Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1898-02-21
DEsERET EVENING NEWS. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 81, 1898.

tiers of ;he company which are % 20
in the night mali Instead 81 deposit
ing them In the Office ~ Sew Yorl,, err
In one ~ the stations, sub-rtntions ar
letter hqSes. where tntN wiz do no
good, why not mail them IN the smaller
Office and thereby help friend? The
government loses nothins and the
friend gains. so. as AZ act Of friend.
ship the secretary often consents, ana
the postmaster of the suburban town
is enabled TO report n large amount or
cancellations and Is paid accordingly.
Whom the pay depends on the gross
receipts, another course IL pursued III
stead OF bringing the letters out from
town, the obliging friend Is requested
to purchase his stamps at the Office and
mail his letters in New York. In this
way the receipts are swollen and the
salary OF the postmaster expanded in
proportion.
"in other cases the suburban post
master Is commutar. and has an
office In the city. Here he makes
friends with those In charge Of large
corporations and requests them to pur-
chase from him the stamps they re-
quire, offering TO deliver them on the
premises This is frequently done. the
postmaster bringing into towns every
day several thousand stamps, and SELL
ing them to the large firms and corpur-
ations. or course the more he sells the
larger his salary, and he Is usually very
Industrious. The evil does not stop here
Sometimes the secretary does not
prove so ohliglng. or the corporation is
not friendly to the postmaster. 1t then
becomes a matter of business. which
means split In the commissions. The
postmaster offers to divide his salary
or rather pays Il commission on each
letter mailed at his office by the repre-
| sentative Of the concern. Where a
| firm is sending out "A thousand letters
| n day this soon becomes a matter Of
| considerable profit TO both the post
| master and the obliglng friend; or
| else the postmaster offers II small re-
| ductior ON the stamps. As he is paid
| for selling them, he can afford to sacri-
| fee part of the profit. and by selling
| 10000 or 10000 stamps IN lump he can
| put the price down considerably. Even
| IL the firm saves only few dollars, II
is a reduction it could not obtain at the
| general postofiice. and many Of the
large houses in New York buy all their
stampsn this way. There are hun
dred concerns in New York such as
| wholesale firms. commission houses,
| insurance. railroad and steamship COM
panies. that use more than IA thousand
stamps a day, and the saving of few
dollars ON each 10000 means something
in the course of the year.
"This business is well known and
there is good reason to believe chat
some persons In New York are ahrewd
enonrh to make fair living by beat
ing the department, FOR ,his is a scheipe
that can he orknd beth way : nj unre.
Supp 81. fol instance, that YOU are the
secretary Of a large insurance COM
pany, using q thousand stamps a day.
The postmaster at your town Is paid by
the amount of his cancellations. You
are on friendly terms with him, as you
are with the postmaster ut another
town near by. who is paid according to
his gross receipts. You agree with the
first TO bring out your mail every even
ing, and are met by him at the train.
With the other you arrange TO take
5000 stamps week, which he delivers
at your house In the suburbs or at your
office In town. From both you get a
commission from the one for the
stamps and from the other for the
mailing. Now put the two together
and you will find that you are getting
at least one-fourth of your stamps fol
nothing. The stamp bill of your firm
/ Is $4,000 year and you are receiving
81 800 year for your trouble. Quit,
? an agreeable addition to the ordinary
salary, and you also have the pleasur,
} of knowing that you are helping tw,
: friends. AS there are many men il
q New York who are just as wise as you
! the department believes that this sor
t OF thing has been going on for years
OF course nothing can be done will
= the individual, and with the postmaste
Y the department is restricted to a dis
| missal.
while this Is apparently Harmless
!, piece of business enterprise. it work
!, great detriment to the department, T.
] the local officers and to the postmas
tiers. The people who are engage,
|. in 1t are defrauding the government
to this extent that they are com
: polling 1t to pay twice for the serv
! ice performed, and they are obtainin,
/, their stamps at o. discount. thus form