Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1884-02-07
A SCREW LOOSE SOMEWHERE.

Ihere must be screw loose somewhere. |
No less than eighteen postmasters, at what |
are known rs presidential Offices, resigned |
last week. The reason assigned was the |
Of salaries. Ocess.
Not exactly. 1t was the insufiiciency of
allowances including salary. The new law
substituting the two cent stamp for the
three cent stamp, cut down the salaries Of
presidential Offices from fifteen to twenty
five per cent, and the appropriations were
not sufficient to cover the difference, so
that three.fourths Of the second-clAss off,
ces OF the country were left without suffi-
cieni support. Tie action of Congress is
simply an outrage, not only upon postmns-
tiers. but upon the public. From what we
learn Wichita is but fair sample. People
here are not only inconvenienced and an.
noyed, bnt compelled, in large numbers,
to wait in long line for their turn
to get their mail, while in frst-class Offices
the mail is delivered at the home or
place OF business. The patrons of all Sec
ond-class Offices in the country ought to
hold indignation meetings, and flood their
representatives in Washington with pro-
tests until the departments and postmasters
and their assistants were relieved. One d.
rect result OF the insuficiency Of allow
ancies has been continued change of ex.
perienced clerks for new and inexperienced
ones, which invariably results in trouble
as no man, however bright, can, short OF
several months, learn the names of the
thousands of patrons Of q second-class Of
fice,-where they belong, where they were
formerly from, and the names of the wives.
children and others stopping or making
their homes with them. Aud all this is
necessary, for SO many names are similar or
exactly alike. Thousands of these letters
and papers are received every day, Sunday
not excepted, and they must be quickly as
sorted and distributed and given out. aud
thousands more stamped, cancelled. assort-
ed and sent out, to say nothing of the va
rious records and accounts and moneys to
be kept, Of lists to be advertised, of lists to
be returned, Of lists to be forwarded, etc.,
etc. Every new postmaster-general, and
all his assistants, and the new heads of the
many bureas, all go into the department
with new ideas which are formulated into
rules and sent out to embarrass postmasters
and their assistants. No outsider could be
made to believe how numerous are their
rulings. They make twelve books year.
And then il Congress should cut down the
postage to nothing, the department would,
the next day, try 10 put the service onto a
self-sustaining basis by cutting down the
salaries and allowances of postmasters and
clerks. The more rules they make to carry
out their notions, and the more labor i'm
posed is met by corresponding deduction.
In the last three years the mail service has
been SO hampered and burthened by the
departments upon the one hand, and by
complaints OF patrons upon the other that
postmasters OF second and third-cass off.
vice as what to do. Give one Pathfinder of
a community grumbling grounds and a
thousand, who would not thought Of il,
will join the chorus. In the Wichita Office
where the government only pays one-half
Of the clerk hire and the postmaster the
paidhSe, "heh appitCatiou Was fnaue ioi
more help on the grounds of over work and
for the better accommodation of the peo-
Pile, the application was met by not only
refusal, but the advise to hire cheaper
clerks. When it is known to everybody
that the average citizen is jealous OF his
correspondence, viewing it as in some
sense sacred. and that the more reliable the
men who handle it the greater the satisfac-
ton, the advise was more provoking than
consoling. The truth lie none but the very
brightest men should be employed to ham
die mails, and when once In the service
they should be retained indefinitely, and
the longer the better, and the government
ought to be willing to pay enough to retain
such men. The rule is that nine out Of ten
assistants remain just long enough in the
service to become valuable when lighter
work and bigger wages tempts them away.
The net profits Of the Wichita postoffice for
the month Of January, 1854, after paying all
the salary and allowances for clerk hire,
was fourteen hundred and sixty dollars, or
about fifty dollars per day profit; yet, the
office lie denied proper help.