The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-07-19
POSTMEN IN CITY.
CONTINUED from Page one.l

CONTINUED from Page one.l
Constructions" address by John ".
Lapham, secretary Kansas Postmast-
ers' association THE Postmaster's
Part in the Better Roads Campaign;"
roads committee sGosd Roads ana
Their Relation toy the, Rural Carrier"
general diselissioh, led by e. r. Rust,
of the good roads committee
c. E. Allison lis chairman of the
good roads committee.
Roy PowelPs Address.
L.. M. Powell of Topeka, superin
tendent of mails, in an address this
morning favored the straight pension
system as provided in the Hammil bill.
4 notice that the provisions of this
bill are being approved by Legislative
and commercial bodies in all parts of
the country" he said. "Oftentimes
when an employee has served % or
80 of the best years of his life in the
harness, reaching the period when he
is no longer able to render service
which meets the demands of the de-
partment and is separated from the
service, finds that he is fitted for no
other employment. Again, in most
lines of endeaVOr a person is priV1-
legged to move about from one town or
state to another and can secure en-
ployment in his line. Not so with
postoffice employee, he is tied down
good and fast at his home town,
trades or transfers being rare thing
and there being no other postoffice
department to go to.
For these and other reasons 1
might mention a straight pension Sys-
tenn for those employees VINO become
inca pacitated after having served
period of 25 to IS years regardless of
age, seems proper and just and it is
believed would meet the approval of
large majority of the American
people.
The position you occupy is pecu-
liarly important, in that to your pa
irons you are postmaster, express
agent and banker. You handle his
correspondence both going and COM
ing, through the parcel post which
virtually transforms the postoffices
into pOst-eXpress offices of which the
box of each rural patron is a branch,
thus bringing the express office to his
gate post, through the c. o. d. fea-
ture you receive on your route an
article of merchandise for dispatch TO
a customer and in due course of mails
return the pay to the sender, thus per
forming the functions of banker. This
great service is in your hands to be
good or bad you see fit TO make it,
and I am pleased to say that you elect
to make it good
Kansas Is Tenth.
Kansas stands tenth among the
states in respect to money paid in the
rural service. according to w. .. Rig
by, postma ster at Topeka, in IN ad-
dress this afternoon.
The last Quarterly report received
from the auditor shows that from a
total of forty-nine paid stations for
rural carriers service in the United
States, Kansas stands tenth from the
top in the amount of money paid in
salaries he said. There are eight
cen hundred and thirty regular
carriers in Kansas, and, including the
amount paid substitutes for vacation
service, the rural carriers pay roll
for this state aggregates considerable
in excess of 100000 a year. I wish
that, for the same number of carriers,
the payroll was $3,000,00G.
Il take deep interest in this
branch of the service and have now
in the porcess of construction a car
index system, alphabetically arranged,
covering every patron served by a
rural route out of Topeka. My car
riers have given invaluable assistance
in compiling this record and are all
observant of changes, additions or de-
partures of their respective patrons.
have, at personal expense, gone over
some of the Topeka routes and will
later cover all of them in order to
acQuaint myself with conditions as to
mail boxes, difficulties my carriers
have to contend with and the wants
or needs of the patrons With the CO.
operation of my carriers, we are
building up a rural service of which
we can be justly proud