Evening star., 1933-04-18
BALANCED POSTAL
BUDGET PLEDGED
Farley Promises in Forum to
Eliminate Deficit by
July |, 1884.
Continued From Fifth Page.)

President Roosevelt's Inauguration, the
scale of salaries paid to employees OF the
Government has been reduced in keep
ing with the present lowered cost or
living That means saving OF almost
$4,000 600 in our pay roll.
Another cut of 20,0O0,000 Is in slght
from miscellaneous sources. For eX-
ample, in the rents we have to pay and
our transportation costs, which have
got to be revised. We can trim some
thing by being p1ore careful with our
supplies and equipment and contlnu-
alton Of the policy of not replacing
vacancies resulting from. deaths, re-
tirements. Tesigna HonS and separations
from the service.
This figuring takes care OF $4,000 600
of the $4,000 600 which was the rdi-
Gated deficit. When it Games to the re-
naming S22000,000, the problem Is
more complex, for it has to be done
without impairing the service. In
Vulnerable suggestions have been made,
some OF them practical and some OF
them pretty violent. Perhaps the most
radical plan that has been recon-
mended is a proposal that all letter
carriers be discharged and all mail be
delivered under contracts awarded by
troduced in Congress embodying this.
and we are told that We could save a
hundred million dollars a year by the
process more reasonable proposal is
that the whole system of rural deliveries
should be reorganiZed with longer routes
and fewer carriers. Obviously, man
in an automobile on cement roads can
cover a lot more territory than he did
when he had to use pony cart.
The department has itself estimated
that under preSent-day road conditions
satisfactory rural delivery service could
be provided with 10000 carriers instead
of the 10000 who are now employed.
Since 1925 the policy has been to con-
solidate rural routes gradually as va
CancieS occur III the carrier force, and
something like 5000 routes have been
eliminated in this way during the last
seven Years. Ten thousand further
consultations could undoubtedly be
made without impairing the service to
rural patrons Whether consultations
of this kind should be made at once on
a sweeping scale, or whether the pres
ent policy of making them gradually
should be continued is question which
necessarily the department must, in the
present emergency, give serious atten-
ton.
In Other Postal Branches.
A somewhat similar question presents
Itself in other branches of the postal
service. The post Office has lost ap-
broyimately one-third Of its business
since the beginning of the depression,
but up to the present the polcy mas
been not to dismiss any regular en-
Moves in spite OF the fact that there IS
hot enough work to keep them all con-
tinuously occupied to their normal ca
bacitv. In an institution like the postal
service there is, of course, large turn
over and even in these times the oe-
bartment loses annually something ike
5000 employees by deaths, reSlgnatlonS'
retirementS and separations for cause.
In this way the personnel has been re-
duced from about 2560O0 in 1929 to
about 244, 900 at the present time.
But there is another side to this ques-
ton. Our people are specialized WORKERS.
They belong to civil service. Thousanos
of them have given the best part OF
their liyes to the Government. Naturally
the department is reluctant to ADOPT
anv course which would dismiss great
numbers of letter carriers and postal
clerks in times when they would have
small hope of finding other employ
ment. We are giving thought to plan
of carefully surveying eacn post oulce
and each railway mail unit. fixing the
quota of clerks and carriers at the
minimum complement necessary to
handle the present volume Of business
and then rotating the work among the
employees so that all will be retained on
the pay roll with shortened working time.
This would eliminate the charges now
borne by the Government for surplus
man power and at the same time would
protect all employees in their positions
pending a recovery in business and the
gradual reduction Of the present ex-
Cessive force by normal separations.
1t might be possible to abandon the
delivery service in small towns and VII
lagos where no particular hardship
should be involved in having people call
at the post Office for their mail. There
might be some curtailment in the larger
cities, where We have at present two de-
liverieS oailv in residential sections,
three in districts which have both
homes and stores, and four in strictly
business districts.
All Of these things are being consid-
cred and a lot of others that l have not
time to recount. In every case the
economy sought must be checked against
the impairment of service. While We
have every intention of balancing our
budget, I can assure YOU that we will