Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1912-02-07
CLERKS
 WANT EIGHT.HOUR BAY

clerks in post offices have become so bad that the United National As. sociaton of Post-office Clerks, as sembled in convention, this year de- cided by unanimous vote that theil greatest and most pressing need is the establishment of legal eight hour day. Post-offfce clerks occupy the uni. que position of being practically tho only class of government employe who are not protected by any act 0 Congress, limiting in any way theii Hours of labor. The principle of an eight-hour day for government em ployes is we'll established. In recen; years this principle has even beel extended to cover the employees O. private contractors who might be em' ployed on a government contract. Il is difficult to understand why this generally recognized principle should not be legally extended to cover post office clerks.
 There are reasoIes of great econo' mic value why the eight-hour day should be extended to post-officf clerks.
 Expedition is the very keynote of the postal service. To advance the delivery of the mails is the aim anf
 ambition of everybody identified wi.f the postal service. The postal ser vice is lightly considered by ever
 business man as an ~ijunct to hi
 own particular business. If there bf
 delay in the transmission of his com
 nunications, his business will na-
 turally suffer. =
 To accomplish expediture, the Post Office Department maintains thf
 highest class of equipment. Approx' mately fifty millions of dollars arf
 expended: annually for. the transpor' tation of our mails by the tastes trains. In our cities the automob!l s rapidly supplanting the horse ant wagon as means of conveyance pc tween the post office and the rail
 way mail trains. Where can there be any req economy in failing to employ enoug' clerks to expeditiously distribute tn
 mails in the post offices, and thus
 make the quickest possible connec.
 ions with these fast mail trains | which must leave on schedule?
 Where there is not sufflclen' 'orce of. clerks to clean up.the mail n day of eight hours, then it may safely be assumed that importan nail is being delayed because of miss ;ng train connections. TNes is Of 7ital concern to the commercial world.
 The great majority of post-office clerks work at night, under artificial light constantly exercising both bod, and brain, and in quarters that ar. tften unsanitary.
 Besides their hours Jl the post of flee, the clerks must devote other tours of study in their homes to mas CT the difficult schemes" of mail distribution, that they may be ex. pert in handling the. mail.
 The clerks are constantly subject ed to examinations to determine their knowledge in distribution. Every CT. TOT made is checked against the clerl and taken into consideration when
 1is promotion is considered. In peri ods of stress and emergency thu clerks will gladly perform overtime luty, only asking tha1 for each ex- "a hour they receive the same com 1ensation they would receive for an, other hour. The clerks are not un- reasonably demanding that they be
 compensated for their overtime at the
 rate of double time or time and (.
 half, which is the usual custom iD lrivate employment.
 In a recent message to Congress
 the President declared himself to be
 in favor of extending the Eight-Hour day to all government employees. IT
 this message the President sugges.
 ed that the business of the Govern
 ment might be embarrassed if an ar
 bitrary Eight-Hour day was in ef
 feet. The President suggested that
 the Government have: sufficient lee
 way in dealing with it's employees to
 york them more than eight hours (.
 day in emergencies, and to compens-
 ate them for the extra time employ
 ed.
 The post-office clerks of the coun-
 try heartily endorse this sentiment
 of the President, and are hoping that
 Congress will son enact legislation
 that will extend the eight-hour day
 to the post-office clerks, both in the
 interests of justice to the clerk and
 tho I,;ohoc+. dovo1Onmonf Of officio ncv