The Prescott daily news., 1916-08-07

| PNNNiSo' VI IlulH d snort time pouch was evolved, designed on scientific principles, which is giy- Ing far better service and at a greatly reduced cost, viz, so cents each.
 The saving in this production of 1 equipment will amount to very large sum, for there have been over 15O 900 of these new style bags placed in the service within the last two years at a reduction of fifty per centum, and this economy will of course continue and grow Tn amount as the further demand for supply is met. While the old style ot equipment required expert at tentlon to keep them in repair, this newer product requires but little, and IS kept in good condition at a nominal cost by machine operators.
 The repair and proper maintenance of mail bags is provided for in an establishment located at Washington. Experienced and efficient people are only employed, for repair work must be we'll done before bags can again be permitted to enter the service. The number repaired and placed in good condition during the past year was over a million.
 One of the difficulties connected with this repairing process, which was also something of a hardship to the operators, was the accumulated dirt and dust which attached to these bags when returned from the service and which was menace to the health of those so employed No attention had ever been paid to the dangerous and unsanitary condition under which this work was done. No attempt to cleanse these bags from the foul im- purities they gathered and collected had ever been made, and those en- ployed at the work, men and women, were forced to inhale the dust which an ordinary shaking out by hand fails to remove, which was considerable, as the shaking out process was hastily and imperfectly done. The official in charge saw the need of change to better methods, and steps were at once taken to discover it. Cores pondence was had with manufacturers of machinery both in this and foreign countries. A system was finally adopted consisting of large tumbling barrels, each having a capacity for holding several hundred bags. Driven rapidly by electric power, the dust confined to a tightly constructed room and carried off by blowers and lodged ! in immense canvass receptacles, re- sembling a dirigible balloon when in- Hated, this process was found thor oughly suitable, for careful tests showed all dust was completely re- moved. Four thousand a day are now treated by this process.
 The life of a mail bag is about six years. but the rough usage to which it is exposed renders many of them un- l fit for repair. Such bags pass into, the hands of expert inspectors who utilize such parts as still have some good material left in making what is known as 'pieced bags" Many arc | thus reclaimed and returned to the service, constituting with the sale of condemned material, the salvage of the mail bag repair shop. The bags or parts of bags which can not be utilized are sold under yearly con- tract to the highest bidder The amount thus realized and turned into | the treasury for the past year was over $10,000.
 The advent of the parcel post and the great increase in postal business has made it necessary to enlarge the scope of the repair shop, because at times it was found impossible to ob- tain bags from the contractor in quan- titles sufficient to meet the demand. \ manufacturing feature was there fore added, and during the past two years over a quarter of million bags have been produced without addition al expense for labor or hardship to the employees. These figures of pro dent and economical management and thoughtful regard for the interests Of those engaged in such employment Is thought worthy of mention, and this story of achievement has therefore been written.