POSTAL LAWS AND REGULATIONS

APPLICABLE TO THE

RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE

8. The head of each department is authorized to prescribe regulations, not inconsistent with law, for the government of his department, the conduct of its officers and clerks, the distribution and performance of its business, and the custody, use, and preservation of the records, papers, and property appertaining to it.

2. All regulations or amendments thereof shall be promulgated by the Postmaster General and duly entered of record in the journal.

12. To the Second Assistant Postmaster General are assigned the authorization and management of the transportation of the domestic and international mails by means of railroads, electric and cable cars, steamships, steamboats, rural routes, mail messengers, and star routes; the preparation of advertisements for mail lettings for the transportation of mail by steamboats, airplanes, and star routes; the preparation of orders of awards thereon and the execution of contracts accordingly; the authorization of changes in schedules on steamboat routes and star routes where they are fixed by orders; the receipt and examination of reports from postmasters and others as to the performance of such service and the preparation of orders for the Postmaster General making deductions for nonperformance and imposing fines for delinquencies, the issuance of statements of amounts found upon administrative examination to be due the various companies, contractors, and others for performance of such service, and the forwarding of such statements to the General Accounting Office for payment; the authorization of payment of salaries to railway postal clerks and making allowances for their travel expenses; the distribution of pouches, sacks, and pouch locks used in the transportation of the mails; the designation and supervision of mail-bag depositories; the direction of the mail distribution and the course of the mails; the supervision of the Railway Mail Service, Rural Delivery Service, International Postal Service (including the sea post, Navy mail, and international registry, insurance, and collect-on-delivery services), and other classes of transportation mentioned above; and the general supervision of the divisions of the Bureau.

4. The Division of Railway Mail Service, under the supervision of the General Superintendent, is charged with the preparation of all regulations for the Government of the Railway Mail Service.

29. 2. Postmasters, clerks, employees, contractors, and others connected with the Postal Service are subordinate to post-office inspectors when acting within the scope

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of their duty and employment. But no arbitrary power is hereby conferred upon them. They shall not interfere with any officer or employee who is in the proper discharge of his duty further than to examine his methods, system, and accounts, or any complaints which may be made against him. Nor shall they interfere with the mails or the transportation thereof, except as expressly authorized by law and as permitted by the regulations.

3. Inspectors are empowered to open pouches and sacks and examine the mails therein and are authorized to enter and inspect post offices at all times.

4. Inspectors shall exhibit as evidence of their authority the commission issued by the Postmaster General,

30. 2. Before entering upon the duties, and before they shall receive any salary, the Postmaster General, and all persons employed in the Postal Service, shall respectively take and subscribe before some magistrate or other competent officer authorized to administer oaths by the laws of the United States, or of any State or Territory, the following oath or affirmation.

3. The oaths required to be taken under the preceding statutes by the Postmaster General and all other officers and employees of the Post Office Department and the Postal Service are combined in the following form (Form 5063):

I (name of appointee), having been appointed (designate office or employment), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely and without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.

I do further solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully perform all the duties required of me and abstain from everything forbidden by the laws in relation to the establishment of post offices and post roads within the United States; and that I will honestly and truly account for and pay over any money belonging to the said United States which may come into my possession or control; and I also further swear (or affirm) that I will support the Constitution of the United States. So help me God.

Sworn to and subscribed before me, a

----

day of

A. D. 19-.

31. (The) oath (of office) or affirmation (required by this section of the U. S. Code) may be taken before any officer, civil or military, holding a commission under the United States, and such officer is authorized to administer and certify such oath or affirmation.

312. Post-office inspectors are empowered and authorized with like force and effect as officers having a seal to administer oaths required or authorized by law or regulation promulgated thereunder in respect of any matter coming before them in the performance of their official duties and likewise oaths to accounts for travel or other expenses against the United States, but no compensation or fee shall be demanded or accepted for administering any such oaths. Chief clerks and assistant chief clerks in the Railway Mail Service are required, empowered, and authorized, when requested, to administer oaths to employees on appointment or promotion and to accounts for travel or other expenses against the United States with like force and effect as officers having a seal: Provided, That for such service no charge shall be made and no fee or money paid for such service shall be paid or reimbursed by the United States. (Public, No. 355, 73d Cong.)

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NOTE.Postmasters, post-office inspectors, chief clerks, and assistant chief clerks in the Railway Mail Service, United States judges and district attorneys, United States commissioners, United States marshals, collectors of customs and internal revenue, and all other officers, civil or military, holding commissions under the United States, may administer the oath.

33. No officer clerk, or employee of any executive department who is also a notary public or other officer authorized to administer oaths shall charge or receive any fee or compensation for administering oaths of office to employees of such department required to be taken on appointment or promotion therein.

3. Postmasters, assistant postmasters, chief clerks of the various executive departments and bureaus, or clerks designated by them for the purpose, * * * are required, empowered, and authorized, when requested, to administer oaths, required by law or otherwise, to accounts for travel or other expenses against the United States, with like force and effect as officers having a seal; for such services when so rendered, or when rendered on demand by notaries public, who at the time are also salaried officers, or employees of the United States, no charge

shall be made; and no fee or money paid for the services herein described shall be paid or reimbursed by the United States.

34. Promptly upon the marriage of a female employee holding a classified position in the Postal Service, postmasters and other appointing officers shall report to the proper bureau of the Department the name of such employee as officially indicated on their rosters, the date of the last day of service prior to marriage, the married name of the employee as she desires to be officially known, and the date of the first day of service under her married name.

35. Every person employed in the Postal Service shall be subject to all penalties and forfeitures for the violation of the laws relating to such service, whether he has taken the oath of office or not.

39. No person in the classified civil service and holding a position under the Post Office Department shall accept or hold any elective office under any State, Territorial, or municipal government (including the offices of alderman, councilman, etc.), even though no compensation may attach thereto, and no such person shall accept or hold such office by appointment to fill an unexpired term. Exception is made in the case of a fourth-class postmaster who is a candidate for or holds an elective position of an educational nature such as member of a school board, school committee, etc.; and it is permissible for a fourth-class postmaster to accept or hold such office provided no political issues are involved and no campaign is made for the position.

2. A postmaster at an office of the first, second, or third class shall not become a candidate for, nor hold any office, under State, county, or municipal government where it would, in the judgment of the department, interfere with the proper performance of his post-office duties.

3. A person in the Postal Service may be appointed (not elected) to the office of notary public, commissioner to take acknowledgment of deeds or administer oaths, or hold a commission in State or Territorial militia, or may accept an appointive position in a local or municipal fire department without compensation, or on a school committee, board of education, public library, or religious or eleemosynary institution incorporated or sustained by State or municipal authority, but will not be permitted to hold such office or position if it interferes with his duties in the Postal Service.

40. The United States shall pay compensation as hereinafter specified for the disability or death of an employee resulting from a personal injury sustained while in the performance of his duty, but no compensation shall be paid if the injury or death is caused by the willful misconduct of the employee or by the employee's intention to bring about the injury or death of himself or of another, or if intoxication of the injured employee is the proximate cause of the injury or death.

2. Every employee injured in the performance of his duty, or some one on his behalf, shall, within forty-eight hours after the injury, give written notice thereof to the immediate superior of the employee. Such notice shall be given by delivering it

personally or by depositing it properly stamped and addressed in the mail.

3. The notice shall state the name and address of the employee, the year, month, day, and hour when, and the particular locality where, the injury occurred, and the cause and nature of the injury, and shall be signed by, and contain, the address of the person giving the notice.

4. Unless notice is given within the time specified, or unless the immediate superior has actual knowledge of the injury, no compensation shall be allowed; but for any reasonable cause shown, the commission may allow compensation if the notice is filed withon one year after the injury.

NOTE.-Original claims for compensation for disability must be made within 60 days after the injury and those for death within one year after death, addressed to the United States Employees' Compensation Commission, at Washington, D. C., on forms furnished by the commission. The commission determines the amount of compensation to be paid in each case. In certain cases medical treatment, hospital services, and burial expenses may be provided by the commission. An employee can not assign his claim. (See Official Postal Guide.)

41. (a) All employees to whom this section and sections 692a to 708a of this title apply who, before July 1, 1930, shall have attained or shall thereafter attain the age of seventy years and rendered at least fifteen years of service computed as prescribed in section 695a of this title shall be eligible for retirement on an annuity as provided in section 694a: Provided, That city, rural, and village letter carriers, post-office clerks, sea-post clerks, employees of the Indian Service at large excepting clerks, laborers, and mechanics generally shall, under like conditions, be eligible for retirement at sixty-five years of age, and that railway postal clerks, mechanics and laborers in navy yards, including leading men and quartermen but excluding master mechanics and foremen, and those employees engaged in pursuits whose occupation is hazardous or requires great physical effort, or which necessitates exposure to extreme heat or cold, and those employees whose terms of service shall include fifteen years or more of such service rendered in the Tropics, shall be eligible at sixty-two years of age; the classification of employees for the purpose of assignment to the various age groups shall be determined jointly by the Civil Service Commission and the head of the department, branch, or independent office of the Government concerned: Provided further, That any such employee who was employed as a me