The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1859-06-08


| growing approximation to American ideas aud
modes of thought. The governing classes in
England. should reflect over these facts. They
suggest warning which they would do well to
profit by.
Astounding Frauds I'm the Post OAiee-Why
that Department. IL net Seif-Sustaining.
We learn by our Washington despatch that
some astounding Developments o. frauds upon
the Post Office Department have recently taken
place, which 60 far to account for the deficiency
in the revenues of that branch of the govern
ment.
1t seems that well founded suspicious exist
that system of counterfeiting the postage
stamps and Of washing off the defacing mark
from the used ones, has been practised,
and that in this way the Post Office is yearly
robbed of not less than million of dollars.
No possibility exists of checking this enor-
nous fraud. except the abolishing of the use
of stamps entirely. They are so easily counter
feited that any one man of common ingenuity
can manufacture millions of them without the
possibility of detection; and the public expe-
rience of the honesty of postmasters and Post
Office clerks, in the matter of money remittances
through the mails, leads readily to the suspicion
that many of these public officers are not whit
too honest to enter themselves into such
lucrative business as the manufacture
and sale OF surrepitious postage stamps would
be. They are the ones to sell them, and no one
can ever ascertain how many they have sold, or
how many have carried letters through the mails,
for it cannot be ascertained how many stamps
exist at any time in the hands of the people.
Then they come back to the Office on letters, are
hastily defaced, conveyed in the mails to their
destination, and delivered again to the public to
be destroyed-if, indeed, they are not cleaned
and again used.
The fact is, so great is the corruption of our
politicians, and so careless have the people be-
come as to whom they place in Office, that pub
Lie employment has become the refuge of every
kind Of rascals There are two ways through
which rascality gets into public employment.
One of these is through the political clubs and
organizations, where it lends itself to all kinds
of party services, and is rewarded with place
in some Office where it can labor for the public
profit at the public expense. The other is by the
courts of justice through which the fellow rascal
is provided with place in the penitentiary,
where he can hammer stone or do some
other labor equally at the public expense
and the public profit. Thus rascality
comes to the surface among us, and on starting
in life it is an even chance whether it will get
INTO public Office or the penitentiary.
This matter of the Post Office frauds merits
and is receiving the attention of the administra-
ton. The President will smoke the rascals out
if it is possible to do so. But owing to the
culpable negligence of Congress, and the close
affinity between many of its members and the
rascals, strikers, shoulder-hitters and whatnots,
to whom they owe their places, there is room to
doubt whether the good intentions Of Mr..
Buchanan in this respect may not be foiled
There seems to be no way to stop the plumber
ers except in stopping the use of postage
stamps altogether. Yet we must have cheap
postage and this and prepayment are insepara-
ble Recourse must be had, then, to the use of
stamped envelopes and prepayment Of letters in
money. The latter necessitates an increase of
clerks in the Post Offices, to accommodate the
public, and the former may, in slight degree,
increase the expense to the letter writer. Yet
the revenue of the Department should be
protected. Money prepayment does this, and
the use Of peculiar envelopes will also help to
do it.
By introducing water marks in the paper a
great difficulty is placed in the way of the coun
terfeiter, who then must have q paper mill in
| COLLISION with him. The adoption of any pecu-
| iarity in the manufacture Of the envelope will
also create the necessity Of employing expensive
machinery and many hands in their production
on large scale. The British postage stamps
| and stamped envelopes both have water mark
| Prussian stamped envelope has thread of silk
or linen woven into the paper in its manufac
| ture. Other plans will no doubt present them
selves to the Postmaster. General and those
familiar with the subject to protect the en-
velope and make it convenient to all classes,
which should receive attention on the part of
the government. At all events, the Postmaster
General should be prepared to present to Con-
| gress at its next session some plan for stopping
these monstrous frauds. The public will submit
to some little inconvenience to protect ITSELF and
should Mr.. Holt find a means of guarding the
revenue against the present system of plumber
ing, and Congress abolish the ridiculous and
much abused Thanking privilege we have no
doubt the Post Office will soon become a self
sustaining branch Of the government
OFFICIAL CoRRrPTIoN-WHAT ARE We COMING
To THE shameless course which the Board of
Aldermen are pursuing with reference to the
confirmation of City Inspector, is one of the
strnnpest evidences Of the hardened and unhlu sh-