The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1859-06-22
The Post Ofiee ID, ncieocy and the Remedy
DIR Hoits OfhciOus Defamers.

The Post Once ID. efficiency and the Remedy
Mr.. Hoit's Ofncious Def.mers.
The deficit IL the Post Office Department at
the end of the last fiscal year was estimated at
about six millions OF dollars.
When we revealed some time since, the sus
p'con entertained at Washington that q part o.
this deficiency arose from the use of counterfeit
and rewashed postage stamps, the fact brought
upon us abuse instead of stimuli ting investga-
ton, as it should have DONE Subsequently, the
report of the Postmaster General on the case of
Postmaster Westcott turned up, giving Official
testimony of the existence Of thieves il one OF
the large Post Offices. The course pursued by
the bead of the department, as exhibited 10 his
official report, was not such as was best catcu
lated to purge the department Of its wrong
doers. We said nothing about the case uatil it
was decided, aud the Postmaster Generals
statement was published. We then took it into
consideration as the public act Of public
officer, and commented on it, not as it affected
Mr.. Westcott, but as it affected the public ser
vice. For this another Of the smiling journals
that feed on government pap wines at US, and
accuses liz Of personal and improper motives.
We dismiss the abuse of the smiling journals
with the contempt it merits As to our COM
menting on these subjects, they would do we'll
to remember that they are matters which belong
to the public, aud that in endeavoring to hide
official abuses they do no service to the country,
and infict positive injury on the party they
claim to support Let us now look at the facts
as they state them.
II is asserted in behalf of Mr.. Holt that we
immediate one hundred men; that not twenty OF
these had an opportunity to steal; that only
seventeen dollars out Of sixty dollars daily re-
| ceipts were stolen during one quarter; that Mr..
| Westcott established such system of checks
| ona accountability after this quarter that no
! fifty cents day could De apsaraovoa
tection and that the same men remain in Office
now, excepting always Mr.. Westcott, who was
discharged by the Postmaster General. The pc
culiar logic of this array OF facts we leave to
the benefit Of the Philadelphia lawyers. Their
setting forth, we trust will do Mr.. Holt much
good. But we cannot escape the conviction,
that in dischargiDg the Postmaster who wished
to punish the thieves, and keeping these in the
public service, the Postmaster General has CON-
mitted grave mistake. A bold and resolute
public officer if he could have brought the GER
tainty down to twenty subordinates and the
Postmaster as wrong doors, would have dismiss
ed the whole twenty.one, and the energetic act
would have had a sautary effect in every branch
Of bis department.
The defender Of the postage stamps shows less
logic and more ignorance than the advocate of
the Postmaster General. He tells us that the
stamp combines the most perfect projections
known to modern art; that the first artists in the
country make the original dies; that the paper
has nice adjustment of weight, density sizing,
callendering and absorbing qualities; that the
simple item Of gum alone has caused much ear
nest inquiry and repeated experiments; that the
durable and Aeeting natures of the ink have each
special object; that the machines for perforat-
ing are superior improvements; and that Sin
short all the obstacles to the successful couater-
felt of bank note are to be found in the stamp,
in connection with others Of equal and novel i'm.
portance."
This nice array of points, set up like bricks
on end, are all tumbied over by their author
himself, with that last Gin short" 1t is pre-
cisely because bank notes in this country are
manufactured by the same system used in
manufacturing the postage stamp, that
tbrceiourths Of all our banks have
had their notes countcrfeted. What one
ergraver can do another can copy; the very com.
binatons for the protection of the stamp assist
the counterfeiter, az was proved by the investi-
cations OF the Bank Of England, when it long
since abandoned the system pursued in this coun-
Try in making bank notes and postage stamps;
all the designs on the stamps can be separately
procured and combined by the counterfciter, and
The machine work ON them can be copied as
easily and as cheaply as that Of brass button,
while both can be avoided By the more perfect
and economical process Of electrotyping All the
talk about the condition of the paper and the
quality Of the gum are used merely to throw
mystery about simple operations. When the
postage stamp is printed all over on one side,
and gummed all over on the other, nobody OBJ
serves its weight, density, sizing, callendering
and absorbing qualities, and shilling's worth
ofburnt starch will gum million stamps. The
other equally novel and important obstacles ex-
ist only among the cobwebs Of the brain of some
pappaid writer or contractor. Thc whole truth
is that our process OF making bank notes aal
postage stamps is wrong, for they are engraved
by process by which they can be combined and
multiplied as easily as the setting up Of type and
which assists rather than retards the operations
OF the counterfeiter.
Our revelations in this matter have been con.
tradictcd; but we know that in the Post Office
Department OF Washington grave doubts as to
the truth Of the contradictions arc entertained.