Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1897-12-01
SALT LAKE LETTER CARRIER.
He Wins Suit Against the Posloffice for
Overtime.
This Victory of a. y. Post, Formerly In tho
Postonice Employ Here, Opens the
Way for Other Chains.

New York, Dec. IA dispatch from
Washington says:
Amerman Post, letter carrier Of
Salt Lake City, recently sued the gov
ernment under the eight hour law for
overtime and a decision was rendered
In favor OF Post. The government APP
pcaled to the United States Supreme
court. The highest court has affirmed
the finding.
The suit of Post and the decision Of
the Supreme court opened the way for
the bringing Of suits to collect claims
of u similar character aggregating u
very large sum.
Washington, Dec. by order of AS
sistant Postmaster General Heath, 1t
mas been made AN uffense punishable
by dismissal from the service for a
letter carrier to work more than eight
hours a day.
This is the result of n decision by the
Supreme court unfolding the claim of
A. 5. Post, letter carrier of Salt Lake,
for overtime under the eight hour law
of 1855.
Mr.. Post is an old soldier who IL
drawing a pension from the govern
ment He is well known here and was
in the employ of the Salt Lake post
ministration Just how the case
comes up now is not understood by
the local authorizes. A News" man
called at Postmaster Barratts Office
today for information but did not find
the official in at the time. Charles c.
Slade, superintendent of city delivery.
was seen, however. He said: can
not understand the meaning OF this
Dispatch. The Post case was passed on
by the United States Supreme Court
several years ago with number of
others. l had one among them. 1t
happened in this way: During Cleve-
lands first administration we were
short of assistance and had to work
overtime great deal putting in from
twelve to fourteen hours Il day. We
felt that we were entitled to extra
compensation, as under the rules of
the department. as we Interpreted
them We were only required to work
eight hours day. Therefore seven
of us. Rue II. Sholes, w. w. WIscomb
W. j. Wiscomb, a. S. Post, 5. II. Skid
more. l.. b. Morse and myself. all
carriers. put in bills for extra COM
pensation. These were allowed by the
Court of Claims, and the government
appealed the case to the Supreme
Court The Supreme Court affirmed
the decision and we all got our money,
ranging from $500 to $1,000, Post get
ting the larger amount. We won in
all Of our contentious except as to
claims for Sunday compensation.
These were ruled out
This ruling" continued Mr.. Slade.
Opened up the way for other carriers
similarly situated throughout the
United Stat.'t and Il Hood OF suits
was the result. In order TO satisfy the
claims Congress passed special APP
preparation bill Of more than million
dollars That was some years ago,
however and the present dispatch
must be connected with that in some
way. l do not believe 1t can refer to
any new phase of the case, as all
claims arising under 1t We're passed up
on and paid years ago except the Sun
day claims which were declared void,
Recently Mr.. Post, who has been
cut of the department service for a
considerable time. applied for REIN
statement. The matter was referred
by the authorities at Washington to
the officials here but the case was ad-
Versely passed upon"