Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-02-19
CUBAN POST OFFICES
What Mr.. Brewster Camsren Says Has
Been Accomplished.
A Degree of Efficiency Reached
Almost Equal to That in the
United states.

Mr. Brewster Cameron, who was connected
with The Post Office Department as an in
spector for a number of years, during the
administrations of Grant, Hayes and Gar
field. has just returned from a protracted
visit to Cuba.
Having been post office inspector for a
number of years. said Mr.. Cameron to a
Star reporter today, my attention was
naturally attracted, during my recent visit
to Cuba, to the workings of the post office
more than to any of the other departments $
of the government in the island. The mail
service there, Curir the first year of Amer
lean occupation, has reached degree of
efficiency that l would not have believed
possible in that short time. The marvellous
results achieved there by the post office
ofiiclats n less than twelve months are Il
happy Illustration of what can be accom-
rllshed by the exercise of tact and great
patience with people like the cubans,
" no Were, at. the tine of the American oc-
cupatiOn, wholly without experience or
knowledge of public affairs.
credit for Sini. RathbOne.
The organization of the postal depart
nIenJ in the island reflects the greatest
credit on Maj. Rathbone, the director gen.
erai of outposts in Cuba. He found the
service in chaos, and has. by rare executive
ability. and by adopting a merit system
promotions for efficiency and prompt dis
mlSsai for neglect of duty-built up, in an
incredibly short time, service that rivals
ours in IEs E.teu -.ait.- t.,r tfav.rncv IN
all respects. The Post Office Department
here is conceded to he the most progressive
on earth, and during the past year the Gu
bans have had engrafted onto their postal
system all of the benefits, advantages and
Improvements that have been devised by
our government, after 123 years of expert
ment.
''Of other departments in Cuba l have
less accurate knowledge, but the post office
department, by adopting outright our syS-
ten, which has been copied in part by the
most enterp~iSing nations of Europe, has
placed the Cuban postal service in twelve
months in a position it could not reasonably
have been expected to attain in twenty
five years if ever. by building on to the
antiquated postal system of Spain.
Examples Of Industry.
..But the director general of posts has
done more than to give the Cubans our
postal system, and has done more than to
merely give them the offices He has taught
them the intricacies of the postal business
and. what is still more important. he has,
through his own tireless industry, and
through the unceasing labors of d few ca
pabie Americans, who are thoroughly eN-
perienced in postal affairs, given the Cuban
postal employees examples of industry and
devotion to duty that have infused into
them a sense of public duty that was a
strange revelation to them, and one that
is new and wholly different from their pre-
conceived ideas upon this subject.
In contemplating these wonderful
changes for the better, it frequently occur
red 10 me that the temporary American oc-
suit in inestimable blessings to the Cuban
people