Hours of Service for Carriers.
Eight hours constitutes a day’s work for letter carriers in cities or postal districts connected therewith, for which they receive the same pay as is paid for a day’s work of a greater number of hours. If any letter carrier is employed a greater number of hours per day than eight he is paid extra for the same in proportion to the salary fixed by law.
Postmasters prepare, for the guidance of carriers in their work, a time schedule made on the basis of eight hours’ work each day, and so arranged as to provide only such time as is absolutely necessary for the legitimate office duties of each carrier. The hours of daily service need not be consecutive. No carrier is scheduled for more work than he can perform during eight hours. Carriers need not be required to consume exactly eight hours each day, but as nearly such time as practicable, considering the varying amount of mail to be handled on different days. Postmasters must not direct or permit carriers to work overtime, and are held accountable therefor.
Letter carriers must not report prior to schedule time for the first trip of the day, nor for the beginning of a trip following a “swing.” Carriers must not remain at their desks nor in the working room of the office during a “swing” or interval between trips, nor during the dinner hour; neither must they remain in the post office after completing the last trip of the day.
Carriers engaged exclusively in the collection service must not remain in the workroom of the office except while depositing and facing the mail collected by them. Carriers must register on the automatic clock register upon reporting, leaving, returning and ending for each trip which begins and ends at the post office. The time from the clock tapes is copied into the time book or pasted into a suitable book and preserved, and constitutes the official record of time. Should the clock register be out of order the time recorded by carriers on their daily trip reports is entered in the time book. One carrier must not register on the clock for another. If this rule is violated both the carriers concerned will be removed.
The time of reporting, leaving, returning and ending for each trip must also be recorded by the carriers on their daily trip reports; the entries on these reports must be made at the beginning and end of each trip, and must not be deferred until the close of the day. When collections are made in the morning, on the carrier’s way to the office, the first and second entries on the trip report must be the time of opening the first box. When a carrier completes his delivery on his route and does not return to the post office the time recorded on his trip report for returning and ending on that trip must be the time of his last piece of mail.
Where carriers are unable to deliver all mail matter taken out on the last trip of the day without making overtime, they must return to the post office within the eight hours prescribed with the understanding that they make a full report to the superintendent of the station, and a full statement will also be made on the trip report of the day. Carriers are required to deliver all mail taken out on the earlier trips, even though such delivery necessitates exceeding the time allowed by the schedules for such trips, unless collections are made for an important dispatch, in which event the latter must be met and mail remaining undelivered will be delivered on the following trip.
Every letter carrier must keep a route book, which should be a complete directory of the persons served by him, and all changes of address should be posted daily. Carriers must record daily in their log books the disposition made of all undelivered mail. The forwarding of mail, and notifying publishers of changes of address is clerical work, and should not be performed by carriers.
Carriers are not permitted to perform clerical work. Their work must be confined to the collection and delivery of mail; the routing of mail for delivery; the making up or “logging” of undelivered matter; receipting for and the recording of registered mail; posting route books; the facing of mail collected by them, and, at offices where hand-feed canceling machines are used, the facing of mail directly into such machines, and to duty at carriers’ delivery windows.
In the performance of their duties letter carriers must be civil, prompt and obliging. Carriers must attend quietly and diligently to their duties, and under no circumstances must they loiter or stop to converse on their routes, and they must refrain from loud talking, profane language, and smoking in the office or on their routes.
Carriers must not solicit, in person or through others, contributions of money, gifts, or presents; issue addresses, complimentary cards, prints, publications, or any substitute therefor intended or calculated to induce the public to make them gifts or presents; distribute, offer for sale, or collect the proceeds of the sale of tickets to theatres, balls, concerts, fairs, or any other entertainment; issue for profit souvenirs or postal handbooks, or in any manner co-operate with or assist the publishers of souvenirs or postal handbooks to secure the patronage of the public; compile city directories for public use or assist publishers to compile the same; borrow money from patrons on their routes; or contract debts which they have no reasonable prospect of being able to pay.
Carriers must not engage in any business during their prescribed hours of service, or conduct any business after hours which offers the temptation to solicit patronage on their routes, or which, by reason of their position in the Government service, gives them special advantage over competitors, such as book canvassing, soliciting insurance, selling sewing machines, or other kindred occupations.
Letter carriers may be reprimanded, suspended with loss of pay, or removed from the service for infractions of the Postal Laws and Regulations, of orders of the Department, and of orders of postmasters not inconsistent therewith, as the nature or gravity of the offenses may require. All reprimands and suspensions must be reported to the First Assistant Postmaster General (Division of Free Delivery) for approval and entry in the carriers’ efficiency record.
CHAPTER XVI.
DELIVERY AND COLLECTING OF MAIL BY CARRIERS.
The regulations as to the delivery of mail matter will apply to the delivery of such matter by letter carriers, except where inapplicable or as otherwise modified.
Carriers must be careful to deliver mail to the persons for whom it is intended, or to some one authorized to receive it. They will, in case of doubt, make inquiry with the view of ascertaining the owner. Failing in this, the mail will be returned to the office, to be disposed of as the postmaster may direct. Carriers must not deliver mail matter to patrons in the street, unless such delivery can be made without unreasonable delay. Mail matter must not be delivered by carriers in boxes or other receptacles which are not occupied in whole or in part by the addressees unless expressly ordered by the postmaster.
Carriers must not throw mail matter into windows or halls, unless specially instructed to do so. They must ring the bell, wait a reasonable time for an answer, and deliver the mail to some one of the household in the habit of receiving it. Patrons who repeatedly fail to respond promptly to the carrier’s ring must be reported to the postmaster. Carriers must not enter any house while on their trips, except in the discharge of their official duties. Mail matter must not be delivered by carriers which has not passed through the post office or station with which they are connected. Mail matter intrusted to carriers must not be exhibited to persons other than those addressed, except on the order of the postmaster or some one authorized to act for him. Letters for delivery must not be carried by carriers in their pockets. Carriers must not deviate from the respective routes. Carriers must not stop for their meals while on their trips. Carriers must not throw away or improperly dispose of mail matter, however trifling or unimportant it may appear to them. Stamps must not be removed from mail matter of any class whatever intrusted to carriers for delivery or collected by them for mailing.
Mounted carriers must dismount and deliver the mail at the doors of residences, except in cases where the patrons on their routes consent to respond to their call and receive the mail at the sidewalk. Carriers are not required to deliver mail at residences where vicious dogs are permitted to run at large. Persons keeping such dogs must call at the post office for their mail.
Carriers must collect and promptly return to the postmaster all postage due on mail intrusted to them for delivery, as indicated by the postage-due stamps attached. Such mail matter must not be delivered until the postage due shall have been paid.
When carriers making collections from letter boxes find that it will be impossible on any one trip to carry to the post office the contents of all the boxes on their routes, preference must be given to mail matter of the first class. Newspapers and packages placed on the tops of letter boxes should be collected when it can be done without overloading the mail sacks and preventing the prompt collection of mail matter properly deposited in the boxes.
Carriers must, while on their routes, receive letters with postage stamps affixed, handed them for mailing, but they should not delay the deliveries by waiting for such letters. Money to pay postage on letters handed them for mailing must not be accepted, except as provided for in the use of the stamp-selling envelope in connection with house-to-house delivery and collection boxes.
Carriers should also receive other small articles of mailable matter with postage properly prepaid, but they should refuse to receive packages that are cumbersome on account of size, shape or weight, especially when the carrying of such packages would interfere with the prompt delivery of mail and the collections from letter boxes.
Carriers must receive and register all letters and packages of first-class matter that are not cumbersome on account of size, shape or weight, and properly offered them for registration, and must give the regulation receipt therefor. Carriers must encourage the registration of valuable first-class matter by patrons on their routes.
Postmasters may permit carriers to sell postage stamps or stamped envelopes in limited quantities; but their deliveries or collections must not be delayed in making change.
Carriers must not return, under any circumstances, to any person, any letter or letters, said to have been deposited in a letter box, or which have come into the custody of the carrier in a regular way. An applicant for the return of such mail should be directed to the postmaster.
After the last daily delivery carriers must return to the post office or station with which they are connected their satchels and all mail that can not be delivered. Carriers may be permitted to take their satchels home with them direct from their routes when, in the opinion of the postmaster, the interests of the service will be promoted thereby, but undelivered mail matter remaining in satchels must first be deposited in the nearest letter box.
CHAPTER XVII.
SPECIAL DELIVERY MESSENGERS.
Chance for Boys from Thirteen Years of Age to
Enter Post Office Service.
The Postmaster General may, in his discretion, require the delivery of special delivery matter to be made entirely by special messengers. In New York City, however, this is done solely by employes in the service. At free delivery offices postmasters will, from time to time, employ as many messengers as in their judgment may be necessary to secure prompt delivery of special matter. None but trustworthy boys over 13 years of age should be employed. The force of special delivery messengers in each office should be so arranged that a suitable number may always be on hand to secure immediate delivery of all special delivery matter at any time within the prescribed hour of the day.
Each messenger, before entering upon his duties, must take the oath prescribed by law on the blank furnished. Substitute letter carriers, when not on duty in place of regular carriers, may be employed as messengers in the special delivery service, and receive the same compensation as other messengers; but such employment must not interfere with the work of the post office or free delivery.
Where delivery of special delivery matter can not be promptly made by regular special delivery messengers, postmasters may cause such delivery to be made by any regular clerk or employe, who will be allowed the same compensation, and be paid and give receipt therefore in the same manner as regular messengers.
Any person employed to make immediate delivery of letters or other mail matter, shall be deemed an employee of the Postal Service, whether he may have been sworn or not, or temporarily or permanently employed, and as such employee shall be liable to any penalties or punishments provided by law for the improper detention, delay, secretion, rifling, embezzlement, purloining or destruction of any letter or other article of mail matter, or the contents thereof, intrusted to him for delivery or placed in his custody.
Combinations or arrangements between special delivery messengers with a view to securing a division of the total permissible compensation of the month are forbidden; and postmasters should, by distribution of work and assignment of hours of duty, equalize as far as practicable the compensation of messengers. A messenger should not always be assigned to duty during the same periods of each day; but changes will be made from time to time, whereby a messenger employed during the busy hours of one day may be assigned to the duller hours of another day.
Orderly conduct of special delivery messengers while in the office and on their trips is strictly enforced; and no messenger will be retained who is not diligent and well-behaved. A special place is provided in the post office for the accommodation of the messengers, and it is so arranged as to prevent their access to other parts of the office, and to mail matter other than that in which they are immediately concerned.
Special delivery messengers need not be uniformed, except in such special cases as may be ordered, but they should all be decently and comfortably clad. Substitute letter-carriers, when employed as messengers for special delivery, may wear their carrier uniforms.
Messengers are paid at the rate of not exceeding eight cents for each piece delivered, or attempted to be delivered.
Each messenger is furnished with a delivery book, in which must be entered the number and address of each piece of matter received for delivery, the date and hour of its receipt by the messenger, and the amount of postage due thereon. The receipt of the person to whom any special delivery matter is delivered must be taken in the blank space provided for this purpose in the delivery book. Delivery books will be kept in the post office when not in use, and messengers must promptly return them to the office after every tour. Whenever for any cause a book is no longer used, it will be filed in the post office.
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL OF THE
POSTAL SERVICE.
A former learned wit of the Post Office Department, cogitating over, upon, under, and between, the multifarious and abstruse problems submitted for adjudication, evolved the following gems of keen, mental penetration. That:
Feather beds are not mailable.
A stamp of the foot is not sufficient to carry a letter.
A pair of onions will go for two cents.
Persons are compelled to lick their own postage stamps; the postmaster cannot be compelled to do this.
Nitro-glycerine must be forwarded at the risk of the sender. If it should blow up in the postmaster’s hands he cannot be held responsible.
When candy is sent through the mails it is earnestly requested that both ends of the package be left open, so that the employees of the post office may test its quality.
John Smith gets his mail from 674,279 post offices, hence a letter directed to John Smith, United States, will reach him.
Poems on “Spring, Spring, the Beautiful Spring,” and “The Beautiful Snow, with its White Efulgent Glow,” are rigidly excluded from the mails. (This is to catch the editorial vote).
It is earnestly requested that lovers writing to their sweethearts will please confine their gushing rhapsodies to the inside of the envelope.
Ducks cannot be sent through the mails alive. Their discordant, vociferous greetings are apt to disturb the slumbers of the clerks.
It is unsafe to send fruit-laden trees through the mails; clerks are known to have a weakness for such things.
CHAPTER XIX.
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.
A Declaration by the Representatives of the United
States of America, in Congress Assembled.
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident—that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundations on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and, accordingly, all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present king of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these States. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.
1. He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
2. He has forbidden his government to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operations till his assent should be obtained; and, when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
3. He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the Legislature—a right inestimable to them, and formidable to tyrants only.
4. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the repository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
5. He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing, with manly firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people.
6. He has refused, for a long time after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the State remaining, in the meantime, exposed to the dangers of invasions from without, and convulsions within.
7. He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the laws for the naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.
8. He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.
9. He has made judges dependent on his will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
10. He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
11. He has kept among us in times of peace, standing armies, without the consent of our Legislatures.
12. He has affected to render the military independent of, and superior to, the civil power.
13. He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitutions, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:—
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us;
For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these States;
For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world;
For imposing taxes on us without our consent;
For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of a trial by jury;
For transporting us beyond seas, to be tried for pretended offences;
For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries, so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies;
For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering, fundamentally, the forms of our governments;
For suspending our own Legislatures and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
14. He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us.
15. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns and destroyed the lives of our people.
16. He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.
17. He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on the high seas, to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.
18. He has excited domestic insurrection among us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms; our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have we been wanting in our attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them, from time to time, of attempts by their Legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They, too, have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our separation, and hold them as we hold the rest of mankind—enemies in war; in peace, friends.
We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America in general Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved, and that, as free and independent States, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and do all other acts and things which independent States may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.
CHAPTER XX.
CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES.
We, the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.