St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1896-01-14
CONGRESSMAN KIEFER,s SUCCESS
TIVE AND HOPEFUL TELEGRAM
TO POSTMASTER CASTLE.
PROBABLY MORE CARRIERS
HAVE BEEN ALLOWED BY THE
POSTOFFICE DEPARTMENT AT
WASHINGTON.
MIR. CASTLE ASKED FOR SEVEN,
In Order to Give Better Service, E.-
pecially In the business and
Wholesale Districts.

Postmaster Castle received the fol-
lowing telegram yesterday from Con-
gresham Kiefer. at Washington, D. c.:
you will hear some news from the
postmaster's department in few days
that will please you"
Capt. Castle presumes that Col. Kie-
fer's dispatch has reference to his
POSTMASTER Castle's) recent letter to
First Assistant Postmaster General
jones. requesting an increase in the
carrier service in st. Paul In this let
ter, which was received in Washington
yesterday, Capt. Castle asks for the
allowance Of one mounted carrier and
six carriers on foot in addition to the
present force, to be placed on duty
Feb. l, 1896.
1.-The mounted carrier writes Postmaster
Castle, lis needed to collect newspapers and
packages from thirty large new mail package
boxes which have been ordered distributed
throughout the city. These boxes will gather
in a large amount of package and circular
mail which is now sent to the postofice, and
the present carriers on foot could not bring
it in. The six other carriers requested seem
absolutely necessary to give our people an
efficient free delivery service
Il have now served nearly four years IN
this position continues the postmaster, land
feel in duty bound before my retirement to
give to the department an opinion to the
needs OF the Office, based on my experience,
efficient service / found here, making
allowance for the growth of business. When
assumed this position, March l, 1892, there
were eighty-five carriers. Since that time
free delivery has been extended TO rooms in
hotels flats and apartment houses through
out the city; several important suburban dis
trlcts have been added to our territory and
MAY l, 1899 the carriers day reduced from
nine to eight hours loss of IL per cent,
equivalent to the discharge of nine carriers
Besides this the regular business of the Of
flee has largely increased. as the following
statement of the revenues for each calendar
year will show:
1879 1879 ......'. .......... ...... 1881 956 &c
1894 -. ........ - 363 GA 70
1879 $500. ......... .............. 422, DAG OF
This growth does not represent all of the
is an enormous gratuitous service here, ow-
| ing to the location of army headquarters,
three United States court headquarters and
nearly all Of the other United States officers
for tine Northwest in st. Paul. That &c. -.
ness is constantly growing. but yields no rev.
enue. II ri
ITO place us ina numerical proportion to
1892, we should now have ITO carriers, in
stead of SO, as we have at this date or 100
as we will have Feb. 1896. if you grant the
present request, viz:
Number of carriers March 1, 1892 81
Required for service in hotels, fats etc. =. 4
Required for increased territory ..... 2
required for collections from package
poASS ........ Observation-Disclosures. l
Lost by reduction to eight hours. - 9
Required by increased revenues and busi-
nese ''''.........: 49,. .....................
Total ........I... Ito
In other Words we have apparently added
work for twenty-five men in four years and
nave only been allowed nine additional men
to do it with. u
Our business men are in close competition
Win otner commercial cities. They must have
the best possible postal facilities. Our twenty
carriers inthe business district make five de-
l1veries day each. We cannot possibly a6-
Just these deliveries to the arrival of impor-
tant mails on our twelve or fifteen different
railroads so as to give prompt delivery for
eacn mai. While we can time one delivery
SO as to be very prompt for one important
mali our carriers cannot get back so as to
d Uaa, promptly prompt after the next mail. This
causes dissatisfaction and keeps us see-saw-
ing pack and forth with our schedule irving
10 accommodate and never succeeding a ma ri
OF these carriers should have smaller districts
anu give SIX or seven deliveries a day as is
done in most commercial cities
mere is also need of increased efficiency
IN our collection service This last is a very
Important matter. enclose a communica-
| uon bearing indirectly on this subject which
Is sample of innumerable complaints from
our BUSINESS men as TO the present service.
| Our collections in the business district have
| been SO meager, 1t seems, that many of our
heaviest houses got into the habit of sending
their evening mail to the union depot. There
railway mail service, who tried to handle
| these letters, and did SO until they swamped
him. did not discover the evil until it had
! grown to Il magnitude which became serious.
! Tor some 1000 or more letters were dumped
! IN on this transfer clerk during two or three
hours late in the afternoon daily, and he was
| obi1ged to protest against it. This turned the
| wrath OF the business men who had been
! thus, as they supposed, eXpediting their mail
IN an avalanche on me. I recently added to the
duties OF our five-trip carriers that of collect
| ing mail within their districts and bringing II
In on their last return trip, but even this
does not fully meet the emergency. Much OF
this mail is not ready until after their latest
collection, and the regular collectors must
prlng II In, and there are not enough of them
| TO get 1t up to the office in time for our dis
| trlbuting force to get 1t out on the early even
ing mails The consequence is that much OF
! II misses the mail for which it was intended
| and goes out later in the evening on slower
trains, or is held over until the next morn
| ing"