The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-02-08
THE FRENCH INVESTIGATION
One Witness Appears Who Is Not
Afraid to Give His Opinion.
Postal Clerk Rutledge, of KnightstOwn, Says
French Is Tyrant, and Gives In
stances to Prove the Fact

The French investigating commission, during
the morning session yesterday, did nothing be-
side giving a hearing to Robert E. Smith. Mr.
Smith, who is an attorney and member of the
committee appointed by George H. Thomas
Post, Grand Army of the Republic, to inquire
into the matter of alleged tyrannical treatment
of members of that post in the service, said that
he could not be considered witness, as all that
he knew had come from others. He said that
he had taken a considerable amount of testimony
from number of railway postal clerks, giving
the assurance that it would not be used to the
injury or detriment of any of them, and would
not be published unless they requested it should
be. That was some time ago. He thought
most of those instruments are in the possession
of those who made them. They are in the form
of affdavits taken by Mr.. Smith. There are,
said he, some of the gravest charges in these
affidavits, but it is now the place of those who
made them to come and state what they are
At the afternoon session witness appeared,
who made some stir. He gave his name as VIM.
E. Rutledge, and made the following statement
my present residence is Knightstown. | am
a railway postal clerk Have been postal clerk
since the last of President Grants administra-
ton, and have been continuously in the service
ever since, serving at first in the Sixth division,
James e. Whites division. and afterwards in
this division. | was about two and half years
in Whites division. More than two years since
| was fined two full days pay for negecting to
register my arrival and departure at St Louis |
had worked very hard going west. l had tied out
my mail in the Union Depot and taken
a large number of registers to the Office to enter
them. After doing this l left the office and was
not called next morning in time to register.
More than one year since | was fined five dollars
fa5l O1ida To ha
with the registers, the driver having gone and
left me while | was busy in the car. Two trips
afterTard | was fined five dollars for going to
the postoffice before the mail was all unloaded,
three pouches of letter mail being left in the
car all day About one month after this was
fined five dollars for failing to get the receipt of
the clerk on Cleveland and indianapolis for reg
lister pouches. l waited at his car until my train
had pulled out had looked for him, but could
not find him. l had a sick baby at home, and
would have gone had l never got receipt On
account of the Boston pouch l was once severely
reprimanded, and | cannot remember, but think
l was fined five dollars. About one and BALI
years ago applied for leave of absence fortwenty
days. L sent application to Mr.. Wolfe
to sign, he having told me personally that he
would run for me. Mr.. Wolfe kept my leave six
days, and then sent it to my postoffce unsigned
after my departure for home. My first trip
west was missed. Mr. Wolfe was ordered to
take the other runs which he did. l asked Mr..
Vale to let me know if all was not right and gave
my duuIeSS. he Idlled 10 40 so, out on my re
turn ordered me to pay in full for the runs.
paid Mr.. Wolfe in part, and then refused to pay
the remainder, having learned that was fined
$50, my full salary, during my absence / tried
IN vain to recover this money through Mr..
French. l wrote short account of the affair to
Postmaster general Gresham, and another to the
Assistant Postmaster general, and within thelast
thirty days have received the money in full
ION December 81 1888 John Torrence clerk
in charge of the East division, gave me all his
Missouri letters and Arkansas letters unworked
Also fourteen ties of Illinois, one tie of Indiana
fc liz of in;xed mail. and thirty-hve ties of
Texas. Myself and crew worked large mail of
our own in addition to this extra mail-569 pack
ages Of letters and 242 ties of papers. | was
unable to work the Kansas letters On Dec %
Charles Holstein came West and gave me forty
one ties Missouri and forty ties Texas I'M
worked. [ had no fourth man, owing to some
mistake of Mr. Wales about the run. This Texas
mail was of very bad character Still, with
only three men in the car capable of making any
distribution, | worked everything but the Kan
sas papers and seventeen ties of Texas For
these two trips was suspended from duty for
ten days $50 of my salary deducted. and dis
graced in the eyes of all who do not know the
arbitrary character of my superintendent. This
$40 will recover as soon as l can lay the matter
before the proper tribunal. What / object to is
being in the power of and subject to the constant
and petty aggravations, prosecutions and annoy
ances of this man. ] wish to call the attention
of the commission to the fact that neither of
mail not worked, while | was punished for not
working my own in addition to theirs [ wish to
acquit Mr. Holstein, as he is good clerk and it
was impossible for him. as with me, to work the
mail
LAS an evidence of Mr. French's incompetency,
/ would call attention to his case for working
papers. 1t is an upright case. and runs from the
level of a mans hips to the roof of the car. 1t
is very hard to distribute mail in this
car and it is far inferior to the
rack i, use in the Seventh and Sixth divisions.
since orr first oro,.- ~ TO work Kansas letters
have had three or four schemes eac." one making
more thorough separation than its predecessor
Thus we have been forced to learn all these
schemes, when we would nave been in better
order to work the mail had we learned good
massing scheme in the first place
HE forces us to take all our supplies from the
car at St Louis, Mo, thus giviving oppor-
tunity to prepare for the east run. He forces us
to take all our supplies lock pouches and tie
sacks from indianapolis for the round trip. thus
increasing the weight of the mails. He prohib-
its US from drawing any supplies in st. Louis,
Mo-, where there is always a surplus, thus
making them send all their extra sacks and
pouches to New York mail. 1t is nothing un-
usual to receive two wagOnoads of this matter.
He allows the supply of Irvine at indianapolis to
become exhausted frequently, thus forcing us to
beg, borrow and steal Irvine from other divisions,
and so build up reputation for economy at
the expense of other divisions.
when the train called the Cannon bali was
put on the Big Four road he weighed mail on the
Peru road, the Big -Four and the Vandalia. This
train has since been taken off and double service
has been put on the Ohio g. Mississippi, thus
greatly reducing the weight of the mails
on the first mentioned routes
The mail has not been weighed since the
reduction. thus forcing the department to pay
these roads for mail not carried by them, but
now taken by other routes. Part Of this mail
consists of the Missouri, Arkansas and Texas
mail from Louisville KY, and roads centering
there. This mail was once sent by the way Of
indianapolis and the Vandalia line. 1t is now
sent by the way of Seymour and the 0. e. NJ.
HE is running three mail cars through
to st. Louis via Panhandle and Vandalia lines,
when two is all that is necessary to do the
work in, thus needlessly increasing the compen-
sation of these roads can remember when
we were weighing mail on the Vandaa line, to
have seen mail postmarked Memphis. Tenn,