Semi-weekly herald., 1908-02-10

sistant postmasters. So clerks in post
offices. 16 railway postal clerks, 60
letter carriers, 20 mail carriers and 20
other employees. There were ASS post
office burglars arrested and Lis 9th
er persons in no way connected with
the service. or all those arrested
$40 were convicted. 142 released be-
cause the grand juries failed to i1diot
them. 1873 were discharged because no
case was made against them At the
preliminary hearing. and n were ac-
quilted after due trial In 95 cases
proceedings were dismissed because
OF inability to secure evidence; II OF
those indicted ran away to avoid trial
and forfeited their bail; eight defend.
ants died while awaiting trial, and one
escaped from custody. There we're
627 cases still pending at the close OF
the year.
All matters concerning losses, de.
lay and missending, non-delivery and
wrong delivery of mail reported to
the postoffice department are report.
ed to the postoffice department are
referred to the Office OF the chief in
spector, who refers them to his sub
ordinates, and they are expected to
trace the trouble to its source, to fix
the responsibility, and, IL possible, to
apprehend the thief of embezzler.
During the last year l4,046 complaints
were made and sent out to the in
spectors, which was decided in
crease from the 12.142 in the year
1906, because of the burning OF sew
eral postal cars and the destruction of
| n great many registered letters.
A large number of the complaints
| are due to carelessness or Ignorance
OF writer's instead of the employees of
| the service, AS anyone may easily as
certain by reading the reports OF the
| deal-letter cffice. In that way al
legged losses are often explained, and
the articles returned to the owners
who have been guilty of carelessness
| III vi W Willc tnc
dresses upon their envelopes. In the
| great majority of cases the inclosure
when opened at the dead-letter office
fails to give any trace of the person
| from whom 1t came or the person to
whom 1t was sent.
| What are known as &C cases" In
1 tho danarfnant covar oil choru nj
dishonesty against employees of the
service, numbered 36,S01 last year. ai
compared with 25,077 in the yea
| 1906. These include mistakes as vel
rs dishonesty, improper payment o
money orders, improper sales o
stamps, padding OF cancellations in or
der to secure increase of salary, fail
nre to make proper remittances an,
reports, evasions OF the payment o
proper rates of postage, mailing OF In
decent and improper matter, obstruct
ing delivery or destroying letters, an
ali such matters. The ipcrease fror
the previous year was due to the ne,
law and regulations in the classif
cation OF matter. In IL 1873 cases pee
pie sent out matter of a higher clas
with postage of lower class thai
was lawful. The increase was aIs
due to the violation of the postal reg
ulations by concerns Offering prem
iums for tags or coupons. The de
partment collected S47,015 as nne
for such offenses alone.
1t may be interesting to know tn
details of the other cases investigat
ed, which are as follows:
Irregularities OF postmasters i
Postoffices located in barrooms
Carrying mail by private
express NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.. 8
Unlawful use Of penalty en-
feiopes ................. D
Forging money orders ...... II
Emhezzlement of valuable
/ letteTs ................. 80
Opening or destroying letters 43
Stealing mail ............. a.
Washing postage stamps -. 81
Obstructing mails ......... Z
Lottery matter ............ 25
Indecent matter In mails 22.53
Improper use of mails ...... 1853
! Mr.. Vickery reports that during tn
last year l.577 postoffices were eu
tered by burglars, as against 1,S0
during the year 1906. a decrease o
l2l9 per cent The number of Office
burned was 500 as against 52s durin
the previous year; 147 postal car
We're wrecked, in comparison witt
l3l In 1906, and 5.244 pouches o
mail We're reported lost damaged
rifed or not regularly accounted fol
In which the loss was apparent rath
er than real. because most OF then
were missent and afterward recov
cred.
The reports of postal cars burne,
and wrecked are quite significant
there being an increase from II IL
1908 to l47 in 1907, which shows tina
railway accidents are increasing yer,
rapidly.