The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1875-07-03

OUR POSTAL SERVICE.

The Postmaster General has been on
tour of inspection. He is apparently much
gratfied with his trip and with what he
saw and learned. He says that he met
some five hundred or six hundred postmas-
tiers, besides two thousand or three thou
sand other post-ottice employees, and ex-
presses himself as being pleased with their
general appearance. They, as an intelli-
gent body of men, gave him much informa-
ton in regard to the practical workings of
the postal laws and service. The postmas-
tiers being unanimously in favor of raising
the rates of registration from eight to ten
cents, the Postmaster General made an
order to that effect upon his return. He
was astonished at the magnitude of the
service and the immense bulk and weight
of the mails in the Western and Middle
States. On the largest routes between the
East and West frcm eighteen to twenty -tive
tons of mail matter are carried daily and
handled in postal cars. The transfer of
mails at Chicago, from road to road is
sometimes as much rs one hurdred tons
per day. The postal clerks in the post
ghanies assert and handle 10000, 600 of
letters per month, an amount of worn
which it would be impossible to do in the
postoffices The mail service is better
than the railway passenger service, for
letters reach their destination as quickly i'll
all cases as passengers, while transfers of
the mails are sometimes made in cities from
train to train where passengers fail to do
so, and thus the mails sometimes are in adj
vance of the passengers. On one route,
from St. Louis to Texas, an average of five
tons of mail per DAY is carried. The Post
master General is Of opinion that the clerks
in postotlices receive less compensation for
the work they are required to do than any
other men in the service. lie thinks the
pay of the letter. carrier fair, though they
have to work very hard, and that the pay
of railway postal clerks is good, and that
while many of them are Overworked some
of them are undcrworked. 1t is very
difficult service to adjust equtably, but
many of the men in this blanch of the SER
vice are required to be on their feet from
twelve to fifteen hours day, while the cas-
are in rapid motion in the heat and dust,
asserting the mail--a severe test of phys-
cal endurance-and these men could not
stand it if they were required to do it all
the time. AS a rule the pay Of the clerks
in the postoffices is very small.
Many good clerks, receiving from $500
to $500 per annum, are required to work
from ten to twelve hours per day, a great
contrast to the clerks in the department at
Washington, who are paid from 81, 200 to
S1.SG0 per annum, and only required to
work six or seven hours per day. These
postoflice clerks are very intelligent class
of men, and are generally sober and indus
trious. AS the Postmaster General met
them in little assemblies, of from one hun
dred to one hundred and fifty, he told them
that sobriety was hereafter to be an essen
tial element in the requirements for post
office duties, and that none but sober and
steady men would be retained in any branch
of the service and that this would include
all the officers, from superintendent to as
sorting clerks on railways, and from post
| masters to porters i'll postotfices. 1t ap
pears that the free delivery has obviated
the necessity for having post offices in cen
trail locations and the Postmaster General
thinks that plain buildings in less expen
sive situations, with plenty of light air
and ventilation, would answer quite as well
as the costly structures now being erected.
The Postmaster General made special in
quires of all the postmaSterS he met as to
whether there were not many old stage
| lines on winch the mails were yet being
carried and which might be discontinued
without detriment to the service, by rea-
son of the railroads distributing the mails
along their lines. He found several such
cases, and requested postmasters to notify
! him of all such useless service. He is sat
isfied that material saving can be made
in the States he visited, as it is often the
case that the old State service is still kept
on the books of the department, while the
railroads are carrying all the mails, the
business Of the department being SO large
as to make it very difficult to find and cor
| rect all the little MaStageS