Evening star., 1901-05-31
MAKING OF POST OFFICES
THERE ARE CERTAIN RULES WHICH
MUST BE OBSERVED.
VIII, &c il That One Out of Every Nine
Fourth-t lass I'osimastcrs
Resigns.

his name they Will be found OF general IN
terest if briefly described.
The first thing TO do is to decide-upon
a name. This seems easy, but the depart
ment has snags in the form of rules on
this point which may cause several at
tempts TO be made before finally success
ful, because they are not generally known
outside of the office.
There must be no post office of the same
name already in he state. nor one of such
spelling as might cause the postal clerks
To confuse the TWO For instance, there is
a MauricetOwn and Morristown in New
Jersey, and Charlestown and Charles
ton in West Virginia The trouble con-
fusion of mail and profanity these and
other similar names have Occasioned would
stop an express train These offices were
established before the present rules went
into effect. and neither office will now con-
sent to a change.
Difficulty in Securing Names.
also. If there is a name of another post
office in another state the abbreviation of
which resembles the state in which the OF
flee is sought to be established the name
Will be rejected. If the people of a COM
munity in Tennessee agree upon Pleasant
Vile and If there is an office of the same
name in Pennsylvania. they will be request
ed To select another name because Tennes-
see when abbreviated to Tenn resembles
Pennsylvania when abbreviated to Penn,
1t being borne in mind chat all of us do not
write a copper plate hand. The abbreVia-
tlUn Va for Virginia is easily mistaken for
the Pa of Pennsylvania. Mail for offices
of the same name III the states of Colorado
and California is being constantly missent
to the annoyance of the public and postal
employees Tor the reason that people db
breviatc these states Col and Cal in
stead of Colo and Calf and the same
holds true as to New York and New Jersey.
as people are careless in forming their Y S
and 5 in writing the initials Indicative Of
these two states. The reason of the rule
thus becomes very apparent.
Sometimes dozen attempts will be made
before a name which Will suit the depart
ment will be accepted. 1t must be of a
single word. unless for peculiar local, his
tnrlcal or particular business reasons a
double name is permitted Communities de-
string post offices should always submit
ten or more proposed names for selection,
arranged in their order of preference. Dur
ing the spanish war and Immediately there
after the names of Dewey. Schiey, Samp-
son, HO5SOn. Mckinley, Manila and Santi-
ago for post offices poured into the depart
Inent by The hundreds, and such as could
be placed in the different states under the
rule have given We're granted.
Recommendation Which Carry
Nv hiIe there is no prescribed number of
names necessary to petition for a new
post office. there should be enough to indi-
cate its need. il dozen or two signatures of
residents are sufficient, though some petit
tipns have over 1VU names. The name of
the person desired for postmaster should
always be stated in the petition. The de-
parjment accepts the recommendation of a
repTe>r Utatiye or senator Of the same pUliti-
cal faith dS final usually in the appointment
OF the first ana succeeding p0StmasterS. In
some states the petitions are forwarded di-
rectiy 10 the representative for his indorse
Intnt ana transmission TO the department.
TINS is an excellent practice, as it saves
time unless the representative is one of the
lazy sort who allows his mail to accumulate
and then il causes trouble
If there is no representative Of the same
political faith of the administ ton in that
congressional district, the department des-
ignates one or more men who are termed
referees, and whose recommendations are
aCceDJed. These referees are usually eX-
representatives, national committeeman or
other men IF high standing in the party and
state.
The department did land office business
in establishing past offices last year. placing
in operation :;.tjb, an increase OF tsJ over
the preceding year. The department follows
the policy OF establishing post offices where
asked for. as It endeavors II give the people
all the mail facilities possible. Under some
previous a5ministra lions The policy has not
been 50 liberal. and certain rules more or
less restrictive were enforced. mainly as to
the distance Of one Office from another,
which shut OuJ some communities. The de-
TarLmeut has specially prepared blank for
the eStablis hment Of a post Office. but a
petition signed by the residents OF the COM
mGnify expressing their desires to name,
postmaster and location of the office in most
any Intelligent form Will receive equal con-
siderdtion.
Heavy Percentage of designations.
The old adage that government en-
pI0yes may die. but none ever resign. does
not apply to postmasters especially to
fourth-class postmasters, of which there
are - 40 They both die and resign, for
there Were 90 deaths and Sob resigna-
tions of these postmIsters last year, an
increase of 1850 designations over the pre-
ceeding year, or about one in every nine
pOsJnasters.
These somewhat unexpected figures GER
tainly disprove the adage, as off-hand and
uniformed. the average man would make
a guess at 1909 designations all told and
then be afraid he had gone too high.
The causes of this high percentage of
designations are many and diverse, but
two main subdivisions may be given.
First. in rural communities the postmas-
tership is thought to be great honor and
a soft snap. 1t is a distinction, but far
from snap. as the department holds post
masters strictly accountable for the proper
performance of their official duties. Thou
sands of the postmasters at small offices
get that tired feeling long before their
terms are over. and gladly relinquish hon
ors and perquisites, which. they find to
their disgust, do not come up to their
anticipations. But if one man is ready TO
give up there are others at once willing to
earn the few dollars obtainable annually
from these small offices. and the vacancies
are usually shortly or instantly filed.
Where the department finds it impossible
to fill the vacancy, the office is discontinue
ed This raises howl of protest and
fushas several candidates at the same time
Another prolific reason why postmasters
resign in such numbers yearly is on ac-
count Of the bond of 500 or over they are
required 10 give. Many men haven't the
confidence Of their neighbors to secure
hondSmen, and others will not go to the
trouble to obtain sureties. Others resign
when a new bond is required as Is the
case at certain periods. or where the office
IS made n money-order office Thousands
of small post offices have been made
m0ney-Order offices within the past four
years, and the designations of poStmasters
Of these offices have been comparatively
large, as the incumbents did not think the
added responsibilities We're commensurate
with the remuneration. while with some
they had safe place to keep money-or-
der funds
Even the Big Fellows Give Up
1T seems odd that governne ent office
holders will resign places paying 81 600 and
over. but they do. and there is always a
nvels scramble for these places. The men
x-5fh IN.iy ,rati,