The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1859-09-18

can continent.
Cheap Postage and Postal Reforms-How
the Post Once May Sustain Itself.
Ex-senator Cooper has been writing letter
on cheap postage, protection and the iron
mems league, which is evidently intended to
affect the Pennsylvania election. His remarks
in regard to the postal system are worthy of
consideration, and we reprint that portion of
them elsewhere. The rest of his letter is all
leather and prunella, pure electioneering talk,
that may suit the Pennsylvanians if they are as
ignorant of the truths of political economy as
the politicians suppose them to be.
There never has been such an over-worked,
under-fed and ill-appreciated beast of burden
as the United States Post Office Department is.
Between the politicians printers and public
generally, the most extraordinary demands are
made on it. The first of these load it down
with franked documents franked speeches and
franked dirty linen; the second place still
heavier load upon it in the shape of free edi-
tors mail, consisting, on an average, of fifty
papers daily for each of the five thousand
newspapers, amounting to thousands of tons
yearly; and then both join in preaching to the
public that the Post Office should be self
sustaining institution. Ex-senator Cooper gives
up the latter point, and there is where he is
wrong.
There is no reason why the Post Office should
not sustain itself if the work laid upon it be
imposed with any degree of common sense.
But to insist that three-fourths of the matter
that forms the bulk of the mails shall be car
ried for nothing because it belongs to politi-
clans and editors, and then to abuse the Post
master General because he has deficit in his
accounts at the end of each year, is pure and
simple absurdity. Mr.. Holt is doing what he
can to improve this state of things and to Sc
cure the revenue, for which he receives due
credit from Mr.. Cooper For this purpose he
is now endeavoring to meet the popular desire
for cheap postage by every means in his power.
He has introduced several economical reforms
in the stamped envelope which are productive
of good, and aspires to do still more. We are
not certain that he can accomplish this until
the government makes its own envelope and
sells it to the people at or very near the cost of
postage Under the present system the old
stamps are reused and probably counterfeit
ed, and the stamped envelope costs four cents
instead of three, unless parties buy twenty-five
envelopes, when they get them at the price
the law directs, that is, the postage and the
prime cost of the envelope.
But the great reforms that Mr.. Holt should
endcavor to achieve are thcse:-First, the abo-
lition Of the franking privilege; second, the
cutting off of the present incubus Of free ex-
changes between newspapers; third, throwing
tho carriage Of newspapers and printed matter
open to the common carriers, at the option of
the senders. The first of these reforms would
take great load of the overworked depart
ment, and the second would relieve it from a
still heavier burthen. Politicians and editors
might cry out against it, but the great mass of
the people would approve the act There is no
more reason why an editor should receive his
papers free than merchant or a mechanic. or
a farmer. The third step has been partially
taken, in the permission granted to contractors
to carry newspapers for regular dealers out of
the mails. But why dealer should have any
advantage over a subscriber we could never
conceive If the sending of newspapers through
the mail was optional with the sender or re-
ceiver, and every paper that was carried had
to pay postage, the mails would go great
deal lighter, would travel with more certainty,
and the revenue would be increased Will Mr..
Holt, in the annual report he is about to pre-
pare on his department, give us some sensible
views on this subject and recommend these re-
forms? If they are adopted the Post Office
will soon become selfsustaining institution
HE SPEAKERSHIP OF THE NEXT House OF
REPREsENTATrvEs.-The question of the organi-
cation of the next House of Representatives is
beginning to attract the attention of the news
papers all through the country. The discus
sion hinges particularly on the adoption or
non-adoption of the plurality rule in the cleo
ton of Speaker. 1t seems to us, however, that
the matter is not fully understood and it GER
tainly is not clearly stated, in the country pa
pers. AS it is Of the highest Importance that
there should be no mistake about this matter,
we desire to present it in the clearest light.
1t appears to be conceded on every side that
the political parties will stand in the next
House of Representatives in the following pro-
portions
nepuon.uns lib
Anti Lccompton democrats. Observation-Disclosures. IL
Southern opposition Observation-Disclosures. 81
Total. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. 237
In full vote of the body it would therefore
require one hundred and nineteen to consti-
tutc majority. Can either Of the two great
parties calculate upon having such Majority
Certainly not, except in two contingencies
The one is, that enough votes may be got from
one or both of the two factions, the anti-Le-
comptonites and the Southern opposition, to
give prcpondcrance to either the democrats
or the republicans. The other is, that either