Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1890-02-27

| Z. ID. RATHBONE. chief inspector.
The Boston division, which is under
the direction of George S. Evans,
is required to detect crime and discover
criminals in Massachusetts,, Maine, New
Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut
and Vermont. The Chattanooga
division embraces Georgia, Florida,
South Carolina and Tennessee, and is
under the immediate direction of
Colonel A. G. Sharp, formerly Chief
Post-Ofice Inspector under the admins
tration Of Chief Inspector Rathbone; the
divisions have all been placed under
the direction of the experienced inspect
ors who were removed during the last
] administration. James E. Stuart is in
| charge of the Chicago division; which
| embraces Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Mich
| igan, Minnesota, North and South Da-
| kota and Wisconsin. Mr.. Stuart has
| been in the service for a number of
years and is an exceedingly competent
man for the work which is submitted
to his care.
George s. Seybold, whose headquar-
ters are at San Francisco, has the super
vision of Oregon, Washington, Montana,
| Alaska, California, Arizona, Nevada and
Utah. When complaints reach the
bureau under the Chief Post-offlce In
spector they are referred by him 10 the
Chief Inspector of the division in which
the crime is likely to have been COM
mitted. Under each one of these d.
vision inspectors there is a corps of
special agents, and each case is re-
ferred especially to the man best fitted
to investigate each complaint. The
Chief Clerk in the immediate Office of
the Chief Post-ofice Inspector at Wash
ington is Mr.. James Maynard, son of
Postmaster-General Maynard, of Ten
nessee, and he has occupied that impor-
tant position for the past ten years.
The detectives of crime against the
postal laws and regulations are very
careful in all of their work. When
ever they receive case they mark the
date of mailing of the letter or pack
age, the name of post-off1ce from which
it is mailed, with the name of the
county and State, the name of the
writer or the sender of the registered
letter or package, the number of letter
or package, the name of the addressee,
the name of the post-of1ce addressed,
with the county and State, a descrip-
ton of the contents of the letter or
package and number of registered en-
velope covering the letter or package;
also the name of the complainant, the
designation of the classification of com
plant, the name of the inspector to
whom the case was referred for investi-
CATION, with the date of such reference,
and the complainant is then notified of
the receipt of his complaint and in
formed that the same will receive the
attention of the department.
During the last fiscal year there were
IS. 900 papers sent to the Office of the
Chief Post-ofice Inspector. These pa
pers did not relate entirely to the VIC
lations of the postal laws. The Post
Office Inspector, wherever he is, is con-
sidered the representative plenipoten-
tiary of the Postmaster-General, with
autocratic authority over all subordi-
mates. And it frequently happens that
Post-ofice Inspectors are obliged to de-
eide, for example, who would be the
proper person of various candidates to
receive an appointment as postmaster;
concerning change of site or proper
location of post-ofices; the responsible
ity of securities on official bonds of
postmasters; the amount to be allowed
for salaries, fuel, light, furniture, ETC.;
the adjustment of money-order accounts
where they are complicated; the estab-
ishment or discontinuance of post-of-
fees; the establishment of the free-de-
livery system, or of the money-order
system; the establishment or discontin-
uance of postal stations in large cities;
to investigate charges against letter
carriers; the destruction or injury OF the
letter-boxes, or of mail deposited in let
ter-boxes; to determine the admissible
ty or non-admissibility Of matter