Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1886-07-15
THE POSTAL CLERKS.

The Brotherhood of Railway Postal Clerka
Formulate Their Grievances They
Charge the Postmaster-General WIFI
Acting in had Faith With Them ano
Otherwise Imposing Upon Them - AL
They Ask Is q Fair Deal. a.
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind, July 9.-Chlel
clerk c. G. Meade, and Secretary Roche
Bobb, of the Grand Lodge Of the Brother
hood of Railway Postal Clerks, have pre-.
pared statement for the public, in
answer to the Postmaster General
statement, in which they in substance
say: "That the postal clerks expected
very generally on the incoming OF the
present administration to he removed ;
that in such anticipation some resigned
and others got their houses ready to go.
The Postmaster General by his circular
of April 80, 1885, gave them to under
stand expressly that there should be no
removals without cause, and none Tor
merely political reasons; that efficient
and valuable men would not be disturbed
SO long as they rendered faithful service;
that they accepted this assurance in good
faith, and so continue in the service
rendering faithful and Jealous service;
that soon. however, their faith was
shaken by repeated and frequent re-
moxals of good men without cause; that
by reason of such removals increased
work was imposed upon them; that
they were required, in addition to their
regular and onerous duties, to teach the
new men; that these new men were
often promoted over them; that IN some
instances these new men were given
leave of absence, and devoted their time
to political work without complaint
or rebuke, while old clerks were be-
ing removed for alleged political
work done years before; that they felt
they were being imposed upon by having
additional duties and WORK put upon
them. and by favoritism shown in many
ways to the new appointees; that they
had pride in the efficiency of the service
and found that these things tended to
destroy that efficiency; that they object
ed to removals being made upon secret
charges unknown to them, to which they
had no opportunity of replying or of being
heard thereon; that their organization
was founded upon these things. Looking
to the good and efficiency of the
public service, and to prevent, ii posi-
BILE, it's destruction by constant and fire.
quent removals without cause; that I'M
der the professions and promises of the
Postmaster General the public would in
fer that removals were made upon good
ana Sumclent grounds, tnuS leaving
stigma upon the persons removed, and
unjustly so; that the essence of their
protest was the injustice to those re-
moved; that they only asked that the
cause of removal should be made known;
that while as public servants they recog-
nized their duties to the public and
faithfully and zealously performed them
for proof of which they point with
pride to the service itself-they felt
that as men and citizens they were
entitled at least to fair and just consider
alton by the Postmaster General; that
what they did was not in any spirit of in
subordination or obstruction, % ut, on the
contrary, it was in the highest interests
of the postal service on behalf of the
public, and in their own interests as men
and citizens, wishing the good opinion of
the public, and the maintenance of the
high efficiency of the postal service, that
they intended to wait upon the Post
master-General and submit these things
to his consideration, when he hurriedly
removed a large number of the clerks
without hearing which they say he did
to prevent his being confronted with his
record on the subject.