The Wichita daily eagle., 1897-12-07
BONDS FOR LETTER-CARRIERs.
Plan for General Renewal and What
It Means


1t Means.
Washington, D. c. Dec. 4-The reso-
lution Of the postmaster-general to re-
Quire general renewal of the bonds given
by letter-carriePs at the free-delivery
postoffices and a resort TO guaranty
companies for sureties, in the interest
OF uniformity, was at first supposed to
mean the granting Of a monopoly 10
ever the local postmasters may do in
the premises-and they have considera-
BILE latitude of authority-tilere is no
notion at the department here Of giving
a ''cinch' to anybody.
Two plans have been under considera-
ton. One was to send TO the leading
guaranty companies scattered through
the country and procure a statement Of
their loestrates for furnishing letter
carriers bonds, and then to put tl1is in
formation into tabular form in a circu-
lar and notify the carriers that they
may obtain bonds from any of these
companies they may prefer. Theother
plan was simply to publish in the free
delivery offices a list Of the companies
which have been regularly qualified to
leave the carriers to make the best
terms they can privately with any Of
these. The second plan is the more
guaranty companies that have complied
with all the departmental regulations,
and been accepted by the postmaster
general as qualified to furnish bonds to
the government. Four of these the
Guaranty, the Fidelity and Casually,
are New York concerns.
One reason urged in favor OF allowing
the letter-carriers to make their own
which suits them bestis that they are
often able, by acting as aFbody, to get
very low bids on thestrength of the di-
mensoins OF thecontract they can throw
into the hands of one corporation. AS
a matter of fact, a surety company
takes almost no risk on going on a car
rier's bond to the government. The
cases are so rare where a surety can be
sued in group Of experienced postal
today by your correspondent, only one
could recall case which had passed
under his personal notice.
This fact will probably surprise the
ordinary reader until he scrutinizes the
rier is ardested for robbing the mail;
but the letters he steals are usually
private, not government letters. The
culprit is sent to prison under the
criminal laws, but as there is no privity
of contract between his sureties and
the victims OF his theft, thelatter can
not sue to recover on his bond. Further
more, as the loosers cannot recover from
the government, the government has
no ground for a civil suit against the
carriers sureties.
Here and there carriers steal govern
ment letters containing money, as where
salary payments are sent in cash to
somefield agent out IN the wilds where
he can not use checks, or they may lose
theih mail-bags. or fail to turn in their
letter-boX keys. In such case the |
amount TO be paid is sotrifiing that il
could hardly figure in any estimate of
risk taken by a corporation. Indeed, it !
has been suggested that some first-class |
accident insurance company could make /
a good stroke by adding bonding |
branch to its business, and offering a |
bond thrown in as a bonus to those |
against accidents. A great many car |
riers carry policies of accident insurance. 1
Their chances Of slipping on icy side |
walks, or falling down flights Of steps, |
or having something dropped on their |
heads while passing unfinished buildings /
are sufficiently threatening to alarm |
them, although the percentage of actual |
bodily injuries is not large in the corps !
as a whole. It would certainly be a /
great attraction TO carrier to fee. that |
when he had spent certain sum to Sc
cure himself against loss OF salary
through accident, he 'woulG also be able 4
TO satisfy the government requirement |
IS 10 his own bond without any extra
cost; and the company would, it Is be-
lieved, be taking almost no hazard at /
ell.
GOTT n'S VALET SIZES HIM