The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1920-04-30
DemoraIized Service, made
quate Pay, Rapid Labor Turn
over and inexperienced Help
Contribute to Problem

sibility of maintaining an efficient
corps OF postal clerks because Of con
tinual designations invited by poor
pay, educational Federation OF Post
Office clerks has launched cam
paign to acquaint American people
with facts relative to the demoralizcd
service now prevailing
According to the estimates Of the
national officers Of the postofficc
clerks organization, the public is
heavily penalizcd by being forced to
use telegraph and special delivery fac.
ilities for the transmission of mail
matter that should go by the usual
channels. The decline in postal eff
ficiency it is stated by Thos. r. Fla
harty, secretary treasurer of the Ma
tional federation of post office clerks.
is directly due to the large number
of designations of trained employees
and the inability Of the department to
recruit the working force to its prop
err strength because of the low wages
and general unattractiveness of post
office employment.
1T takes years to train expert mail
distributors" said Mr.. Flaherty "And
when any number of these postal
workers leave the service, as they are
now doing, it is reflected in slowing
up of the mails and the large number
of missent letters and papers. I'M
less the present exodus Is stopped
the service efficiency for many years
to come will suffer, Which means
that the public will be asked to pay
for service and get in return only
the present demoralized make shift
Pay Poorly Apportioned.
Much is said of the governments
liberality as an employer and the great
number of superflous clerks on its
payroll This does not apply to the
Postal service. The government can
not secure clerks enough to properly
man its postal service at the prevail
ing rates Of compensation. And rates
of pay for substitute employees Doc
an hour--are higher than the hourly
rate of the experienced employees,
Thus it frequently happens that the
skilled. veteran employees receive less
compensation than new entrants. No
wonder service morale is broken and
the labor Turnover is large and ex-
pensive.
THE government, through various
agencies, frequently points out desir-
able reforms for private employers to
institute and follow But the govern
ment itself makes no attempt to mod
ernize its postal labor policies, We
find in the postal service all the evils
that cause industrial unrest in pri-
vate industry; namely low wages.
long hours for many groups, insani-
tary working environment. speed up
systems and no recognized avenue OF
approach to those in authority,
"The postal workers are protesting
in the only way open to them by pc
tition to Congress. which has the
power to apply the remidies, and by
quitting singly to accept more agree
able employment Our desire is to
get early action from congress so
that the expensive labor turnover will
be minimized and the services of the
skilled. trained men retained to in
sure a restoration of service effic-
iency
Much Night Work.
1T is difficult to arouse public in
terest in the postal labor problem,
The average mail patron views the
service as an automatic machine that
functions without human labor. Very
few people realize that seventy-fivc
per cent of postoffice mail distribu-
tion is done at night by men who re-
ceive neither wage or time differ
entail for the admitted hardships of
night work. Moreover, these mel
must distribution schemes at home,
after office hours. without compensa-
ton.
THE base maximum pay for post
office clerks and city carriers was fix
ID at 81 200 in 1907. 1t has not been
changed but the congress
has granted bonuses from time to time
averaging about thirty-five per cent.
Postal wages, it can be seen, have
jagged far behind advancing living
,osts. A commission appointed by the