New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1855-07-20

III. W.
have seec t. at through this "pIiyilerep -.
rates of postage are Kept at least City per ,s..
higher than they need be. thus entailing o. ~
classes using the mails an expense Of ora.
S2,C00,ot0a year. This is the tx that frauk..
lays on the social Intercourse, the Affections
the circulation Of intel igence aud the bus;ns,.
correspondence If the country. II il very c,,,
that the sctu@l expense, time and sala lies r.el
oned, which the Thanking privilege entail. =,
Government officers and Members of Ccngre..
is from SlO0, 900 to S20u,OOO annually. Az lon,
a. this is a mere mark to serve as A n-..
port through the mails why not, if IL !,
70 be done at all, have printing press do il, Il
could be as efectualy guarded from abuse asa
is now. Why pay extravsgant salaries TO cabinet
officers, assistant secretaries, auditors and assist
ant postmasters- general, and have then exp@nd
yalusble time in the utterly useless mechanical
labor of writing their names on the outside Of
Documents They manage all these thsr
better in England The official letters ofhs
Post Office Department have printed on the
rigbt-hsrd upper corner Of the face of the let
ter- the words "ON HER MAJEsTY's SERyIcEr
chill" Now as these franks are only sent
from London and go from the General Pcst-0fes
into the City Post-Otfice and thence by nal
bearing the London post mark. there is no more
danger Of their being counterfeited or fogea
than there would be if franked with pen.
Another great consideration too, the lower the
postage the less temptation there is to commit
A. sfal Lift Ia
War-Off;ce aud other Government Departments
have official envelopes printed IN the same
manner. All these letters, the Post-Ofics
official letters included, are rated and charged
ard paid by an appropriation out of the Treas
ury This enables the Postmaster-General to
show at a glance in his report the working Of
the entire postal system. II shows the cor.
respondence of each Government office aud
Department and what it costs. At the adoption
Of MIR. Rowland HILLS plan of penny postage in
1910, the members of both the House of Peers
and the House of Commons came forward with
singular liberalty and nanimity and gave up
the franking privilege for the good of the
public.
Let the franking privilege be abolished with
US, and let our public documents be printed
by thousands-not by hundreds of thoussads
Then let all the necessary copies be distributed
through the Government Departments aud an
account kept of the postage, or let the postage
be prepaid by stamps, and the stamps charged
to the Government or to the contingent fluid Of
one of the Houses of Congress. Let the wrap
pers Of all documents and books that are not
charged letter postage be left open at the ends
Just as they now are for private persons, thus
giving no privilege to Government and making
no distinction between Government documents
and those sent by citizens. Any one who has
lived long at Washington knows that under the
omniverous grasp Of the Thanking privilege"
articles of clothing, trinkets, huge pieces Of 10.
J0ccO, and various other things are smugglcd
through the mails as "Public Documents"
sometimes by taking one of the bound books
printed by Congress for general circulation
and cutting out n part or all of the leaves, to
admit the article TO be sent, and then wrapping
il closely and franking it. Thus child's doll,
lady's dress, pound of "sweet scented
"James River" or bundle of shirts, goes
through the mails in 81 book shape" "Congres-
siOnal" fashion When we legislate for
specific purpose, or to carry out certain plan
like that Of furnishing way to distribute Ger.
tain national information, let the Act be cor
sistent and iet the details aud administration
such a. to afford as little chance for abuses
possible, and let no privilege appear beyond
the actual nt.nt of the Act when framed.
If there is any one subject on which th.
opinion of our people may be said to be nearly
unanimous il is that Of abolishing the iranklng
privilege. The unparalleled abuse of IT, the
enormous cost to our postal system, aad the
necessity in consequence of maintaining our
present high rates of postage when they might
as well be thirty-three per cent lower, all de.
mabd that iraDkng should be swept away.
honorable members wish TO send their speeches
to their constituents let them pay the postage
in advance or let the receiver pay double; or
let such hostages be charged to contingent
fund to come out Of the Treasury. Were frank
ing abolished all letters and documents sent 9
Postmasrers or Government officers in the int.
rOr to the Government at Washington could
be forwarded without any trouble ut the once
where they are mailed. They could be stamped
with the name Ofthe POst-Offce and chargeid
prepaid rates on arriving at the seat of Govern
ment. All the details could be readily arranged,
and by the abolition Of the Thanking privilegese
should be taking step toward uniformity
our rates of postage the lack of which entails
such enormous labor and expense in the WORK
ing of our postal system.
II we are ever to have a selfsustaining Po'F
OfHce with Iow and Uniform rates of postage, n