The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1877-06-22
Reform alIsunderssood.
BURLINGTON, KS. June 6, III

HSeAOFsm AAASu food.
BURLINGTON, KS. June 6. III.
To the Editor of the En,poria Nescs::
DEAR SIR:-You are both an edi-
tor and a postmaster; and your
postoffice is very model. You
yourself attend in person, from ear
ly morning till late at night, to your
duties as postmaster, and you have
staff of competent assistants. New
ertheless, mail matter sent from
or to your office frequently fail to
reach its destination. The same
phenomenon occurs at other post
offices on the A. Il. IL S. T. and M.
Il. u I. roads, also well kept.
will give some instances within my
own experience.
In April the private secretary OF
the Governor of Texas sent me,
from Austin, q parcel of publica-
tlons, with q conductory letter. The
letter reached me at Emporia, but
the parcel did not. In May the
same party sent me another parcel,
similar to the former, again accom-
panied by a letter. Again at EN-
poria the letter, this time with the
envelope torn, reached me; but not
the parcel. On May 10Th twenty
four copies of the Harvey County
News" were mailed at Newton to
my Emporia address, but never az
rived. In April Mr.. Sommers
mailed at Emporia letter address
ed to Mr.. Garner,at Sedalia. 1t neV-
er reached its destination. At Bur-
lington last Friday mailed letter,
and last Monday postal card, to
humboldt. Neither arrived. At
Eufaula, last Monday q week ago,
mailed letter to Abercoon, Can
ada. II did not reach its destina-
ton. Another letter, / mailed al
the same place, last Thursday a
week ago for Burlington. 1t arrived
at the latter place on the following
Tuesday, while it ought TO have
been through OIL the evening of the
day Immediately following that OF
the mailing.
A friend of mine receives at Bur-
lington letters from his father at N.
Y, sometimes Viv EGporia, some
times via Parsons and sometimes via
Williamsburgh. Such letters take
now four and then again twelve
days. Once he received q register
ed letter, minus the mOnev therein,
enclosed by the sender. No end OF
letters, some of them containing
small sums of money, sddrssed to me
at Halstead, have failed to reach me.
OF this, however, take no account,
as the Halstead postoffice is notori-
ously i'll kept, and the people who
hoUn n 70 that nH he
sent to the Postmaster General an
almost unanimous petition for the
removal of their postmaster.
The above seems to show that
something is wrong with the mail
agents On the A. T. s. S. +. and NJ.
X. & T. roads. How to remedy the
evil No doubt it might be RENE
died by any one going to Washing
ton, ID. c., and interviewing Post
master General Key, and placingt
the matter before him, but it is not
always convenient to go to Wash
ingtOn. Would q letter do any
good :? l. 1t may never reacG Wash
ington; 2. Suppose il does reach
Mr.. Key, according to the red tape
of official business, 1t may then be
referred to the gentleman at the
head of the division of postal serv-
case, may refer it to one of the sew
en- general agents under him. Such
general agent may further refer II
to one of the chief clerks he keeps
stationed here and there. Or the
Postmaster General may refer the
matter to the chief of a bureau OF
detectives of postal matters.
ALI these officials date from the
old corruptiOnist times preceding
the present administration. What
guarantee is there of their being in
sympathy with reform2 The pos
tai service never was so bad as it is
now. The mailbag has become
about the unsafest place for letter
or paper. You know l am a very
staunch supporter of the present
administration, though my support
is of little consequence. And l es-
pecially rejoice In Mr.. Keys ap-
pointment, as a beginning of JUS
tice to the long wronged South.
But it seems that some inferior
officials fancy that immunity from
removal without cause means ire
movability altogether; and that,
under this misunderstanding OF
what is meant by reform, we are,
like Canada, to have a mock arts
tOcracy of petty potentates, account
able only to their superiors in the
official branches, but Independent
from all control by bubble opinion.
Wrong and insult the people if
such is your pleasure, provided you
toady to the man above you, is not
rule of civil service reform.
l. j. RoCHUssEN.
We publish the above not only in
hopes that its publication may do
good in aiding reform, but to make
come statements which will show
that there are two sides to this mat
ter of trouble with the mails. That
there is inexcusable carelessness in
the management of postof1ices and
in the handling of mails by route
agents we we'll know. This comes
from the appointment of men who
are utterly incompetent for their
business, and take little interest in it,
exec pit TO draw their salaries. That
there are men running as route
agents and handling the mails in
postoffices who neither know what
their duties are, nor care to learn
them, there is no doubt. But to the
assertion above made by our cor
respondent, that the postal service
was never so bad as it is now" we
most emphatically dissent. There
never was time when more gen.
eral care was used in the handling
of the mails than now. The work
is being more thoroughly systema-
tized than eyer. Every means is
being adopted to make the trans
portation of mail matter sure and
safe. In comparison with the mil
lions and millions of packages of
mail which are daily being handled
in all quarters of the country, the
uaiafa hoe oro fam To ho onrnriaa6