The Alaska citizen., 1915-10-11
OUR MAIL PROSLe eM.

OOh WALL n v D l. M. Otto Praeger. the Little Boy Blue who occupies the position of Second | Assistant Postmaster General of the | United States, has written letter to the Commercial club in answer to letter sent the department asking for an unlimited mail service to the Interior. in which he tells the members of the club what an elegant service we are getting.
 He informs the club that in view of the difficult travel and the con sequent high cost of transportation it is deemed impracticable to pro vide the service asked for at this time.
 He tells Us how many mails Wa get each week and how much in pounds come on each stage, and then he dilates on the class of mat, ! ter which is sent in during the winter.
 He tells us that on certain date last February but 289 pounds ot second clas; mail had accumulated at Cordova and that within two short weeks that had all heen cent forward; and again on another date in March everything in the mail line had been cleared out of Comova.
 He gives Us fund of information which he has gained by the long distance route, and tells Us just what we are to expect so far as he is concerned. He is long on cost of transportation dope, because he has access to the mail contract. He is thoroughly familiar with the workings of the department in Alas ka, because he has the reports of routing agents and division super intendents.
 But the general public knows bet ter the conditions of the country and the need of better mail service in the Interior than the whole bunch of them put together If Otto would only spend two or three months in the Interior or at Nome he would gain much better insight into mail matters than he can by sitting in his steam heated offices in Wash ington, dictating letters and telling the people of Alaska about some thing they are more familiar with than he is
 A few years ago some person oc cupying about the same position MT. Praeger is now filling. wrote scorching letter to the postmaster at Dawson for not filing his reports with the department, and notified him that dire consequences would result if he did not attend more strictly to his duties, which only goes to show that even though he be an official with a high-soundine title. he does not know everything about the North
 If, as MT. Praeger says, the boards were clear at Cordova on the 2Oth of March last year, how did it hap pen that more than fifty tons of delayed second class mall arrived in installments on the first, second and third boats of the season from Whitehorse? It took two extra clerks month and a half to work up the delayed mail that MT. Praeger says was not delayed at all
 During the month of July, and just after one of these "undelayed" mails had arrived, Frank G. Car penter. the noted writer, was in The Citizen office talking over the mail conditions during the winter, and to prove his assertion the editor thrust his hand in a bundle of news papers that had just been brought from the postoff1ce, and pulling out at random one of the papers it proved to be of September date of the year before, or just ten months old before it reached it's des- tination. The test was good enough for MT. Carpenter, and he immedi ately signed on as a booster for better mail service in Alaska during the winter months. Had it been MT. Praeger instead of MT. Carpenter who received this ocular demonstration. he would not be so free in proclaim ing that we are getting reason able" mail service.