Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-05-09
UNDER NO OTHER CHARGES
Admission Made by Second Assistant
Postmaster General.
HEARING ON THE LLOYD BILL
Measure to Permit Employees in
Railway Mail Service to Affil-
late With A. F. Of l..

second Assistant Postmaster General
Stewart in testifying today before the
House committee on reforms in the
civil service admitted that efficient
clerks had been discharged from the
railway mail service because they were
too active In promoting the organiza-
tion of postal clerks union. The COM
nfttee. as has been stated, is holding
hearings on the Lloyd bill which pro-
poses to permit government employees to
1oin a union and affiliate with the
American FEEDER alton Of Labor.
Representative Kendall Of Iowa drew
forth Mr.. Stewards admission above re-
ferred to. He inquired of the second
assistant postmaster general why Postal
Clerks Duff and Van Dyke of St. Paul
had been separated from the service.
They were discharged Mr.. Stewart
replied. because of their pernicious ac-
tivity in promoting this new union organ
ization. The organization had head
quarters in st. Paul and I believe they
were officials of the proposed union.
Otherwise they were efficient men. The
only reason for their dismissal was their
activity in the face of the plain order
Of the Postmaster General and other de-
partment officials which they persistently
violated. 1t was a plain case of insub-
ordinate
Federation President Testifes.
Mr.. Stewart was followed on the stand
by Oscar F. Nelson. president Of the Ma
tional Federation of Post ONCE Clerks.
Mr.. Nelson favored the Lloyd bill. He
read from newspaper interviews with the
then Postmaster General Cortelyou and
Frank Hitchcock. his first assistant at
the time, the Federation of Post Office
Clerks was organized. In which both
men were quoted as saying that the
post office employees can form all the
unions they want" Mr.. Nelson then told
the committee that his own discharge
from the postal service in Chicago was
because Of his activity in endeavoring to
alleviate the conditions under which the
clerks labored.
IT was then president of the Chicago
Postal Clerks Union." he said, "and for
months we had been working to remedy
the notoriously insanftary conditions in
the Chicago post ofiioe. All through the
summer Of 1909 we did all we could under
the Roosevelt gag rule to get the de-
partment to make improvements. The
men were working ten hours a night under
what the Chicago commission on occupa-
tional diseases declared were the worst
conditions In the city. From June to Oc-
tober four men in the mailing division,
members of the union, died of tuberculo-
sis because Of the working conditions.
labored steadily from early in June until
October before securing the appointment
Of 100 additional clerks to relieve the
tension. This was under the Hitchcock
retrenchment policy.
Placed Under Charges.
'The following June 1 was served with
charges by inspectors who alleged that
was violating the Roosevelt gag rule by
endeavoring to influence legislation.
had never been in Washington and had
never talked to a member of Congress
me with furnishing information to the
newspapers. After filing an answer to
the charges, / received notice that I had
been promoted and advanced from 81, 100
to the 81 200 grade. This was not auto
matte advancement, but under the ef-
hciency scheme. Two weeks later was
dismissed"
Referring to conditions under which
postal clerks labored. Mr.. Nelson declared
that In the Chicago office ''men were be-
coming sick, and were dying right along.
The place was insanitary and unventi-
lated. We did not get any additional
clerks until month after the Chicago
Federation Of Labor passed a resolution
petitoning the Postmaster General for
relief.
Supt Theodore Ingles of the railway
mail service will come before the commit
tee in the near future, as will representa-
tives Of the National Association Of Man
ufacturers and officers of various labor
organizations.