Omaha daily bee., 1899-05-07
~. S. MAI" Is TO COME OFF
Street Railway Company Says 1t Will
Erase the Words from Its Cars
MAIL CONTRACT AMOUNTS TO BUT LITTLE
Eject of order to he Issued by post-
master GenernI-Bcsult of Efforts
of Amnlgnmnted Association of
street Hallway Employees.

1t is announced from Washington that
/ Postmaster General Smith has issued or
ders that the words United States Mall
shall be used only such street cars as
/ actually carry mail. The custom OF so
marking the cars is confined only to the
! larger cities where contracts are made for
carrying mail by the street cars after the
regular mail wagons have started on heir
journey to the trains. 1t has been charged
| by labor organizations that street car COM
panes have taken advantage of the use OF
the words on the car to prevent interference
with the cars in the event of a strike among
the street railway employees, The custom
was given an impetus few years ago when
United States Judge decided that strikers
interfering with mail train brought them
selves in opposition to the government au-
thorities. The order issued by Postmaster
General Smith, II is said, is the result Of
request sent in from a meeting of the Amar-
gamated Association of Street Railway en-
ployes held at Louisville, Ky, last week
In Omaha large number of the stree,
cars bear the prescribed words. All Of the
new cars which have been put into service
in the last year are so inscribed. The Dodge
street line carries large quantity OF mail
between the postoiice and the depot. The
sixteenth street line carries mail to
stations A and B, and the sher-
man avenue line carries mail to
South Omaha and back, being transferred
to and from the depot According to the
officials of the street railway company all
their cars are liable. under the contract, to
be called into the service OF carrying mat
and it would be next to impossible to so
mark them that only such cars as actually
carried the mail should bear the sign.
1--WE will remove the words from our cars.
said Superintendent Smith, when asked about
it, "if the Postotlice department orders it,
and at tCe same time we will remove the
mail sacks from the cars. The mail contract
has always been burden to us. 1t throws
the cars from their schedule time frequently
and annoys the travelling public. Worst OF
all, the pay is ridiculously small. The con-
tract was made more for the accommodation
of the public than for the financial returns
it brought. Our cars will come up from the
depot loaded down with mail sacks on the
front platform; we load them and unload
them; and oftentimes have to wait for some
one at either end to come and get the mail
and for that particular trip we receive from
the government the sum of cents. Whe,,
the contract for carrying the mail was made
an agent for the Postoffce department
quested us to inscribe the United States
Mall on the cars, because the department
ulu uOl WANT Une mali transmitted IN any
conveyance which was not so marked. He
even suggested the style of letter to use and
wo followed his instructions. Now we will
have no further parey over the matter and
will discontinue the contract when it ex-
pires, which will be in few months
But Little Interest in the Order
Among the laboring men of the city and
the street railway employees little interest
was shown in the order. The latter have no
labor organization. When asked why this
was so, they replied that there was no occa-
sion for one. They said they had always
received generous treatment by the company,
that their pay was not reduced during
any period of the panic, when other wages
were cut down, and that there were no
grievous wrongs to be rishted through the
aid of a labor organization
A prominent labor leader In the city said
efforts had been made in the past to or
ganze the street railway employees, but
without success, as the men generally ex-
pressed themselves satisfied with their po-
sition. He said that in some cities where
the relations between employer and employe
were not so harmonious as in Omaha strikes
had occurred and the street car companies
had used the inscription United States
Mall on their cars to call in the assistance
Of the government authorities to defeat the
strikers, and he presumed from that expe-
rience street car companies generally had
adopted that rule to provide against emer>
gencies. He said the street railway men in
this city were the best contented body OF
WOrkmen as a rule in Omaha