The evening times., 1899-09-15
NOT DISPOSED 70 MOVE /
Posteflee officials Cling to Their
Old Quarters.
Many of the Clerks, Including
Feminine Employees. Fearful of
terror Department Force Anx-
fous to Transfer Their Effects.

Since the removal of the Sixth Auditors
Office from the cid to the new Postoiiiee
| building, the additional space in the old
| quarters has so pleased postoffice officials
| that they do not want to be transferred to
| the new building at all.
! This apparent reluctance to get out CT
the way of the General Land and Indian
| bureaus of the Interior Department, SO
! that these cfffces can begin removing into
! the vacated building has caused much
| feeling in both departments. which has ex-
| tended to the higher officials.
| The Interior Department people say that
according to the provisions Of law for the
transfer Of the postoffice that department
today has no right and are trespassers
upon the old premises, which are really
the quarters of the Interior Department
by virtue OF the act of Congress, proyid-
ing fer the removal by the Postmaster
General when the new Pcsioffice building
shall be finished and ready for occupancy.
/ 1t is claimed this has been the condition
Of the new building since the 1st of Sep
| tember and it has taken all this time to
remove enc bureau
Said postCfice cffieiai to a Times re-
porter this morning: 1 do not want my
name published in connection with this
business, but the truth is that 90 per cent
of the attaches of this department are not
fascinated with the new building and We
are practically unit against the new
quarters and tine transfer. Now that the
time is approaching for US to get out We
feel more than ever our attachment for the
place, and il We are slow in vacating the
old home ii is not only On account of this
sentiment, but ii is because the new
building does not promise to be SO commo-
deus or pleasant as the old one.
There are persons in this department
who sincerely believe that the new build
ing is unsafe. They feel all right where
they are. This alarm exists morc espe-
cially among the woman employees. whose
distress in some instances has been caused
by two threatened eonfiagrations in the
new building and by the newspaper ac-
counts OF the settling of the foundations
and cracking of the walls. This nervous
hess has already taken the shape OF
mem crial to Congress, and altT ugh ! 10
not see how the Postmaster General is 60
ing to delay the moving until the 1st Of
/
not be accomplished by that time if the
influence of the Postofice Department peo-
j. pie can prevent Congress will yet have
to settle this question
Postoffiee officials are very retieent on
! this phase of the controversy; but some of
them have been measuring up their space
ia the new building since the Sixth Audi
/ tors effects were moved thereto. and they
unhesitatingly say they will b packed like
sardines from the fourth TO the ninth gal
leries of the great boX-like building.
! The Patent Office, the General Land Of
! fee. the Indian Office bureau of the PEN
| sion Office, and the office of the Secretary
/ of the Interior are all in a state of uncer-
! tainty over the apparent determination of
| the Postoffice Department people to stick
! to their old quarters as long as they can.
The question, When are we going over to
the cid Postoffice building?" cannot be
answered by the chiefs, some Of whom
have put quietus. to the gossip among
4 the subordinates, aud since the reduction
of Chief Clerk Metzger. of the Land Office,
! very little on the subject can be heard in
! that quarter. Every excuse of the Post
Office Department for delaying the depart
ure from the quarters now claimed by the
Interior Department has been met by re-
quests-almost amounting TO demands-to
hurry up Since the anxiety of the Post
Office people to remain has developed the
haste of the other departments to get them
out seems to have intensified.
IF their old quarters are so splendid"
said a woman clerk of the Patent Office
this morning. II do not wonder why the
General Land Office and Indian Bureau are
so anxious to be transferred from their
present cramped offices into those spacious
rooms. AS for the Patent Office force. We
have not room enough in some places to
comfortably turn around.
THE accumulating documents alone are
encroaching seven feet a week on the
space Of the Patent Office, and if the Gen.
eral Land Office is not soon out of our
way new building will have to be tenn
porarily secured to accommodate the over
flow of the Patent Office. A proposition
has already been considered to hire space
for this purpose in the Union Building on
G Street.