The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1896-03-16

LETTER CARRIERS IND SPIES,
Remarks by Congressman sperry

Mr.. Sperry-Mr. Chairman, l shall
detain the house only few minutes,
for I expressed myself at some length
on this subject last Saturday. Gentle
men on the other side who oppose the
amendment Of the gentleman from New
York (Mr. Quigg) proceed upon the as
sumption that there is at present no
supervision Of the carrier service.
| Why, sir, there is the postmaster, there
| is the assistant postmaster, there is the
superintendent of carriers, there is the
assistant superintendent of carriers
| Whenever a carrier goes out on trip
he must record his name; when he re-
| turns he must do the same. II there
were anything wrong in the conduct Of
these carriers it would be at once dis
| covered by some of these officials,
whose duty it is to see that the carriers
properly perform their duty.
Yet you say there is no supervision,
said the other day. in the course of
my remarks on this floor, that the sys-
tenn of inspection has grown to an
| enormous size. We started with but
very few of these officials and it has
grown to very large proportions, and
yet gentlemen would seem to argue to-
| day that we have no inspection. Why,
| sir, we have one hundred and ten men
to-day engaged in this work through
out the country, and there never has
been time when an inspection was ne
cessary that the postmaster could not,
| il necessary, get an inspector at once
| to assist him.
But according to some remarks made
here it is said that the letter carriers
| who have been dismissed have been
| dismissed wrongfully.
| Why, sir, when I was at home the
other day some of the letter carriers In
my own town who had been suspended
| by the operation of this spy system,
through reports made by the men who
| had been sent for that purpose, and
| which system you propose to carry on
| in this bill, said to me that they were
| hung up five or six weeks without pay;
! and not only that but they did not
know whether the charges under which
| they were arrested before might not
again be brought up against them at
any moment, as no final action had yet
| been taken, and involve their removal
from their positions. They did not
know where they were or what to do;
and not only that, but when they were
| told to go to work again and did return
| to the performance of their duties they
| felt as though they were liable at any
| hour to be dismissed from the service;
and they said to me: mr. Sperry, how
l I. "a -, H. >.
our work properly when we are all the
time daily and hourly, in fear of some
body bouncing down upon us? Why,
we feel as though we were making
more mistakes to-day than ever before
in the history of the service since this
spy system was adopted, for it unset
ties and unnerves us when in the per-
Torrance of our daily duties"
Two men called on me this morning,
men high in official position in the post
office department, and said to me that
there had not been blow struck since
| free delivery had become an accom-
| plished fact in this country that had
done so much damage and injury to the
service as the adoption of the spy sys-
TEN, which it is now proposed to per-
|
measure.
| I tell you, you may call the man an
| inspector, you can say that he is per-
| forming the regular duties of inspec-
ton, but tell me how it happens that
after all this work was done last fall
this congress is now called on to in
dorse that which the present post-office
administration forced on the people of
the country in the last year? If we add
the thirty inspectors, as proposed here,
it is a substantial Endorsement of what
was done last fall, and an official of the
post-office department who is compe-
| tent to judge, told me that all they
needed now was to get an Endorsement
by this republican house of the iniqui-
tous transactions of last fall And |
earnestly appeal to the house to put a
stop to this unjust and demoralizing
spy system by adopting the amendment
proposed by the gentleman from New
| York.
| (Here the hammer felI)
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