The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-16
POSTAL CLERKS
 PLEASED BY RAISE Railway Mail Clerks Live Haz-
 ardouS Life CONDITION ARE IMPROVING Sleeping Accommodations Pay and Surroundings Greatly Improved as
 Result of the Recent Congress sona Investigation.
CONDITION ARE IMPROVING

The recent announcement by the post office department at Washington that general raise in salaries would be given to employees of the department, effective
 July 1, was received with great pleasure
 here, as the Birmingham postoffice trans
 acts large business, and the employees
 of all departments of the service feel | that it is d recognition of duty well
 performed. This order for increased pay affects clerks, carriers, rural free de- livery carriers and railway postal clerks, the last named being benefited greatly by the order, as the raise also carries with it promotion to a higher class in
 many instances.
 Many efforts have been made within
 the past five years by the friends of the railway postal clerks to better their
 condition, and to get their pay increased for their calling is extra hazardous and their work is very hard while they are
 on duty Congress took the matter up very actively and a great deal was done
 for these employees in the way of better
 postal cars, betters quarters at the ter
 minals and better pay
 The attention of the postoffiee depart
 ment and of the public generally was di- rected to the danger attending the work of the railway mail clerk, about three years ago, by the epidemic of distrous railroad wrecks in which many postal clerks lost their lives. Several of these wrecks occurred on lines running through Birmingham, one of them near Meridian, Miss, in which five men were burned alive, three of them being postal clerks. From that time regulations have been
 in effect in the postoffice department re-
 quiring the railroads to furnish mail coaches of a certain standard and the result has been that the lives of the railway mail clerks have been better pro- | tected. Most of the railroads now fur 1 nish mail coaches constructed of steel 1 or with steel frames.
 1 For years railway mail clerks conn | plained of the accommodations furnished l them at the ends of their runs many of l them having to sleep for hours on mail- | bags in dirty quarters, and then be ready 1 to jump out and catch their trains for the return trips without the rest that was l necessary to prepare them for hard work | before them. great change for the bet l ter mas taken place, and now dormitories 1 ana rest rooms are furnished at nearly every terminal and care is taken that the railway mall clerk is prepared for his work by having proper periods of rest | The railway mail clerk spends his hours or work in the mail coach sorting and l classifying mall for distribution along tine | line of the road and for far distant points l He works standing and must be able, to handle his share of the work with the greatest rapidity and absolute accuracy. He must have an intimate knowledge of | cities, towns counties and the intrica .e system of mail service in his own state as well as in other states. Every month the clerk must pass examinat tion whic h IS equivalent to taking course of study in school for these monthly examinations determine the clerks proficiency and form the standard of his ability. Every clerks average run of eight hours constitutes a constant physical and mental strain ,h is very wearing and rest in proper sleeping quarters is essential to the clerks well-being and the consequent accuracy in handling the mails
 In many of the large cities of the south the quarters for railway clerks are stIll not what they should be- but improve | ments are constantly being made and in some of the cities the dormitories are well equipped with beds and everything neces- sary for the comfort of the tired clerks. The pay of a railway mail clerk is graded according to exeperience and the amount of work and runs from $500 to S1700 per year. The recent raise in sal aries gives s100 per year more to clerks in every grade anl provides, in addi- ton. promotion rom lower to higher grade where merit is found, which will mean an advance in salary in some in- stances of s200 to s3o0 per year.
 One matter that has been a source of much worry to the railway mail clerk is transportation the railroads when not on duty. Before the Hepburn rate law went into effect it was hard for a 1 clerk to get railroad transportation for himself. when off duty, and still harder 1 to get it for any member of his family, and now the clerk is treated like the newspaper man or the general public. 1 and must pay when he rides. Some rail- l roads however. make an exception in 1 favor of the railway mail clerk and treat ! him as an employe of the road and fur nish him free transnortation to limited l extent