The evening times., 1899-11-11
POSYItSYHRS TO MEET
The Annual Convention of Their As
sociatipn Tuesday.
Prexidenti Dickerson Already Here
Making Preliminary Arrange
ments-Much Important Busi4ess
to BE Trunsacted-Would Change
the Hours of the Letter Carriers.

The National Association OF First Class
Postmasters will hold its annual session in
| this city next week. The meetings will
take place at the Arlington Hotel. begin
Ling Tuesday at o'clock, and the session
will last three or four days. F. B. Dicke soa.
postmaster. at Detroit, is the president of
! the organization. and he has already ar
rived here and is quartered at the Raleigh.
He said last night that he expected large
attendance Of the members of the associa-
! tion. for considerable business of impor-
| ,ance vould be transacted.
| One of the matters that the association
will consider will be the consolidation Of
! third and fourth class mail matter. At
present the postage for third-class mat
ter is / eent for two ounces, and for
fourth -claks matter, l cent for four ounces.
1t is probable that the association will de-
eide upon a rate Of postage that will bring
the Government no loss from consolidation,
and recommend that the Government adopt
| the plan.
The eight-hour law for carriers will also
be considered. with view to recommend
ing some changes. As this law now oper-
ates letter carriers work eight hours, and.
it is claimsd that on Mondays when the
mail is unusually large, the carriers can
not make the deliveries In the eight hours
allotted to then.
The proposition to come before the asso-
citation is to have Congress designate the
number of hours for carriers to work as
forty eight, leaving the subdivision OF the
time to the postmasters.
Under this arrangement if 1t became nec-
essary for a carrier to work eight and
half hours on Monday he would need to
work but seven and half hours TUESDAY
to make an average of eight hours for the
week.
This arrangement does not include SUM-
day. and carriers would under the pro-
posed gystem, be expected to work on Sun
day as long as needed, as they now have
to do.
Another important matter that the asso-
citation will probably make recommenda-
tions respecting change is the system OF
giving contracts for the transportation of
mail from the railway stations to the post
Office and thence to the substation.
At present the contract for this service
may be let to one man who may sublet the
entire work. When this is done, the post
masters claim, they have hard work TO keep
the subcontractors under control, for they
have TO reach them through the principal
contractor. the only one recognized by the
Government.
The interchange OF Pos.ofice appropria-
tons will be another theme that will be
discussed. AT present the changing OF
small postofiices into branch offices has pre-
vented the Postoffice Department from US
ing for other purposes the salary appropri-
ated for postmasters in such offices, and
these sums have been returned TO the
Treasury of the United States.
This amount is considerable each year
under the system of consolidation, as may
be seen in the case of Chicago alone which
consolidated fifty-six small postoffices and
Instituted in their place branch offices.
The association will also discuss the ad-
visibility of asking Congress to limit the
size of cards sent through the mails. At
present cards yard square. or even greater
in size may be sent through the mails.
These enormous cards, it is claimed ham,
per the entire department in its work be-
cause of their unwieldy character, and the
space they occupy. An effort will be made
to have the association recommend Con-
gress to prohibit cards larger than nine or
ten inches square from being considered
mail matter.
Before the convention adiourns a new
set OF officers will be elected. 1t is rot
known yet where the next meeting will take
place, but Mr.. Dickerson said today that an
effort would be made to have Washington
permanent headquarters, and to change the
time for the annual meeting to the month
of January. He said that ii is necessary
for first-class postmasters to make at least
one official viist to this city each year, and
that if they should all come in January
they could attend to their official business
and likewise the annual convention of the
association, thereby lsssening expense TO
each number