did manifestation of their superior ability to entertain.

The hall itself an inspiration, like one of these fantastic creations in "Thousand and One Nights," was artistically decorated with thousands of tiny incandescent lights shining upon a picturesque scene presenting handsome wives, graceful maidens and their gallant escorts gliding along to the exquisite music of an efficient orchestra. Quite effective were the "Shadowgraph Dance," the "Storm Two-Step" and the "Rainbow Waltz." With most of the lights extinguished and the aid of stage devices eyes and ears were given a treat.

The Banquet.

A banquet by St. Louis Branch No. 8 to the National Federation of Post Office Clerks followed final adjournment of the Fourth Annual Convention, Wednesday evening, Sept. 8th, at the American Hotel, the modern and very convenient headquarters of the delegates. This, the second banquet tendered to or held by the Federation since its inception three years ago, was more of a farewell party to the departing delegates and visitors, the final occasion to exchange ideas and offer suggestions. A larger attendance distinguished the St. Louis banquet from that of Louisville, this gratifying increase, encouraging to both Louisville and the Federation, being due to the greater representation our constantly growing organization could in compliance with our constitution afford at St. Louis.

After an excellent menu Toastmaster J. Flory, secretary of Postmaster Akins, and an interesting and fluent speaker, who can be humorous as well as satirical, addressed the distinguished guests and our delegates on the needs of the postal service. Acting Mayor Gundlach spoke on "Our City," citing some of the most noteworthy events in the history of St. Louis. Postmaster T. J. Akins was scheduled to speak on "Duties of American Citizenship," but was compelled to decline. President Edw. B. Goltra, calm and collected as usual, held the attention of his auditors on a subject with which no one is more familiar than he who has been guiding our organization since the first day of its existence, his story being "The National Federation of Post Office Clerks." The able and intellectual President of the St. Louis local, Bro. Arthur L. Wackwitz, followed President Goltra and volunteered some interesting information as to the progress of his local. Owing to the absence of Mr. Owen Miller, who was programed to speak on "Organization; Its Benefits," Secretary Geo. F. Pfeiffer was called upon. After the query whether this is a banquet or a surprise party Bro. Pfeiffer did not hesitate a moment and, with all due respect to Mr. Owen Miller, brought forth a very logical argument on organization and its benefits and incidentally the benefits to be derived from the Federation. Miss Gertrude Floyd, the lady delegate

from Muscogee, Okla., who ably represented her home local, spoke about the "Gentlemen." Miss Floyd thanked for the courtesy shown her during her stay in St. Louis and then grew eloquent when analyzing and lauding the (occasionally) lords and masters. The genial President of the Chicago local, Bro. Oscar F. Nelson, paid a glowing tribute to the "Ladies," who, as he admonished, must be met with diplomacy and tact as they have more strength in their looks than a nation in its laws, and more power by their tears than a sage by his arguments. And Bro. Nelson ought to know. Mr. L. G. Pope, a very forceful and convincing speaker, addressed his audience on "Cooperation," and defined and elucidated in an able manner the advantages of co-operation to the present generation. Last, but not least, one of our distinguished guests, the former Third Assistant Postmaster General, Mr. Edwin S. Madden, addressed the delegates. Madden's remark that the higher positions in the postal service should be filled by employes taken from the ranks appealed immensely to his audience. Mr. Madden's speech is printed below.

Mr.

With the banquet the curtain descended on an entertainment pleasant and intellectual, a lasting testimonial of St. Louis' ability to act and achieve.

Speech of Edwin S. Madden, Former Third Assistant Postmaster General.

Ladies and Gentlemen: I suppose it would not be so much out of place for me to address you as fellow clerks, even though I have been out of the service for something over two years.

My presence here to-night is due to the accidental discovery by some of the members that I was in the city. Late yesterday I was invited. I could not refuse, but my acceptance was conditioned cn my not being asked to speak. I shall, therefore, say nothing.

I am more than pleased to be with you for the sake of the days when I was, myself, a post office clerk. You may not all know it, but I had been for seven years a clerk of the post office at Detroit, Mich., when in 1899 I was appointed Third Assistant Postmaster General. My eight years in that office are known to you.

My interest in the service and those who make it what it is will never subside. When on the inside I did what I could to better it and the conditions of those in it. I am now no less concerned in its betterment and in the men and the women behind the guns, for they make the service what it is; but for them there would be no service. It is their efficiency, their fidelity to duty, that makes it possible for me to say that the postal service of the United States is the best in the world. But I feel compelled to add that it is not what it ought to be for a country like this, neither for the people that maintain it nor for those who labor in it. There is vast room for improve

ment, and some measure of duty in that direction rests upon you all. But the people will not get the real postal reform that is needed until the force of circumstances brings to the head of the Post Office Committee in Congress or to the head of the department in Washington a man with real knowledge of the country's postal needs and with the force and power and genius to supply them.

I am in full sympathy with the move to bring about the selection of assistant postmasters and postmasters from the ranks below. The people pay dearly for the custom of filling these offices from the outside. I do not intend this as any reflection upon the gentlemen who have so come into those positions. They, as a rule, have done well-they entered as good account of themselves as could be expected under the circumstances. But it cannot be refuted successfully that it would be better business to select those officers from the ranks. In private life the man in line is recognized. If the spark of administrative genius be in him it is not It is brought out and developed

smothered.

by putting him in a position of authority, where his training and experience and knowledge may be put to good use. Surely the public should be as ready to recognize those who devote their lives to its service. The science of economy will some time compel it.

As it is, we often see men appointed to those positions who have no aptitude at all for the work before them and no training or knowledge of it. The resultant waste of resources is tremendous. We have lived to see the logic of the situation itself do away in many cases with the selection of assistant postmasters from those on the outside. To maintain the service at all to the satisfaction of the public, it was necessary to have at least one of the heads of the post office come from the ranks, in order that the people might have the benefit of his experience and training. The service could stand the burden of one inexperienced head, but not of two. The eternal fitness of things and sound public policy demands that the man from the ranks be given more of a chance to show what is in him. You have started the ball rolling. Don't let it stop. The philosophy of the situation is with you. It ought not to be that a man who accepts a position in the postal ranks and devotes his time faithfully to his duties should have the spark in him extinguished at the line beyond which he may not reach out for higher things. If the qualities be in him the public needs him higher up. The present conditions discount American manhood, blunt the spirit of postal progress, contradict the law of the survival of the fittest and burden the public treasury with incompetents and expensive pensioners.

PRESIDENT TAFT SPEAKS FOR ORGAN= IZED LABOR.

Chicago, Sept. 16, 1909.

"I know there is an element among employers of labor and investors of capital which is utterly opposed to the organization of labor. I cannot sympathize with this element in the slighest degree. I think it a wise course for laborers to unite to defend their interests. It is a wise course for them to provide a fund by which, should occasion arise and strikes or lockouts follow, those who lose their places may be supported pending an adjustment of the difficulties.

"I think the employer who declines to deal with organized labor and to recognize it as a proper element in the settlement of wage controversies is behind the times. There is not the slighest doubt that if labor had remained unorganized wages would be very much lower.

"It is true that in the end they would probably be fixed by the law of supply and demand, but generally before this law manifests itself there is a period in which labor, if organized and acting together, can compel the employer promptly to recognize the change of conditions and advance wages to meet a rising market and an increase in profits; and on the other hand can delay the too quick impulse of the employer, facing a less prosperous future, to economize by reducing wages.

"There is a higher standard of living among American laborers than in any country in the world, and while there have doubtless been a good many other reasons for this, certainly the effect of organization of labor has been to maintain a steady and high rate of wages, making such a standard of living possible."

"GET WISE."

Of all punk guff inspired by gall,
The limit is this, "I know it all."
The yap that springs it always is
A dead one in his line o' biz.
His nut is swelled; his brain is shrunk;
His trolley's broke; his talk is bunk;
He may be boss, but you can bet
He'll finish in the junk-heap yet.
An' that's no dream. Take it from me,
He's got his number-23.

The way they play th' game today,
Its Mr. Wiseguy draws the pay.
No swellhead goes. The guys what rise
Is them as hustles to get wise.

-Toronto Free Lance.

OVERHEARD THE PLAY.

"This play in its intensity," said the go-outbetween-the-acts young man, "fairly takes my breath away."

"I only wish it would!" gloomily remarked the lady in the next seat.

The Fourth Annual Convention of the N. F. of P. O. C. was called to order in the Aschenbroedel Club Hall, in St. Louis, Mo., at 10:30 a. m., Labor Day, September 6th, by John H. Yahn, Chairman of the local arrangement committee.

Rabbi Leon Harrison delivered the invocation.

In the absence from the city of Mayor Kreismann, acting Mayor Gundlach extended a hearty welcome to the delegates and visitors in behalf of the city of St. Louis.

Hon. Thomas J. Aikins, postmaster of St. Louis, welcomed the convention in a most cordial way. He said:

HON. THOMAS J. AIKINS, OF ST. LOUIS, ADDRESSES THE CONVENTION.

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen-It is a real pleasure to me to welcome members of the National Federation of Post Office Clerks of the United States, their families and friends to this, your fourth annual convention. The fundamental idea of your organization is to improve the public service and to be mutually helpful to each other in the race of life; hence your organization has as its foundation principles, friendship, love and hope.

It is a great honor to be a citizen of the greatest country on the globe, a country surpassing in power, strength and grandeur the sublimest conceptions ever cherished of human government by her illustrious founders -a country where opportunity inspires every life a country where every man is a sovereign and every true woman a queen-a country wherein dwells equality and justice, and the equality of all men before the law-a country over which God spreads His brightest sunshine by day and sets His first stars on guard by night.

It is a significant mark of confidence to be engaged in the public service of such a country. Each and every one of you has run the gauntlet of the classified service. You have been recommended by reputable citizens as

men of character, intelligence and patriotism, to whom the government can with confidence entrust that part of its affairs in which you are engaged.

To maintain the efficiency of the public service should be your highest pleasure. You should continually strive to merit the approbation of both patrons and the higher officials of the postal service.

In a very important sense the postal service of the United States is the most important branch of the government service. It touches more lives, brightens more homes, brings messages, both of joy and sorrow, to more hearts than any other governmental agency. It is fundamental that the millions of messages that come from fathers and mothers, from friends and sweethearts, should be handled only by clean hands, back of which are upright lives. Every hour that you are at the post of duty the postal service is on trial.

Economy, industry and sobriety should be your cardinal virtues. Fidelity to God and country should be Honor, your religion. truth and justice should be your holy trinity that should guide you in all the affairs of life. To raise the standard of the postal service should be your highest pleasure.

On behalf of the local organization of the National Federation of Post Office Clerks I bid each and every one of you a hearty welcome. We invite you to a city whose creed is hospitality, whose crown is beauty, whose citizens are stalwart Americans who love their country, its flag and institutions founded by the most unselfish patriots in human history. This city stands like a beautiful queen, her feet resting upon the soil of the richest valley on the globe. Her civic pride is her crowning glory. Her population is neither native or foreign-born. They do not represent any section, race or creed. They are the choicest product, gathered from every State in the Union and every civilized country in the world. What is best in every part of our coun

try and in foreign lands will be found within the borders of this queenly city.

You

I am informed that the Ladies' Auxiliary of the local branch of your organization will have charge of the entertainment features of your program. This insures its success. will soon have an opportunity of listening to their bird-like voices. You will soon find yourselves floating away on the mazy reverie of their charming conversation and receiving the volts of their magnetic laughter. During the next three days you will dwell amid scenes Under of bewildering beauty and pleasure. these circumstances you cannot help but be happy. I bespeak for you the best time of your lives.

Our genial and gallant mayor is a living example of our civic pride. He is a finished product of St. Louis. He has generously tendered you the freedom of the city during your stay with us but knowing him as I do, I must be perfectly frank in telling you that he has not expressed all that is in his mind. the Should your erring feet depart from straight and narrow way, he has already provided free lodgings for you in one of our best patronized city institutions.

After what I have said about our city and its people, I am reminded that I may be inviting a world of trouble for myself. I will, no doubt, be flooded with requests from every city represented in this convention for transfers to the St. Louis post office. In order to save you both time and postage stamps, let me advise you in advance that such requests will be unavailing, for all the employes of the St. Louis post office are so well pleased with the city and with their positions that they are like the man at the revival meeting. When urged by the evangelist if he wanted to go to a better country, he replied:

"Brother,

I have lived in Kansas and contended with hot winds and grasshoppers. I am now living in Missouri and don't want to take chances on a new country." St. Louis is good enough for us.

David Kreyling, secretary of the Central Trades and Labor Union, was next introduced and in a stirring address welcomed the delegates in behalf of organized labor.

President Wackwitz of the St. Louis Local extended a welcome, speaking for the members of Local No. 8.

Chairman Yahn then called President Goltra to the chair and presented him with the gavel, after which President Goltra responded to the addresses of welcome, and declared the convention formally opened for the transaction of business.

The Chair announced the following committees:

Credentials-Wm. D. Bauer, Somerville, N. J.; Miss Gertrude Floyd, Muskogee, Okla.; J. E. Rochford, Chicago.

Legislative-Louis DeBow, San Francisco, Cal.; Jos. L. Reilly, Milwaukee, Wis.; W. H. Oetgen, Savannah, Ga.; Sam'l L. Lerner, New York City, and Alois G. Betz of St. Louis.

Resolutions-Oscar F. Nelson, Chicago, Ill.; W. C. Forrest of New York City; R. J. Beer, Louisville, Ky.; H. F. Hall, Nashville, Tenn., and Henry Schaefer of Keokuk, Ia.

Press Committee-Summer C. Calvert, John H. Yahn and Arthur L. Wackwitz.

Sergeant-at-Arms, Roy Wilkinson; assistant, Brother Koenig.

Moved by Delegate Nelson that letter from invited guests be read by the secretary. Carried.

The secretary read letters of regret from Postmaster General Hitchcock, First Assistant Postmaster General Grandfield, Congressman Finley, Hughes, Cary, Wilson (Ills.), Nichols, Goebel, McDermott, Sabath, Wilson (Pa.), and others.

Mr. Edward B. Geltra, President National Federation of Post Office Clerks, Chicago, Illinois:

My Dear Sir-Referring to your letter of the 7th instant, in which you invite me to attend the Fourth Annual Convention of the National Federation of Post Office Clerks to be held in St. Louis, Mo., on the 6th, 7th and 8th of September next, I am sorry to say that other engagements make it impossible for me to accept the invitation. Yours very truly,

F. H. HITCHCOCK, Postmaster General.

Mr. E. B. Goltra, President N. F. of P. O. Clerks,, 401 West 64th street, Chicago, Ill.: My Dear Mr. President-Your letter of the 20th inst. inviting me to be with you on the Jccasion of the Fourth Annual Convention of The National Federation of Post Office Clerks to be held in St. Louis, Mo., beginning Labor Day, Sept. 6, 1909, to hand.

I am not quite sure of my movements in the fall, but so far as I can do at this time, I accept your very kind invitation with pleasure. I count among my best friends all of the P. O. clerks. Very truly and sincerely yours,

D. E. FINLEY.

Mr. Edward B. Goltra, President National Federation of Post Office Clerks, Chicago, Ill.: My Dear Sir-I have your letter of the 7th instant, inviting me to attend the Fourth Annual Convention of the National Federation of Post Office Clerks, to be held at St. Louis, Mo., Sept. 6-8, 1909. I shall be very glad to attend the convention if designated by the Postmaster General. When the matter is definitely determined, I will advise you.

Yours very truly,

C. P. GRANDFIELD, First Assistant Postmaster General. Mr. E. B. Goltra, President. care Convention National Federation P. O. Clerks, St. Louis, Missouri:

My Dear Mr. President-I have waited until now to answer you definitely. I had invitations