Omaha daily bee., 1917-03-25
OLD MAIL CLERKS
GIVEN NO CHANGE
Orders for Sake of Economy
Work Hardships On Oldest
Men in the Service.
MAIL IS STILL CONGEsTING

Still more protests are coming in as
to the way the Burleson regime is
"economizing" at the expense of the
old, tried servants of Uncle Sam in
the railway mail service. Here is a
mail clerk who shows how the ad-
ministration tries to keep the efficient
men from getting their just deserts
in the way of pay by moving them
around the country. The following
letter came to The Bee Office yester-
day and is self-explanatory:
ITO the Editor of The Bee: The
public has been hearing of late the
just grievances OF the old guard OF
the railway mail service through the
columns of our friends. The Bee and
Council Bluffs Nonpareil. Now per-
nit me to state few facts in regard
to the younger men in the railway
mail service and what they have gone
through since those graveyards for
mail, the terminals, were established.
Cut High Priced Men.
"The terminals were inaugurated by
Postmaster General Hitchcock on a
Class c basis, which is the class of
the best road lines. On that basis
the men could make as much as
81 500 per year under automatic an
nual promotions, the same as if on
road duty. To man the terminals
appointments were made from the
substitute list and also many volun-
tarily relinquished road service for
the terminals by invitation of the de-
partment. Then clerks began to be
withdrawn arbitrarily from the road
lines to the terminals. This worked
no hardship in the way of salary until
the present incumbent of the post
master generals Office began to revo-
lutionize things to put his crazy hob
bes into effect.
Postmaster General Burleson, by
executive order on April IS, 1915,
placed all terminals on a Class A
basis. By so doing he made it inn
possible for thousands of men to go
over 81 200 in salary. Many of these
men had spent years on the road and
all had gone through the same course
of study as the road clerks.
Now to show how official minds
work. The order of reduction of ter
minals classification found a few men
making more than $1,000. Orders
were issued that sounded very fair.
These men were to be given their
salries temporarily until a suitable
road vacancy occurred. They were to
be offered this and in case of refusal
were to be reduced to $1,000.
Must Give Up Homes.
This is the way it worked out, just
TO use concrete instance in which
the writer had no direct personal in
terest. A vacancy occurred on the
Missouri Pacific between Omaha and
Kansas City. This run headed out of
Kansas City with the layover there.
The sensible thing to do W Ill have
been to offer the run to Kansas City
man. 1t is the present plan to put
every high-class man into hole and
offer him something impossible to
accept. In this case eight men work.
ing in the three terminals centering
at Omaha, were offered this poor
81 800 run. Each would have been
compelled to move to Kansas City
and sacrifice on home here. So each
in his turn refused this offer and were
reduced to $1,000.
This action is typical of the shen-
angins of our department officials.
Anything to get mans salary re-
duced and then say his acton was
voluntary"