New-York tribune., 1921-03-22
Postal r Force
Cheers Merit
. Greed of HAYS
All TO Have Square Deal in
Rcvitalized Service, Head
of Department Tells Mass
Meeting at Local Office
Vows. to Erase Politics
Work Founded ON Personal
Pride and for Benefit OF
Public To Be Rewarded

Postmaster General VIII H. Hays
yesterday at the New York postofiicc
in Eighth Avenue at Thirty-third
Street received an enthusiastic greet
ing from 5000 postal employees. Every
body, including Postmaster Thomas G.
Patten, seemed to be on hand to take
part in the demonstration, and when
MIR. Hays left the building to drive to
the Waldorf-As at s o'clock he
had to fight his way through q throng
of cheering clerks.
A mass meeting was held in the
main rotunda OF the postoffice, and to
those gathered Mr. Hays said he was
going to humanize the department so
that each member would take a per
sonal pride in his work and would
feel free to talk things over with the
man in charge
Mr.. Hays was introduced to the en-
ployees by Mr. Patten, and after a
brief inspection of the building made
the men and women who work for the
government q speech in which he said
that he was going to eliminate politics
from the department. and extend the
scope of the civil service in the widest
possible way.
In Touch With All Employees
"Day before yesterday said Mr..
Hays, "I met the Chicago postal en-
ployees and two days before that I met
and talked over the problems of the
service in six separate meetings in
Washington with nearly 5000 represen-
~tatives of the nearly 100000 men and
women who compose the department.
Il voiced TO them, as express to you
now, the hope that you will feel that
you are to work with me, not for me,
in the service of the public. | prom
ised them, as | promise you, to regard
your labor in common with my own
not as mere mmodity, but as the
result of the striving of living human
beings. This does not imply that we
arc to be lax or slothful--the very op-
posite is true. 1t means that you and
they will be expected to perform your
duties faithfully, just as the President
expects me to perform mine and as
you expect him to perform his.
There is not room in this govern
ment for pampered class or a pam
pered official, but due diligence is en-
titled to due consideration and that is
what the workers in the Postofice De-
partment are to get. The department
is the biggest enterprise of the govern
ment, with 100000 employees, serving
100 900 customers, touching every
family in the land and affecting every
individual, and we are determined that
every possible step shall be taken to
/, humanize the industry. We propose to
make every one connected with it part
ner in the effort for success. 1t is i'm
possible to put the matter more sue
sinctly than the President did himself
the other day when he said work for
the government means an opportunity
for service and accomplishment, all Of
US together.
Merit to Govern Department
"My purposes are: First, to make
such rectifcation as in all decency
and fairness must be made to assure a
square deal; secondly, to strengthen
and broaden the civil service at every
point wherever possible, to the end
that merit may govern; third, with
absolute fidelity TO put the entire de-
partment upon a purely business basis,
so sound and so serviceable that no
political party will ever again dare at
/ tempt to ignore or evade it,"
Before departing for Washington Mr..
Hays said that the service would be
restored to even higher efficiency than
| it reached under President Taft's Ad-
ministration and that special effort
would be made to install conveniences
for the general public.
He said that he was not able to say
when Postmaster Patten would give
way to a Republican, but intimated
that this would not take place in the
immediate future.