The morning call., 1894-08-01
THOSE UNIFORMS.
BisseIl Sent kilograms
About Them.
ONE CAME TO THIS CITY.
Charged INSTRUMENTATION in the
Ranks.
HE WAS IN A HURRY FOR ORDERS
The Local TaiIOrs' Union Protested
Against the Work Going to
the Far East.
ONE CAME TO THIS CITY.
HE WAS IN A HURRY FOR ORDERS

Postmaster General Bissell will probably
not make success of the clothing busi-
ness. He pays out too much money for
type written letters, waits too long for re-
turns and. tired of waiting expends the
surplus at his command for kilograms
which don't seem to bear fruit
Besides showing that he is a poor mer-
chant. this would indicate his utter ignOT-
ance of politics. If he had turned the
money paid out in drumming for the
making Of San Francisco carriers uni
forms and the salary for his time expended
waiting for the orders TO come 10 over to
Tammany, Croker might have bo ught an-
other Tacehorse.
So good-by TO the hope that the present
administration had gone into the cheap
clothing business as a step in the direction
of ultimate Government control of rail-
roads. There's nothing in it. 1t was an
effort for which there is no explanation
beyond the one that POstmaster-G General
Bissell loves mOnopolies just as much as
Whitney and Brice and Dan Lamont and
numbers OF other intimates of the admin
istration too numerous to mention.
Whatever his object. the director of
the mails has succeeded in raising
a tempest around his head. AssO-
ciated Press wires leading into every city
in the country carried queries and answers
forth and back concerning the hand the
Postmaster General had in drumming
trade in uniforms for Fechhoim erB rothers
& Co. of Cincinnati mot Philadelphia).
The people want to know about it, now
that the San Francisco end of the story
haQ auH haUn aI riCan
to inquire why the Postmaster General
failed to advertise the commercial debut
Of the administration.
And, by tie way. the latter oversight on
the part of The honored POstmaster-Gen-
eral shows cOnclusiveIy' that be hasn't the
first requisite for commercial success.
Every business man knows thatif he wants
his goods properly placed before the public
he must advertise. John Wanamaksr, Mr.
BisseI'S predecessor. did it. He runs two
mammoth and magnificent stores in Phia-
delphia, apd has agencies in every city in
the country. He adVertises most literally,
and he makes letter-carriers' uniforms,
too. but he didn't ask the mercuries of
Uncle sam to buy their plumage of him
when he was POstmaSteT-General.
Mr.. Bissell, however, may not have been
so ignorant Of advertising advantages as
as might appear at first blush. Maybe he
knew all about them. The Populists, who
insist Oh being particularly blunt in their
remarks concerning the present admins
tratiOn, say he didn't advertise because he
didn't want it known that the administra-
tiOn had gone into the hand-me-down
business; that he proposed using his posi-
tion, free from public inquiry, to compel
the letteT-carriers of the United States to
buy their clothing from one firm. In other
words, to create and foster monopoly.
As far as his first trial in San Francisco
is concerned he very nearly succeeded. Of
the 1O5 men in the employ of the local
POstoffice as carriers majority have sent
IN their orders to Fechheiner Brothers &
Co. Had the methods of Mr. BisselI not
been made known it is more than likely
that the others would have followed suit.
The uniforms the men get from Fech-
heimer Bros. are scheduled at S14 90 and
look very well They are similar In color
and texture TO the ones previously worn
by the men and purchased in this city,
There are numerous firms in this city
willing to compete in price with Fech-
heimer Bros. and probably beat that firm
in fit. by reason of the fact that they can
try the uniforms on the men On the ground.
The reason they have not done this the
present year is because they have not had
the chance. The P0stmaster-GeneraI has
seen to that and precluded competition by
his action. 1t is natural to suppose that
he has done the same in other cities, and.
from this basis, tits easy 10 figure out what
a bowling monopoly Fechheimer Bros. g.
Co. will shortly become. A man with half
an eve can almost see the fat Mr. BIssell
will fry out of them for the next campaign.
There are thousands and tens Of thou
sands of letter-carriers in the United
States, and the making of only one suit
year-in most places they are compelled to
buy twO-thrOws S14 % to the growing
monopoly of Fechheimer Bros. & Co. for
each one of the thousands. Maybe it isn't
a good thing.
Meanwhile San Francisco merchants
and clothlers and those of other cities of
the country can only look on and saw
nothing. They have no recourse, and, in
Individual instances, the making of the
uniforms would bring them in small re-
turns. They are not Fechheimer Broth
ers q Co., unfortunately for them, and not
friends of the administration. No wonder
Postmaster-General Bissel shifts the air
and picks ont the favored firm which ne
proposes to foster until it becomes mo-
nOpOly.
But all that doesn't explain the telegrams
that Postmaster General Bissell sent in
his effort to force trade for Fechhemer
Brothers & Co. Those come In later.
some time after the first order came to
Postmaster Backus. asking him to kindly
Inform his men that Fechheimer Brothers
q Co. were still doing business at the old
stand. Il was just about the time that
tired feeling manifested itself in Mr.. Bis
sells anatomy. He had waited for weeks
for the orders to pour in from San Fran
cisco to Fechheimer Brothers, and they
came not Then he hurriedly sat down.
jabbed his pen in the red message bottle
and the wires were hot shortly with his
-