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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (June 7, 1903)
r mm 4PSGES 33 T6 40 j I, " - - PART FOUR n 5 VOL. XXII PORTLAND, OREGON, SUNDAY MORNING, JUNE 7, 1903. HOW PQ-RTLANP'S MAIL IS HANDLED gST IN A LETTE R CARRIERS' ALLEY. CARRIERS SORTING LETTERS. 7IjTH0UGH kept in constant touch -with It. very few people understand the character and amount of the work done by the Portland Postoffice. and the impressions which exist as to its pur poses and duties are frequently vague and grotesque, inasmuch aa the Postoffice is essentially an enterprise, of, by and for the people it is of considerable interest to know something about what Postmaster Bancroft and his force do and how they do it To begin with, the work of the offlco Is divided between Mr. Bancroft's private office, the city deliver', mailing, money order and registry departments. In the Postmaster's offlco proper are besides the Postmaster, Assistant Postmaster C A. Burckhardt, Charles A. Straus, cashier; Miss Maude Gllliland, stenographer; EL "W. Godfrey, stamp clerk, and Frank Ross, his assistant. In this department the gen eral conduct of the office is directed, sal aries and running expenses disbursed and stamps sold. Including railway mall clerks and rural free delivery carriers, who are paid from this office, Portland's Postmaster has under him 306 employee, who receive sal aries amounting to $240,000 annually. Of this number 75 arc city delivery carriers, 66 are clerks stationed at this office, 85 are railway postal clerks, who have their headquarters here, and SO rural free de livery carriers "who report to this office. The Portland office was established in 1849, when the work was done by the post master and a clerk, and has developed with the growth of the city and the pdstal system until a small army is required. The Postmaster occupies a position sim ilar to that of the general manager of a great manufacturing establishment or de partment store. Working with him are a number of superintendents of divisions and each person connected with the busi ness, from his assistant to the boys who carry special delivery letters, are under his immediate direction. All official com munications and reports to the department at "Washington "must pass his approval and for. the- successmul management of the business he is held personally respon sible. Smooth. WorUinB System. The Government, has made an unquali fied success of its postal system and the secret of it is method. There is nothing of a careless or slip shod nature permitted and all departments are run as parts of a great machine, each cog working In unison with the others. It may be readily seen that there Is no chance t6r the idler and no opportunity for "soldiering." Everyone has his task assigned him and for It he is responsible to his chief; The stamp sales are made from the Postmaster's office and are in charge of E. "W. Godfrey and Prank Ross. The average dally sales are in the neighbor hood of $1000, none being sold on Sun- A5 SORTING NEWSPAPERS. WAITING FOR OUTGOING MAIL. days or legal holidays. The stamps vary, in value from 1 .cent to $5. the latter being used on certain foreign packages, are seldom sold except to collectors. The stamps come to the local offlco by requi sition on the department at Washington,, the smaller denominations being in pack ages containing 50,000 each. Quarterly reports as to sales are made to "Washing ton, and each stamp or piece of stamped paper must be accounted for. . The City Delivery. Perhaps of greatest local interest is the City Delivery Department, of which Harry M. Barrett is superintendent. It is here that the mall which is distributed by the carriers, general delivers and lock-boxes and brought in by carriers is handled. It is here that the love mis sives of the amorous, the terse epistles of business and the black bordered notes of sorrow are sorted, and whence they reach at last the hands and eyes for whom ' they are Intended. It is to this department also that the design ing unsophisticated come for information which will aid them In locating lost friends or evasive " creditors. Superin tendent Barrett has casks of grief stored up In his heart because of this, and will hall the day when It is understood that the rules strictly forbid him giving out information as to race, color, previous condition of servitude or present where abouts of his patrons. The mall comes to this department at all hours of the day and night. The regular carriers re port In and out in eight-hour shifts, from 7 A. M. until 11 P. M. Of the 60 regular carriers who are atttached to the Portland office, 39 work directly from the main office. 8 each from Stations A and B, 2 at Station C. and 1 each from Montavilla, .Sell wood and Mt. Tabor. Of this number 11 are mounted and 5 work exclusively as collectors. These faithful greycoated public servants are all In the classified service, as are almost all the employes, and draw salaries ranging from 5600 to 51000 per annum. When the work expected of them is considered, they , are probably the poorest paid men in the Government employ. They work in heat and cold, sun or rain, exposed to the elements under conditions at times the most unfavorable. The combined per sonal acquaintance of these men exceeds that of any similar number of men in the city, for they visit practically every (Concluded on Page 3S.) IN THE CARRIERS' ROOK. XAKIKG UP NSWSPAFER XAIL. NO. 23.