The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-02-01

Six men Of the mailing and distributing
departments of the postoff1ce did not re-
port for duty yesterday morning. and
their services were dispensed with with
out the Formally of sending them their
notices The men who have left are
Fred HANDBOOK general delivery Win
dow; Webster, Orme Donnelly and Aus
tin.
Postmaster Dat had a serious problem
to solve yesterday morning when the
men did not show up for work, but made
the best of the situation. He took off his
coat and went merrily at the big sacks
of paper mail which the strikers had re-
fused to touch the night before. He was
assisted by Postal Inspector w. A. Rob-
inson. Superintendent. of Railway Mall
Service Carr Assistant Postmaster Me-
dera. and all the clerks who could be
summoned from the upstairs depart
ments. They went at the mail like old
timers. and despite their lack of system
attic training, they made inroads into the
pile of sacks and made much progress
with the delayed mail.
| Collector of Customs Stackable. who
was formerly connected with the postof-
fee, came personally to see Postmaster
! Dat, and to offer him any service in his
power to help him out Of his dilemma.
He offered to send some of the clerks
! from his office The offer was accepted
! and John w. Short, E. E. Miller, j. kel-
lly Brown, Jr., s. A. Crook and Edward
lFogarty were sent as detail. The first
two have seen service in the postofflce
before and were able to assert the mali
rapidly. The others were placed at the
general delivery and stamp windows,
where they were subjected to a good
natured bantering and called "scabs' IN
! a joking manner.
/ For a time it seemed evident that the
mails for the Colonies would be delayed,
as well as that for the United States via
the zealandia The composite mail-as-
sorting force was equal to the occasion,
however. and the mails were sent to the
steamers without being delayed.
| The officials of the postofhce declare
that the men took bad time to make
their demand for relief from night work,
and that it was done with the intent to
til, up the office. The men knew that
with the incoming and outgoing mails or
Yesterday the office would be taxed to its
utmost to work it, and therefore
struck to bring the postmaster to time
by compulSion. The postmaster was Very
-fdecided in his opinions as to the conduct
of the men and declared that they could
remain away from the office. Three new
men were sworn in yesterday and others
will be put in as fast as the list of appli-
'cants can be gone over and good men
picked out.
The striking employees say there Were
two reasons for their action. They
iclaimed that they were being worked
overtime without extra pay and that
Postal Inspector Robinson is oppressive
~ of her q mr.
criticized them harshly. They resolved
upon walking out if they were not paic
overtime and so intimated to the post
master shortly before o'clock. Prompt
lly at the hour they walked out and were
told by the officials that if they did not
report for duty they could consider
themselves discharged. =
| Postal Inspector Robinson said yeSter
day:
I'm a general way, the conditions here
are different from any place in the coun
try. When the transfer was made las
June, the conditions made 1t necessary
for a good many men to be employed
They We're Inexperienced clerks then ant
ARE such now.
ION Wednesday, Thursday and Frida,
of every week when there are no steam
ers from the Coast, there are three o
four men always idle in the City distrib
uting room from 10 a m to o'cloci
p. m. In the mailing department tn
clerks are busy all the time because the
have to handle the mail that goes to ev
cry part of the world.
The mail from the Coast did not reac
the office until 1870 o'clock p. m. yester
day. At 4:3O O'Clock all the letters wer
in boxes or general delivery, but it wa
found that the papers had not bee
touched. At $50 O'Clock Assistant Post
master Madeira, learning the state of al
fairs, told the clerks the paper ma
would have to be worked. Mr.. Oat cam
in a little later and gave the same orde
but the clerks refused. They would wor
until o'clock and would not come bac
after that. Mr.. Dat told them then the
need not come back at all if this wa
their decision.
II wish to state that what the Reput
lican said about my speaking to tn
clerks is absolutely false 1 was not /
I'll the room and had no conversation wit
them on any matter. The only know