Star Routes

(noun)

Star routes is a term used in connection with the United States postal service and the contracting of mail delivery services. The term is defunct as of 1970, but still is occasionally used to refer to Highway Contract Routes or (HCRs) which replaced the Star routes.

Related Terms

  • Chester A. Arthur
  • spoils system

Examples of Star Routes in the following topics:

  • Garfield and Arthur

    • In April, 1880 there was a Congressional investigation into corruption in the Post Office Department, where profiteering rings allegedly stole millions of dollars by employing bogus mail contracts called "star routes".
    • In 1880, Garfield's predecessor, President Hayes, stopped the implementation of any new "star route" contracts in a reform effort.
    • In April, 1881 President Garfield was given information of postal corruption by an alleged "star route" ringleader, Second Assistant Postmaster-General Thomas J.
    • James that ended in the famous "star route" indictments and trials for conspiracy.
  • Civil Service Reform

    • Logan asked Hayes to shut down the "star route" rings, a system of corrupt contract profiteering in the Postal Service, and to fire Second Assistant Postmaster General Thomas J.
    • Hayes stopped granting new star route contracts, but let existing contracts continue to be enforced.
  • The Underground Railroad

    • The Underground Railroad was a network of secret routes and safe houses used by nineteenth-century slaves to escape to free states and Canada.
    • Some routes led to Mexico or overseas.
    • Escaped slaves would move north along the route from one way station to the next.
    • Additionally, because many freedom seekers could not read, visual and audible clues such as patterns in quilts, song lyrics, and star positions provided directional cues along the way.
    • Due to the risk of discovery, information about routes and safe havens was passed along by word of mouth.
  • Portugal and West Africa

    • Young prince Henry the Navigator was there and became aware of profit possibilities in the Trans-Saharan trade routes .
    • For centuries slave and gold trade routes linking West Africa with the Mediterranean passed over the Western Sahara Desert, controlled by the moors of North Africa.
    • They were astronomical charts plotting the location of the stars over a distinct period of time.
    • Simultaneously, an explorer by the name of Pêro da Covilhã had reached Ethiopia by land and collected important information about the Red Sea and Quenia coast - suggesting that a sea route to the Indies would soon be forthcoming.
    • Portuguese explorer Prince Henry, known as the Navigator, was the first European to methodically explore Africa and the oceanic route to the Indies.
  • The War in the Chesapeake

    • The inexperienced U.S. militia, which had congregated in Maryland to protect the capital, was routed in the Battle of Bladensburg, opening the route to Washington.
    • The defense of the fort inspired the American lawyer Francis Scott Key to write a poem that would eventually provide the lyrics to "The Star-Spangled Banner."
    • A contemporary rendering of the engagement that provided the inspiration for "The Star-Spangled Banner."
  • Mediterranean Trade and European Expansion

    • European economic growth and the Silk Road's decline, stimulated the creation of major commercial routes along the Mediterranean coast.
    • Although the Mongols had threatened Europe with pillage and destruction, Mongol states also unified much of Eurasia and, from 1206 on, the Pax Mongolica allowed safe trade routes and communication lines stretching from the Middle East to China—known as the silk road .
    • The economic growth of Europe around the year 1000, together with the lack of safety on the mainland trading routes, eased the development of major commercial routes along the coast of the Mediterranean.
    • From there, overland routes led to the Mediterranean coasts.
    • With the fall of Constantinople in 1453 at the hands of the Ottomans, Europeans were barred from important combined land-sea routes.
  • Cinema

    • Mickey would go on to star in more than 120 cartoon shorts, as well as "The Mickey Mouse Club" and other specials.
    • Oswald, a character created by Disney in 1927 before Mickey, was contracted by Universal Studios for distribution purposes and starred in a series of shorts between 1927 and 1928.
    • MGM, for example, claimed it had contracted "more stars than there are in heaven."
    • Each of these stars was contracted to work for a specific studio and distribution company, which was one aspect of the studio system that became the dominant Hollywood business model and continues today, albeit in a far less restrictive form that does not tie actors to any specific company.
    • American actress Louise Brooks was one of the box office stars who became famous in the 1920s at the outset of the Golden Age of Hollywood.
  • African and Asian Origins

    • However, the ice sheets that covered these routes were scarred with deep crevasses on their surfaces, making travel across them dangerous.
    • There is some evidence that modern humans left Africa at least 125,000 years ago using two different routes.
    • The second route went through the present-day Bab-el-Mandeb Strait on the Red Sea (at that time, with a much lower sea level and narrower extension).
    • The route then crossed into the Arabian Peninsula, settling in places like the present-day United Arab Emirates and Oman, and then possibly going into the Indian Subcontinent.
    • There is some evidence that modern humans left Africa at least 125,000 years before present (BP) using two different routes: the Nile Valley heading to the Middle East - at least into modern Israel - and a second route through the present-day Bab-el-Mandeb Strait on the Red Sea
  • Oregon and the Overland Trails

    • The Oregon and Overland Trails were two principal routes that moved people and commerce from the east to the west in the 19th century.
    • The Oregon Trail was a 2,000-mile, historic east-west wagon route and emigrant trail that connected the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon and locations in between.
    • Each year, as more settlers brought wagon trains along the trail, new cutoff routes were discovered that made the route shorter and safer.
    • There were various offshoots in Missouri, Iowa, and the Nebraska Territory; the routes converged along the lower Platte River Valley near Fort Kearny, Nebraska Territory and led to rich farmlands west of the Rocky Mountains.
    • While explorers and trappers had used portions of the route since the 1820s, the Overland Trail was most heavily used in the 1860s as an alternative route to the Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails through central Wyoming.
  • Marcus Garvey

    • He founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL), as well as the Black Star Line, part of the Back-to-Africa movement that promoted the return of the African diaspora to their ancestral lands.
    • On June 27, 1919, the Black Star Line of Delaware was incorporated by the members of UNIA, with Garvey as President.
    • By September, the Black Star Line obtained its first ship, rechristened as the S.S.
    • Run by a group called the Friends of Negro Freedom, the campaign pressed the federal government to investigate the Black Star Line.
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