Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1901-04-06
The "R. ". S. BOYS.


1T is a singular fact in the makeup
OF the human mind that man when
dead counts for So little. while an in.
jured man comes high in law suits and
even has value in government EN-
ploy, said \ bright young member Of
one Of Uncle Sans branch armies Of
civil employees. known as the railway
mail service force. as he swung out Of
his car at one of the railroad stations
this morning.
IF railway mail service clerk is
killed in the line of his duty his fam
lily mourn. his friends are sympathetic
and the department regretful for two
reasons, first, to lose an experienced
man, for in our business experience
and merit alone count, and second, be-
cause it cannot aid the faithful fellows
family or widow.
Under the law and the rule of the
department If a railway mail service
employe is seriously injured. if the
disability continues even up to full
year, leave Of absence. with pay, is
considerably allowed him. If he is
killed his pay stops from the day OF
his death. and the government can.
not make an allowance even for his
funeral expenses much less aid his
family, who may be in dire distress.
If Congress would authorize it such
an allowance would be possible, but in
the absence of an express law govern
i,,,y l,a l., L;,,f fN. l,N
department to do but to express re-
gret, though the dead man may have
given the best years of his life to the
service of the government.
Shut up day and night in their
mail cars, which are often their cofiirs
the general public has little opportun-
ity of seeing class of men who are
indispensable and Of the greatest pub
lie service. Last year four of our force
were killed. 81 seriously injured and
1877 slightly injured in the performance
Of their duty. In collisions. especially
head-on collisions. the mail car is gen.
orally wrecked or badly splintercd.
Their skill and accuracy in handling
and separating mail matter and in
memorizing postofiice names and loca.
tions is marvellous.
There are S194 of these men, and
last year they handled the bewildering
number of 1868, 1871 1860 letters and g.
+29, Al $500 pieces of other classes of
mail matter, making total of 1892.
COZ 100 pieces. This amount in figures
mo alns thn t,i,h1in Inht 1nnl, 1il,n gn
cents. In addition they handled 49,
$4,000 other pieces, consisting of reg
istClCd matter. In spite of the total
running high into the billions. there
were but ,355, 600 errors reported as
made by the clerks in handling this
error to 1915.
"All of this is done in rapidly mov-
ing, swaying express trains, going at
a speet.of from 40 to IS miles an hour,
and all under unfavorable conditions
as compared with work upon a large
floor as the Washington city postoflce,
for instance. and mostly under artifl-
cial light. In fact, no less than Sc per-
cent of all the mail matter originating
in the United States is sent direct to
the railway mail service cars to be
handled by these clerks. In addition
to all this 14,500.000 pieces were
thrown out because they were ad.
dressed so illegibly that they could not
be delivered, though over 100000
of these pieces were returned to the
writer's or forwarded to destination on
corrected addresses. No less than
305. 100000 miles are covered annually
by these men in crews in 363S postal
cars
Naturally after reading these as
tonishing facts and figures it is not
to be wondered at that skill and eXpe-
rience and not political influence is
desired by these clerks. The civil SER
vice rules are strictly enforced in this
branch of the service. which largely
accounts for it's splendid record of
efficiency. New and inexperienced
men are without practical value, and
but for the maintenance of the civil
service it would so to pie very quick
~. There are over 10000 postoffices
and thousands of routes on the differ
ent railroads and steamboats,. and
nearly every experienced postal clerk
has this enormous mass of names and
locations well in hand. Their capacity
to master and to remember names is
truly remarkable. ."-Washington Star