The morning call., 1890-12-20
DIVERSION OF MAIL.
Superintendent Flint Defines His
Authority.

"The merchants of this city have see,
fallen into queer mistake, but 1t was be-
cause they were led into it," said Superin-
tendent of the Railway Mail Service Flint
yesterday in an interview. Then lie slowly
read over the following resolution passed
by merchants at meeting held in the pri-
vate Office of Postmaster BackuS last
Wednesday afternoon:
WHEREAS, 1t not iDfreQuently happens, on oc-
count OF snow or the sudden Iise OF water
courses In the rainy season, that railroad con-
neclion between the sections Of country moth
and south is suspended; therefore 1t Is
Resotred, That we deem II very important that
an arrange ment should be made with the lines OF
steamers running on The Coast 10 carry the mails
during such suspension of railroad communica.
lion or at any time when The facilities of mail
transportation can be bettered thereby; and il is
further
Resolted, That In the sense Of this meeting the
Postmaster should have standing authority 10
contract for such special service and be empOw.
eied TO use discretionary powers as TO when it is
needed.
''Now that is all bosh. There isn't Post
master on the whole Coast who understands
the railway mail service good enough for
that. Besides they never hear of it unless
they are told of blockade, waShout OF other
miShap from this office. To give an under
standing Of the Work must tell of the SER
vice.
The entire postal service of the United
States is divided into eleven divisions,
whose superintendentS are authorized to di-
rect mail. to contract or do anything deemed
necessary for letter delivery. OF one of
the divisions | am superintendent. 1t COM
prises Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, Utah, Ore
gon, Washington, California and Nevada.
Now then TO say that any one Postmaster in
each one of these geographical divisions. or
all OF them. could regulate the service is alb
surd in the extreme. The average Post
master hardly knows the hours of ar
rival and departure of local malls, let alone
the connections they ought to make at any
point along the various lines. 1t couldn't
be even regulated to have railroad mail
superintendent i'll each State as there would
be an eternal hitch between his authority
and the arrangements made by his neigh
boring superintendent
10 say that the Postmaster in San Fran
cisco could regulate the outgoing mail from
Los Angeles, when lie is not bound to know
more than the mere routine, the clerical
work OF distributing incoming and bagging
outgoing mail, is to make him almost in
fallible. Some one might propose that the
Los Angeles Postmaster and the San Diego
Postmaster and the Sacramento Postmaster
ca oh be empowered to divert mail in times
of blockade, but it would only be confusion
worse COMPOUNDED. You might as we'll ex-
tend the authority to the other 1900 Post
masters throughout the State and witness
pandemonium.
Everything asked for in that set Of reso-
buttons the peoi lie now have in my person.
III there are any complaints of delayed mail
let this Office be Informed direct, ard in due
course of events the protester will hear
from US. j have full authority to divert any
mail when it is evident TO me that it can
reach its destination in quicker and better
time by another route"