The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1856-01-05
TAe Postmaster Generals Eseport.

this time, when there is SO much said on the
subject Of postal improvements. The Post Of
fee department, in one respect, keeps pace
with the business affairs Of the country, and
that is, in its expenses. The revenue does not
seem to be in satisfactory state. Mr.. Camp
bell vouchsafes few words on the subject Of
"franking'- hydra in the path of the pos
tai Hercules--that Sebastopol in his Crimean
campaign. The surgeons knife, Mr.. Campbell
cut it clean off; poulticing will not effect a
cure; the disease is radical. In speaking of
the noble manner in which members of both
houses Of the British Parliament came forward
and gave up the ranking privilege in 1s4O,
the Postmaster General commits one great
mistake. He says petitions to Parliament
and Parliamentary documents were allowed to
60 free" This lie not 80; Parliamentary docu-
ments are allowed in the mails on the same
terms as all other mail matter-by payment of
postage-nothing being allowed free in the
mails except petitions to Parliament The
Queen of England cannot send or receive
note free of postage, while our members of Con-
gress frank and send anything and everything
they please, for nine months before their term
of Office commences, and six months after it
has closed
We need not 60 through the various items
in the report, as they have, ere this, been read
by all interested; but there is oAe part of this
document that concerns New York very large
ly, and when We say New York, we include, of
course, the entire commercial interests of the
country. The Postmaster General seems parti
cularly anxious that Congress should withdraw
the extra compensation to the Collins line Of
steamers Every merchant and every
consumer in the United States is interested in
the correspondence between this country and
Europe, and it would be much more in &C
cordance with the dignity of Mr.. Campbell's
office to have something to say about more fire.
quent mail service across the Atlantic, than to
step out of his place to advise Congress on a
financial matter that does not come under his
jurisdiction. The government owes the Post
Office about two million dollars more for
ranked correspondence and documents (esti-
mated amount annually $2,500,00O than it
pays. When this is paid there is a balance of
few hundred thousand dollars, and this is
caused solely by the immense amount of
extra labor attendant on our various rates
of postage, and the absence Of that sim
plicity which forms SO prominent q feature
in Mr.. Rowland Hills postal system Were
these added to the income Of the Post Office
the vast increase that we should at once have
were our rates of postage simpli6ed, and if all
the matter that now goes free were paid for,
instead of there being this doleiul financial
picture, our Post Office would be aa prosperous
a concern as we have in the country. Here is
q solemn lecture and a long face made over
pretended deficit in department. that per-
forms all the government transportation of
documents, while only about one-fourth Of it
paid for; and if the postal service is worth
anything to the country, it is worth millions
more than it COSTS
The Recommendation to Congress to double
he rates of postage on all regular newspapers
and periodicals, comes with rather bad grace
from Postmaster General who has not the
courage to advise discontinuance of frank
ing--a loading Of the mails with thousands of
tons of documents and speeches, four
ffths Of which are of no sort of benefit to any
human being Perhaps Judge Campbell owes
the newspaper press some grudge. He calls
the low postage rates in the act Of August,
1852, O especial privilege" to particular
class" What "class" can that be? OF course
the class that takes newspapers and periodi-
calls. pretty large class, certainly. He
cannot for moment imagine that low post
ages is boon conferred on the publishers.
This postage tax comes out Of readers, not pub
fishers. Then how inadequate to meet what he
calls the deficit Of two millions and half.
The entire amount of postage for printed mat
ter amounts to less than 500, 900, and not over
100000 or $450,O00 of this is on regular pa
pers. Double the postage on these, and in
stead Of doubling the income, the papers would
be taken through expresses and news dealers,
and it is doubtful if there would be as much
newspaper postage collected as is now. If
there were an actual gain of 100000 squeezed
out Of every class Of hard working people
who live at distance from the large cities
and who generally take but one, or at most
two papers, what mere drop in the bucket
this is as compared to the enormous amount of
about two million dollars for ranking, which
is now saddled on the Post Office. The Post
master UeneTuls wishes CANNOT DC met IN
this matter Of raising the postage, unless he
makes out better case than he has done this
year.
We have the important statement that the
Collins line Of steamers last year brought in
in hostages, Si54,6sl, being $l96,777 more
than the year previous. This is very
strong evidence Of the value of the SER
vices Of these magnificent steamers. We arc
told that the ocean hostages on the lines be-
tween New York and Boston and Liverpool, is
600 less the last fiscal year than the year
before. This was to have been expected in a
Withdrawal of portion Of the Cunard steam
ers, leaving only weekly packets instead of