Omaha Sunday
.Bee
PART TWO
EDITORIAL
PAGES ONE TO TWELVE
PART TWO
SOCIETY
PAGES ONE TO TWELVE
VOL. XLV NO.
OMAHA, SUNDAY MOKXINC, SMTHMHKIi
KIXUI.K C'OPV FIVE CENTS.
HE
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JLJJJU'o JWLUAC iL
iheir national L,
etter
onvenxion is
Tira FAMILIAR man who stalks briskly
to your, door twice a day, year after
year, Is In Omaha to stay a week. He
la the man who every day kicks his
way through the dust of the streets,
eplaskea his way through the mud, or slashes his
(way through the snowdrifts when the mercury
hides In the bulb, In order that you may get your
letters from home regularly.
Before sunset Monday evening there are to
be perhaps no less than 1,600 letter carriers In
Omaha, representing all the states In the union.
This Is the week of the convention of the National
Association of Letter Carriers.
A convention, yes, for these brave, smiling
men that breese up to the door, drop a letter with
cheerful "good morning," and are gone, have
i lome Interests of their own to thresh out. They
, have problems of life that they must solve for
' themselves.
A given number of honrs, each day they de
liver letters, postcards and magazines In the serv
' loe of Uncle Bam. After that they are Just men
with families at home. After they deliver your
letter they hoe potatoes in the garden, squirt city
water on the lawn, set hens and raise chickens,
read the daily paper by the fire, or bounce the
babies on their knees.
They are not perfect walking machines In
neat gray uniforms. They are human beings with
tig, human souls and big, human problems to meet.
For twenty years these men have had an as
sociation, which has solved one problem after
another, and which still haa many problems to
olve. Every "year the association gains in mem
bership, for every year more and more of the men
eee the Importance of being a member of the asso
ciation, and each year there are more and more
carriers.
Now, while Uncle Sam has a reputation ot
paying his help pretty well, of paying pretty
iromptly and giving no bad checks, still the cost
of living has advanced so rapidly that even Uncle
Ram has perhaps not always kept informed as to
the Immediate price of steak. If he should ever
become grossly delinquent in his lack of such In
formation, this association will appoint a com
mittee to "ducate him most respectfully.
Again, this cheerful man In the gray uniform,
does not live forever. He cannot be repaired as
a machine can. He becomes old In time, and must
be discarded.
i I. TfTl" Pi ttwra Is another problem. It
he has not been able to save from his wages
enough to keep him In his old age when he shall
no longer be of use to the service, what shall he
and his family do?
The association knows what It wants Its mem
bers to do In these cases.
It wants them to be able to draw a regular
check from Uncle Sam from a retirement fund for
superannuated carriers.
Tht association believes and has long be
lieved that after a man has given all the years ot
his life to the carrying of letters for Uncle Sam,
Uncle 8am should take care of him In his last years.
So Important does the association consider
this matter that it Is the first of the topics men
tioned to be taken up at the Omaha convention.
They point to the fact that many large corpora
tions are now providing funds for such annuities
for the superannuated employes.
Again, this man who smiles and hands you
your letter Is always strictly confined to certain
rales. If he be sick In the hospital 160 days he
is ont of a Job.
Nor Is It necessary that he be In the hospital.
If, for any reason, he Is not working at his Job
for a period of 160 consecutive days, he Is "fired"
In plain English.
"No excuses go," is what the department says
when a carrier attempts to explain that he was laid
up with typhoid fever, appendicitis, a broken leg,
c.r any possible complication of ailments.
An old veteran of the civil war a few years
ego, after carrying mall for almost a quarter ot
a century, began to suffer from an old wound. He
was compelled to be off duty 150 days. He was
notified that he must return to work at once or
be discharged from the service.
He was unable to return. He sent word ex
plaining the facts.
"No excuses go," came the stern reply from
.Washington.
"Surely," said the aged wife of the veteran,
"surely they will not discharge you. How can
they do It? Vou fought through the civil war,
gave those years to the service of your country,
nd have given the years since that time In the
employ of the government. No it cannot be.
There Is some mistake. Surely, surely, a great
government like this will not discharge you now
and leave us unprovided for."
But the red tape of Washington is a machine,
not a man with a soul that can be touched.
"Discharged," came the order.
It were. Idle to follow this sad case further.
It la enough to know that cases like these have
aroused the carriers to seek the institution of a
better system In this respect.
So they are asking to have the 150-day rule
modified. They feel that in case of sickness or
ether good reasons for absence from duty for a
period of 150 days a man should not necessarily
be dropped from the service. They feel that the
figure Is sot at 160 days arbitrarily and without
food reason. They feel, in other words, that cir
cumstances should Influence the case.
Then the carriers want a compensation bill
that will provide more liberal benefits to the em
ployes than those contained in the Reilly compen
sation law.
They want the sanitary conditions of the post
cfflces throughout the country improved. They
want better lighting facilities in the offices be
cause they say that many clerks and carriers havo
had their sight permantutly and seriously af-
Our Letter Carrier Army
Total number of Post Offices 56,810
Number of Post Offices having
city delivery service 1,759
Number of city delivery carriers. . .32,292
Number of rural delivery carriers. .43,531
Total cily and rural carriers 75,826
Official Figures for the Tear 1914.
fected by Improper or artificial lighting.
They desire the institution ot a court to pass
upon cases of employes who are charged with ot
fenses and are recommended for reduction in
grade or removal from service.
They seek the complete divorcement of poll
tics from civil service.
These things the carriers seek, and on these
points they respectfully negotiate with their
worthy I'ncle Samuel, their employer.
Then there are auxiliary organizations to the
main body. The Ladies' Auxiliary Is one that has
ardently fought for years for a sentiment that Is
eventually to become strong enough to bring about
u pension bill for the carriers and an annuity for
the superannuated.
Then there is the National Sick Benefit as
fociation. Although this association Is but a few years
old, It already has in Its membership over one
third of all the members of the National Associa
tion of Letter Carriers. There are 35,000 mem
bers In the big association, and 13,000 in the Sick
Benefit.
The Sick Benefit has paid $105,000 in the
list two years to its sick members, according to
Chief Clerk John T. Mugavin of Cincinnati.
It pays as high as $9 a week for as many as
twenty-six weeks of sickness in any one year.
Kvery member of the National Association of
l etter Carriers is eligible to the Sick Benefit as
sociation. Over one-third of them have already
become members.
Then there is the Mutual Benefit association,
the principal feature of which Is mutual insurance.
This pays death losses ranging from $600 to $3,000.
This insurance association has paid $2,000,000
in death losses since its organization In 1891. It
has a reserve fund of $600,000 today.
Officers of the National Association of Letter
Carriers have been arriving In Omaha for a week,
tidward J. Oainor of Muncie, Ind., is president of
the association. George W. Johnson of Columbus,
O., Is vice president. Edward J. Cantwell of
Washington, D. C, is secretary. Charles D. Duffy
of Chicago is treasurer.
The local branch of the national association
in Omaha has been very busy for months making
arrangements and looking after details for the
tig convention.
The local branch Is known as Gate City
Branch No. 6. William Maher of Omaha, presi
dent of the local branch, has been especially active
in making preparations. Robert J. McAuliffe, re
cording and corresponding secretary, has been one
of the busy ones. Wr C. Bouk, secretary of the
local committee on arrangements, has been the
real busy bee of the lot, maintaining headquarters
for Borne time at the Henshaw hotel.
Each year it has been customary for one of
the national officers or leading committeemen to
be 'picked from the local branch of the city In
which the convention Is held. The local branch
endorses some one of Its members for this posi
tion. William Maher has been endorsed In Omaha
by both the local branch and the state association.
A program of entertainment and business
has been prepared for the week.
Monday afternoon, which Is Labor day, the
carriers are to have a big parade in the streets of
Omaha. All the delegates, together with the vari
ous auxiliaries, are to be in the parade. The vari
ous delegations will be headed by their respective
bands.
On Thursday evening there Is to be a big
ball of the carriers at the Auditorium. The con
vention Is to be held In the Auditorium also.
The Omaha delegates to the convention are
to have the week off in order that they may at
tend regularly. That does not mean that there
will be no deliveries In Omaha, for there are many
mall carriers In the city besides those who are
delegates to the convention.
No, the service will not be disturbed.
(H
Aii Hv M w II 5
to be Held
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Development of Delivery
The system of delivering mall by carriers at
the houses and offices of persons to whom it la
addressed was first introduced in the I'ulted States
on a small scale In 1G3. In 1865 free delivery
was extended to all p'.actm having a population of
'50,000, and such places as in the opinion of the
postmaster general might seem expedient. In 1873
the system was extended to all cities of 20,000 In
habitants or over, and in 1887 to cities of 10,000
inhabitants whose postal receipts amounted to
$10,000, and later to still smaller towns. Provision
was made In 1886 for special or immediate delivery
of letters within certain limits upon the payment
of a fee of 10 cents In the form of a special stamp.
In 1896 an experiment of delivering mail to In
habitants of rural districts was tried. The roHtilts
were so satisfactory that the system has been
largely extended, until today scarcely a person re
mains In any part of the country who can not have
his mall brought to him If he so desires.
STORY OF OMAHA POSTOFFICE
The Omaha postofflce was established May 5,
1854, by the efforts of Hon. Bernherd Henn, then
a member of congress from Iowa, who also secured
the appointment of A. D. Jones as postmaster, fa
mous for having carried the letters around with
him in his hat.
The first building used for poBtofflce purposes
was a small bouse on Thirteenth street, directly
in rear of the Douglas house, David Llndley, who
conducted the hotel, taking charge of the mall as
Mr. Jones' deputy. Mr. W. W. Wyman was then
appointed postmaster, and a building at the corner
of Eleventh and Harney was occupied as the post
office. Mr. Wyman erected a two-story brick at
the northwest corner of Thirteenth and Douglas,
using the first floor for a poBtofflce and the upper
floor as a printing office, he then being the pub
lisher of the Omaha Times. Mr. Wyman was a
democrat, and in consequence of Mr. Llno)n's elec
tion lost his official poblilon, and Gtorge Smith be
came postmaster of Omaha. The office was then
moved 1o the building at the northeast corner of
Karnain und Fourteenth. A few years later it was
uiuvtii to the fetore room under the Academy ot
Music, on Douglas street, and here for a year or
two John If. Kellom was postmaster. In 1871
Joel T. Griffin was appointed as postmaster, and
the office moved to the A. J. Simpson building on
Fourteenth street. Then Casper K. Yost became
postmaster and, following the example of his
predecessors, secured a removal of the office, this
time to a store room in the Creighton block, on
Fifteenth street.
The old postofflce building at Fifteenth and
Dodge streets, now the Military Headquarters
building, which cost $300,000, was commenced in
1870 and finished In 1874. In 1878 when the de
livery system was established, there were but six
carriers. In 1889, through the efforts ot Senator
Manderson and Congressfan McShane, a govern
ment appropriation of $1,200,000, was secured for
the erection of a new postofflce building, the cost
of the site not to exceed $400,000, the old building
proving entlroly too small for the growing needs.
In the vprlng of 1892 the contract for the basement
was let and the work continued to completion, when
the building was occupied, and later enlarged to
its present dimensions.
rfVHli
in Omaha This Week ! !
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