Daily national Democrat., 1860-01-28
Overland Mail.

OF the great Overland Mail, the Postmas
ter General says:
The service npon this extended route has been
performed with great regularity, and generally
within scbrdule,time; but the Contract has proved
one of the heaviest burdens to which the depart
ment has ever been subjected. With an expendl-
ture at the rate of 100000 per annum, the post
AGE received in return has not amounted to more
than az ,294, so that after making allowance for
such increase as may be anticipated, the depart
ment at the expiration of the six years for which
the contract was entered into will have lost from
this route alone, more than three millions Of dol
lars. Feeling anxious to relieve, in some degree
the postal revenues from this exhaustlug drain,
proposed q reduction of the semi-weekly to
weekly service, which would have resulted in an
annual saving as compared with the present out
lay, of $4,000. On referring the question,
however, to the Attorney General, he determined
ing the Postmaster General revisory power over
all mail contracts, having been omitted IN this,
the desired curtailment could not be legally made
The whole matter being thus placed beyond the
control of the department, the action ct Congress
alone is capable Of furnishing the remedy if de-
sired-and / cannot too earnestly recommend its
early aud decided interpusiton.
If no compromise can be effected with the par
! ties upon terms deemed reasonable, then would
urge, an act of simple justice, that this glgan-
tic service, which was established at the instance
of Congress and in furtherance Of great national
objects, shall at once be charged upon the public
treasury. Until q railroad shall have been con-
structed acruss the continent, the conveyance OF
the Pacific mails, overland must be regarded as
impractlcable. These mails, as dispatched semi
monthly, average ten tons in weight, which, II
divided into semi weekly departures, would give
two aud half tons for each, thus requiring, in
view of the condition of the road, ten coaches,
instead of the single one now employed, aud cost
ing, at the present rate of compensation, six mil
lions of dullaas per annnm, Tor transportation
alone, with product OF 1927 ,202 SO.
The route has now been opened. and its availa-
bility fur light mail demonstrated, that should
war occur with any maritime power, threatening
embarrassment to our ocean mails for the Pacific,
the service could, without delay, be re-establsh-
ed on its present basis.
The policy of reducing the semi weekly
service of the Overland Mail to n weekly, as
urged by the Postmaster General, is a very
poor one. He urges it on the score Of econo.
my, but even that ground is not tenable, for
at the ratio of increase of transportation by
the Overland Mail during the last twelve
months, it will not be more than two or three
years before the transportation of the mails
over the plains will more than balance against
the OUTLAWS of the Department BY proper
encouragement Of the overland service, the
great bulk of the mail matter destined to and
from the Atlantic States will traverse the
Plains. 1t goes and comes quicker, and with
full us much certainty as 10y the steamers.
The Postmaster General proposes, if Con-
gress refuse to make the service weekly
instead of a semi weekly one, that the ex-
pense be charged to the common treasury of
the nation, instead of to the Post Office De-
partment We have no objection to this and
California will have no objection it. Keep
up the service, and it is quite certain that
the expense viii be in few years no charge
to the Government, either from one fund or
another, for it will pay for itself
The semi.weekly Overland Mail should be
continued, at all hazards, even if the ocean
mails should be discarded altogether The
money expended upon the ocean mails would
gsve us daily mail from the Atlantic States
with the regularity of clock work, and if any
changes are to be made, let them be in favor
of the Overland Mail in preference to the
ocean transit. A railroad mail will super
| sede both.