The Washington herald., 1918-01-01
By BASIL NJ. MANLY.

4
What is the matter with the mails?
Why does it take two days for a let
ter TO go from Washington to cleve-
land. four days from st. Paul to
Washington, and twenty-four hours
even for local deliveries?
OF course everybody knows pas
senger trains and mail trains are
running behind schedule. and this
does account for part Of the delay.
But IL accounts for only small part.
Investigation shows that the greater
part Is In the Postoffice Department
ard cannot be laid on the railroads.
What. then. is the matter with the
Postoffice Department.
First, the blind arrogance Of Al
bert Sidney BurIeson, Postmaster
General. and his associated bureau
Gratis. They will not even admit that
there are any more delays than nor
mally,
Here is the statement Of william
| /. Denning, superintendent of Rail-
way mail service before the House
Postoffice Committee. December 6,
1917:
We do not admit that there are
more complaints now than heretofore
or more than usual There have been
complaints about delays I'm the mail
service, to my knowledge. for ten
years"
Can you beat that?
Or IL that doesn't sufficiently re-
veal their attitude. consider the fol-
lowing excerpt from the hearing:
Representative Madden: "In most
cases out in my State they do not get
their meals for four or fye days"
Denning: we would like 70 know
OF any instances that the Representa-
tive has Of cases of that kind"
Representative Madden: II have
submitted them to the office and 4
have received no more consideration
than IL was a dog"
II that is the way a Representa-
tive is treated. how about the ordi-
nary citizen7
Until the department "a willing TO
admit the service is rotten, there is,
Of course. no hope for Improvement.
The second cause OF postal DELAYS
lies in the destructive economies in
stituted by Burieson in his desire TO
show a surplus.
Did you know that last year BurIe-
son reduced the number of railway
mail clerks by lao and on many i'm
portant lines completely abolished the
| assortment Of mail on trains?
Well, he did. he admits IT, and
offers as the only reason the econ
omy that can be gained by sorting
mails at terminals instead of on
trains.
A few dollars are saved: but the
whole public is disconnected and
business throughout the country is
delayed.
Third. and most important OF all
the causes underlying mail delays
ana postal ineniciency, is the fact
that Burleson's labor policies are
causing an unprecedented number Of
the most efficient employees to leave
! the service.
This is denied by the Postonice De-
partment; but the cold figures COM
piled by the department itself show
conclusively that both clerks and car
| riers are resigning almost twice as
fast as in any previous year and al
| most three times as fast as in the
average year
Here are the facts: From July to
December l. OF this year. 1.55e clerks
| resigned. This is at the rate of 3.f44
/ for twelve months. Compare this with
total designations of 20aO in the fiscal
J year 1917. the highest on record, and
an average Of In for the 1--WE pre-
| ceding years. Similarly carriers are
now resigning at the rate Of LIS a
year, as compared with 627 in the
highest previous year. and an average
of 465 for the five years 1sl2-l6-
| Why is this?
We need not examine all the multi
tudinous grievances OF the postal en-
ployes- Take only one concrete ex-
ample. which you can easily under
stand because you have seen and talk
| ed with the man IL concerns.
Suppose you were a city letter car
rier-you see them every morning
plugging along under their heavy load
of mail. efficient, intelligent fellows.
Suppose your wage scale had not been
changed for years. and that through
! the operation of the automatic pro-
| motions" of which Postmaster Bur
] Lesson makes so much, the salary OF
you and your fellow carriers averaged
only Sll94 more for the whole year
Of 1917 than for 1916. although the in
creased cost of living had cut its
value in half.
Suppose that after these facts had
been laid before the Postmaster Gen.
eraI in memorials and petitions. he