Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1888-12-21

President Cleveland's last message tc
Congress contained the following very re.
marGable statement relative TO the postal
service of the country:
1t is gratifying to note from the carefully
prepared statistics accompanying the post
master general report that notwithstanding
lhe great expansion of the service the rate Of
expenditures has been l"S,ened. and efticien
cy has been improved in every branch that
fraud and crime have decreased, that losses
from the mails have been reduced. and that
the number of complaint, of the service
made to po,tma,ters and to the department
are far less that ever before.
''improved efficiency certainly sounds
well but everyone who has paid any atten
ton to the matter knows that this ela-
ment cannot 10y any stretch of
the imagination be rightfulIy claimed
as belonging to the postofce de
partment of the pres mt administration.
The Washington correspondent of the New
York Tri'UHc ha, been examining some OF
Postmaster General Dickenson's "caretuIly
prepared statistics" in contrast with those
IN the previous department reports and he
finds the facts very much at variance with
the rhetoric employed by Mr.. Cleve-
land and Mr.. Dickinson. In the tab
ular statement of errors" made by
postal clerks and by postmaSters it i,
found that the number Of pieces of mai |
matter handled by postal clerks in 1882 was
3,433, 800, $50; in 1855 it was 4 .94S. O59. 400
and in 1883 it was 6.jfj, $40 POP. This was
an increase Of 1.jli,GGS, 800 pieces, or a
per cent. for 1880 over 1SN2, and of .j91.
SlGSO2 pieces. b per cent, for 1888 over
1881 These figures do not indicate an I'M
usually great expansion of the service
during the past three years of democratic
administration. In the record of errors
made 10y postal clerks we find that the in
correct slips returned numbered 43t. PCS in
1852, 1876, ,i6 in 1850, and 200. III in 1888.
The number OF errors on these slips was
9O2. 4S9 for 1852, SS1, 104 for 1880. and
I 80, S2l for 1855. Thus. at the very out
set, we see that with an increase of A per
cent in the total of pieces handled the errors
were actually less in the number for 1885
than for 1882, while from 1883 20 1888 the
errors had nearly doubled in number. al
though there was an increase of only 81 per
cent in the total number of pieces handled.
The improved efficiency clearly belongs to
the last three years of republican admniStra-
ton rather than to the first three year, of dem
ocratic rule The "misSent" letter packages.
pouches and sacks numbered II, 112 in 1882,
IA, S41 in 1888, and 2G, l0G in 1888. The
'misdirected' letter packages. pouches and
sacks show 9, l3S for 1889, 2,5jS for 1885.
and 1898 for 1888. The "crrors checked
by postal clerks against other employees
numbered ,611 1888 in lSs2 l.142,5iO in
1885, and 3, 12l ,j04 in lSse. This is the
way that the removal of tried and faith
full postal clerks has resulted in
''improved efficiency" The state
ment of errors 10y postmasters shows
the number of Incorrect slips to have been
POP, 6i2 in 1882; it was 2l5, 352 in 1889. and
it was 1853, 1855 in 1898 The error, ON these
slips numbered l0j ;fG in 1852, AS. 1923 in
1850, and i06 SOS in 1888, The "misscnt"
letter packages, pouches and sacks numbered