The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1925-01-02
POSTAL EMPLOYEES SALARY.

With $1l 100000 appropriated out
of the national Treasury with which
to enforce the prohibition measure
and to maintain an army Of enforce
ment agents, who according to news
dispatches, fail most sorrowfully in
their mission, it seems rather queer
that the small raise in the salary of
the underpaid postal employees is SO
hard to grant.
President Coolidge in vetoing the
bill last year stated that there was
no money with which to increase the
salaries. Since that time the treasury
has shown a surplus and the raise
should be granted. The postal en-
ployes are in the same position they
were in years ago and the readjust-
ment of salaries in Washington and
throughout he country has failed
to touch this branch of service. The
maximum for postal employees is yet
and has been $1,000 year, surely
a mere bagatelle when tn salaries of
innumerable '.chair-warmers" at the
Capitol and other places are con-
sidered. For the purpose of giving
the postal people their deserved
raise, Senate File No. 1898 has been
resurrected from under the veto of
President Coolidge and will be acted
on in a few days.
The larger art of the papers of
the country have endorsed the salary
raise for the postal employees in no
unmistakeable terms and have de-
oted columns of space n endorsing
the measure. As a result along
comes Senator Sterling with bill to
raise the postal rates on newspapers
to make up for the salary raise to
the postal people, thinking in this
manner to kill Senate File No. 1898.
The Stirling bill, instead of doing
this little thing, has had just the
opposite effect and the newspapers
have opened up louder than before
in favor of the postal bill and against
the newspaper rate bill.
The postal employees have gon on
record against the raise in rates on
second class matter, making the valid
claim that the carrying of parcel
| ost matter is the fly in the ointment
of the deficiency in the postal de-
partment.
The Stirling bill only hits at the
| newspapers and only those whose
circulation reaches some distance.
The Inference drawn by the pub
Usher was that this bill was intro
duced to draw attention away from
the postal measure on the part of the
publisher, but instead it has drawn
attention to the entire postal bust
| ness and its inequalities have be-
come noticeable to much larger
extent.
The Christmas business through
| the postoffice this year has been
| much in excess of previous years and
the postal employees have worked day
and night most faithfully in getting
results, all for the benefit of patrons
| If Congress is to reward faithful
service, it will re-pass the salary bill
We would also suggest that the prun-
ing hook be turned into some of the
Washington departments and some
of the dead wood cut out. General
Dawes, few airs ago, used the axe
most effectively on several thousand
in the several departments which tie
war had left cluttered up with EN-
ployes whose sole duty was "goine
out to lunch," as General Dawes put
it, Under the .;vil service rules in
operation since the war, thousands
of these employees cannot be removed
in any manner and they remain on
the payroll whether they do anything
Or not. Congressional pets in minor
positions at top-notch salaries not
st well with either the newspapers
on the public and esp cially when
the postal employees are working fol
less pay than the cities of the ranges
pay their ianitors in public buildings