REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR I914 37 



An excerpt from the reply to this communication follows : 



From an operating standpoint there is serious objection to 

 changing the name of Relius back to Aurelius. This name was 

 changed to Relius some few years ago on account of the 

 possibility of operators, conductors and enginemen making 

 errors in the handling of train orders, the first two letters of 

 the words Auburn and Aurelius being the same. 



It is for this reason that the name of Marcellus, another good 

 old name, was changed to ]\Iartisco at the same time on account 

 of the possibility of this name being confused with Camillus. 



From the above correspondence the attitude of the New York 

 Central Railroad toward the mutilation of the place names along 

 its lines is made a matter of record. 

 Swastika. The attention of the board having been brought to the 

 establishment of a post office in Clinton county under this name, 

 subsequent to the date of the enactment of the law governing the 

 board, inquiry was made of the fourth assistant postmaster gen- 

 eral regarding the procedure in this case, and as the reply re- 

 ceived did not afford any explanation of the matter in question, a 

 communication was sent to the postmaster at " Swastika " com- 

 municating a copy of the law and advising him of the necessary 

 procedure in the change and establishment of such names, in 

 reply to which, in due course, a petition was submitted to the 

 board, signed by a considerable number of residents of Black 

 Brook, Clinton county, asking that the change of Black Brook 

 to Swastika be approved by the board. 



Decision. On the ground, first, that the term " Swastika " has 

 no appropriate association with or significance in the history or 

 geography of New York, the board disapproved the proposed 

 change and filed a copy of its disapproval with the fourth assist- 

 ant postmaster general. A subsequent communication from the 

 petitioners expressed a preference for the name " Balsamdale," 

 which was approved by the board. 



It is a matter of interesting record that the United States 

 Department of the Postmaster General has declined to recognize 

 the ruling of the board, as the post office was continued under 

 the name of Swastika. Correspondence in regard to this matter 

 was closed by a communication from the secretary of the board 

 to the county clerk of Clinton county calling his attention to the 

 fact that the name Swastika had not been established in accord- 

 ance with the requirements of the New York State statute and 

 that Balsamdale was the statutory name of the place and that the 

 citizens should be advised of the propriety of petitioning the 

 Postmaster General to substitute the legal for the illegal name. 



