The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-08-27

NeXt week VIII WltntSS thc oPS"e. of the national conventions season or the people who man the big postal machine of the United States. The Na, tional Association of Postal Clerks VIII meet in Birmingham. Ala. on Septemper 7th and the National Association or Postmasters will meet during the same week at Chattanooga. Tenn. Arrange ments are being made for the meeting of the rural carriers little later m Omaha, Neb The railway postal clerks will have no convention this year, the II ,000 men who hold membership m that organization having disposed or their affairs for two years at their iast annual convention.
 The organized forces of the postal service probably have 100000 members. The postal clerks are boosting for 2o'- 900 members by the time the annual convention meets. the railway postai the postmasters. and the rural free de- livery carriers each have a large or ganfzation, and among them can prob ably muster 70,000 members They have all adopted plans of organiza- tion which enable them to pull to- gether for better salaries and better working conditions In their respective branches of the service. They nave succeeded in inducing Congress to give them an increase of pay, and except the railway postal clerks. have gotten their work down to the eight-hour basis, Although the President pro- mulgated an order prohibiting them from lobbying in their own behalf, they generally manage to accomplish the same things they accomplished before the order was issued.
 No other branch of the United States Government. or of any other govern ment. for that matter. employs as many civilians as the postoffice establish ment of the United States There are 62. 900 postmasters. to begin with. Then there are nearly 10000 rural car riers and 15,000 star route carriers Add to this 17.0o0 railway postal clerks. 27.00o letter carriers. as many more postal clerks. besides some thousand laborers. Janitors. etc. and 1t will be- gin to appear that the postal service of this country employs the biggest civil army In the world-ar army not far from 200sooo strong And well 1t might be a big army. It has to handle 100000 letters every hour of the twenty-four. every day in the year; it has to issue and redeem 200 900 money orders every hour. and register as many letters. to say noth- ing of the thousands of tons of second. third and fourth class matter which de- mand its attention. It has to pay out $50.ooo.000 a year to the railroads to carry that part of the mail which must make a journey by rail The trains which the railroads carry it on make an aggregate distance of 400, 900, 900 miles. or the equivalent of two round trips to the sun with several lunar side trips thrown in. The star route car riers have to travel l00.000.o 900 miles year, and the rural free delivery men must cover in the aggregate at least 240, DOG. 900 more. Summed up, the men who carry the United States mall full year must travel three-quarters of a billion miles.
 The postal establishment is expected to cost the government $223. 100000 this year. But of course 1t expects to get the bulk of it back. The money which the people pay across the post office window this year will probably amount to about $210.000. 900 leaving a deficit of $1s.000.000 to be met by the gov ernment. But while this sort of a de- ficit occurs each year. the people think the government has no real reason to complain. They point out that 1t gets all it's own individual mail carried free, and that if it but paid for 1t at the same rate it charges the people. 1t would foot up much more than what It has to pay out to make good the deficit Tn other words, 1t is their contention that even while making good the deficit the gov- ernment is driving a pretty good bar gain. There are thousands of tons of franked documents, and millions of let ters carried for which nothing Is paid except in the making good of the an- nual deficit.
 There have been many people saying that the establishment of rural free delivery Is responsible for the continu- ance of this annual deficit in the postal operations But rural free delivery pleads not guilty. It points out that the deficit IS hardly as much per year now as 1t was when there was no rural free delivery. It cites figures to show that there is no relation whatever be- tween the extension of its service and the deficit. And then, to clinch its argument. it shows that $13.000. 900 a year is saved by the abolition of star routes and post offices which 1t rem dered no longer necessary. With this saving and the added business rural free delivery brings about. enough money Is made, 1t claims. to make 1t self f-supporting. and 1t indignantly denies the accusation that 1t has to lean on the government at all.
 The outgoing mail from a rural free delivery route always shows a big in- crease, and the same is true of the 4n- coming mail. Bach piece dispatched means that much more money in InS post office coffers. and each extra piece received from the higher class offices has a similar meaning. In the fourth class post offices of the country, and all the rural offices practically are in this class. the government simply goes into partnership with the postmaster, giving him face value for all the stamps he cancels in the regular course of business, this to be his compensation in lieu of salary. In this way all of the mall dispatched at rural offices never yielded a cent of revenue to the gov ernment, 1t had to meet the expense of carrying 1t and supplying the stamps. Under rural free delivery it all goes to the government. and the receipts. in- coming and outgoing. do not lack much of supporting the service.
 Speaking of the annual deficit, Postmaster General Meyer had a plan for wiping 1t out which he urg- ed upon the last session of Congress He told them that if they would pro- vide for a parcels post, 1t would not involve any appreciable extra expense, while on the other hand the revenues from it would be more than sufficient to wipe out this deficit. But Con- gress did not look with friendly mien upon this. and so MT. Meyers pet scheme still slumbers in a not too spa cious pigeon-hole in the committee room of Post offices and Post Roads Meanwhile. the American people still enjoy the amusing position of being able to send a parcel to England at
 q