Postal Riders and Raiders

by W. H. Gantz

Let us next look at a peculiar, “an unusual,” request for legislation granting authority to the Postmaster General to do a most “unusual” thing, the granting of salaries higher than $1,200 a year to clerks and carriers, who are paid under the present law $600 a year, whenever the postmaster “certifies to the department” that “unusual” conditions in his community prevent him from securing efficient help. The italics are my own and make comment unnecessary:

In last year’s report, attention was directed to the desirability of authorizing the appointment of clerks and carriers at higher salaries than $600 at offices where unusual conditions prevail. Congress added to the appropriation for unusual conditions a proviso that may have been intended to meet the recommendation of the department, but subsequent experience has shown that it fails to do so. The proviso referred to has effected so great a reduction in the amount available for salaries of employees at offices where conditions are unusual that the service at a number of such offices cannot be maintained after the close of the present calendar year, unless additional funds are provided by Congress. The same law placed a restriction on the maximum salary allowable, making it impossible for the department to meet satisfactorily the unusual conditions existing in certain parts of the country. In order that the needed relief may be afforded legislation substantially as follows should be enacted:

Whenever a postmaster certifies to the department that, owing to unusual conditions in his community, he is unable to secure the services of efficient employees at the initial salary provided for postoffice clerks and letter carriers, the Postmaster General may authorize, in his discretion, the appointment of clerks and letter carriers for that office at such higher rates of compensation within the grades prescribed by law as may be necessary in order to insure a proper conduct of the postal business, and their salaries shall be paid out of the regular appropriation for compensation of clerks and letter carriers: Provided, That whenever such action is necessary in order to maintain adequate service at any postoffice where conditions are unusual the Postmaster General may authorize the appointment of clerks and letter carriers at salaries higher than $1,200, their salaries to be paid out of the appropriation for unusual conditions at postoffices. (Page 30, 1910 Report.)

I wonder what our Postmaster General is after in asking re-enactment of legislation of this sort, legislation granting him censorial powers without so much as intimating that fact. Maybe some of you organized labor men, or mercantile tradesmen can tell me. I am listening. So are others.

By the act approved May 27, 1908, making appropriations for the service of the Postoffice Department, it was provided:

That Section 3893 of the Revised Statutes of the United States be amended by adding thereto the following: And the term “indecent” within the intendment of this section shall include matter of a character tending to incite arson, murder, or assassination.

The enactment of this statute accomplished beneficial results, and it does not appear that injustice or undue hardship resulted therefrom to any person or interest. However, the provision quoted was not retained in the penal code adopted March 4, 1909, and became void when the code went into effect on January 1, 1910. On the assumption that the omission was inadvertent, it is recommended that the provision be re-enacted. (Page 37, 1910 Report.)

Following is one more reach by Mr. Hitchcock for bureaucratic power which should not be granted:

By virtue of his office the Postmaster General has the power to conclude money-order conventions with foreign countries and to prescribe the fees to be charged for the issue of international money orders. In like manner he should be empowered to determine, from time to time, as conditions may warrant, the fees to be charged for the issue of domestic money orders. It is recommended, therefore, that Section 2 of the act of January 27, 1894, be repealed, and that as a substitute therefor legislation substantially as follows be enacted:

Section 2 of the act of January 27, 1894, entitled “An act to improve the method of accounting in the Postoffice Department and for other purposes,” is hereby repealed. A domestic money order shall not be issued for more than one hundred dollars, and the fees to be charged for the issue of such orders shall be determined, from time to time, by the Postmaster General: Provided, however, that the scale of fees prescribed in said Section 2 shall remain in force for three months from the last day of the month in which this act is approved. (Page 38, 1910 Report.)