asked me if I could furnish concrete instances where deductions had been made. Yesterday I was able to furnish the committee with at least one instance of where a man had traveled more than the standard route, which is 24 miles-he had traveled more than 24 miles in attempting to cover his full route, but he was unable to get entirely over it. The thermometer was 28 degrees below zero, and when he got back to the office one-fourth of a day's pay was deducted. The postmaster said to him, "Why didn't you finish your route on foot ?" Now, the carrier was out with two horses and his sleigh or wagon, whatever the vehicle was. The postmaster was so unreasonable as to want the man to leave his horses and sleigh out in the cold, 20 or more degrees below zero, and finish his route on foot in order to save that fraction of a day's pay, and when the man could not do it the deduction was made. That postmaster said he had no right to take the matter up with the department.

Mr. AUSTIN. Give me that postmaster's name; I would like to find out who he is.

Mr. BROWN. I don't know who he is; but it is in Wisconsin.

Mr. AUSTIN. I would not have carried that route on a day like that, with the thermometer 28 below zero, for $500.

Mr. BROWN. Yes, sir; I said day before yesterday that I felt sure that was a case that would appeal to the Fourth Assistant Postmaster General. But what we complain of is that under the instructions to the postmaster these cases can not be sent up to the department. The CHAIRMAN. What are the instructions you refer to?

Mr. BROWN. I am going to read them.

Mr. AUSTIN. Are they very long, Mr. Brown?

Mr. BROWN. No, sir; it will only take a couple of minutes. (Reading:)

DEDUCTIONS FROM CARRIERS' PAY.

Deduction will be made by the postmaster from the salary of a rural carrier for the following reasons:

TOTAL SUSPENSIONS.

Whenever, on account of weather or road conditions, or for any other reason, service is suspended on a rural route on a day other than Sunday or one of the authorized holidays indicated in section 36 of the rural delivery instructions, a deduction of one day's pay must be made from the salary of the carrier for each day on which no service is performed on the route. The fact that the carrier reported at the post office does not entitle him to pay.

A deduction of one day's pay must also be made from the salary of a rural carrier for each Sunday and legal holiday on which he fails to report at the post office for one hour when directed by the postmaster to do so in accordance with the provisions of section 111 of the rural delivery instructions.

PARTIAL FAILURES.

Each rural route must be served in its entirety. A deduction will be made for each partial failure in the following cases:

Whenever the partial failure may be attributed to the condition of the carrier's stock or equipment, or is due to his failure, in stormy weather or in time of high water or bad roads, to use every endeavor to serve his entire route by traveling every road available; whenever the failure is due to lack of interest in the service or misconduct on the part of the carrier, sickness, or any reason of a personal nature to the carrier. Upon reaching an obstructed point, a stream which is unfordable or a bridge which can not be crossed, he should make such deviation from the official line of travel as to avoid the obstruction. If this is not possible he must return immediately to the post office and start out in the opposite direction. Whenever, after leaving the post office, the carrier finds that he can not reach his route, he must travel some other roads,

although they may be covered by another carrier, and make every endeavor ro serve the patrons. The excuse that the roads are slippery or too hard to travel will not be considered, as each carrier must be equipped to serve his route under all conditions of weather or roads.

If service was performed over but one-fourth or less than one-fourth of the route, a deduction of three-fourths of a day's pay will be made; if more than one-fourth, but less than five-eighths of the route was served, a deduction of one-half a day's pay will be made, and if more than five-eighths of the route was served, a deduction of onefourth of a day's pay will be imposed, as provided in paragraph 20 of the instructions on page 73 of the Postal Guide for July, 1911.

The postmaster will be held accountable under his bond for the proper deductions for total suspensions and partial failures of service, and it is his duty to see that the carrier uses every effort to render complete and regular service.

Now, the point I want to make, gentlemen, is that under these instructions, particularly the last paragraph, few, if any, postmasters would have the hardihood to take the matter up with the Post Office Department. I told the Post Office Committee the other day that I felt sure I could furnish them with a case of this kind, and I have furnished them this one, and when I get back to my office I will furnish them with others.

Mr. AUSTIN. What do you think, in your judgment, of the man who, in the event the postmaster refuses to carry the case up to the department, should carry it up to the department himself? Has he that right of appeal?

Mr. DE GRAW. Yes, sir; the carrier has that right.

Mr. BROWN. Now, gentlemen, there is just one other suggestion that I want to make, in connection with the claim that there is discrimination against the rural carriers. A civil-service retirement meeting-I don't know just what the title of the body is-was recently held here at Washington, some time in January. The President of the United States, I believe, is heartily in favor of civil retirement or something of that sort; the Postmaster General, I believe, recognizes it; and practically all of the bureaus of the Government service recommend it. The postal employees, through their various organizations, have generally indorsed civil-service retirement, and employees of the rural delivery service are generally in favor of the proposition. Every other bureau of the postal service was represented at this convention in Washington last month, through delegates authorized to represent them, but the rural carriers. They expected to be here, but they didn't come, and we began to wonder why, and we were finally informed that the Fourth Assistant would not grant them leave of absence. They thought they were entitled to their leave of absence under some particular paragraph of the regulations governing the rural service, but when they applied for the leave to come to this convention, this civil-service retirement meeting which involved the welfare of the whole Government service, they were denied the privilege of coming.

Thereupon, at 12 o'clock noon, the committee took a recess until 2.30 o'clock p. m.

COMMITTEE ON EXPENDITURES

IN THE POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT,

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Washington, D. C., February 14, 1912. The committee met at 2.30 o'clock p. m., Hon. William A. Ashbrook (chairman), presiding, to continue the consideration of matters called for in H. Res. 109.

Present also: Representatives Alexander, Redfield, McCoy, Austin, and Towner.

There were also present Mr. W. D. Brown, editor R. F. D. News; Hon. P. V. De Graw, Fourth Assistant Postmaster General; Mr. Geo. L. Wood, Superintendent Division of Rural Mails, and Mr. W. R. Spilman, Superintendent of City Delivery.

TESTIMONY OF MR. W. D. BROWN, EDITOR R. F. D. NEWS, WASHINGTON, D. C.

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Brown, do you wish to make any further statement as to the facts developed before the committee this morning? Mr. BROWN. I don't know that it is necessary, Mr. Chairman, to say anything further. I have attempted to establish that an effort was made at Little Rock during the national convention of 1910 to destroy the R. F. D. News as the official organ of the National Rural Letter Carriers Association; that another attempt of like character was made in Milwaukee in 1911, and I read to your committee this morning a letter written by the Fourth Assistant Postmaster General to the president of the National Rural Letter Carriers Association demanding the withdrawal of the official indorsement of the R. F. D. News, to be taken forthwith. I might say here that the demand of Mr. De Graw on the president of our association and the executive committee is something that they have no right under the constitution to do. What they will do I don't know, but under the constitution they have no right to withdraw the official indorsement of the R. F. D. News. The CHAIRMAN. Under the constitution of your association?

Mr. BROWN. Under the constitution of the association. The R. F. D. News was adopted as the official organ at the first meeting of the national association, when it was organized, and has so remained ever since. Practically every meeting of the association has seen some changes made in the constitution, but none with regard to the relationship between the R. F. D. News and the association.

Mr. McCoy. In what sense of the word is the R. F. D. News the organ of the association?

Mr. BROWN. Only for the promulgation of the official orders and notices of the association.

Mr. McCoy. Does the association contribute anything to the revenues of the R. F. D. News beyond what it might pay for any notices. that it wishes published?

Mr. BROWN. It contributes nothing. It doesn't even pay for the notices. The News is not on the pay roll of the association and doesn't receive any compensation for the space used.

Mr. McCoy. In other words, the meaning, then, of that word "organ" is that members of the association may know that any official action of the association will be advertised in the R. F. D. News?

Mr. BROWN. Through the R. F. D. News.

Mr. McCoy. Is there a limit to that, its official connection with the association?

Mr. BROWN. The official connection of the News with the association?

Mr. McCoy. Yes; either way.

Mr. BROWN. If I understand your meaning, Mr. McCoy, that is the only thing that the association is responsible for in the R. F. D. News. Mr. McCoy. In other words, the resolution which was adopted at Little Rock now expresses the only sense in which officially the News can be called the organ?

Mr. BROWN. Yes, sir.

Mr. McCoy. Following beyond that, it is an organ of the association itself in the sense that you are endeavoring to promote the interests of the association in such way as seems best to you.

Mr. BROWN. Yes, sir. As I said this morning, the carriers all over the country treat the R. F. D. News as a clearing house, as sort of a safety valve. They come to us with their troubles because they can not go to the department except through their postmasters, and it not infrequently happens that the relations existing between the postmaster and the carrier are not of the most harmonious nature. In many cases, in fourth-class offices, and the great majority of the rural routes emanate from fourth-class offices, the pay of the rural carrier is much more than the postmaster receives, and that condition tends to engender rivalry between them.

Mr. McCoy. Now you say that they can't get a hearing in the department except through the postmaster. What do you mean by that, exactly?

Mr. BROWN. There is a regulation or order, probably a statute, I don't know just what it is, that designates the postmaster as the official in charge at that particular office, and all official communications I believe must come through the postmaster. If the carrier has a complaint, of whatever nature, even relating to differences between himself and his postmaster

Mr. McCoy (interposing). Then is it the situation and practice, whatever the rule may be, that if the postmaster should refuse to communicate to the department any complaint which had been made to him by the carrier, that the carrier would not have any way of getting at the department to make his complaint direct?

Mr. BROWN. I have heard the Fourth Assistant Postmaster General, and I think the Superintendent of Rural Free Delivery, at conventions say that under such circumstances the carriers might be permitted to write to them, but it is a violation of the regulations. Mr. McCoy. Can you point to the regulation that you say is violated?

Mr. REDFIELD. I have a copy of it. You refer to Executive Order No. 29, don't you?

Mr. BROWN. I am not familiar with the number of the regulation. Mr. AUSTIN. That would not be a regulation, an Executive order of the President-the recent one issued by President Taft.

Mr. BROWN. I would like to read from a paper published at Zanesville, Ohio, which will show you the way the fellows are being treated out there, and in other parts of the country, I dare say, in the matter of readjustment of the routes, a matter they can't take up direct with

the department except through the postmaster, and it will throw some light on the subject.

Mr. AUSTIN. They can do it through their Representative in Congress, because we have that sort of cases all the time.

Mr. REDFIELD. They are forbidden by this official order to give any information or communication to any Member of Congress or any congressional committee.

Mr. AUSTIN. About the readjustment of a rural free-delivery route? Mr. REDFIELD. On any subject. They are forbidden to give any information.

The CHAIRMAN. Did you have some correspondence with the carriers in your district about this matter?

Mr. REDFIELD. Every man that writes to you is liable to be fired. He is breaking the President's order.

Mr. AUSTIN. I never saw anything in the President's order preventing a man from going to the department to take up the readjustment of routes.

Mr. REDFIELD. It is forbidden to ask of any employee of any department of the Government, or for him to tell you anything, or for him to come before this committee and tell us anything unless he has the written consent of his superior officer.

Mr. AUSTIN. I am talking about a readjustment of routes, referred to in that newspaper clipping.

The CHAIRMAN. Suppose that you wanted to get a readjustment, how would you ascertain the facts, that there was any necessity for it, except throught the carriers?

Mr. AUSTIN. Why, through the postmaster, or the citizens interested.

Mr. REDFIELD. There is to-day a bureau head in this city-this has nothing to do with the Post Office Department-that, being forbidden to give information to the committee in charge of his matters, goes to the ladies of the family, whom the law does not forbid him to speak to, tells the ladies what he wants, and the ladies tell their husbands, and that is the way the committee of Congress has gotten the information.

Mr. BROWN. This clipping is from a Zanesville, Ohio, paper, and reads as follows:

RURAL ROUTES BADLY RIPPED UP-ONE CARRIER'S HORSE GIVES OUT ALREADYCHANGES DEMORALIZE THE SERVICE.

Never in the history of the rural free mail delivery in Muskingum County were the routes "ripped up" as they were the first of this month, and never before was the service in such a deplorable condition. Something like a half dozen routes were abolished, and an attempt was made to serve most of the families thus cut off by lengthening other routes. This plan has served to cut off from the service entirely several scores of the best families in the county, who are now remote from either rural route or post office. It is an outrage that should not be tolerated, and the powers that be will hear from the people on election day if the service to which they have been accustomed for many years is not speedily restored.

The mail service of the county has become a by-word where before it was almost perfection. For instance, one of the rural carriers out of Zanesville had his route lengthened 5 miles, and he now serves six fewer families than ever before. The carrier on route No. 9 out of Zanesville had his route lengthened so that his horse gave out Saturday 10 miles north of the city, and he had to walk in with what mail he could carry. Routes have been changed by an inspector who never went over the routes so as to traverse hills that are insurmountable in bad weather.