The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-12-11

tion a thorough, reorganization of the railway mail service has been under taken This reorganization, although not completed, has gone far eonpgh to bring about a decided improvement over the unsatisfactory conditions re- ported Unquestionably, the final re- suit will mean a tremendous saving to the Governmeint accompanied by important benefits to the employees of the service
 In place of the present method of compensating railway mail clerks, which is far from satisfactory, the Department will recommend to Con- agress new system of salaries that higher maximum compensation for those who render efficient service.
 The plan of assigning to the railway mail cars new appointees without pre- vious experience in the postal service is to be abandoned, and hereafter the additional clerks required on the cars will be recruited from the trained employees of the post offices.
 City Delivery Service v a-s.z
 Important changes were also made during the year in the city carrier service A reduction in the number of deliveries for the residential dis tricts of certain cities resulted in some msaprpehenson as to the purposes or the Department. Tn each case the object was to permit the redistribu- tion of the carrier service so as to make it more effective as whole. The curtailment of too frequent de. liveries> in residential sections enabled the Department to provide more de- liveries in business districts. This policy is almost universally approved by busness men, who are willing to have fewer deliveries at their resi- dences in order to obtain more fre- quent service at their places of bus mess As already pointed out, the city delivery service has been greatly extended in the last two years, dur ing which period letter carriers have been placed on duty for the first time in 1S6 additional cities.
 Rural Mail Service
 The consolidation of the rural de- livery and star route services, to which reference was made in the last annual report, has proved to be most beneficial. It has enabled the Depart ment to extend mail delivery to many thousands of additional patrons by q rearrangement of established routes with ,little increase in the annual rate of expenditure. Much needless dupI- cation of service, which 1t was diff ficult to prevent with two independent systems of rural delivery, has been eliminated since their consolidation Under the new plan of organization the rural mail service IS being rapidly extended.
 AeropIane Mail Service
 The first aerail dispatch of United States mail occurred in September last, when 53,000 pieces were carried from Aeroplane Postal Station NO. on Nassau Boulevard to Mineola, Long Island. The progress being made In the science of aviation encourages the hope that ultimately the regular con- veyance of mail by this means may 4J11o SrrnI if found feasible, might be established in many districts where the natural conditions preclude other means of rapid transportation.
 Annual Vacations
 The, Department again renews its recommendation that a law be enact | ed authorizing the allowance of 90 days annual leave. of absence with pay to post office clerks, to city let ter carriers, and to such railway pos- tai clerks as are required to work six days a week throughout the year. While the granting of the proposed leave will naturally entail consider able additional expense it is believed that the cost will be more than offset by the greater efficiency to be expect ; ed under a flaw so beneficial to the health and spirit of the employees af- fected.
 Relief from Sunday Service An order was put into effect during the year that has reduced to mini mum the employment of post office clerks and letter carriers on Sunday. The few employees who are obliged to report on the Sabbath to make a necessary distribution of important letters are now granted compensatory time on other days of the week equal to the period of Sunday service The arrangement by which the amount of Sunday work in post offices IS thus reduced has been received with great favor, by the employees and with 1it- tie objection from the patrons of the service.
 Pensions for Superannuated Employes
 Almost without exception, foreign nations provide for the pensioning of civil service employees when they be- come superannuated. Large corpora tons in same principle in the retire. ment of their aged employees. On business grounds, if for no other rea- son, the Government should do like wise.
 While the compensation of postal employees has been considerably in- creased during the last few years 1t is hardly more than sufficient to meet necessary living expenses and conse- quently does not permit the putting aside of any considerable savings. It is believed that civil pension bas- ed on length of employment should be granted by the Government. Ben-