New-York tribune., 1910-12-24

est weighing scale is Of seventeen tons
| capacity. West Of the mailing platform is
the inner covered driveway, 800 feet long
by 80 feet wide. and adjoining on the west
Of this Is the private street. 40 feet long
and Is feet wide, devoted to postal purposes
alone.
Next below this is the basement level
which is eighteen feet below the driveway
This is an inclosed space S5S feet long By
l68 feet wide and 19 feet high. It contains
a trucking plaza 316 feet long by 20 feet
wide, nine terminal railway postof1ces, each
having the facility OF a seventy-foot postal
car. transfer clerks Offices, railway posta
clerks room. registry terminal railway
postofice. facing slip room, and elevators
chutes, etc. In the west wall there are
doors leading to an outside iron gallery six
feet wide. overlooking the railroad tracks
below. from which gallery iron stairways
lead to the four track platforms on which
the mails will be handled on the track
level On this floor the employees Of the
railway mail service are engaged in the
advance distribution of mails and the ham,
ding of bulk mails before they are sent to
the postal cars beneath.
Where Mails Arrive and Depart.
The next lower level is the track plat
form. fifty feet below the driveway. Here
the great bulk of mail arrives and departs
in special mail cars, which for outgoing
trains will be placed in position several
hours in advance Of departing time. Four
platforms and six tracks under the west
end of the postoff1ce structure have been
set aside, wholly OF partly, for these cars,
making provision for twenty-six mail cars
at one time.
Below this there Is still another level
known as the trucking subway, seventy
two feet below the driveway. in which mails
are handled for dispatch by trains other
than those departing from the main plat
forms. These mails are sent down to the
trucking subway. twelve feet wide, running
east underneath the main tracks. and will
be carried by motor trucks go feet east
ward to another transverse subway, twenty
feet wide; thence northward about 23o feet.
from which point elevators ascend to each
of the passenger track platforms.
The handling of the mails between these
several levels is accomplished by most
complete system of double, triple and quad
ruple spiral chutes and by elevators. In
connection with the chutes there are belt
conveyors, which receive the mails from
the chutes and convey them to and deliver
them into the cars. In addition to these
there is a device known as the bucket lift.
Mails from incoming cars are thrown into
trap doors in the track platform at six diff
ferent loading stations. falling on belt con-
veyors running beneath the track platform
and discharging into the bucket lift, which
raises them to the mailing platform. Only
steel cars are used in performing service in
and out of the new terminal station.
The reconstruction Of the Grand Central
terminal in New York is proceeding rapidly
yet 1t will probably take two years more to
complete it. The facilities afforded the
postal service have been materially i'm
proved by the concentration of train ser
vice. both incoming and outgoing. in Lex
ington avenue, immedia tely adjacent to the
Grand Central postal station. The time be-
tween trains and the postal station has
been lessened. This affects large quantity
of mail. as the pneumatic tube terminals
connecting all postofflce stations below 125th
street, the General Postoffice and Brooklyn
are in the Grand Central postal station. All
screen wagon mail service has been discon-
tinued between the postal station and the
trains at the Grand Central terminal. with
Il consequent saving in cost.
Better Ocean Service Urged.
The need for improved ocean mail SER
vice is again called to the attention of
Congress in the report. The passage of
an act TO authorize the Postmaster Cen
eral to pay for service In vessels of the
second class on routes to South America,
the Philippines, Japan. China and Austria
lasia at mileage rate not exceeding that
paid to vessels of the first class will. it is
"a RI
contract service to those parts Of the world.
Among the recommendations made by
Mr.. Stewart are the following:
That the department be enabled to re-
adjust the compensation for the trans
portat1on of mail on railroad routes for a
term OF four years.
=, That. salaries of supervisory officers of
the raIlw ay mail service be increased
That authority of law be given for grant
ing further leave in periods Of disability
with pay at so per cent of his res11iar
salary, to a railway mail clerk who Is so
seriously injured as not to be able to re-
months.
That thirty days annual leave Of absence
be ri granted T to railway mail clerks.
ment OF incapacitated or superannuafed
railway mail clerks.
The weight Of paid second class mail
year was SIT. ~ 500 pounds. an increase of
Il $50 pounds. or 5.54 per cent over the
previous year. Combining the paid and
tree IN counting second class matter the
pounds. ''''i'o''
The work of inducing publishers to sepa-
rate their publications before mailing thep,
SO as 10 facilitate the handling and expe-
lite tho delivery of such mails has been
continued with satisfactory results At ISS
Or the largest postof1ces there were re-
celved IN the mails 1.6lS,0oS sacks of second
class matter in Juno. representing Z 3Ss nub
lcatons or these sacks 7S7S per cent
were iully made up by the publishers and
were dispatched intact, 1906 per cent were
partly made up, and SIT per cent were
mixed The progress since the effort was
nesun IN lS!b Is shown by the fact that i'm
mat year the mixed matter from fha renort
hs oHceS represented 29.7 per cent oP tha
per cent. 'ul o'i
Ihe statistics from the New York nost
office show the percentage OF mixed sacona
only So. pD1ishets as
A considerable saving was efrectsd a,,r
ING the year by the bureau of the Sacnna
Assistant, which is charged with the .''
'horIzation and direction of the fransnor.a
ton or domestic and foreign mails rha
aggregate cost of the transporta tic,
domestic mails was SSl.709 4a3 6S whiia ,ba
cost or foreign malls was $S,lI2 3Oo 4s Mo-,
the increased amount ~ n,at,
handled, the percentage OF increase In tba
cost was only l15 per cent.
During the year 3,3i5 mail routes were i'm
operation, covering distance of 90 7sn
miles. Inc distance traVAjiad ~ e. .t,.s,