Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-08-27

That the Post Office Department IL
becoming more self-supporting Is due
In part, at least, to the
Post Ofica various ways of econo-
my being practiced. Thou
savings. sands of dollars are now
being saved annually for the depart
ment by the mail bag repair shop.
1t is to this shop that all detective
mail bags that can be repaired pront-
ably are brought, and overhauled and
placed in good condition for sending
out again. This repair division has re-
Gently been organized along business
lines and improved sanitary measures
havejbeen adopted and put in operation
forlthe health and comfort of the en-
pioyes. A cost system has been estab-
j1ished by which it is possible to locate
/ quickly and remedy any inefficient con-
dition that may develop.
| Recently desirable innovation af-
lfecting the cleaning of mail bags and
its bearing on the health of postal en-
ployes has received. attention and a
| bag-cleanlng department has been eS-
! tablished. 1t is said that formerly
many OF the employees at the shop be-
came diseased because of the amount OF
dust that was contained in the bags
upon which they were working. After
the cleaning process scarcely any dust
can be detected in a bag.
| 1t is also due to the work of this di-
vision that new bags have been put
into use. After extensive experiments
carried on by the shop, new types OF
old-style catcher pouch and ordinary
pouch. The new types are easier to
manipulate, weigh less, and their in
PRODUCTION into the service insures a
ft,.et NCt
also in the item of expense for repairs
and in the weight as paid by the gov
eminent to the railroads for carrying
the mail. 1t is estimated that the in
PRODUCTION of the new-style pouches will
effect a saving in the first cost of ap-
proximately $4,000 annually. A can
vas satchel for city and rural carriers
has also been introduced recently and
results in saving of about $4,000 a
year.
Post Office Department statistics
show that during the past fiscal year
the mail bag repair shop and the store
mouse received nearly 100000 bags;
about one million and a half of these
WERE repaired. and the number con-
demned and retired from the service
| vas about quarter of a million. The
shop also handled nearly seven and a
y half million incoming and outgoing
pouches and sacks.
The handling of these mail bags and
their repair is worth noting. A post
master or railway mail clerk finding a
bag too bad for use sends it to one of
the country, where, when a sufficient
number of bags are collected they are
\ shipped to Washington. The freight
car OF bags goes direct to side track
or the repair shop and the bags are
dumped automatically down a chute
into the cellar of the building. Before
the bags handled at all they are
thrown INTO huge electric carpet-clean-
ing machine which knocks the dust
out of them. inspectors then as
sort the bags into piles, some too
bad to consider for repair, others
needing new tops. etc. The bags then
pass to another corps of workers who
| examine them more carefully: those
having good ends or good bottoms are
cut up and the good parts saved, the
! bad parts being thrown away, to be
sold as waste. The bags then pass to
other workers, who do their sewing
| win electric machines After being
sewn the bags are sent to other work
ers who supply new strings and other
needed parts, and after final inspec-
ton they are piled away in a huge
warehouse, ready to be sent out when
Required.
In addition to the repair of mail bags
TINS shop now manufactures all of the
locks that are used in Uncle Sans
postal service. Many thousands of
ido!iars are being saved annually in
L..
II much more economical to manufac-
ture its own locks than to buy them.
saving as much as so and 70 per cent.
me shop itself is located in well
| hhsn,ed slx.story and basement ware
mouse building Congress has recently
appropriated $3.50, 900 for a new building.
TO be built especially for the work
OF THIS division B. L. Andrus is
superintendent, and it is in a large
measure due to his good work thai
many innovations and savings bave
been accomplished
during the past spring the weather
bureau established a special storm
warning service for
Storm Warnings the sheep ranges in
| for uord Oregon, Washington
| and Idaho, to en-
land lambs to protect the lambs and the
sheared sheep from the effects of dis
astrous storms. owing to the great
success obtained by this service to the
sheepmen during the Landing and
shearing season, the bureau intends
not only to maintain the service, but
to extend it.
| Large numbers of lambs and recently
sheared sheep are killed by storms
especially those accompanied by snow
and cold rains, unless they can be pro-
tected in time. This is especially true
because early lambing to meet high
| market prices is extensively practiced
in this section, and because winter
feeding is expensive, and sheep are
usually shorn and put on the ranges as
early as possible. Even before shear
ing. according to those who know most
about the raising of sheep, under espe-
claiiy stormy, snowy and muddy con-
ditions. eve will readily succumb
TO fatigue and starvation and her
| lamb may perish with her
1t is said tnat there have been many
instances where the losses have reached
| which the animals We're valued at S6
each. AS a result of such losses, the
owners make "A practice. wherever it is
possible, OF sheltering their shorn shee D
IN canyons and keeping them near
shelters during unsettled weather in
the carly spring. Later in the spring
and early summer the sheep are all
lowed to Craze more widely and the
therders must have warning of storms
sufficiently in advance to enable them
to drive the sheep to some nearby shell
ter. During the springs of 1914 and
1915, according to statistics, many thou
| sands of sheep persisted which were be-
yond the reach of shelter in the severe
storms that sweep over the north
western states.
/ The weather bureau operated its serv-
ice this year through twenty-five dis
| tributing centers. through which
weather reports and special warnings
covering the temperature, snow. rain
winds. clouds and clear sky, were dis
tributed to nearly 100 other communi-
ties All of these conditions have a