The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-10-15
ION THE FAST MAIL.
The Life of the Clerk Is One of Per-
petual Hazard and Hardship.


The railway postal clerks now attend
ing the convention in this city, says the
st. Louis Globe-Democrat. assert that
no branch of the government service is
as little understood as that in which
they are employed. - The educational
requirements are high, the work is ex-
hausting, both physically and mentally,
and the dangers faced are enough to
daunt the most courageous. Some of
the most horrible deaths imaginable
have been those of postal clerks fast
ened like rats in a trap in their postal
cars and unable to even know the cause
of the awful crash which so often
comes to the fast mail trains in which
| they travel. The men work at night, in
most cases. But hours before the trains
roll out of the big sheds the postal clerk
has begun work, and the starting of
his run is only the beginning of an ex-
hausting ride, and not the beginning of
arduous labors.
| There are from 1000 to 5000 railway
postal clerks in the service of the Unit
| ed States. They are selected prospect
| i've of political affiliations, and the ex-
aminations which they have to take
under the civil service rules are the
most rigid prescribed for any branch
of the United States service. After
each of the examinations three men
are selected who make the highest av-
erages, and these are placed on what
Is called the eligible list" From this
| list the substitutes are selected, and
| these substitutes take runs for men
who are off for any purpose. Eventual
| ~ usually after a period of six months,
these men are passed to the rank of
clerks, but enter the lowest of the
classes into which the clerks are divid-
ed. The clerks are divided into nine
classes, but the men on the road are
really divided into but five, numbered
in regular order from to 5. In the
same order their salaries are $500, 5000,
| $1,000 $1150 and $780, The classes from
D to 8 are classifications for superin-
| tendents, their assistants and men en-
ployed in the department at Washing
ton. The men work in crews the law
| limiting the number of each class to
handle a run by the amount of business
handled and its character.
Each postal clerk has to learn from
5000 to 1000 post offices, and there are a
number who know 10000 post offices.
| To know a state, in the language of
the railway mail clerk, is something
| different from what might be supposed
by the uninitiated. Not only must he
have knowledge of the names of the
towns, but he must know what county
each is in and what railroad reaches it.
If this were all, the task might not APP
pear 4 difficult one, but he must know,
too, the schedule on which the trains
run and be prepared to route a letter
by the closest connections. There is no
knowing these things in theory. They
must be known in fact. Regular exam
nations are made of the men to see
that they are up on their states When
a man is first accepted in the service
he is examined frequently, and then
eventually gets down to two examina-
lions each year, and, finally after a
number of years of service, he is ex-
amined but once year. On his accu-
racy and efficiency depends his rise in
the different classifications, which
means increase in salary. This matter
of advancing is not one of pull, but
of cold record and mathematical cal
culation. Every time man makes an
error it is checked against him and
counts in the records which are kept of
his average. When the time comes for
filing vacancy in the class above the
man whose average is highest in his
own class is passed to the next one.
The department allows the men to
make mistakes, which will delay a let
ter 80 minutes, but if the letter is sent
on a wrong route and delayed more
Uhan that the error Is CIlaTBeu against
him. The first time he makes an error
on route he is notified, or, as they say
in the service, it is brought to his at
tention ''for his information" The
next time he makes the same error he
is notified at the same time that it
counts IN his average.
Men have to report one another to
protect themselves. A clerk who re-
ceives a letter routed wrong must re-
port it at once, giving the time it was
received and from and to whom de-
livered. If he fails to do so and it
reaches an office late it is traced along
it's route and the blame distributed
among the men who handle it. There
are few clerks on the road who do not
have q number of these errors checked
against them each month, but each man
tries to keep the number down as much
as possible.
All meritorious actions are credited
to a man on his averages. An example
of this was the work done last winter,
when the Wabash fast mail was
wrecked at Missouri City, Mo-, and
several mail clerks, all st. Louis men,
| killed. Word was sent to Kansas City
that the mail was scattered about the
wreck, and that unless it was lmme-
diately cared for much of it would be
| lost or destroyed. On one of the fast
mails over the Missouri Pacific crew
of tired clerks came into Kansas City.
The men were almost exhausted after
| a run of twelve hours, including the