Postal Riders and Raiders

eek before last, there's a tang and chill in the breezes up here about the ladder top which makes th

activities about mining camps in the West and Northwest; the lumber jacks and teams in the spruce forests of the north are indeed inspiring things to look upon; and over the eastern horizon, ther

itement over there a

lo! Yes, this is The

essman Blank on that end of the wire. The House is in session, a

es away. There are messengers and pages flitting about from house to house as if the prairies were afire behind them. Excited Congressmen are in heated discourse on the esplanade, on the capitol steps and in the corridors and cloak rooms. And there are numerous groups of Senators,

you, Congressman Jim?" "Ye

sion and cause for all that external excitement and activity I see around the capitol building? There must be a superthermic atmosphere inside both the Sen

n friend so well, I would scarcely be persu

rests, cappers and beneficiaries, to penalize various independent weekly and monthly periodicals. Penalize is what I said. But that word is by no means strong enough. The intent of the conspirators was-and is-to put

ing some $258,000,000 of the people's money for the legitimate service of the people. Of course it carried many service excesses, just as it has carri

rmal cleanliness. It was referred to the Senate Committee on Postoffices and Postroads, the members

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tucky. But the conspirators-I still use the milder term, though I feel like telling the truth, which could be expressed only by some term that would class their action as that of assassinating education in this country. These conspirators, I say, did not hesitate to exceed and violate their constitutional obligations and prerogatives. They added a revenue-producin

put this confiscatory rider over in the closing hours-the crooked hours-of Congress, hurried to Washington and sought to inform Senators and members of the House of the truth about second-class mail matter. Congressman Jim also informed me that a delegation representing the publishing interests of Chicago had arrived a few hours befor

peaking of what his townsmen can do, but Congressman Jim is a live-wire Congressman, and has been

and have just received peremptory orders to write up not only this attempt but other attempts to raid the po

shall be as dignified as the heritage of my nature will allow and the subject warrants. If I occasionally fall from the expected dignified altitude I trust the reader will be indulg

from whatever angle one views it, I wish first to speak of the go

my mature recollection, any business management of its postoffice department a

all of the essential qualifications fundamentally necessary to the management and direction of large industrial or service business enterprises. I venture to say that none of them have read, and few of them even heard of, the splendid book written by Mr. Frederick W. Taylor explaining, really giving the A, B, C of the "Science of Business Management," which for several years has been so beneficial in the business and industrial methods in this country as almost to have worked an economic revolution. I equally doubt if they have even read the series of articles in one of the monthly[13] periodicals, which Postmaster General H

ons to misappropriate, likewise to appropriate to their own coffers, the funds and revenues of the Postoffice Department. Reference needs only to be made to the grace and deftness displayed by August W. Machen, George W. Beavers and their copartners. The one was Superintendent of Fr

nvestigation. The investigation was made under the direction of Joseph L. Bristow. Then things were uncovered; that is,

department; and Beaver knew of their suspicions; so Congressmen gene

s full of graft, the clock which kept the clerk's[14] time was full of graft, the carrier's satchel tie-straps, his shoulder straps, and his badge were subject to illegal taxation, the money order blanks were full of graft, the letter boxes on the street were fraudulently painted, fraudulent

on bill, which, so far as The Man on the Ladder has been able to learn, Mr. Hitchcock either wrote or "steered" in its writing. I have also read his series of letters to Senator Penrose, Ch

s almost completely lost in the department by reason of previously planted corruption and political interference. Most Postmaster Generals, as has been stated

ports and recent letters to the Senate and the House, has shown h

the false and foolish statements in his letters to Senator Penrose, relating to his demand for an increase of three cents a pound on certain periodicals now carried in the mails as second-class matter at one cent a pound, he to be given authority to pick out and designate the periodicals which should be subject to the increased rate-hi

ls in general and about Mr. Hitchcock in particular, may not be up to the broadcloth of dignity,

ostoffice department and then Mr. Hitc

cised about "deficits," yet persist in pursuing methods of business management and directi

e postal service of the country is a public service, a service of all the people. As such the revenues of the federal postoffice departmen

artment. Almost the entire appropriation for war and the navy in the past forty-five years might be called a "deficit" so far as any service they have rendered to the great body of the Nation's citizenship is concerned. Yet in the face of all this, so loosely, carelessly and crookedly have the departments

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he navy department was employing more

te for the benefit of readers who may not have studied this postal s

re investigated by a joint commission of Congress. One paragraph of the commis

General and certain assistants selected without special reference to experience and qualifications and subject to frequent change. Under such a system a large railroad, commercial or

straight talk

med men in Congress on postal matters, and particularly informed as to present methods of transporting and handling second-class mail. Mr. Moon, though a member of the conference committee which had just agreed to the bill, Senate resolution and all, as amended in conference, quite vigorously opposed the appropriation of $50,000 of the people's money for a "Commission" to investigate the cost of transporting and handling second-class mail matter. He based his opposition largely on the fact that two or three previous commissions had been appointed to investigate the same question or m

things said by Mr. Moo

r the carrying and handling of these magazines, or other second-class matter, they are bound to take as the basis of the investigation the manner in which the second-class matter is now handled and the manner in which it is paid for. In other words, the basis of weighing and the computation of paying are the basic facts upon which they must rely

en the very minute you undertake to reach the correct result you are confronted with a proposition that you cannot justly charge the cost of transportation and handling to a class of matter flatly that in itself produces a return to the government in another class of matter, probably

lert and best informed men in this country on the subject of publishing and distributing periodical literature. He certainly ranks among the largest, if

y-rather the inefficiency-of the Postoffice Department in handling the postal service of this country. I would like to reproduce the letter ent

xcessive cost of distribution of the postoffice. And I say that the high cost of distribution in the postoffi

eight of mail matter is composed of cumbersome ma

o wanted to break into a mail bag w

oof lock be affixed to every letter, under the inane impression

one railroad and when the bulk of it was transferred to another railroad, all the postal clerks previous

s of a cent a pound, and included in this average is the 1-cent-a-pound rate paid to the government for copies mailed. Obviously, then,

t of $1,655.17, or little over one-half a cent per pound. This average includes 28,028 pounds sent by mail at 1[19]

e Pennsylvania Railroad at one-fourth of a cent per pound, or one

an Government for carrying magazines by mail through its postoffice department and for

profitably at this present rate when it handles the magazines along with all o

is not handling the magazines at a loss. It is carrying them at a profit, and if it taxes the magazines out of existe

idy to restore a United States merchant marine and at the same time advocate

ited States Treasury to subsidize a private business in order to create an industry, why is it not a proper Republican and American policy to co

s absolute helplessness to tell, even with approximate accuracy, the loss of any division of its service, or the revenues resulti

on Postoffices and Postroads, and former Senator Carter was conced

, within the year, when speaking to the subject of second-class mail rates, and that f

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or the proper compensation of railroads for transporting the mails until we shall have established b

fated to encounter every year, but I submit that the first real movement toward that end must begin with the

our highest legislative body, each admittedly well inform

point we are considering. I would like to reprint the entire document, but fear I cannot do so. Of course, President Taft's strictures and adverse criticisms are general-since they apply to all gov

unting under which, or from which, it will be possible for administrative and legislative officials to learn, approximately at least, just what departments have done-to any date-and just what it has cost to do it, two items

names in his message, and sees to it that the money is judiciously and intelligently disbursed, it is the opinion of The Man on the Ladder that not less than $100,

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rt of the President's message

and House of R

e existing appropriation to enable me to continue my investigation by members of the departments and by experts of the business me

scal year ended June 30, 1910-a report required by law, and the only one purporting to give an analytical separation of the expenditures of the government. This shows that the expenditures for salaries for the year 1910 were $132,000,0

cumbrances on appropriations; of invoices which have not been vouchered; of vouchers which have not been audited. It is, therefore, impossible for the administrator to have in mind the maturing obligations to meet which cash must be provided; there is no means for determining the relation of current surplus or deficit. No operation account is kept, and no statement of operations is rendered showing the expenses incurred-the actu

nment, other than those relating to currency trusts, are reported as "ordinary receipts and disbursements." The daily, as well as the monthly and annual statements of disbursements, are mainly made up from advances to disbursing officers-that is to say, when cash is transferred from one officer to another it is considered as spent, and the disbursement accounts and reports of the government so show th

ts and disbursements have been prepared and presented for the consideration of Congress in an unscientific and unsystematic manner; appropriation bills have been without uniformity or common principle governing them; there have been practically no accounts showing what the government owns, and only a partial representation of what it owes; appropriations have been overencumbered without the facts being known; officers of government have had no regular or systematic method of having brought to their attention the costs of governmental

tions of administrative departments by congress have been many, each with the same result. All the conditions above set forth have been repeatedly pointed out. Some benefits have accrued by centering public attention on defects in organization, method, and procedure, but generally speaking, however salutary the influen

on of governmental department service in general and of the postoffice department in particular?

eform is the lack of accurate information as to

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s mail commission-devote fifty thousand more after the government had already spent several hundred thousands delving into the same

determining the relation of

"inviting" is it to officials and subordinates who want s

howing the expenses incurred-the actual cost of doing business-the actual c

farm in "financial distress" the first season and out of business the second? A cattle ranch, handled on such loose, i

rs and our Congressmen do not know. Nor can they, under existing conditions and methods, find out. They cannot find out even the common-the bas

ation which rummaged into the second-class mail schedule particularly? If you do not remember, turn back and read it again. It fit

nt, honest management, our federal postoffice department would have gone into bankru

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rrears of actual transactions; as between the record of cash advanced to disbursing officers and the accounts showing audited voucher

about as near the limit as any individual or corporation could go without falling over the finan

sage again. Read carefully, and then read it once more. Any citizen, whose mental tires are

said move. It was taken note of and "spaced" by a majority of the newspapers having general circulation in the United States. What I shall here quote is taken from a Chicago paper of date April 1, and the "write-up," nearly a

o, the friendly space writer says, "is one of the most widely known postoffice officials in the service." Whether favorably or unfavorably known, the write-up sayeth not. At any rate, Mr. Grant goes to the St. Paul division of[25] the railway mail service at $1,000 per year less than he formerly drew from the postoffice department funds. Per contra, Mr. Ingalls steps from "rurals" to railway mails at an increase of $1,000. The other "round dozen" changes are of similar character, though affecting

, however, who have watched the Postoffice Department's maneuverings during the past forty years have seen too many "Sunday Editions" put to mail to be fooled by any of this "shake-up" talk. This shifting of the official shoats from one pen to another, sti

ng is rejected at "milling," is not a "shake-up" that will stand good in any strata of human intelligence above

of personal acquaintance with Mr. Ingalls, Mr. Grant and others of the "round dozen" involved in the Postmaster General's "shake-up." They are probably all

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cts upon us and the children who follow us, and involving service so incompetent, so wasteful, so corrupt in its management and operation as to have appalled those of us

le who pay for the service. I am aware this is a bald statement, a "mere assertion," some postoffice official or sinecure postal "servant" may say, but it will have to be said more often, more

of changes. Some of my readers may have scanned the "booster" newspaper stuff of which I am writing. If so, much of what I have here said may be bricks or straw, just as it may happen that they know or do not kno

postal official" and "entirely familiar with the railway

s in any mill turning out mixed cuts. It may be that Mr. Ingalls has accumulated just the proper, and the proper amount of, information in superintending "rural

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he postoffice department, en tout, knows about as much concerning the railroa

up" from mail carrier on a rural route at Rabbit Hash, Mississippi, to Superintendent of the Cincinnati Division or the St. Paul Division of the railway mail service, and even more so, if he got stilted to the position of "Superintendent of the Railway Mail Service." Still, listen. While we, the people, at Rabbit Hash, Mississippi

may not think so well of our Jim Jones' railway mail servic

s "shake-up." What I have not said the intelligent reader

dence or proof of my previously made and repeated statement, that the Postoffice D

nly the railway mail service. It is admittedly one of the worst divis

1911), that "while signing the orders nec

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ly that the action which I have taken was absolutely necessary. The railway m

had not been inspecting their lines, as was their duty. Some

equence, there was much duplication of work. Instructions from the department directing improvements, as for examp

ich I had indicated, and it was made evident by the inquiry that no proper spirit of