The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-06-12
THE POSTAL SERVICE.
How the Postal Clerks Are Treated by the
Present Reform" Administration,

To the Editor of the INDIANAPOLIS Journar
In your Associated Press dispatches something
like the following appears: Postmaster general
Villas denies having sent a telegram to Chicago
in relation to the proposed strike of postal clerks
The Postmaster-general is further quoted as say
ing that no one but inefficient clerks land those
offensive partisans) had been removed. Further,
that those engaged in melting strike clerks
who know that they will lose their places
through their inefficiency. The Postmaster
general also says that the service has been
greatly improved by the recent examinations
know nothing whatever concerning the alleged
telegram. But for fear the motives of the clerks
should be misunderstood. and also for
fear that the false statements OF
the Postmaster general be accepted as
true by your readers allow me to lay the fol
lowing facts in the proposed strike before them.
First, as to the statement that all the clerks
favorable to general and simultaneous retire
ment from office are inefficient. / was in the
employ of the railway mail service for the four
years last past; am personally acquainted with
many of the clerks in question; have received
and distributed mail made up by them during
the whole Of that time, and know that they
properly distributed it, and from the personal
knowledge of the manner in which they made up
their mail, l am warranted in saying that Post
master general Vilass statement is false in
every particular; or, to speak good, honest
English, it is an old-fashioned Democratic
lie. Now as to the motive that inspires
the men. Almost every man in the railway
mail service expected to lose his situation a.
soon the administration could dispense
with his services. But they expected to be dis
oh wa1 hooa how
from the natural regret one feels at being out of
a place, thay saw no reason why they should not
be discharged. To nearly every one with whom
l conversed it seemed but simple justice that the
administration should employ its adherents.
But the new administration was uShered In by
the mugwump and Democratic papers with
great flourish of trumpets. The President said
that civil-service reform must be enforced In
good faith. Postmaster general Villas issued his
famous order that clerks who had rendered
themselves efficient need not fear removal.
But in the latter part of this order he
left loophoe through which the whole force in
the railway mail service could be driven, i. e.,
concerning offensive partisanship. The mug
wump papers continued to break forth day by
day in paeans of praise and it did seem as if his
big -necked Excellency had inaugurated the polit-
ical millennium. The men in the railway mail
service deceived by this gush and slobber con-
corning the new administration, began TO believe
that they might be retained, when suddenly the
department., through the division superintend
ents, issued the most stringent orders concern
ing examinations saying in several of the div1s-
ions that the men would be expected to be pre-
pared for examination on their distribution
without notice Think of it! Expecting men
to keep from ten to twenty thousand
names of postoffices in their memory so as to
throw 80 per cent. of them correctly, and many
of these postoffices they don't see piece of mail
for once year. This order was followed by a
sudden activity on the part of all the chief clerks
IN he They wond la
cars and check errors which in many cases were
not errors at all, report the men for trivial
and unavoidable violations of the regulations;
and this stirred up feelings of luminosity between
the different crews. Shortly after this activity
among the chief clerks became noticeable, the
administration began to discharge the men.
This lasted until it became patent to the
dullest that there secret understanding
between the Postmaster general on the
one hand and the division superintendent and
chief clerks on the other by which the services
of the present incumbents would be dispensed
with as fast as possible. After each batch of
removals the Postmaster general would give one
of his smooth lies about retaining efficient men
in the service to tine Associated Press and at the
same time reach for the scalp of some other ofens
sive partisan inefficient Republican" When it
became an irresistible conviction in the minds
of the men that they were standing between the
treachery of their immediate superors and the
Democratic venom of the Postmaster general
they proposed, not strike in its ordinary sense,
but simply to quit and go to their homes, giving
their successors immediate possession. They
thus proposed to defeat the we'll
laid plot of that able pevaricator,
the Postmaster general, against their good name.
/ think it the part of unwisdom that this was
not carried out. | was discharged from the rail
way mail service, with no cause assigned, on
May Is. 1 know and care nothing of what
charges, if any. were preferred against me, be-
cause | know that whatever may be the alleged
reason, the real reason is that enthusiastically
supported James G. Blaine for President But
it does grind me to see the Republican press ac-
cept and give circulation to the smooth lies of this
hypocritical administration And further, to
copy and give credence to all the silly slobber Of
the Democratic press concerning that spotless re-
former, Grover Cleveland.
WILLARD F.. WINNER
LoGANsPoRT Ind, June 8.
Beecher's New Departure.
No,u Xnrl- Cot. ciaI Adrort