Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-11-08
INEFFICIENT AND STUPID

|
/ Estate finds it necessary to
carry at the head of it's editorial col
umns a notice like the following, 1t
is time for all publishers and the
reading public to ask what is the
matter with the postal department:
Subscribers who do not receive
/ their paper through the mails IN
the proper time are hereby ad-
publishers.
You are requested, therefore,
to write u personal letter TO the
Postmaster General at Washlng
ton each and every time, there Is
delay-so that the head of the
department may realize, what the
| conditions are-in the nope that
they may be improved.
| BY pursuing this course. you
will not only help yourself but
will help the publishers.
1t is expected that, the Post
Office Department will welcome
definite knowledge of present un-
satisfactory service.
This advice applies quite as much
to readers of the Telegraph as to
subscribers to the Fourth Estate.
Conditions in the mail service out of
| Harrisburg are well-nigh intolerable.
Delays are so frequent that they are
the rule rather than the exception.
There is on the desk of the writer the
envelope of a letter addressed to n
subscriber in Sunbury in reply to a
question as to why his newspaper did
not arrive on time. This letter re-
quired something like four days to
make the trip. The fault does not lie
with the postal clerks, but with the
Grass stupidity and rank inefiiciency
of the department heads at Wash
ington.
What happened to the Sunbury
letter, so far as the Telegraph has
been able to find from an outside in
vestigation-inside investigations be-
ing mostly conducted for the purpose
of covering up delinquencies-was
this: The letter went into a pouch
on a full car; the clerks employed are
so few that they could not reach this
letter until after the Sunbury bag
was closed. Then this letter was toss
ed into a pouch that went to Will
Transport. There the letter was put
into a local train and started back
toward Harrisburg. The same thing
happened. evidently, again and the
letter came back to Harrisburg. Bye
and bye it apparently worked to. the
nation.
What ineXcusable and expensive
inefficienCy is developed when the
department cuts its clerical force to
hauling letters back and forward and
back and forward again along the
main lines. What happens on the
branches if this happens on a piece
of railroad like that between here
and Williamsport? And if this occurs
to first class mail to what delays is
second class mail put when crews are
overworked and cars overcrowded?
The mail service heads forget that
newspapers are as perishable prod
ucts as fruits. They are valuable to-
day and utterly worthless tomorrow.
To be of profit to their publishers
and of service to the reader they
must be delivered Immediately. Yet
time after time they are tossed into
the discard, and this during a period
when the very government which is
abusing them is pleading for whole
hearted and unreserved newspaper
support.
Instead of planning to raise second
class mail rates, Postmaster General
Burleson, for the fault is traceable
directly back to him and to his as
sistants at Washington, should give
attention to improvement of the serv-
ice An occasional flash of intelli-
gence, instead of the customary stu
pidity, and the replacing of efficiency
for the inefTiciency now so general
throughout the department would be
refreshing and beneficial. A few more
years of the present kind of mail
service and the once proud name of
the United States Post Office Depart
ment will be little more than a fond
memory.