Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-05-14
THE LETTER CARRIERS, BILL.
A Controversy Between the National
Convention and the knights of Labor.

Two bills are pending i'm Congress both
intended to better the condition of letter
carriers. One of them. House bill 66S5.
aims to give the carriers in frst-class
offices s1.200, and those in second-class
offices $1,000 a year. The othec is House
bill o294. known the letter carriers ten
ure of office bill. which provides that no
letter carrier shall be removed from office
without a hearing. These are advocated by
different persons. and a controversy re-
garding them has arisen between Mr. John
F. Victory, the secretary of the National
Association of Letter Carriers. and the gen.
eral officers of the Knights of Labor. The
Knights Of Labor have urged the bill reg
ulating the salaries of letter carriers The
letter carriers association have been urg-
ing more especially the tenure of Office bill
believing that IL is not good time to urge
the measure provided for an increase of
pay. Representative Mcguire, who intro
duced the tenure of office bill, recently re-
ceived request from Mr.. John W. Hayes
the general secretary of the knights of
Labor. to suspend his efforts to secure the
enactment of the bill Mr.. Victory on the
10th instant wrote to Mr.. Mcguire calling
his attention to the fact that the tenure OF
office bill had received commendation from
the official journal of the knights of Labor
and asserting that ii had the support of
10 per cent of the letter carriers of the
nlted States in whose behalf he urged
Mr.. MaguirH to continue his labors Mr.
Mcguire. in reply. stated that the division
of sentiment indicated in his correspond
ence was embarrassing.
In his letter he said: Mr. Hayes writ
ing by direction of the general executive
be ard. K. of l., stated that they are not
opposed to anything that may appear i'm
bill No. 529i,' but expressly states that
House bill No. 5294 was originated in the
nrst place for the sole purpose of defeating
bill No. 66S5, which is an amendment to our
original bill, and which / think was No
4lSi.' / must believe that the general ex-
ecutive board has been misinformed con-
cerning the purposes for which Your asso-
ciation asked me TO introduce bill 529I, but
II seemed to me that your association
should be able to satisfy the X. of l.
board that no such hostility is meant"
Mr.. Victory has written Mr.. HAYES pro-
testing against the action of the general
executive board of the knights of Labor
He denies that bill No. 5294 was orisinated
for the purpose of defeating bill No 6lis5
calling attention to the fact that the former
bill was introduced TIN ee months before the
latter. He asserts that the letter carriers
of the United States protest against inter
ference by the knights of Labor in matters
peculiarly relating TO letter carriers and
within the province of the National Asso-
citation of Letter Carriers. He says the
National Association had deemed il wise
to suspend the effort to increase the salaries
OF letter carrierc at this time and TO con-
centrate their energies to secure the enact
r1ent of law that would safeguard the
position of letter carriers against arbitrary
removal for political or other causes. Bill
No. 443t, he says was introduced by
faction Of letter carriers of New York city
rt presenting not more than one-third of
the loo letter carriers employed in that
city, for the purpose of injUring the pros
poets Of the passage OF bill No. 52gi.