In last year’s report, attention was directed to the desirability of authorizing the appointment of clerks and carriers at higher salaries than $600 at offices where unusual conditions prevail. Congress added to the appropriation for unusual conditions a proviso that may have been intended to meet the recommendation of the department, but subsequent experience has shown that it fails to do so. The proviso referred to has effected so great a reduction in the amount available for salaries of employees at offices where conditions are unusual that the service at a number of such offices cannot be maintained after the close of the present calendar year, unless additional funds are provided by Congress. The same law placed a restriction on the maximum salary allowable, making it impossible for the department to meet satisfactorily the unusual conditions existing in certain parts of the country. In order that the needed relief may be afforded legislation substantially as follows should be enacted: Whenever a postmaster certifies to the department that, owing to unusual conditions in his community, he is unable to secure the services of efficient employees at the initial salary provided for postoffice clerks and letter carriers, _the Postmaster General may authorize, in his discretion_, the appointment of clerks and letter carriers for that office at such higher rates of compensation within the grades prescribed by law as may be necessary in order to insure a proper conduct of the postal business, and their salaries shall be paid out of the regular appropriation for compensation of clerks and letter carriers: _Provided_, That whenever such action is necessary in order to maintain adequate service at any postoffice where conditions are unusual _the Postmaster General may authorize the appointment of clerks and letter carriers at salaries higher than $1,200_, their salaries to be paid out of the appropriation for unusual conditions at postoffices. (Page 30, 1910 Report.) I wonder what our Postmaster General is after in asking _re-enactment_ of legislation of this sort, legislation granting him _censorial powers_ without so much as _intimating_ that fact. Maybe some of you organized labor men, or mercantile tradesmen can tell me. I am listening. _So are others._ By the act approved May 27, 1908, making appropriations for the service of the Postoffice Department, it was provided: That Section 3893 of the Revised Statutes of the United States be amended by adding thereto the following: And the term “indecent” within the intendment of this section shall include _matter of a character tending to incite arson, murder, or assassination_.