The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-10-21
POSTAL CLERKS
ARE ANXIOUS TO SECURE AN
 EIGHT HOUR DAY RULING.
They Claim That They arc Discrim- mated Against While i1svfng Extraordinary Work
 to do.

| loHs S>CS- HV.-NopSSfoh.(- - The railway postal clerks with head quarters in Washington. along with their brethren throughout The country | are waiting almost with bated breath for the decision of the Attorney Gen. eral as to whether they are entitled to the beneht of the eight hour law or not. At their reesnt convention in Chicago they adopted . resolution de- clarinS that they believed themselves entitled to an eight hour day. and petitioIing the department to allot their work to them on that basis. The Posofi:e Department referred tho | matter tC tho Department of Jus tice. and 1t Is on the decision reached l there that the whole matter depends. >1n stating to the postal clerks that he would refer the matter to the At- torney General for decision the Post master General said that 1t would be impossible to allow a railway postal clerk to work eight hours and then l rest sixteen, that the eight hours | might be up right in the middle of & l run. and that it would entail such a | vastly increased force and afford 50 little actual relief as to render 1t en- tirely inexpedient.
 Answer of tho Clerks.
 To this the clerks make answer that they want no such provision. but that they simply want to be placed on an equality with other Government employees. They say that they do not | ask to be relieved at the end of an eight hour shift, but that they simply want to get credit for the work they do over and above that. They point ploye gets his Sundays and holidays | off but that they do not. Now. all they ask Is that they be required to | work only an average of eight hours per day during each working day of the year. They assert that the Gov | ernment requires every contractor for Government work to comply with that principle. even down to the low est laborer they have, and that 1t applies the principle to every other class of employees 1t has. and then they significantly ask why they alone are debarred from the benefits of the | principle.
 The public knows but very little about the duties of the man who. while trains go bounding through the country at some fifty miles an hour, dear life to get tho mails assorted and prepared so that every man may get his letter at the earliest possible moment. For "strenuosity" as one of them styled 1t to the writer, it has every other vocation left at the post In the making of railway postal clerk he has to pass a physical ex- animation that Is about as rigid as any physical examination ever re- quired by the government. If he is not a perfect specimen of health and development he stands about as much show of getting into the service as an icicle stands in a furnace. When he passes this examination he has yet other words to conquer in the mem IA N~a about as rigid as any required in the Civil Service.
 The Making of n Clerk.
 If our would-be clerk steers safely through the tortuous channels of these two examinations he Is then ready to enter the Government ser vice as a substitute railway postal clerk his pay being at the rate of $500 per year for tho time actually served. The embryo clerk Is given what is known as "scheme" which is q list of the postoffices of given State, arranged by counties. He IS also furnished with a schedule of all mail trains for the division in which he Is employed-the United States being divided into eleven divisions He has to get himself what is known las n case. 1t being & square about one yard square, and having some three hundred pigeon holes in 1t. corre- spending to the distributing case the traveller sees in the mall cars. Then he has to get some three thousand little cards on the one side or whlch he writes the names of the postomccs cs in his territory. and on the other slde be writes the name of tho county in which it is located and the junction points through which 1t may be reach ed. He must get all these things down so pat that he put every cara m its proper pigeon hole by looking at the postoffice written on its race. anu without looking at the county or the junction point written on It's oack. These cards and the pigeon holes coi = responds with the letters and the case on the actual train runs. The new clerk must get theso things down so pat that can put the cards In tne'f proper place at the late or aoout io- ty minute. When 1e IS ready 10 so before the chief clprk If his ,1|'sloh and do this he does 80. IT he sue reeds in doing 1t to the 3atids1ction o1 Ire chief clerk he s said to nave nassed his first examination. Then he has to master another list just as big. and then another, and so on uh iii he has some fifteen or twenty thousand postoffices at his nnsere end so as to be able to throw letters info their proper cases at rate oi snme forty a minutes when he goes into the mail car. If h" puts letters in the wrong pigeon holes he gets fined for each error. and the mire ms throws he makes the less likely IS he to get q promotion.
 A Sample Run. .-. Il One may get very good idea oi what the work of a railway postd clerk is by taking for an example me run on Southern trains No. 37 ana Se between Washington and Greensporo N. c. The distance Is 2S8 miles. No. 3' leaves Washington at l0:4o at night arriving at Greensboro at 6:55 neX' | morning The clerks on this train have to go to work at about O'CLOCK ir the evening in the Washington wards so as to prepare the mall TOT distribution en route. They nave to work practically fifteen hours without intermission, even if the train Is or time whereas. it Is moro often tWc hours late than 1t Is on time. The mere matter of keeping ones feet and ac- Commodating himself to the JarrlH and lurching of the train during the better part of the time, makes a pret' ty hard days work, but when one re- members that during this time the clerks have to handle tons of letters and other mail. throwing each piece h. to it's proper place with an accuracy and a speed that Is little short of mar yellous and would be so even while a
 train was standing still. he sees what tho clerk has to do, and that he IS not far from the truth when te tells you that he has to do two mems work ! while he Is on duty. When he gets tc