The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1892-12-03
THAT POST OFFICE ROBBERY.
a Schcsaic to Abolish the Fost Offices
At superior and South
Superior.
The Land e. River sNprOvemcnt Co.,
Emglncertn. the Scheme ana
Footing the ESIi;s.

The Evening Telegram, the paper
owned and controlled 10y the Land &
River Improvement Co, of West Su
rerior, in its issue of Tuesday evening
contained the following:
a miniature sensation has been caused on the
streets at the East End aud south Enti- II lie
tity by the runner that Postmaster Rice had gone
l., Washington TO ask for the atolishis oi Tie
East End and South End postolccs
AS this paper hears it, there has been 10 talk
Of aiolisi,ig The East End and south Ed otlc,->
altogether but Instead. of making them money
order offices, where just much business and
Just as many convcnencicS are offered as are un
ser the present circumstances.
1.-The change as suggested would give free
delivery to all parts Of the city. with the
main distributing Office at the West End. and
thus all parts of the city would y" served
very promptly and within half an hour OF
fhe arrival OF the mail. AS ii is now. the
s.aail for the East End which comes on the
81 Paul & Duluth and the Northern Pacific.
western trains, Duluth IRON Range and
13nlutll & Winnipeg. has to wait ut the Vest
End all day before ii can get to the East End
and then the people ut the East End have 10
70 TO the post office after it., If the new ar
Engagement carries. this mail. as well as all
other mail, would be delivered at the East
End by carriers at once.
THE same thing is true of the South End.
and that section of the city would have free
delivery. rs we'll rs the oldest part of town.
and De served just as promptly
.Of course such Il consolidation would
give US a first class postoiiicc. and then the
que>ti" Of public building would be prac-
tically settled.
That the powers that be at the West
End have been laying the wires in this
direction for the past year or more,
has been known III general way, but
just what thelr plans We're or when an
O,,en attack was to be made, was not
known until Thursday or Friday of
last week, when it was learned that
Postmaster Rice of the West Superior
office had been sent to Washington
with maps showing their side of the
matter, and the Unanimous request
of the people of the city, for the con
solidation."
People who inquired at that Office if
Mr.. Rice had gone to Washington on
the errand stated, were informed by
his assistant that he had not; that he
had only gone down to Prescott for a
few days visit, SO that falSehood with
sneaking trickery has been resorted to.
We frequently hear of mail robberes,
hut it has been reserved for the people
of West Superior to engage i'll the vii
famous attempt to steal not only the
mail but the entire outfit of two of
fees even to the very names.
This talk of the Telegram about free
delivery. and prompt delivery, is all
losh. 1t says that under the carrier
system mail would be delivered to the
East End and the South End people i'll
30 minutes after its arrival at the post
office Such lie as this needs no par
ticular notice. That the mail would
be sorted, delivered to carriers, they
travel three and four miles and then
distributed to individuals, all in the
brief space of so minutes, is such n silly
s,tatonone tho. IL Only oancas smile
TT pity and contempt for the driviling
idiot who penned it. To the contrary of
this it is notorious fact that even
now after two years of practice, the
West Superior pCstotlice requires, or
ut least takes, from two to four hours
to deliver its mail on Tower avenue,
Through such an Office we could not
hope to get our mail sooner than from
four to six hours after its arrival 1T
the West End.
There is no economy in the change
rs the Telegram says the Offices at the
East End and the South End are to be
maintained just as at present and are
to furnish public conveniencies the
same as now, except in the one matter
of handling the mails. For this pur-
pose additional clerks will be hired at
the West end office. and additional
carriers will be hired to deliver the
mail, all at an additional cost over the
present system. of several thousands of
dollars annually.
The third paragraph of the above
clipping contains the only statements
that could be used to our very great
damage, and that is in the misleading
statement that SO much of our mail
matter even now has to wait at the
West end all deg before it can get to
the East end, etc. Now no mail lays
at the West end as stated. The North
ern Pacific, the st. Paul * Duluth and
the Eastern Minnesota arrive there
about II o'clock in the forenoon, and
what mail they bring for the East end
Is ready for delivery at its destination
at $50 p. M, about six hours after its
arrival within the city limits The
Duluth & Iron Range trains carrying
nails arrive at Duluth at l O'Clock
p. m, and is ready for delivery at the
East end, its destination, at $50, four
hours and half after reaching DU
luth. and 30 minutes after the same
mail would reach the West end office
thus reaching the party addressed, I'M
der the present system, at beast three
hours sooner than it would under the
proposed change, and this is on the
superstition that we would have &
prompt evening delivery service.
But for arguments sake we will lei
that point rest. and look to the Other
side. The trains above alluded to bring
10 tie East end post office about one
fifth of the mail matter received here
The st. Paul mail gets here at $50 a
m, and the Chicago limited at $50 a
m Under the consolidated system
both of these very large and special,
important eastern mails would so RICH
past our door to West Superior tire,
miles distant, to be returned TO us b,
carrier-whene We could not hope t
have more than one delivery III tn
forenoon and one in the afternoon
hence. the $50 q. m. st. Paul ma
would no doubt he held there until at
the arrival of the Chicago mail at s.;