USVI Public Records

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(Continued from Ist page.) now, as conditions in the post offices here are such that it has become excecdingly necessary that report be made. Mo An- dersen alluded to Saturday when the mails arrive and it takes ‘‘some time’’ to distribute them, letters baing received too late for reply by retu:n of the boat. He wonld like to know if a few marines could not be detailed to .he post office so as to-relieve ‘he difficulty. That is so far the substance of what Mr. Andersen sald. Now lei us comoare conditions as they existed in the postal service under the Danish administration and as they are now; I refer to Christiansted, al- though the same commenrt-in a relative sense may apply to Frederiksted and Kingshill. In the timme of the Danish government there was a postmaster and two clerks; the postmaster was also col- lector of customs, received no salary as postmaster, and was mostly so engross- ed with the utes of the customs depart- ment that for all practical purposes he was postmaster onlv nominally. The clerks were paid salaries jointlyfrom the customs and postal departments which being amalgamated were run .by one staff of oificers, tne chief clerk of the customs being alsc chief clerk of the post office and the writer of the customs being likewise post office clerk. At present there is a postmaster and two clerks working execlusively .in the service of the postal establishment, the postmas- ter being not merely an official signing papcrs, but a real worker handling mail bags and giving the public the quickest service he can. In the Danish regime there were at most 4 to 6 overseas mails per month, each consisting of an average of 10 sacks during the duller seasons of the year, and from 16 to 22 bags in the busy Xmas season; today we have eight to ten overseas mails a month each com- prising 40 t~ 50 bags in the dull months, and from 75 to 100 bagsin the Xmas season. Before the transfer the mails came to the island in sacks labelled ‘St Croix’’ and had to be re-worked and separated at Frederiksted for dispatch to Christiansted and Kingshill. In those aays little or no mail came via Porto Rico, and what did come was usually worked up at St. Thomas and forwarded ready for distribution at each office in St. Croix. Today that is nos the case. When an American mail came to Fred- criksted in former years it took several hours to assort and distribute it, mean- while the office was closed to the publie; the sale of stamps, money orders and all other business being suspended while a noisy crowd kept. a bustle and turmoil that cculd be heard for blocks around. Since the American. postal system is in operation the mails for St. Croix are re- ceived in separately addressed sacks for Christiansted and Wrederiksted and thus each office handls only the mail intend- ed for -that office except as regards Kingshill for which no closed dis- patches are made because of the fact S T ot d & % ¥ .13 that very few letters are actually ad- dressed to Kingshill most ¢f the mail tor that office being addressed to the estates in the district which are not known to the New York foreign station and consequently such mail is for- varded to Christiansted under the ar- rangement chat all mail not address- ed to Frederiksted -shall be forwarded to Christiansted. Persons finding incon- venience through this arrangement may have it imm«diately obviate% by advising their correspondents to addr€ss their mail to whichever office will serve their route first., The delivery of mail at the Chris- tiansted office is today made in the mini- mum space of time after it arrives,and in no instance can I recall that the hand’ing of the largest mail has occupied more than one vour,during which time, it it be within the regular hours of business, stambps are sold, .money orders are issued and paid and patrons are given general post office service. The installadvon of letter boxes and the improvement in the equip- nient of the office came wita the Ameri- can administration as did the reduction of box rent, the money order exchange with the United States whereby the pub- lic is afforded the hitherto unknown facili- ty of making direct remittances at small cost: the reduetion of postagze irom 5 o 2 cents; the convenience of the parcel post syséem by which parcels weighing up te 70 pounds may be sent for about a eent a pound and insured at small additional expense; the increase of indemnity paid (or the loss of registered mail, are all innovations of the American postal service. But ito prove that if is utterly impossible for the disiribution of mail to ocecupy longer time now than under the Danish system it should be ncted that the Danish system was far mote complicate d and required the keep- ing of books of record for the receipt and delivery ot registered and parcel post mail and money orders as well as the issuing of notices tor the latter ali of which bhad to be written up before distribution to the publce could begin; today none of those racords are required or kep:. in other words before the public could get a registered le.ter, it had o be entered in a book ahd a slip written 1w it; to- day only the slip is used, lor Uncle Sam does not believe in expending material or energy when the same can as well be conserved. In formei times before par- cels could be delivered from the post office the Customs nad to assess duties on the contents, somelimes a pair of shoes, the people going back and rforin from the post oifice to the cusioms and from the cusioms 0 the post office wear- ing out the pair. of shoes tney had on before they could get the new pair. Today in one hour after the parcel wpos. has been thrown out, before it can even be alphabetically shelved, it is near.y all de- livered. Theoverseas mail is undoubted- 'y reaching Ch istiansted laster than nsed to be the case; but this is due to circaimn- stances over which the post offices have no control. For more than a vyear after the transfer the mail service with Porto - was performed by a moter boat and the mail reached here on Saturday mornings, or in event the motor boat had not reach- ed Sty Themas before the departure of the mail-schooner, it came here the fol- lowing Wednesday. The Post Office Department has adveriised and readver- tised for power boat service hut none has been offered, and the resuit is that a sail- brat is on the route between Porto Riccand Frederiksted. While this appears in some respects to be a less erlicient service it is a fact that the motor boat formerly em- ployed would have afforded litile if any better connections owing to the fact that the mail service netween che Statés and Porto Ricois nol as regular as it used to be and invariably the boat for Christiansted would have alre.dy sailed trom St. i hom- as when the one with the ['orto Rico maiis arrived there. and so insicad of having to wait until Wednesday as would be the case the oid way we now get the mail by a through boat although it does not get here until Saturday and ome- times Sunday. If Mr. Andersen had di rected his criticism against the sail boat service or proposed some method of get- ting the overseas mail here earlier or of affording us longer epportunity for reply he would have been nearer the mark, It would have been more practical if Nir. Andersen had proposed instead of ma- rines assisting in the post offices, that « sub-chaser be put on the route to bring the mails quickly, as it would be a physical impossibility to assort \ and deliver mails before thev are receiv- ed. I hold and will repeat that the mail service as it stands today is by far move efficient than it used to be and as regards the delay in assorting mails here, in so much as to require the services of ma- rines, [ deny absolutely that s cb is the case, tor the largest mail is handled promptiy and efficiently as soon as it is received. ‘the veason that the mail is ~ not received here u: til so la eon Satur- ~d ys is due somewhat to the fact that the ~ mail triv from Frederiksted does not ~ start from there until 3 o’clock in the afternoon, and moreso to the irregular arrival ol the mail beat with the overseas - ~mail, | Some people still continue to advocate ! the letter earrier system but very few look for it any more since the majority are quite accustomed to call at the office and get their mail promptly instead of going ~ about the streets huntine up the post ~ man. TLis is the only respect in which 1 can think of the former service being in 2ny way more complete than the pres- ent, but as already shown there are more than feattres enough to offsqt the littie % advantage gained through this. | In conelusio. [' would like to have it . undersiood tlat this is merelya presen- l tation- of facts ana not any attempt at | ceniticizing belittling or depreciating the ! system of the Danish gocvernment for | which ,i have the highest regurd =nd ’ whieh under the then existing conditions did not leave much to be desired.