The limitations upon the Postmaster General's power to promote men in accordance with the advice tendered him by his official advisers by no means is confined to the cases of promotion among the rank and file. For instance, it was established by the testimony given before the Tweedmouth Committee, that the Postmaster cannot freely promote, to offices of more importance, postmasters who show that they have more ability than is required to administer the offices over which they happen to preside. For if a postmaster proves to be not equal to the demands of his office, the Postmaster General cannot always remove him to a smaller office, promoting at the same time the more able man who happens to be in charge of the smaller office. The Department tries to meet the situation by sending to the aid of the relatively incompetent postmaster "a smart chief clerk," taking care, however, that the inefficient postmaster shall receive less than the full salary to which the volume of business of the office would entitle him. If that expedient fails, the Department will transfer the postmaster. Mr. Uren, postmaster at Maidstone, and President of the Postmasters' Association, even asserted that nothing short of misconduct would lead to the transfer of a postmaster.[302] It should be added, however, that Mr. Uren's testimony related to the small and medium sized places only, not to the larger cities.[303] It must not be inferred, however, that the postmasters of the small and medium sized places appeared before the Tweedmouth Committee to demand unrestricted promotion by merit. On the contrary, with the great bulk of the public service of all descriptions,[304] they held that promotion is "slow and uncertain" and that the system of promotion by merit "is thoroughly uncertain in its practical working." They protested also against the uncertainty and inequality inseparable from the system of making postmasters' salaries dependent upon the volume of business done by the several and individual Post Offices. They held that no postmaster should be made to suffer by reason of the fact that he happened to be stationed in a town or city that was not growing, or was not growing so rapidly as were other cities. By way of relief from the foregoing "uncertainties" and "inequalities" they demanded a reorganization of the postal service which should secure to the postmasters regular annual increments of pay, and should "regularize" promotion.[305] [Sidenote: _Rank and File Oppose Promotion by Merit_]