New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-12-23
DON MANUEL'S DELUSIONS.
A DEMoRALIzED POSTMASTER GENERAL.
HIS DEFENCE CONFIRMS THE TB1BuNEs
CHARGES THE FACTS WERE NOT DIS
ToRTED"-TRYING TO SHIFT THE ISSUE

CHARGES - THE FACTS WERE NOT DIS
ToRTED--TRYING TO SHIFT THE ISSUE.
icy TELEGRAPH TO THE TRIBUNE
Washington, Dec. 2l.-Don Manuel Dickinson, with
the aid Of corps Of assistants ard after hree uays
of toll and trouble has emitted statement
through the accommodating columns OF THE New
York Tines In the faint hope that II may In some
degree counteract the effect of the terribly damaging
exposure in The Tribune recently Of the whole
sale decentralization and startling and humiliatng In
efficiency of the postal service and the falsy of the
assertions respecting that service to be FOUND In the
report of the PostmaserGeneral and tho message vi
President Cleveland 1t is apparent that the exposure
has made Don Manuel squirm to that extent that ne
has lost the small remnant Of mental composure when
survived the disaster Of November o. He shrieks
that tables OF statistics which plainly shows slc)
remarkable increase in the efficiency and good con
duct of every branch OF the postal service since the
spring of 1885 arc garbed and distorted so as TO lead
the uninstruced reader to suppose that the whole SER
vice IS as bad as bad can be, II not utterly de-
moralizeds
The Trbune's assertions sustained In every
particular by the tables Of statistics which appear
in the report of the present PostmasterGenerai and
his predecessors. The Statement IS comprised
under two heads First a criticism of The Tribunes
treatment of the statistics relating to the Dead
Letter. Division and second, a complaint that Inc
Tribune suppressed of the most interesting
figures in Mr. DIckinson's report"
The defence admits the correc tncss Of The Tnbunes
distorted figures respecting the Expansion" OF
the dead letter business, ard asserts tha'
the people who mail letters and parcels
are solely responsible for the expansioh'
but no explanation is vouchsafed as to why the num-
Der Of careless persons who use the mails mas III
creased 10 per cent per year under Democratic Ad
mlnstration while It increased only per cent per
annum during the last thrce years of Republican
Administrations The defence also admits that IN the
last year no less than 100000 letters and parcels
were received at the Dead Letter Office. which were
restored unopened to owners" The whole NUMBER OF
pieces received the Dead Letter Office was about
6,21s,oOO In other words, IT was practicable 10
restore unopenedn more than IL IL per cent-one
letter or parcel out Of every cIght-of the dead'
matter to the owners" Why thrcequarters OF
million letters and parcels subjected to months of
red tape and delay, when they might have been
promptly restored unopened to the owners Is
question wi ich the statement does not answer
and vet It would seem to be pertinent one. The
fact itself is positive evidence of the fasty OF the
assertion that mistakes Of sendcrs" are solely re-
sponslbc for the Grst of matter poured into
the hopper of the Dead Letter Office
With shrewd prudence Don Manuel refrains from
any attempt 10 prove that The Tribunes statements
respecting the multitudnous errorserrors to be num-
bered only by millions in the last three yearso post
masters and postal clerks garbcd distorted"
|
worthy false and misleading his own tables OF
statistics upon which said statements were based
What were those stacmentsl In brief as follows ::
Decrease in number Of incorrect slips returned by
postal clerks 1ss21ss5 per cent; increase in num-
Der OF said Slips ls55-1sss, 76 per cent; decrease
In number of errors noted said slips, 1sS2-loeo
Ito per cent; Increase. 1s8516SS, 9S per cent
Increase IN number of missent7 letter packages,
pouchc, and sacks, 1882 1855, four ffths of 1 per
cent; increase, lss5-1Sse, 10 per cent
/ ,ta- NJ errnr- CHI lpd
clerks against other employees 1o52-los5, per cent;
increase. Io55-lss9, 10 per cent
Increase IN number of incorrect slips returned from
postmasters. 1SS2-1565. per cent increase 1850
| 1888, rs per cent; increase In number OF errors
noted said slips. 1oS2-1s55, per cent; increase
The increase in the number of misdirccted' letter
| packages pouches and sacks from 1885 to 1888 was
nearly 80 per cent greater than in the three years
preceding that period. -.
Now If these statements arc garbled and dis
torted.7 why doesn't Don Manuel prove II Inc
| answer Is plain They are not distorted ana
Bnt he complains that the detractors of the Ad
minstration are also very careful to suppress some
and then proceeds to state that between March A.
1885 and June 30 1888, the Pos master General re-
postmasters who rendered false returns OF business
In order TO increase their compensation that OF
the postmasters so involved 440 were Republicans
and only ~ Democrats that the amount recovered
BY the orders involving the Republican postmas eTs
was s239 o74 80, or 81 per cent the sum recovered
from Democratic postmaS'erS was only @''''0 - u
From this naive statement It appears that the De-
partment's accounts with pUstmaSters must bear such
headings these: Isaac Jones tI2epnbicanl, Post
| mas er at -: " Peter Jailbird Democrat POST
master at -" 1t also suggests that tremendous
| vigilance and energy may have been exercised 80
defect and fine Republican posmastcrs' who at
tempted unawfully to swell their compensation, and
vast Indifference and lack Of zeal shown IN detect
1 postmasters.p But the weak attempt to shift the
issue by an assertion that Democratic postmasters
are moro honest than Republican postmaSters' IS
thoroughly characteristic and it VIII deceive nobody
II shows simply that the PoStmasterGener Is almost
as badly dcmorallzed the postal service, which Is
| saying a good deal