A few postmasters in the Southern States have expressed great
apprehension of their personal safety on account of their connection
with the postal service, and have specially requested that their reports
of apprehended danger should not be made public lest it should result in
the loss of their lives. But no positive testimony of interference has
been submitted, except in the case of a mail messenger at Spartanburg,
in South Carolina, who reported that he had been violently driven away
while in charge of the mails on account of his political affiliations.
An assistant superintendent of the Railway Mail Service investigated
this case and reported that the messenger had disappeared from his post,
leaving his work to be performed by a substitute. The Postmaster-General
thinks this case is sufficiently suggestive to justify him in
recommending that a more severe punishment should be provided for the
offense of assaulting any person in charge of the mails or of retarding
or otherwise obstructing them by threats of personal injury.
"A very gratifying result is presented in the fact that the
deficiency of this Department during the last fiscal year was reduced
to $4,081,790.18, as against $6,169,938.88 of the preceding year.
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