The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-06-27
The Mismanaged
p. O. Department

San Francisco Chronicle.
Henry A. Castle, late auditor OF the
treasury for the Postollice department.,
read paper before the National Asso-
clation OF Manufacturers recently, in
winch he severely arralgned the meth
DDS OF the institution, which is con-
stantly held up as an example of the
ability. of the people to act efficiently
IN their collective capacity. Mr.. Cas-
tie declared that the organization of
the department is antiquated and illogi-
cal; that the meager body Of postal
law is crude and incoherent. has never
been codlfied and is merely a patch
work of provisos in annual appTopria-
tion bills. The only thing he can find
to commend is the delivery of letters
and papers, which he says il is crafty
ing to note is the one exceptional point
of high efficiency attained, an opinion
which is not shared by those who are
familiar with the much more expedi
tious handling of the mails In Great
Britain and Germany.
Mr.. Castles chief criticism is di-
rected at the Capitalization which in
wolves a vast quantity of unnecessary
department at Washington is fearfully
congested. We have more postmasters
than soldiers he tells us, f'and every
postmaster receives his instructions
from and makes his reports directly
to the department. Thirtv-fve thou
sand OF these postmasters receive com
pensations of less than 500 per year
each; still all their business is done
directly with headquarters, involving an
correspondence y 1t is hardly neces
sary to point out the defect of such
system. If a private enterprise were
as badly managed it would inevitably
go to the wall, for it could not stand
the drain which the wasteful method en-
tailed. The remedy for this bad state
of affairs is decentralization, which
should, extend not only to the matter
Of making reports and giving instruc
tious, but also to the furnishing Of
supplies. In other words, with dlvi-
sion headquarters, as in the case of
great railroads, with superintendents
and assistants having knowledge of de-
tails and power to act,
Mr.. Castle's most formidable charge
is that which he brings against that
part of the system with which he is
there is no real audit of the stamp dis
tribution, aggregating Sl60,000,000 a
year; that there is no reliable audit
of pay to railroads for carrying the
mails, aggregating S50,000,0 900 year;
and that there is no pretense of "a
cost keeping method by which the
relative expense of different postal fea
lures can be ascertained. While the
law requires a double audit, less than
per cent of these enormous financial
transactions are. ever reviewed.
This by no means completes the list
Of shortcomings outlined by this critic,
but enough have been quoted 10 show
that there is absolutely no ground for
the common assumption that the post
Office is well managed. To the contrary.
it is run in slipshod fashion which
results in tremendous waste of money
and wretchedly inefficient service.
Those who have given the matter at
tention are profoundly convinced that
if the department could be administered
as economically and as well as the af-
fairs of private corporations are as a
rule. the people would have much
better service at half the present ex-
Dense.