Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-11-08
MESSAGES TO CLERKS.
New Rule Adopted in the Post Office
Department,

Clerks In the Post Office Department are
stirred up over an order which has been is
sued which places censorship on the use
Of the telephone by employees OF the de-
partment. The edict provides that chiefs
Of the various divisions shall pass upon the
Importance of any telephone call before the
clerk for whom 1t Is intended is permitted
to receive 1t. II the message is not con-
sidered sufficiently urgent. or If 1t has moth
ing to do with the business of the depart
ment. the clerk is denied the use Of the
telephone to talk with the person at the
other end Of the line.
Coming on top Of various other orders is
sued recently regarding government en-
ployes. the latest order has crea ted dissat-
fsfactton among the clerks In the depart-
ment objection is founded principally on
the ground that no one but the clerk him.
self Is competent to Judge of the Importance
of message. The order Is looked upon by
the clerks as an unnecessary hardship and
the climax of the restrictions to which they
have been forced to conform of late Most
OF the employees. however, have reconciled
themselves to the new regulations and were
active last night in warning their friends
not to call them up at the Office except un-
der the most urgent circumstances.
On the other hand, department officials
say the object Of the order is to put a stop
to the abuses to which telephoning has
become subjected among the clerks II is
asserted that clerks waste much time by
laying aside their work to respond to tele-
phone calls of purely personal character
which could just well be delivered after
working hours. The expedient was there
fore adopted OF designating the office chiefs
as sort OF censors who shall decide whether
clerk may stop work to talk over the
telephone.
IT'S not that the department wishes to
impose any hardship on its employees" said
an official Of the department. when asked
today about the order, but simply to put
stop TO the misuse of the telephone
which has become general. The actual
time that an individual clerk loses in
answering a single telephone call isn't a
matter of great consequence, but the as-
gregate loss of time when several hundred
OF them are kept running back and forth
from the phone represents good deal
Hereafter when anybody calls up a clerk
In the department he will be asked the ma
ture Of the business he wishes to commllni-
cate. and IL the chief OF the division con-
cludes that 1t Is important enough the clerk
sages will be conveyed to the clerks at their
desks
In connection with the new rule II is
stated that the telephones at the depart
ment are reserved for official business only
Clerks who desire to telephone outside of
the building must first obtain permission
to leave their desks and then use a public
telephone for which a charge is made. This
rule is in effect in all the executive de-
partments. having been enacted at the time
the yearly contracts with the telephone
company were made When the last bills
were presented the departments found
thousands Of calls charged to the govern
ment which had been made by clerks and
other employees.