POSTAL LAWS AND REGULATIONS APPLICABLE TO THE RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE Sec. 8. The head of each department is authorized to prescribe regulations, not inconsistent with law, for the government of his department, the conduct of its officers and clerks, the distribution and performance of its business, and the custody, use, and preservation of the records, papers, and property appertaining to it. 2. All regulations or amendments thereof shall be promulgated by the Postmaster General and duly entered of record in the journal. Sec. 12. To the Second Assistant Postmaster General are assigned the authorization and management of the transportation of the domestic and foreign mails by means of railroads, electric and cable cars, steamships, steamboats, mail messengers, star routes, and airplanes; the preparation of advertisement for mail lettings for the transportation of mail by steamboats, airplanes, and star routes; the preparation of orders of awards thereon and the execution of contracts accordingly; the authorization of changes in schedules on steamboat routes, star routes, and airplane routes where they are fixed by orders; the receipt and examination of reports from postmasters and others as to the performance of such service and the preparation of orders for the Postmaster General making deductions for nonperformance and imposing fines for delinquencies, the issuance of statements of amounts found upon administrative examination to be due the various companies, contractors, and others for performance of such service, and the forwarding of such statements to the General Accounting Office for payment; the authorization of payment of salaries to railway postal clerks and making allowances for their travel expenses; the distribution of pouches, sacks, and pouch locks used in the transportation of the mails; the designation and supervision of mail-bag depositories; the direction of the mail distribution and the course of the mails; the supervision of the 1 Railway Mail Service, International Postal Service (including the sea post, Navy mail, and international registry, insured, and collect-on-delivery services), Air Mail Service, and other classes of transportation mentioned above; and the general supervision of the divisions of the bureau. 4. The Division of Railway Mail Service, under the supervision of the General Superintendent, Division of Railway Mail Service, is charged with the preparation of all regulations for the government of the Railway Mail Service. * * Sec. 31. 2. Postmasters, clerks, employees, contractors, and others connected with the postal service, are subordinate to postoffice inspectors when acting within the scope of their duty and employment. But no arbitrary power is hereby conferred upon them. They are not to interfere with any officer or employee who is in the proper discharge of his duty further than to examine his methods, system, and accounts, or any complaints which may be made against him. Nor are they to interfere with the mails or the transportation thereof, except as expressly authorized by law and as permitted by the regulations. 3. Inspectors are empowered to open pouches and sacks and examine the mails therein and are authorized to enter and inspect post offices at all times. 4. Inspectors are required to exhibit as evidence of their authority the commission issued by the Postmaster General. Sec. 32. 2. Before entering upon the duties, and before they shall receive any salary, the Postmaster General, and all persons employed in the postal service, shall respectively take and subscribe before some magistrate or other competent officer authorized to administer oaths by the laws of the United States, or of any State or Territory, the following oath or affirmation. 3. The oaths required to be taken under the preceding statutes by the Postmaster General and all other officers and employees of the Post Office Department and the Postal Service are combined in the following form: I (name of appointee), having been appointed (designate office or employment), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely and without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God. I do further solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully perform all the duties required of me and abstain from everything forbidden by the laws in relation to the establishment of post offices and post roads within the United States; and that I will honestly and truly account for and pay over any money belonging to the said United States which may come into my possession or control; and I also further swear (or affirm) that I will support the Constitution of the United States. help me God. So day Sec. 33. (The) oath (of office) or affirmation (required by the act of March 5, 1874) may be taken before any officer, civil or military, holding a commission under the United States, and such officer is hereby authorized to administer and certify such oath or affirmation. * * NOTE.-* Postmasters, post-office inspectors, United States judges and district attorneys, United States commissioners, United States marshals, collectors of customs and internal revenue, and all other officers, civil or military, holding commissions under the United States, may administer the oath. Sec. 35. No officer, clerk, or employee of any executive department who is also a notary public or other officer authorized to administer oaths, shall charge or receive any fee or compensation for administering oaths of office to employees of such department required to be taken on appointment or promotion therein. * 3. Postmasters, assistant postmasters, chief clerks of the various executive departments and bureaus, or clerks designated by them for the purpose, * * * are required, empowered, and authorized, when requested, to administer oaths, required by law or otherwise, to accounts for travel or other expenses against the United States, with like force and effect as officers having a seal; for such services when so rendered, or when rendered on demand by notaries public, who at the time are also salaried officers or employees of the United States, no charge shall be made; and no fee or money paid for the services herein described shall be paid or reimbursed by the United States. * ** * * * Sec. 37. Every person employed in the Postal Service shall be subject to all penalties and forfeitures for the violation of the laws relating to such service, whether he has taken the oath of office or not. Sec. 40. No person holding an office under the Post Office Department shall accept or hold any elective office under any State, Territorial, or municipal government (including the offices of alderman, councilman, etc.), even though no compensation may attach thereto, and no such person shall accept or hold such office by appointment. 2. A person in the Postal Service may be appointed (not elected) to the office of justice of the peace, notary public, commissioner to take acknowledgment of deeds or administer oaths, or a commission in State or Territorial militia, or may accept an appointive position in a local or municipal fire department without compensation, or on a school committee, board of education, |