The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1916-10-26
POSTAL INFORMATION
Al the Reforms Instituted Not Hcae-
fetal

ntiAi
tSpecisl
! Washington, October % Thomas
/ F. Flaherty, secretary u the National
Federation OF postofice Clerks, which
is affiliated with the American Fedora
ton Of Labor, in a statement today
declared Postmaster General Burie-
sons claims that the postoflicc De
partment has instituted reforms ben
ehcial TO the postal employees is not
true.
"Mr Bureson in his report to the
cath Congress, after stating that the
service was permanently slf. sustain
ing, asked Congress TO nulify all Of
the employees principal legislative re
FORMS" declared Flaherty.
"Our eight hour-law, our weekly
rest law, our salary classification law
would have been nullifed II Congress
had needed the recommendation Of
the Postmaster General. He also
asked that the rate Of pay for substi-
tlute service be reduced despite the
fact that these men earn less than $40
per month.
Daniel c. Roper, former First
Assistant Postmaster General, and
now one of the campaign managers
for the Democratic party in New
York, told the House Postoflice and
Postroads Committee on December 3,
1913, that il cost the Department
100000 to give the clerks of the New
York postoflee a weekly day of rest
Roper asked that the law be amended
TO enable the Department TO work all
postoiiice clerks through the winter
months without any regular rest day.
"At no time in the history Of the
service have the men in the Postoffice
Department been subject to such
speeding up, such harrassing, and such
petty interferences with their rights.
"In the boosted postal surplus ac-
cumuated during the present admins
tration will be found the money wrung
from aged mail collectors who were
denoted from $1,000 to $1,000, old men
who have given a life time to the
service. There will also be found in
that surplus the $3,200,000 withheld
from the pay of the rural carriers and
which Congress ordered returned TO
them.
'In its treatment of the aged ser
vice workers the administration has
been brutal.
"At time when the Department.
was seeking to reduce the wage scale
Of the substitute clerks and carriers,
men whose earnings are woefully in
adequate, Postmaster General Burie-
son asked the House Appropriations
Committee to increase the salaries Of
lis four assistants from $4,000 to
1900
"The Administration boast of an
service will not stand the
est of close analysis. Because Of
is refusal to fill vacancies in the
ailway mail service the clerks are
'verworked. The carrier force has
lot been recruited to an efficient
working standard, and in many cities
deliveries have been curtailed.
"In most of the larger frst-clsSs
the eight-ho day is mis-
omer; the employees are forced TO
oil ten and eleven hours to the i'm
of their health.
"Whie the administration cam
align figures and statistics may fool
he unknowing the men in the service
re too well acquainted with actual
,orking conditions not to know that
he claims Of an improved service and
n efficient administration are not
bundled on facts"
Mr.. Flaherty in letter to President
Wilson, on October 9Th declared that:
The responsible Department ofiicials
re seemingly Indifferent to the plight
the clerks.
"The Postal Department officials
ave placed you in the untenable pom
on Of advocating a principle in priv
te employment--the eight-hour day
which is not in effect in Government
nployment."