EXECUTIVE MANSION, _May 18, 1888_.
_To the Senate_.
I return without approval Senate bill No. 1064, entitled "An act for the
relief of L.J. Worden."
This bill directs the Postmaster-General to allow to L.J. Worden,
recently the postmaster at Lawrence, Kans., the sum of $625 paid out by
him as such postmaster for clerk hire during the period from July 1,
1882, to June 30, 1883.
The allowances to these officers for clerk hire and other like expenses
are fixed in each case by the Post-Office Department and are paid out of
an appropriation made in gross to cover them all. The excess of receipts
for box rents and commissions over and above the salary of the
postmaster is adopted by law as the maximum amount of such allowances in
each case, and within that limit the amount appropriated is apportioned
by the Post-Office Department to the different offices according to
their needs.
The allowances to the Lawrence post-office for the year ending June 30,
1883, was $3,100. This was fully its proportion of the appropriation
made by Congress for that year, and as much as was in most cases given
to other offices of the same grade. In September, 1882, during the
first quarter of the year in question, the postmaster made application
for an increase of his allowances, which was declined, and a similar
application in December of the same year was also declined. The reason
given for noncompliance with this request in both cases was a lack of
funds. It is the rule to make only such allowances in any year as can
be paid from the appropriation made for that period.
No further application for increase of allowances was made by Mr. Worden
until March, 1884, when the same were increased $300 for the year, to
date from the 1st day of January preceding.
It was found at that time, after a full and fair investigation by the
Department, which had in hand abundant funds for an increase of these
allowances, that notwithstanding the increase of business at this
post-office, $300 added to the allowances for the year from July 1,
1882, to June 30, 1883, was sufficient; and yet more than twice that sum
is added by the bill under consideration to the allowances for the year
last named.
Forty-four postmasters have submitted vouchers, amounting to nearly
$9,000, for clerk hire during that year in excess of allowances; but
they were all rejected, and I understand have not been insisted upon.
I assume that the Post-Office Department in 1884 dealt justly and fairly
by the postmaster at Lawrence, and upon this theory, if he should be
reimbursed any expenditure for a previous year, the demand he now makes
is excessive.
But the cases should be exceedingly rare in which postmasters are
awarded any more than the allowances made by the Department officers.
They have the very best means of ascertaining the amount necessary to
meet the demands of the service in any particular case, and it certainly
may be assumed that they desire to properly accommodate the public in
the matter of postal facilities. When the appropriation is sufficient,
the decision of the Department should be final; and when the money in
hand does not admit of adequate allowances, postmasters should only be
reimbursed money voluntarily expended by them when recommended by the
Postmaster-General.
Any other course leads to the expenditure of money by postmasters for
work which they should do themselves and to the employment of clerks
which are unnecessary. The least encouragement that they may be repaid
such expenditure by a special appropriation would dangerously tend to
the substitution of their judgment for that of the Department and to the
relaxation of wholesome discipline.
I think, when the application of Mr. Worden for an increase in his
allowances was twice declined for any cause during the year covering his
present demand, that if he made personal expenditures for clerk hire,
and especially if he did so without the encouragement of the Department,
they were made at his own risk. It appears, too, that the amount of his
claim is larger than can be justified in any event.