Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-07-08
PETTY POLITICS.
Democratic Mail Held up by Repub-
lican Office Holders.

New Haven, July Sowing to care
lessness on the part of some local post
office official, whose mind was on
where he would spend the Fourth
rather than on his duties, only 90 out
of 200 invitations mailed to promin-
ent citizens Of this city inviting them
to attend the democratic rally in Mu-
sic hall, July 4, as either vice presi-
dents or secretaries, were delivered.
After lying in the postofice since Fri
day, the invitations Were returned yes
terday to John Doughan, acting for the
other members of the democratic state
central committee from this district
There were Id of them, which the
postoffice people made no attempt to
deliver, and in consequence there are
la well known men In this city who
have IAN axe out for the postoffice man
ayers, to say nothing of those who la
bored so hard for the success OF the
rally and whose efforts We're defeated
by a rattle-brained clerk.
| The invitations were mailed last
Friday evening. Those delivered were
some that had been sealed and conse-
/ quently called for two cent postage.
| The others carried one cent stamps
and were therefore second class mat
ter, which, however, does not provide
any excuse for their not being deliy-
cred.
According to Postmaster Howarth,
] the undelivered letters being second
class, were thrown into a basket, and
later other letters and circulars were
| piled up on them and In the miX-up
1 they We're forgotten. Assuming that
there was rush of mail Saturday,
/ which the posoffice puts forward as "a
reason. why were these overlooked ?
The clerks had Sunday in which to
prepare them for the first delivery
| Monday morning. However,, deliy-
cry by carrier was not necessary in
more than twenty per cent of the let
i tiers, for most of the men to whom
| they were addressed have mail boxes
at the postoffice.
1t was nothing short Of deliberate
hold-up of mail matter which had ev-
/ cry right to the attention of the post
Office people, but the persons in au-
| thority, whose duty it Is to look after
such affairs, look upon it lightly and
put the responsibility on clerk and
incidentally big mail business.
/ Yesterday morning, when it became
| known to the managers of the rally
| that the letters had not been deliv-
i cred, they called on certain men whose
letters Of invitation were held UP and
| Informed them of the facts Of the
case. "A more indignant body of citi-
zens it would be hard to find. None
! of them could see any plausible excuse
| for the apparent contempt of the post
office authorities for the welfare of
| mail matter entrusted to their care,
/ and the postoffice authorities came in
for severe condemnation; some OF
| these indignant men even intimated a
| possible desire on the part of the adj
ministration of local postal affairs to
| thwart the plans of the state commit
teemen to have successful rally, by
1 Withholding these invitations, assum-
ing that If they Were not received,
| these men would stay away.
At any rate, it was four days after
| the letters We're mailed that Postmas-
| ter Howarth discovered they had not
been delivered. He notified Mr. Dou-
/ CHAN Wednesday and the latter, sur,
| prised to think that such a misman.
aged proposition as is the postoffice
could exist SO long under one admin
istration, called for his mail.
/ If 1T is a clerk who Is responsible
for the non-delivery Of this mail, then
he should be given a long rest in
which to allow his mental faculties to
recuperate. If the hold-up was due
to the neglect of a person or persons
in authority, then the local postoffice
needs n shaking UP in the worst way
The Washington postoffice officials
stupid piece Of work.
I