the return of the communications infrastructure to its various corporate owners.<ref>Richard R. John, “When Techno-Diplomacy Failed: Richard S. Rogers, “The Universal Electrical Communications Union, and the Limitations of the International Telegraph Union as a Global Actor in the 1920s,” Section 3.2, reprinted in G. Balbi & A. Fickers, “History of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU),” {{isbn|978-3-11-066970-1}} (2020).</ref> He introduced the "zone system" in which postage on second-class mail was charged according to distance.<ref name=eb/>
==Later life== In 1919, he was appointed as chairman of the United States Telegraph and Telephone Administration. In 1920, he became the chairman of the United States Commission to the International Wire Communication Conference and retired in 1921.<ref name="Anderson, 1974"/>
In the 1930s, he opposed the Ku Klux Klan and supported Al Smith for president.<ref name="Anderson, 1974"/> Burleson died of a heart attack and is buried in the Oakwood Cemetery, in Austin, Texas.{{citation needed|date=December 2020}}
==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading== * Anderson, Adrian. "President Wilson's Politician: Albert Sidney Burleson of Texas." ''Southwestern Historical Quarterly'' 77.3 (1974): 339-354. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/30238280 online] ** Anderson, Adrian Norris. "Albert Sidney Burleson: A Southern Politician in the Progressive Era" (PhD dissertation, Texas Tech University ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 1967. 6802606). * Connor, Seymour V. "Burleson, Albert Sidney" ''Handbook of Texas'' (2020) [https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/burleson-albert-sidney online] * Gould, Lewis L. "Progressives and prohibitionists: Texas Democratic politics, 1911-1921." ''Southwestern Historical Quarterly'' 75.1 (1971): 5-18. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/30236682 online] * Hilton, Ora A. "Freedom of the Press in Wartime 1917-1919." ''Southwestern Social Science Quarterly'' (1948): 346-361. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/42880126 online] * Johnson, Donald. "Wilson, burleson, and censorship in the first world war." ''Journal of Southern History'' 28.1 (1962): 46-58. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2205532 online] * Leary, William M. ''Aerial Pioneers: The US Air Mail Service, 1918–1927'' (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1986).
==External links== {{commons category}} {{Portal|Biography}} {{CongBio|B001110}} *{{Find a Grave|6600148}} *[https://web.archive.org/web/20040529194012/http://www.americanpresident.org/history/woodrowwilson/cabinet/postmaster/postmaster/h_index.shtml Albert S. Burleson at American Presidents] *{{Handbook of Texas|id=fbu38|name=Albert S. Burleson}}
{{s-start}} {{s-off}} {{U.S. Cabinet official box | before= Frank H. Hitchcock | after= Will H. Hays | years= 1913–1921 | president= Woodrow Wilson | office= United States Postmaster General}} {{s-par|us-hs}} {{s-bef|before=Joseph D. Sayers}} {{s-ttl|title=Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas's 9th congressional district|years=1899–1903}} {{s-aft|after=George Farmer Burgess}} {{s-bef|before=George Farmer Burgess}} {{s-ttl|title=Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas's 10th congressional district|years=1903–1913}} {{s-aft|after=James P. Buchanan}} {{end}} {{USPostGen}} {{Wilson cabinet}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Burleson, Albert S.}} Category:1863 births Category:1937 deaths Category:United States postmasters general Category:Burials at Oakwood Cemetery (Austin, Texas) Category:Woodrow Wilson administration cabinet members Category:Democratic Party United States representatives from Texas Category:Politicians from San Marcos, Texas Category:20th-century United States representatives