New-York tribune., 1918-02-13
Workers Federation Will
Make an Appeal to
Wilson
Employees Call Him
Slave Driver
House Committee Report
Expected to Show Con-
ditions Here
[Staf Correspondence

which has been gathering about tho
head Of Postmaster General Burleson
is due to break soon. Business men
and postal employees together have been
collecting forces for the cttack on the
methods of the Postmaster General
The employees. however, will probably
make the first move.
The executive council of the Ameri-
can Federation of Labor will move this
week to see President wilson and place
before him the facts relative to the al
legged breakdown in the postal machine.
Merchants associations in all the large
cities are now conducting nationwide
inquiry into the conduct of the Post
Office Department, and the Merchants
Association of New York has had an
Investigator in Washington for several
weeks.
The Heating committee of the House,
empowered by House resolution to
investigate the methods of the Post
office Department, is also expected to
take hand and to summon members
of the New York Postoffice branches to
Washington in an effort to discover
what conditions of labor are responsi-
bic for the alleged deteriorating morale
OF the service.
Railway Service Has Effect
Undoubtedly the late curtailment of
railway service has affected the Post
Office Department. but employees and
merchants together attribute what
they call the breakdown in the service
to older and more fundamental causes.
trouble has been growing between the
postmaster General and the men who
work for hin for several years, it is
SAID, and neither side has made any
secret of it.
Mr.. Burleson is definitely and stern
~ set against unionisrl Or collective
bargaining in the Postotfice Depart
ment' and the employees who have
noehed n to unionism are frank in their
denunciation of methods of employ
ment which they term inhuman. They
charge the Postmaster General with a
1aliure to recognize any of the prin-
cipies Of humanity which have been
accepted by private employers in the
industrial world, and they denounce
me me ambition of their chief to increase
sne postal surplus as productive of
FORM OF slave driving" unequalled in
ahy large industry outside of govern
ment control.
lhey point to longer hours, the al
legged prejudice of the Postmaster Cen
el erai against an increase in salaries.
tne resignation of employees in large
numbers from the service and substi~
tuition in their places of inexperienced
men at low wage as evidence of what
Is Is wrong with the mail service. Mr.
nuliesoh feplles by calling the or
eanlzed employees Selfish" "a
Seek Only to Remedy Evils
i me activity of merchants and in
ous'rles who are trying to discovar
what IS wrong with the mail serv;ca
IS probably not in most cases no1itiraI
VI VT personal. 1t is concerned onlv With
". as,e1hpr 10 remedy evils that disad
affect their business.
But the fight that is soon to be
waged by the postal emploves ;s 20 nar ue
sona and bitter. % per
:. Mr. Burleson touched on the troub1o
IN ms department in his annual renort
issued 0s last June. He drew a pictnre
0, OF the antagonistic attitude Of em
ployes and the dangers that wonId
eome OF their Joining organizations NJ
seli'defence. He pointed out that nor
nai working conditions could not he
no, mopea LOT IN wartime, but added that
sosAl +; employees we're regrettablv per
s.I'ng s"I IN making what he called "self-
,'Sn sbnu uuemands" land insisting that thew
snali 'n not be required or permitted ~
%oik IN excess of the usual number Of
nours' also that their salaries be ner-
;""nehtiy ;''s4'tiy increased. although thew are
..llsuy compensated, receiving moro
rndn 10 three times as much as those
::snting in the trenches ~
.eoIaared IN the report that the nostal
~ .tMpioyes were "a privileged class."and
h 'has 'ne forming of organizations hv
,na ,ne'h TO interfere with the discinline
luz ina ADMINISTRATION of the service "or
,aie "I e. enactment of legislation for their
,,elnsn interests, and not for the VEL
a1v ~ ol the public, should cease"
Ihe postal employees replied to +h;s
eport ,s by joining the American Fedo
Ta.n ;T.a.lon OF Labor in great numbers
,ourteen thousand mail clerks on
,ounced their affliation five monks
js.;doaa rssd ana $4,000 city letter carriers :
,essaea 'efaae to take the same step by a
v.ti"onlas tnionlas F Flaherty, secretary of the
iIsuonal ,Ia. Federation Of Postal Emo
,,vyes' ,"' sums up the attitude of the
iSs'al Ss u employees toward their chief in
'As sr, l,ollowlng manner: l
,..!ne ane Postmaster General has tho
r. psychology Of a slave driver
- doesn't recognize the presence of
.n human element in a large organiza.
ro .on and regards the men as IF thay
,sfe . machines. The employees havo
lSsser Ser questioned his sincerity hrt ,
ir ns, entire objection is to Mr.. Burle~
'" ihgralned scorn of the emplove