The salaries for postal clerk and carrier are the same throughout the union. Starting in at $600 the first year, the man who is efficient and has a clean record is advanced to $800 at the beginning of the second year; the third year he goes to $900 and so on to the sixth year when he reaches the maximum for this branch of the service, $1,200. But there are opportunities beyond this to clerks of exceptionable ability, and to carriers, too, if they elect to be transferred to the clerical branch, as is evidenced in the brilliant career of Postmaster Morgan of New York, referred to in the opening chapter. Transfers are permitted from carrier to clerk, or visa versa, after three or four years service. Promotion For Good Clerks.
 
In cities having sub-stations, clerks are eligible to promotion to assistant superintendent, and then to superintendent, with salaries ranging from $1,300 to $2,500. They may also file applications with the postmaster through their station superintendent for transfer[16] to another branch of the service, such as registry division. No other examination is necessary, the places there, as also on the windows, inquiry department, and on money order windows being given to clerks who show meritorious service. The only promotion examination given is to the money order division, which is not to be confused with positions at money order windows. Besides involving grave responsibilities the clerks in the money order division are subject only to day work and have no night shifts.
Hours of Labor.
 
Employees in all branches of the federal government are required to work only eight hours a day. The hours, however, may not always be consecutive. Postal clerks, for instance, work usually in three shifts. The hours vary but the following may be taken as an example, allowing one hour for meals:
First shift, 10 A. M., until 7 P. M., second shift, 4 P. M., until 1 A. M.; third shift, 12 midnight until 9 A. M. If clerks are required to work overtime they are given compensatory time or leaves of absence during the week corresponding to the number of hours overtime. This also applies to Sunday work.
Carriers are not allowed to work overtime and when they do “demerits” are registered against them. While[17] a carrier is at the call of the government, so to speak, more hours in a day than is a clerk, his hours of actual duty are the same, eight. They have “swings,” or periods of intermission, between deliveries when their time is their own and they are permitted to go where they please. Regular carriers make deliveries only, and are rarely, if ever, called upon to make collections.
Violations of the rules and inefficiency are punished by a system of “demerits” ranging from 1 to 500 according to the degree of the offense. “Demerits” in any considerable number naturally affect a man’s advancement. Anything less than 500 is usually wiped out at the end of a year and the offender starts again with a clean slate. But if 500 or more is charged up against a man it remains a constant reminder of past shortcomings.
Clerks and carriers who resign from the service may be reinstated within one year, but, unless their absence was due to illness, they lose a grade. In other words, they must work a year for $100 less salary than they received at time of resignation. In case of illness employees must notify the postmaster through their superintendent, without delay. Salaries are paid the 1st and 16th of each month.
[18]
“Subs.”
 
“Subs,” in the parlance of the postal service, are men taken from the regular eligible lists to act as substitute clerks and letter carriers. In every large office there is always a lot of emergency work due to sickness, or unusual demands. “Sub” clerks work on an average from six to nine months—the duration varies greatly in different offices—before receiving a permanent appointment, while “sub” carriers have to work from three to four years before they get a steady job. The collection of mail from street letter boxes is entrusted to “sub” carriers, regular carriers attending only to the delivery of mail. All “subs” receive thirty cents per hour and their salary averages from $50 to $60 per month.
Carriers’ Moral Responsibility.
 
Carriers are not allowed to put letters into their own pockets to carry them nor to throw away even the slightest piece of mail, however valueless and unimportant it may appear. He must return to the office everything that is undelivered, and after every trip must bring back his satchel and his key, and make his comprehensive written return in detail of the number and character of the pieces handled by him. Every[19] piece of mail entrusted to him has its particular place and all must be arranged with system and order. He is forbidden under all circumstances to return to any person whatever letters deposited by them in the street mailing boxes from which he makes collections, but if the sender of the letter wishes it back, he must report to the postmaster through the head of his division, and the postmaster has exclusive discretion to return it to the writer.