Evening star., 1895-10-17
How It Has Worked in Regard to
the Letter Carriers.
An IMPROVEMENT IN THE SERVICE
First Assistant Postmaster General
Jones Talks Freely.
NO POLITICS INVOLVED

Mr.. Frank Jones, first assistant poStmaS-
ter general, has been making a great i'm
provement in the letter carrier service. To
accomplish this Inspectors have been sent
to different cities without notice, of course,
to the local postmasters or to the letter
carriers), who have made reports to the
Post Office Department as to the work of
these carriers, and especially as to their
neglect of duty. The latest action which
Mr.. Jones has taken in this matter is to
write letters to 176 letter carriers in the
city of Chicago, notifying them that re-
ports have been made against them which
deserve their consideration. This action is
a sensation in that city, for neither Post
master Hes:ng nor the letter carriers knew
that they were under any special scrutiny
Of the Post Office Department
What the Letters Mean.
1.-THE fact that have written 176 letters
to Chicago letter carriers with regard to
alleged delinquencies on their part" said
Assistant Postmaster General Jones, docs
not mean that all of these men have been
dismissed. I established a rule soon after
entering upon the duties of this office that
no carrier should be dismissed from the
service without having had laid before him
a copy of the charges against him, and that
he should also he given an opportunity to
satisfactory to the letter carriers that they
passed a resolution in their annual conven-
tion at Cleveland approving it. / have, in
pursuance Of that policy, written to all the
letter carriers in Chicago against whom
charges have been reported by my secret
agents of reglect of duty other violation
OF the regulations, stating what the
charges against them are and asking them
to make explanations. In cases where cX-
plantations are satisfactory there will be no
action. In other cGses it may be necessary
to make suspensions, ard perhaps in some
of the more aggravated instances dismiss
ais will follow
Charges of a Varied Character.
What are the charges against these men,
Mr. Jones?'
'They are of a varied character, and
none of them will be made public SO far as
individuals are concerned. Nor will the
names of the men to whom these letters
In a general way, the charges cover loiter-
ing, drinking while on duty and the falsifi-
cation Of records. An act was passed by a
recent Congress, as is we'll understood for
bidding Iriers from making over time.
Prior to the passage of that act carriers
had been Permitted to make over time, and
claims for over time amounting to one and
half million dollars have already been
filed The Court of Claims has already al
lowed these claims to the amount of nine
hundred tkousard d dollars, that it was
important to prevent, If possible, the max
ing Of over time, and to see to 1t also that
the carriers should utilize the eight hours
of their day to the best advantage"
The Work of a Carrier.
"The work of the carrier" continued Mr..
JONES' "is first to route up his mail That
is, he takes the mail for his route which he
finds upon his desk, and arranges It in its
proper order, SO that he can the most expadi-
tiousy and accurately distribute it. A little
more than two hours of the eight hours is
allowed for this purpose. To be accurate,
the time actually allowed for this work is
two hours and twenty-five minutes.
1.-The remainder of the time is set apart for
the distribution of the mails on their route.
found that carriers would probably not oc-
cupy all of that time in the actual distribu-
ton of the mails, and that they did not need
to consume as much as they reported in
work inside the office. So, in the belief that
given territory should be covered by a less
number of men, If they used their time prop
erly and to the best advantage 1 began TO
send out some time ago secret agents to in
quire into their work. Before doing so I
arranged a system by which the agents could
be assigned to different routes and be in
structed to note the time that each letter
carrier began work, when he stopped work
and what he did while engaged in his duties.
The purpose of this inspection was to enable
the department to ascertain what time was
actually consumed in the distribution Of he
mail and whether any more'or any less time
could be proftably employed than that which
was provided in the regular schedule The
business or the inspector was simply to OBJ
serve the movements Of the carrier to whom
they were assigned and to see that they
spent no unnecessary time talking to the
people on the street. in entering saloons or
drinking while on duty, and. in short,
whether they could cover larger field rea-
sonably well during the hours for which they
were paid. Incidentally, the inspectors were
also to observe the personal habits of the
carriers, to ascertain whether they violated
any Of the rules Of the department, which
are very strict, while on duty and whether
they loitered or committed any other act in
violation of the department regulations. The
mann op1ect OF the inspection was to deter
mine whether given field could not be COW
cred by less number of carriers"
Result of the Inspectfon.
"And what is the result, Mr.. Jones. of
these inquiries?"
IF you ask about Chicago, 1 cannot
answer very definitely, except to say that
Of the 1.O50 men employed there l76 have
been reported to the department as violat-
ing in some way the post office regula-
ttons. Possibly some of the charges are on
account of the personal habits Of the car
riers. But large portion of the charges
refer to the amount Of time consumed in
the actual delivery Of the mails. 1 may
sey, in a general way, in answer to the in
quiry as to what has been accomplished,
. DeGD
carried out we have been able to make a
large reduction in the force. In Philadel-
phia, for instance, our agents have looked
over the field thoroughly, and their work
has been carefully inspected by tho de-
partment. The result is that 1t was found
practicable to reduce the force there 126
men, which was saving to the govern
ment of more than slO0.OO0 per annum.
And we have not found any complaints
from that city since that time that this
action has reduced the value of the Phila-
de!phia letter carrier force, or rendered it
less efficient in any way. The people Of
that city get the same number Of collec-
tions and deliveries each day that they did
before, and the work of the carriers has
been in no way injured. OF the 126 men
who were removed from the Philadelphia
force about twenty were dismissed. The
other JOG were simply dropped from the
force because their services were not need
ed, and were placed on what we call the
substitute list, so that they can take their
chances in obtaining employment as SUBJ
stitutes."
80 D.n