Sacramento daily record-union., 1890-09-15
POSTAL REFORAS.
THE ADMINISTRATION AT WASHING
TON WORKING NEEDED CHANGES.
Discipline Enforced-The Smallest Mat
ters Attended To-Local Faclli-
ties Enlarged.

partment under any administration has
been the subject of more criticism, one way
and another, than the present Postmaster
General, Mr.. Wanamaker. Public atten-
ton has been greatly drawn to his methods,
because he has attempted, and indeed sue
ceeded, in introducing business methods
into the Department that heretofore have
been unknown to it.
This Office has found by personal ex-
perience that President Harrison's Post
master. General has struck the keynote of
progress and good service by attention to
details. Some one has said that the secre.
of successful business is the care for small
matters, which are the units of great re-
suits" Over q year ago the RECORD
UNION called attention to the great need for
stamp stations in the metropolis of the
State In a few days, TO our surprise, we
received letter from the Department &C
knowledging the justice of the criticism
and thanking the paper for it, with the ad-
ditional statement that the Chief of the
Department invited criticism and COM
plant, as it was his intention to correct
every Ill complained Of so far as was posi-
"a
failure.
The stamp stations, forty eight in mum.
Der, have since been established in San
Francisco, where the people can procure
any kind of postal stamp or postal matter
without tramping to the postoffice.
So too, later, this office had occasion to
complain of uncertainty and irregularity
of the dispatch of the Sacramento letter
mail from the San Francisco Office.
Through press clipping agency in Phila-
delphia the article reached Mr.. Wanamaker,
and the RECORD UNION was again surprised
by official statement that the matter would
have its attention.
Before that could be given, an incident
occurred illustrating the justice of the
complaint. A letter of high importance,
mailed for dispatch from San Francisco by
the first mail, did not come to hand until
the arrival of the last one and too late to
be of the service for which ii was intended.
The Postoffice Department at once, though
we did not communicate with il directly,
ordered an investigation, and that not prov
ing satisfactory ct headquarters, only the
other day Mr.. Thos. G. Sioddard, Assistant
Superintendent OF the Railway Mail Serv-
ice, arrived here, specially instructed to in
vestigate this particular case and apply the
needed remedy. That official, by the rapid
ity and thoroughness of his method, soon
reached the seat of trouble, and now the
public has reasonable assurance that letter
mail will be dispatched from San Francisco
IN the order OF its deposit, which certainly
was not the inyariable rule under the Dem.
ocratic administration.
These instances led this journal to make
special inquiry as to improvements in the
service in various sections, and from ell
quarters it is learned that the Postal De-
partment is gaining deserved credit for IL
self and the Administration for its atten.
ton to the least OF complaints and the
quick correction of ills in the service.
1t was notorious that during Mr.. Cleye
lands administration the postal service
upon this coast fell into deplorable con-
dition in many quarters. II was better at
Sacramento than at any other point. local
administration being had according to bust
ness methods and an eye to the best service
possible under the circumstances. Still
local effort was crippled By the inefficiency
and unreliability of the general service.
We learn of one instance in a Northwest
State where letters that should have been
fors srded to the dead-letter office were re-
tanned in local offices for three years, and
not until q change of administration could
8 reform in that matter be effected. For
that particular instance an Inspector was
sent all the way from Washington to clear
the department of further odium by reason
of the disregard of duty.
For long time the people could not IN
derstand why the mail of the coast region
about Santa Cruz and Monterey, addressed
for Sacramento and the valley, could not
reach this point until some hours after one
leaving those points could, by ordinary
route Of travel, reach this city. When COM
plaint was made finally, TO the present
YNNetoi cfffciafa af Washingfor, ka afta-
was examined into by special inspector
and explained satisfactorily, it appearing
that there is but one postal clerk on the
route, and hence one mail up the coast has
to be sent by wsy of San Francisco and lay
over there many hours, there being no
mail portage from San Jose TO Niles. Now
the promise comes from Washington that
this evil shall, as soon as can be done, be
renedied and mail matter for the Sacra-
mento valley come through with the same
dispatch that characteriZes Wells, Fargo &
Co s Express matter.
For some years the newspapers have
been unable 10 dispatch by very early mails
from Sacramento their packages for dis
tribution in several directions and the
express lines had 10 be resorted to- So
litile a matter as that had no correction
under the Democratic administration at
Washington, but now a system has been
adopted by which the papers win go on
any train on which there is q postal car,
even though the hour of delivery is one
when the local Office is closed.
Again, under the old system, paper
mails. local and Eastern, went into the San
Francisco Office in one mass. II thus often
happened that the local papers Of the State
would not reach San Francisco subscribers
until long after the Eastern mail was dis
tributed and delivered, sometimes not un-
til the day after arrival at San Francisco.
But under the new orders of due attention
to little complaints, the local paper mail
bags are 10 be designated by colored tags
that will indicate their local character
They will be selected out and their con-
tents distributed at once, so that subscribers
will get their papers within q brief time
after arrival al the Office of delivery.
Under the Democratic administration
large numbers of employees in the San
Francisco Postoffice were not amenable TO
discipline. Carriers and clerks who were
dereliet or rebellious, refused to comply
with requests 10 resign, ard instances are
known 10 us in which the culprits were
defiant and declared that they had "a pull
and could not be removed. Fines were
levied bat rarely wss their collection en-
forced. Under the new Postmaster Gen
ersl employees in all quarters ind that
neglect OF dnty brings instant punishment
that the pulp of bosses has no effect; that
discipline is what it should be; that the
smallest matter must have the attention
given greater ones, ssand that the COM
plant of the humblest citizen is to have as
much respect as that of the most powerful
commercial house.
So on the railway service in the towns
and in the cities, the disciplinary system of
the Postmaster General is working reform,
and the service is steadily improving, a
fact that is apparent to all who transact
business through the United States mails.
Numerous Improvements have been go
ing on quietly in the Sacramento Postoffice
during the past few weeks. In speaking of
them TO 6 RECORD . MON reporter Postmaster
Coleman said: "Postmaster-G General Vans
maker Is dnino rnnre for the Pacific cnast-