9.0.0.5/11/20 EXPENDITURES IN THE POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT. COMMITTEE ON EXPENDITURES IN THE POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT, The committee met at 10.45 o'clock a. m., Hon. Frederick N. Zihlman (chairman) presiding. The CHAIRMAN. A quorum being present, the committee will come to order. Mr. Flaherty, will you please take the stand? Give your name and whom you represent. STATEMENT OF MR. THOMAS F. FLAHERTY, SECRETARY-TREAS- Mr. FLAHERTY. My name is Thomas F. Flaherty, secretary-treasurer of the National Federation of Post Office Clerks. The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Flaherty, under date of July 8 of this year you wrote a letter to the President, in which you stated that Night work is imposed without a wage or time differential, home study is required without compensation, the eight-hour law is ignored in the larger offices, and oppressive labar policies of the postal administrators have given the service a sweatshop reputation. Because of these conditions, the Government find itself unable to properly operate its largest agency. In every large city civil-service examinations are being held weekly with but few male applicants. Most of those who pass the examination remain but a short time in the service. Now, on July 16 you wrote a letter to Col. Robert H. Harper, president of the chamber of commerce here in Wahington, in which you state: It is absurd to talk of improving the Postal Service merely by rearranging train schedules or mail collections. The present admitted breakdown in Postal ¿vice efficiency is largely due to one cause-a lack of man power. The serve needs workers. It already has a superabundance of schedules, rules, reguations, and desk experts. But it is the harsh truth-although the department refused to publicly admit it-that postal wage and working standards are too low to attract or hold the efficient type of workman the service requires. Until those fundamental defects in our Postal Service are corrected, the American people can scarcely hope for a restoration of service efficiency. Now, those statements bearing on the service and its inefficiency are matters which, I believe, would properly be taken up by this committee, and I would like you to make a statement, enlarging on and substantiating, if possible, the statements made to the President and to the president of the chamber of commerce. 3 |