The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-07-19

DldNS most
important part in every one Of the great
railroad strikes to-day. Without the aid
which they can invoke from the federal
authorities the railroad companies would
be almost powerless in the hands of a
large body of strikers. Local laws are
administered with certain prejudice:
the federal law is dealt out without con-
slderation for friend or foe. The striking
railroad hand fears the federal officers
and the possible body of regular troops
behind them when local authori-
ties and the local militia have little infu-
ence over him. That is why the labor
unions are trying to have congress re-
move the safeguards which surround the
handling of the mail to make il possible
for them to interfere with the operation
of the mail trains so that railroad man
ayers will have to sidetrack all but the
mail cars and to send these cars through
on a special SEIZED ule or fail in their con
tracts with the government. At present
the railway mail car is part of the train,
and If the train is delayed the mail is de-
layed. So the future of the great rail-
road strikes in great measure hinges on
the relation of the DOS totfice department
o. to the railroad companies
The railway mail cars are not the prop
erty of the postofice department They
D6lOuS " Ou6 IdllrOdQ companies ana are
operated under a lease When the first
contracts for carrying the mail were made
with the railroads no one looked forward
to the day when the postofice department
would operate long trains of cars devoted
entirely to the handling of the mails
The first mails were carried in baggage
cars just as express matter is carried on
small roads. But so much of the work of
the postofice department is done en- route
to-day that it is necessary that the de-
partment should have its own cars.
These cars are miniature postotfices. In
them mail matter is received,
sorted and distributed lust as To-
cal or drop letters are handled
at local postoffice, but with this sdiffer-
ence, that while the local distributor has
to keep IN mind only the arrangement of
the streets of a city with which he is IA
miliar, the railway mail clerk has to keep
constantly in memory the names of Il, 900
or $4,000 postoffices, many of them with
connecting titles and to know by Just
what roundabout route each of them is to
be reached. The local distributor too
does his work between certain fixed
hours, standing on firm footing and with
the prospect of home greeting awaiting
him when his days labor is over The
railway mail clerk works at irregular
hours often day and night without rest,
with the swaylng flooring of a railroad
car under foot, and his outlook at the end
of his route is often an iron bed on the top
floor of postoftice building.
PLENTY OF APPLICANTS.
Although the post of railway mail clerk
is probably the most dangerous post in the
government service, there are always
more applications for appointments in the
service than there are vacancies to fill
Between $500 and 5000 applications for
appointments are made every year AS
there are only z, 600 clerks, 400 of them
substitutes, in the whole service, and as
the percentage of removals is compare
lively small, it can be seen easily that the
proportion of these applicants likely to be
appointed to place is not large But
then you eliminate the number of those
who fail to pass the civil service exami-
nation about one in three) the number of
those who decline appointments after
they have passed the examination. and
the number of those who prove physi-
cally or mentally deficient after entering
the service there is still fair chance
for the man who possesses the needful
qualifications
The civil service examination for rail-
way mail clerks is comparatively simple.
The actual test of efficiency comes after
the preliminary work which follows ap-
pointment. All that the civil service
commission undertakes to do is to learn
whether an applicant is fairly we'll in
formed in photography, penmanship, copy
ing, letter writing, arithmetic. geography,
the railway and other transportatio
systems of the United States, and is
reasonably proficient in reading ordinary
handwriting. The last three are the only
branches of the examination which
can be said TO be specially appli-
cable to the railway mail service, and
the information which the applicant is
expected to possess is not much greater
than that which every well-informed man
should have. In the line of geography
the examiner is likely to ask,th examin-
ed the name of the state Of his birth and
the boundaries of it, the names of two i'm
portant cities on certain of the large
rivers, the names of the capitals of GER
tain states, etc. In the list of railway
and other transportation lines the appli-
cant is expected to know the names of the
chief routes and their connections and to
make up specimen route between two
large cities.
When the applicant has written out the
answers to the first seven sets of ques-
lions the examiner takes him by himself
into an examination room and hands to
him fifty cards, on which addresses have
been written as though they were on en-
velopes. These addresses are in different
hands, and thev are written no more leg
IDLY than the usual envelope address
The applicant has ten minutes in which
to read aloud to the examiner the ad-
dresses on these cards. His reading is
timed, and the mistakes he makes are
noted. This card reading counts one-ffth
OF the total in making up the record of
the man examined The Importance of
this reading is exemplihed by the fact
that as soon as man receives an APP
pointment he is put through an
other course of reading by the
chief clerk of the division superin-
tendent, to whom he reports. If he UNI
dergoes this test satisfactorily he receives
book of regulations and scheme of
theroute on which he is to work A rail
way mail clerk does not have choice of
routes. If there is vacancy on route
near his home. he is very likely to get it,
but if tne vacancy is far from the place
where he lives the department requests
MIN to move over to the vicinity of his
\ route if he accepts. Sometimes the clerk
\ prefers to decline an appointment which
Is far from his home and wait for another
vacancy. This does not prejudice him
with the department; in fact, his name is
left at the head of the list and the next
appointment is probably offered to him.
THROWING THE CARDS.
When the clerk receives the local
scheme" he studies it for several weeks,
and then goes up for examination. A