The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1879-02-21
Tn. ere.nbaek.r and the Po,,-omcs.

intention To cheat the government Well
al. He may plead ignorance of the law
if he wants to. He will probably not try
such thing again. We are satisfied i
won't work. We would not have said 1
rushed into print" with slap at til,
post-office, which so far as il was intend
ed to apply to the one in Emporia, wa.
entirely gratuitous, and without truth
We assert positively that no packages o
Greenbackers have ever laid over in the
Emporia Office, except through the mis-
takes ofthose who mailed the Greenback
er. If the 'seniOr member of the G. B
will call on the "senior member of this
firm the mistakes alluded to will be more
fully explained.
But now another word about the post
office. In the absence of the statesman,
the religious editor of the GreenbackeI
took it upon himself to reply to our az
ticle, and IN doing SO to give the pOst-office
another rap. Now, while we are not al
all particular what the Greenbacker OF
any other paper says about us personal
ly, we are ready to defend Ourself as 4
public officer, because the public are
alike interested with ourself in the con
duct of the post-Office. We are lutte
tender on that point Not in the sense
of anxiety to hold the Office further than
we are worthy of 1t, but in the sense of q
ing devotion to the interests of the office,
and desire to discharge its duties prop
erly while we are charged with them.
The Greenbacker says:
"Mr. StOtler, in the same article, 1--WE
cannot quote alb says, No complaints
the publishers He perhaps has forgot
ten that but few weeks since Mr.. Spang-
Ter called on him with complaints about
the paper not being properly forwarded.
There are complaints, very many, against
the Office. Parties ask US about the reck-
lessness of the EmpOria pOst-Office every
week. But as we do not wish to injure
Mr.. Stotler or make any publications
that would have tendency to do SO, y etc.
We do now remember that Mr.. Spang-
Ter called to inquire what was the prOba-
bic reason the package of Greenbackers
did not reach NeOshO Rapids at a given
time. He made no complaints about
their not being forwarded from here that
we heard. We believe he did not claim
the fault was with this Office, but merely
inquired where it probably was. We
made several suggestions to him as to
where tho fault might be, and assured
him it was not with the EmpOria office
But in our remarks last week we spoke
of the charge OF Wood with reference to
packages mailed west. While
we do not claim, and never have claimed,
that there are not mistakes made in the
postOffice, we do claim and as
sert that the Greenbacker has not suffered
from these mistakes-that is, understand,
mistakes made in the pOstof1ice. If we
were at liberty to do so, we might sug
gest some reasons for the paper not get
ting to all il is sent to, but we cannot
now.
But now as to charges of recklessness
in the Emporia postoffice. Bro. Spang-
Ter must remember that the right TO crit
icise and grumble is a great American
man knows about a subject the more he
criticises and complains. A man can
hardly expect to escape criticism and
who is active in any business,
public or private. The question with
him ought to be whether there is ground
for criticism and complaint. In this re-
spect we claim for the Emporia postOf-
flee that there is as little real ground for
as there could be in the ma
ture of the case. There is not person
in it but who is honest, painstaking and
intelligent. They all bring these quail
ties to bear in the discharge of their du-
ties. We are satisfied if Bro. Spangler
and those who enter complaints about
the mistakes of the Emporia pOstof-
fee had any conception of the business
of the Office they would at least be more
charitable. But We assert absolutely and
defy proofto the contrary that there's any
degree of "recklessness" in the work ofthe
office. Whatever may be said, that word
does not apply to any one in the En-
poria post office. Errors will creep in,
but where one is made by the officers
five are made by the public. When it
comes to be considered that there are in
the neighborhood of At 900 letters, about
$4,000 papers and packages of second
and third class matter. about $4,000
packages Ofmail in transit, and 4 900 drop
letters to be stamped, sorted, mailed, de-
livered and forwarded every month;
when all the errors in direction,
bad writing, and bungling
Is to be dealt with when it comes to be
considered that nearly one-fourth of the
packages and papers passing through
the Office are either directed in pencil
and are so indistinct by contact with
other mail, or the packages broken open,
or the names those no one ever heard of
before; then when it is considered that
about One-third of the people doing
business with the office are entire strang-
ers, and that in this very important re-
spect the office is entirely different
from one in an old community, we
ask any reasonable man if it is at all
strange that mistakes are made. Could
run the office without them {?
We have much evidence from lndivid-
uals that the office is conducted we'll
many compliments for the care taken in
the mails. From the reports
that go to Washington and are never
returned for correction; from the fact
that over 1000 registered letters were
handled in the Office last year, and not a
mistake in this office with one of them :;
from the other fact that nearly 1000
money orders were issued and paid last
year and not mistake in one of them,
we claim that due care is used in the
post Office, and mention these as an Off
set to brother Spangler's charge of reck-
lessness.
Now, to close this article, which we
did not intend TO make half so long, we
will say to Bro. Spangler that we are his
friend. No reasonable favor we would not
do for him in our power to do. Because
we have heretofore criticised his politics
and called him liar politically we are
NOT his enemy We alwavS rather liked