Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1917-10-25
NAIL SERVICE CRIPPLED
OTHER PLACES TOO
CLOSED Pouches Left At Stations
Or Carried Beyond Destinations
ROADS BLAME GOVERNMENT
Says Too Many Cars Are Commander
ed-AlsO AIlege Inability 10
Secure Enough Labor.

Recently this paper has been COM
PEELED to make complaint about the
hardness Of mails The mail service
however. is crippled at other places
besides Annapolis.
Crrtailment of railway postal sery-
ice by the government and substitu-
ton Of CLOSED pouch service. which
makes of mail ordinary baggage, has
resulted in a number Of instances in
long delayed delivery OF all classes Of
mail going out of Baltimore and COM
plants are beginning to be heard.
In addition. an inadequate number
Of railroad employees at local terminals
has further hampered the postal sys-
TEN in Baltimore. mail pouches, deliv-
cred to station platforms in time fire.
auently being left on the platforms
for several hours Lack of space for
CLOSED pouch" service, due to an in
adequate number of baggage cars, is
further aggravating the situation.
Col Sherlock Swami, postmaster at
Baltimore, said that the curtailment
of the railway postal service hay prob
ably become general all over the coun-
try. and he can only follow here the
orders which he has received from
Washington relative to the curtail-
ment
The CLOSED pouch" service Of the
government leaves the nail pouches
in the hands of the train baggage mas
ter, and he is supposed to sort them
ont and drop them off at the stations
to which they are destined How
ever. 1t often happens that the train
baggage master looks after the rail-
road baggage first, and then goes to
the mail. and by that time several
stations for which mail pouches are
destined have been passed For in
stance, if the railroad baggage be-
tween Baltimore and Philadelphia on
Pennsylvania train No. 442, which
leaves Baltimore at 11.52 O'clock each
night, were particularly heavy, the
pouches for Aberdeen, Edgewood,
Havre de Grace and other points
might not be reached by the train
baggage man until after these sta
tions were passed. Then they would
have to go to Philadelphia and be
brought back The recently instituted
closed pouch" service on No. 442 has
already resulted in the non-deliyery of
newspapers and other mail in the
vicinity of Belair and Havre de Grace.
The railroads, questioned by post
Office authorities relative to trains
running away from" mail at local
terminals, blame insufficient labor and
lack of space, both due to war. Told
that their contracts call for sufficient
labor. they tell the government offici-
ais they will employ the people if the
government finds them. There is no
help Of the proper kind to be OBJ
tanned The lack Of space, say rail-
road officials, is due solely to the i'm
pressment of so many cars into gov.
eminent service.
Postal officials say they are power
less to correct the situation, as they
are compelled to accommodate their
service to the conditions prescribed
by the postal officials in Washington
So far, incoming mail has not been
Seriously affected, as the CLOSED
pouch" service has not yet been sub
stituted on any important trains from
New York and Philadelphia to Balti-
more,