“How can we educate the public up to an appreciation of the necessity for trained and expert service in every branch of the Government? How can we order our public service so that it will attract the ablest men and women and guarantee progressive careers to those who prove loyal and efficient? How can we develop our civil service commissions into genuine recruiting agencies capable of supplying the Government with exactly the type of service needed for any given movement and of maintaining a loyal and efficient personnel?”
If promotions were more certain in the Government service there would be no dearth of competent men to fill the places higher up. To solve this particular phase of the problem, however, it will be necessary to have the Government pay higher salaries. Better pay is now available in private industry than in the public service, and the Government has not yet reached the point where there is any general realization of the sound principle that it is better in the long run to pay high salaries to efficient men than to employ mediocre men at smaller salaries.
The universities and colleges can do their part in training young men who seek elective offices, but a man well trained for office might lack the qualities which make for political success. Many foreign cities are run by experts. A large city frequently hires its chief executive from some neighboring town. A competent manager in a small city knows that he has an excellent chance of attracting attention by good work and getting a promotion. This system has been tried out in a small way in the United States, where a number of cities have hired managers to take full charge, with indifferent results. While progress toward efficiency is apt to be slow, the increased discussion of the problem is certain to bear good results eventually.
For the Benefit of the Fourth Class Postmaster
While the public concern has received the utmost attention, there are, however, some questions of interest affecting the welfare of postal employees which should be given consideration. It is but common justice to consider the present method of payment to fourth-class postmasters, for it allows them but small returns for their labor. If the same high standard of efficiency is expected of them which should obtain in the service generally, they should have their labor properly compensated. At present the law restricts the salaries to be paid according to the volume of outgoing mail at their office. The rural carrier who works under the postmaster is under no such restrictions, is better paid, and has more holiday privileges. The fourth-class postmaster may have to work half days on holidays and Sundays and has no leave of absence. The rural carrier has both. The position of postmaster may therefore be said to be less desirable than that of the carrier, though his official responsibility from the nature of his duties is greater. At the recent State convention of third and fourth-class postmasters, held at Sunbury, Pa., the question was brought up and a reform urged in the matter. There is much to be said in favor of a more equitable adjustment, and the subject can be approached without detriment to the carrier by a wider and more comprehensive view of the duties of the postmaster and a corresponding improvement in the method of payment.
The introduction of the parcel post as a great common carrier is an added feature in connection with this subject. The fourth-class postmaster receives much more mail than he sends out. This inequality which affects his pay can be largely corrected if the postmasters in cities would adopt some practical measures towards stimulating orders from city patrons for farm produce which could be shipped by mail. The organic act passed by Congress contemplated such advantageous interchange for the benefit of the fourth-class postmaster as well as the city consumer, and a steady and persistent effort in that direction by the city postmasters would greatly assist in carrying out the intention of Congress in this respect and popularize the plan in the rural sections by the reciprocal advantages it would confer. The fourth-class postmaster could, however, greatly benefit himself, even under present methods, by making an earnest and industrious effort to develop the parcel post idea in his community, embracing the opportunities of his official relation to the service by encouraging and taking an active part in every detail of postal management, of which, just now, the parcel post is so conspicuous a feature and whose more extended use among the people would so greatly advance his official as well as his personal interest.
Public Work and Private Control
It is sometimes asked why the Post Office Department cannot be managed as if it were in the hands of a private corporation. Many reasons might be given, but a few will serve to explain the difference and perhaps enlighten the public who may expect more than the Department can perform.
In the first place, the service is throughout closely controlled by Congress through its committee on Post Offices and Post Roads, and no important variations in the system or the methods of administration can be initiated without their concurrence, and even if any particular or significant change is proposed by such committee, it is not always possible to obtain full congressional consent. Differences between the administrative heads of the Department and Congress as to the necessity or advantage of certain plans or methods, are not uncommon, especially when any proposed changes antagonize existing usage or clash with party policy or expediency. When proposed changes invade the domain where private enterprise has interests more or less valuable already established, influence may be brought to bear to counteract the reforms proposed, based on honest grounds of dissent as to the real benefit or practical advantage to be gained by the adoption of such measures. Unless it can then be shown that public interests would be benefited by the changes proposed, the Department might have difficulty to overcome this opposition.