Since that time the employment of women in the public service has become general, and they may now be found in all the Departments, in post offices and as mail carriers on the post roads of the United States. The most recent register of employees in the Post Office Department shows that it had upon its pay rolls for the Department proper, sixty-two women receiving $1,200 per annum, thirty-two at $1,400 per annum, ten at $1,600 per annum, three at $1,800, forty-three at $1,000 per annum, besides many more at lesser salaries. The act of General Spinner in opening the door of the public service to women doubtless had its general effect in private employment as well, for from the close of the Civil War the entrance of women into the business relations of the country may be safely dated.
Many of the women in the Departments occupy positions of responsibility and importance, and fill such positions with credit to themselves and the service as well.
Railroad Accidents and the Construction of Mail Cars
There were 163 railroad accidents during the fiscal year, 1916, of which 155 resulted in injuries to clerks, and eight, exclusive of those in which clerks were injured, resulted in loss or damage to mail.
The following table shows the kind and construction of the mail cars in which accidents to clerks occurred:
| Kind of car | Number of cars in accidents | Number of clerks in these cars | Clerks killed or died as result of injuries | Clerks seriously injured in these cars | Clerks slightly injured in these cars | Total clerks injuried and killed in these cars |
| Wood | 57 | 76 | 1 | 18 | 42 | 61 |
| Wood-steel reenforced | 18 | 25 | ... | 12 | 9 | 21 |
| Steel | 67 | 258 | 1 | 28 | 86 | 115 |
| Steel underframe | 22 | 57 | ... | 9 | 21 | 30 |
| Total | 164 | 416 | 2 | 67 | 158 | 227 |
Public Ownership of Postal Telegraphs and Telephones
Opinion of Postmaster General Burleson
Postmaster General Burleson, in his annual report to Congress for 1916, made the following statement regarding Postal Telegraphs and Telephones:
“As the former reports pointed out, the private ownership of telephone and telegraph utilities places in private hands the control of important vehicles for the transmission of intelligence, and therefore infringes upon a function reserved by the Constitution to the National Government. Operation of these facilities inherently as well as constitutionally belongs to the Postal Service. Attention again is called to the legal precedents and the attitude of former postmasters general, as briefly stated in my report for 1914: