The weekly Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1911-1922, 1911-02-02
GAG RULE HOLDS
Hours Heightened, Pay Shortened
Service Economical at The
Expense of the Laborer.

over the country are ehampioning the
cause of the railway mail clerks.
Congressman Crumpacker, of the
tenth Indiana district made a strong
speech In their favor Monday. He
Is bitterly opposed to the retrench-
ment policies and false economies
beng practiced at present.
There are a number of railway
mail clerks who reside In Plymouth.
They are good natured lot of fell
lows and We have heard no word of
complaint from them but if they
are suffering under the same abuses
as are recorded by our exchanges
from all parts of the country, they
must be doing some thinking.
The case of the mail clerk is this.
He Is paid by the month and is
supposed to have so much time on
and so mnch off. He is subject to
call when there is extra need to make
extra runs" For this there is no
extra pay. 1t seems that the eeonom-
zeal department has been making
practice of piling up these extra
runs to avoid hiring enough clerks.
They have also heightened the hours
and shortened the pay. During the
Christmas rush season the regular
clerks were called out numerically.
To make the matter worse a sort
of gag" rule holds in the post
Office department whereby mail clerks
free American citizens, are denied
the right of petition to a congressman
or other official but must make no
complaint except to their own higher
official who In turn passes the COM
plant on up. As matter of fact
many of these complaints are bump
ed off the track by higher officials
who have no sympathy with the
laborer, the mail clerk.
The long hours, IL to "a hours at
a run, are exceedingly wearing on
their health. We have been told
that one of the mail clerks of our
own city makes run of eight days
during which he does not have a
chance to undress and go to bed at
all but only catches sleep by lying
down for while on pile of mail
sacks. We did not get this from him
having never had any conversation
with him on these matters, but this
was told us by a citizen who has
no connection with the mail service.
and then only in an incidentl way
We are glad to learn that the ex-
pense money is increased a trife of
late for the boys have heavy ex-
penses while on the road and Uncle
Sam should pay the actual necessary
expenses of his travelling men the
same as other business concerns do.
We are also glad to learn that
steel cars are replacing old frail,
wooden cars. The authorities have
the power to prohibit the weak old
cars from ever being used again. 1t
is to be hoped that there will not
be many lives sacrificed in the time
that they are taking to install steele
car service Plymouth knows how
sad thing it is to lose the precious
life of railroad mail clerk
At present there are railroad mail
clerks making their home in Plym-
outh. They are superior class of
young men. Without their sugges-
ton at all the Republican has taken
this opportunity to speak in their
behalf because We value them as
citizens and consider their welfare
as our own, and especially because
Of what seems to us the tyrannical
denial Of the right of free speech
which is imposed upon them, and
since they will not speak for them
= ,lves, we speak for them, gathering
hr information from exchanges,
commercial journals and our own
observation.