The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1875-07-05
The Postmaster Generals Tour Of
Inspection.


The pc ,master general has been inter-
viewed upon the results of his late tour OF
inspection. He is apparently much graft
fed with his trip and with what he saw and
learned.
He states that he met with some five or
six hundred postinasters besides two or
three thousand other post Office employees,
and expresses himself as being pleased with
their general appearance. They, as an in
telligent body of men, gave him much in
formation in regard - the practical work
ngs of the postal las and service.
The postmasters being unanimously IN
favor of raisiug the rate OF registration
from eight TO ten cents, the postmaster gen
eral made an order TO that effect upon his
return. He was astonshed at the magni-
tude of the service, aud the immense bulk
and weight of the mails in the western and
middle states. On the largest routes be-
tween the east and the west from eighteen
to twenty-five tons Of mail matter are car
ried daily and handled in postal cars.
The transfer at Chicago from road to
road is sometimes as much rs one hundred
tons per day. The postal clerks in the
railway postal cars, in the division west of
the Alleghanies, assert and handle forty
millions of letters per month, an amount
of work which it would be impossible to do
in the post offices.
The mail service Is better than the rail-
way-passenger service; for letters reach
their destination as quickly in all cases as
passengers, while the transfers of mails arc
sometimes made in cities from train to train
when passengers fail to do so, and thus the
mails are sometimes in advance of passen-
gers. On the route from St. Louis to Tex
as, an average of five tons of mail per day
is carried.
The postmaster general is of the opinion
that the clerks in the post offices receive
less rnmrarr~.;-- - - l.: A. sor
ouired to do than any other men IN .he ser
vice. He thinks the pay OF inc le.le' ea
r;ers ia fair. though they have to work
very hard, and that the pay OF the aa NAM
postal clerks is good, ana t ne are not.
of them are oyerworlksffSSice to adjust equi-
1t is, ry.&hg'in this branch are required
,aolyuh their feet from twelve to fifteen
.i6urs day, while the cars are in rapid
motion, in the heat and dust, asserting the
mail, severe test of physical endurance,
and these even could not stand it If they
were required to do it all the time.
AS rule the pay of clerks in the post
Offices is very small, and 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 departments at Washington,
who are paid from $1,000 $500 per annum
and only required to work six or seven
hours per day.
These post office clerks are very intelIi-
gent class of men and generally sober and
industrious, and as the postmaster general
met them in little assemblies of 100 to 100,
he told them that sobriety was hereafter to
be an essential element in the requirements
for post-office duties, and that none but
steady and sober men would be retained
in any branch of service, and that this
would include all the officers from super
intendents to asserting clerks in railways,
and from postmasters TO porters in the post
offices.
1t appears that the free delivery has OBJ.
waited the necessity of having post offices
in central localities, and the postmaster
general thinks that plain buildings in less
expensive situations, with plenty of light,
ETC., would answer all the requirements
quite as well as the costly structures now
being erected
The portion of the public building in
which the Pittsburg Office is located is al
together iuadeqate to the needs of the SER
vice. The office is hot, dark, crowded and
inconvenient, with poor ventilation, and
the letter cases are crowded together in
their quarters like so many sheep, and there
fore it is impossible to do first-class work
in such place. 1t is a matter of pride
that the city is served as well as it is under
such circumstances.
The ofiices at St. Louis and Cincinnati
are very dark. hot and close, and large
portion of the clerks are compelled to work
by gas light during the day, with the Their
mometer standing among the nineties. But
new buildings are being erected in each of
these places.
At Chicago the Office is made up of three
stories under new hotel, which is at pre-
sent occupied, and there is plenty of room
and light and it is very good and accessi-
BILE. The rent of this office, with all the
necessary room for the complete working
of the business machinery, costs $50, 900
per annum. While it has no style and is
very unpretending, it is quite sufficient for
the wants of the service.
The new offices at the smaller cities, like
Cleveland, Milwaukee and indianapolis, are
models of convenience, aud are light, airy
and roomy. The free delivery system is
pushed to a more successful result at the
west than at the east. At many of these
offices only one or two hundred boxes are
rented, the bulk of the letters being deliv-
cred by carriers, and the vicinity of the
post Office looks absolutely lonesome and
deserted.
The postmaster general made special in
quiries Of all the postmasterS he met as TO
whether there were not many old stage
lines on which the mails were yet being car
red, and which might be discontinued
without detriment to the service, by reason
of the railroads distributing the mails along
their lines. He found several such cases,
and requested the postmasters to notify
HIM of all useless service.
He is satisfied that a material saving can
be made in the states he visited, as 1t is Of
ten the case that the old stated service is
still kept on the books of the department
while the railroads are carrying the mails
the business of the department being SO
large as to make is very difficult to find and
correct all the little wastages.
1t was found that one steamboat line was
paid $4,000 per annum for carrying the
mails while there were railroads on each
eide of the river An investigation has