New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1856-03-24

WHAT Is A Circular 7-Every now and then the
officials of the old land turtle sometimes facetiousy
called the United States Mail, get some queer kinks
and crotchets into their heads by which they contrye
to reduce the speed of the old turtle lest the people
might get accustomed to greater facilities than patient
human nature could bear In short, it does seem as
though it were study of these officials to throw all the
obstacles within their reach in the way of progress or
accommodation of those who are necessitated TO use
such facilities voHchsafed by the United States
Post Office.
For the purpose of facilitating commercial inter-
course the law reducing postage provides for sending
printed circulars at low rate Of postage that is at
one cent sheet.
circular, az generally understood by commercial
men, is little handful or advertisement which con-
tains some general information such as a merchant
might wish TO make known to his customers. For
instance John Smith deals in corn meal and having
given notice to his customers what his price
when corn was 81 bushe finds it necessary to make
a new scale of prices when corn is only sixty cents
and, therefore, to save writing host of letters, he
writes one and gets that duplicated thousand times
by the printer. We have just such document before
us, printed urcp one ptse Of note paper About this
there IS no sssSs.e between the merchant and post
Office wisdom. But 6sing to the fact that
heretofore some of his correspondents have
been charged with postage upon similar
documents which had been paid here, he caused to be
printed upon the opposite page from his advertisement
these words Postage on this circular always pre-
paid" In folding, these words come under the ad-
dress on the outside, standing out prominently az
caution to the recipient not to be imposed upon by
any postmaster who might again demand postage, as
had been done upon other circulars previously for
warded
Mark the result For these words the wisdom Of the
New York City Post Office charges postage as for
separate circular II is Of the kinks and crotchets
by which the office mpedes commercial Intercourse,
and sends the Post. Office Department begging for ap
preparations to sustain itself The truth is, it will
not allow the public to furnish it with sustsnance.
Now the question Isl What is q circular DO the
words above quoted, printed upon the same sheet
with the matter Of the advertisement, subject that
sheet to double postage If so, it is full time that
merchants knew the fact In our opinion it would be
a great deal more reasonable for the Post-Ofice ~
charge postage upon all the letter envelopes that
really do contain circnlsrs pr.ta shorcOu, ana often
in pretty extended form.
Perhaps it would be cunning device for this
bankrupt department of Government TO increase its
revenue to charging extra postage upon all
envelopes that contain any allusion to the writer's
business If that rule should be adopted, we hope
those oficious officials will not forget that all the
stamped envelopes first printed contained circular
announcing the business of the printer. Shall we
get rid of Post Office old fogysm