The Washington herald., 1915-05-30


Fund. established wholly by the com
pany, through which the sick. the IN
1ured. the disabled. the old. are pro
tected. Every building constructed mas
In II modern equipment looking 10 INC
! comfort and health of the employe.
Net Fit for Women.
Will Government do more for civil
employees than it is doing for the men
who man our ships? 1t will not. The
Postmaster Of New York City. when
| asked why he did not employ women
! In the Postoffice. replied that the New
| York City Postofiice was not nj
| place for women to work in. Ano
speaking of postofhce buildings, / am
reminded that although some recen,
omcial statements showing postal Re-
| ceipts and disbursements have .indi-
Gated that the service is being per-
FORMED at profit, in these statements
tnere is nothing charged to building
up-keep. interest. taxes. etc. for the
postoffce Department has no control
over postoffice buildings. For some
| reason. not altogether clear to me
| these buildings are wholly within the
control of the Treasury Department
whether or not this arrangement IL
| in the public interest l will not at
tempt to say. but their upkeep Is not
| charged against the postal service
Further. some things l know about
this control OF public buildings, the
peoples buildings. indicate that II IL
| exercised absolutely without regard
for the convenience or the rights OF
| the people who own them
| A New Jersey Postmaster, feeling
| that the installation of a public tele-
phone in the corridor of the postoffice
would prove a public convenience, rec
commended to the Treasury Department
that such a telephone be installed The
reply he received was as follows:
The Department has adopted
the policy of not permitting the
| installation Of further telephone
pay stations In Federal buildings
under its custody and control. I'M
less II Is shown that the giving OF
such privilege would be beneficial
to the Government officials in such
| buildings"
| While / arA about it, permit me
please, to point out one or two other
| instances that seem to show lack
of consideration for the rights of the
people Fancy a reliable business house
deliberately refusing to answer the
telephone because the employees are busy
| at something else; why not refuse Il
receive telgrams, and even mail II self
Yet the following appeared in a Jaws
paper published at Watertown, n. Y;
No telephone calls will be an
swered at the local postoffice until
after the Christmas rush in mail
The telephone in the office has
been ringing almost continually
for the past few days and the
clerks, 1t seems. have been too
busy to answer. If a person wants
to know how late the mail is. II
will be necessar, .or him to walk
| to the postoffice.'
In New York City as elsewhere, nc
doubt, great interest is taken in the
arrival and departure of mails espe-
cially foreign mails. and II would seem
to be a function of the Postofice to
provide the public with such informa.
/ ton: yet in that great city the Postal
] to install the telephone facilities nee
| essary to meet this reasonable re-
quirement of the citizens
Now another point Raising rates in
our business is something terrible even
to think about: but the Postoffice has
a very neat little system. Here II u
as applied At Atlantic City. with the
bills for lock boxes recently sent out
this notice was inclosed:
The attached bill is correct for
the box you are now using. The
readjustment in prices to con-
form to our increased receipts"
No Cut in Rates.
All! increased receipts. Consequently
reduced rates The bill, however, and
IT is the bill that counts, said some
thing else. The rate had been increased
so per cent over previous years, which
prompted a local newspaper, Re-
publican newspaper no doubt. to COM
ment as follows:
Those who had not as vet
glanced at the amount Of their
bills thought that the last two
words (increased receiptsO spelled
a saving for them. But il proved to
be some sort of a Democratic
Joke"
Now. my own opinion is that when
the Postmaster said increased re-
ceipts he meant an increase in the
amount of mail matter received, per-
chance parcels sen by post, and not
an increase in cash receipts Be that
as II may. We must take our hats of
just the same. To get by with a fifty
per cent increase by merely enclosing
a twenty-eight word notice with the
bill is an accomplishment to be ad-
mired. Let's assume that these in
creased receipts are in mail matter
and not in cash: are they not due to
Parcels Post? That is a fair assump-
ton because it is officially reported
that in fifty large cities the increase
for October. 1914, over the same month
In 1913 Appropriated $50 per cent. The
Postmaster tells US what the so-called
readjustment in prices is due to, and
naturally we must admire him for
the simple way in which he meets a
situation. We read every day of presi-
dents of great railroads fairly tear
ing their hair because they are not
permitted to meet this same i'm
crease in receipts" as the good Post
master at Atlantic City met II.
But enough has been said about
government inefficiency in business
matters. The New York American has
long advocated Government Ownership
OF the Wires, and in its advocacy re-
Gently met the question Of Govern
ment inefficiency with the following
statement on it's editorial page:
1T Is true that experience
abroad with government-owned
telephones has been exasperatinE
to users. inconvenient to the pub
lie and Improbable to the govern
ment, but that is because brains
have been lacking in the govern
ment telephone management. There
Is no reason why this should be.
The telephone 10 used three
times as much in New York as in
London or Paris. because the teIe-
phone management in America has
superior ability. The recent pen
sion system and now the profit
sharing for employees 10 only .
fresh proof of the talent for sue
cess OF the organization. We