Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1891-09-12
mn. srERRy,s ADDRESS.


Mutual BENEFIT Association-A BE.
neficent Organization.
The above association, which now num-
bers 2, 154 members and has increased $50
in the past year, held its seventeenth an
nual convention this week at Alexandria
Bay and have had possession of some Of
the far-famed Thousand Islands most of
the week. The convention was large one,
and enthusiastic The excursion was all
the merrier as most of the delegates had
their families along with them. The We
tertown Times says:
Colonel s. A. Whitfield, first assistant
postmaster general of the United States,
and Hon. James E. White, general super
intendent of the railway mail service,
were down on the program for addresses,
but they were unavoidably absent, and
their places were most acceptably filed by
Postmaster N. D. Sperry Of New Haven.
He has been connected with the postal
service of this country for upwards of
twenty-five years, is an able and eloquent
speaker, and his utterances were heartily
received and his sentiments endorsed by
every person present. Among other things
he said:
teThe administration of the postal af
fairs of the United States is done through
the finger ends of the department.. The
finger ends are the postmasters and the
clerks. They are the men who come in
contact with the people. Treat the peo-
pie that you meet properly, treat them re-
spectfully, treat them as American citi-
zens, instead of saying an unkind word.
It is just as easy to obey the postal laws
and regulations by deciding in kindness
instead of 80 acting that you make the
people feel that they would rather not ask
you for favor. Pay over every dollar
that comes into your hands into the ma
tional treasury and then your official life
will be perfect and complete.
mail service of the ancients-the post roads
of the demonstrating it down in eloquent
periods from the camel to the mule service,
then the slower oxen; eventually in col
onial times to the stage coach and horse
back rider, then to the steamboats, and on
to the railways. He described the day
upon which the mail arrived in the earlier
times as day of great rejoicing. 'And
now we see our mails flying by night and by
day, when the good people of America are
asleep. The people of the United States
ships, that the railway postal clerk en-
dures There is probably not like num-
Der of men who go to war that endure
the dangers and privations that lie in
wait for the postal clerk. I say that there
is more danger and more loss of life and
more injury of person to those who are
travelling as railway postal clerks than
there is to men who stand the brunt of
battle. And now this brings me to my
final point: It is the duty, in my judg
ment, of the national government at Wash
ington, so long as the civil service is to be
upheld, considering the dangers and trials
to which you are subject, not only of
death, but the manning of your bodies-I
say that if proper regard is to be shown
you for your faithfulness to the govern
ment, then it behooves that government
to properly compensate you, not only
while you are actively discharg-
you are rendered unfit by age and infrm-
ity, or by injury; in short, you are as
| much entitled to a pension for protecting
the land in time of peace as your brother
soldier is for defending it in time of war,
| if good and faithful clerks should be con-
| tinued in the service regardless of politics.
And when he ceases to be in the service
from no fault of his, let him be assured
| that a grateful country will not see him
duty of the national government to pen
sion the man who loses his limbs in the
| discharge Of the government business as
| it is to pension him who loses his mem
bers in the drawn battle. When a man is
turned out to shift for himself, after
spending twenty or thirty years in
| one branch of business, it is too
late to begin over again, and
| especially in the service, where man has
no opportunity to do anything but to
serve his government. He is untitled for
anything else and likely has large family
dependent upon him. I claim that it is a
great injustice, and civil service can only
be properly executed when they deal prop
erly with merit and integrity, both while
you are in the service and afterwards.
| Letters of regret were read from John
Wanamaker, postmaster general; S. A.
Whitfield, first assistant postmaster gen
eral; j. Lowry Bell, second assistants E. J.
Rathbone, fourth assistant; M. B. Wheeler,
chief postofice inspector; J. E. White,
general superintendent of mail service, and
a telegram from William White of Ottawa,
deputy postmaster of Canada, regretting
that he could not be present on account Of
the session of parliament.
Second Heavies, Reunion.
The twenty-ffth annual reunion of the