Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-11-22
POSTAL INSPECTIONS.
Items OF Interest from the Chief
Post Office Inspectors Report.

Items OF Interest from the Chief
Post Office Inspectors Report.
The published report of the Chief Post
Office Inspector to the Postmaster Gen
eral, for last year, has just been issued.
1t contains some valuable Information
bearing upon very important branch of
the postal service. The position and du.
ties Of an inspector are misunderstood by
many people and some officials. The
general idea seems to be that he Is merely
a detective. TO very limited extent
this is true. In the vast number of en-
plOyes OF the postal department there are
necessarily come dishonest and incompe-
tent. There must be some organized force
or department to rectty the wrongs and
correct the abuses of the service, hence IL
is made the duty Of the post office in
spectOrs. though they exercise a general
oversight over the whole service.
During the fiscal year covered by the
report there We're G60 arrests, caused by
post Office inspectors and others, for
violations of the postal laws and regula-
lions. OF the persons arrested, 243 were
postal employees, and 5lI were not con-
nected with the postal service. The
former are classed as follows: as were
pOstmasters, 81 assistant postmasters, 80
clerks in post Offices, IA railway postal
clerks, "a letter carriers, 81 mail carriers
and IL other employees. The latter are
classified as IA burglars, 81 Safe post
masters, and 1854 others for various
otfenses
Ofthe total number arrested 81 were in
Geor.i ia. Z in Florida, 10 in Alabama, IL
in Tennessee, and in South Carolina, or
60 in the five States composing the At
lanta division. OF this numbert22 were
convicted, 80 are awaiting trial aud but
3 were discharged. The large per cent.
of convictions in this division is evidence
of the carefulness and good judgment eX-
ercised by the inspectors, of whom there
are seven, VINO work under the able di-
rection Of Mr.. Henry Booth, chief of this
division.
There were 4,28l complaints received
of depredations, accidents and delays in
the domestic registered mail, Of which
3,207 were Investigated, and in 1856 cases
the complaint was found to be ground
less. In !, l40 cases the cause OF loss was
ascertained, aud in 543 OF these the money
was either recovered or the amount OF
loss made good by the party Responsible.
OfordinaTy letters, "a ,2l5 were reported
lost, rifed, or delayed, 1882 with inclos-
ures and 0.033 without, IL, T4l ordinary
packages were reported lost. rihed or de-
layed.
Four hundred and eigbty-seyen post
offices were reported robbed, and 269
burned, 76 postal cars wore burned or
wrecked. q mail stages were robbed.
mail messengers on their wagons robbed,
10 pouches lost, and 127 pouches stolen,
cut or injured by falling under trains.
The inspectors recovered from dishonest
postmasters or caused the recovery Of
$40, 424 Is, aud for other causes have col
lected 50, 1914 SO. making a total OF $02..
6l9 IA. 1t is believed that fully $780, coo
has been saved TO the government during
the year by agitation on the subject Of
fraudulent accounts and returns of the
business of their offices by postmRsters,
for the purpose of increasing their com
pensation,