Daily Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1860-1862, 1861-09-22
From the Montgomery (Als Msill
The Post Once DePartmenf-Penay
" lse and Pound Foolish.

Wise and Pound Foolish.
Under a supposed sense of public duty
we have been silent concerning many things
connected with the operations of the Confed
crate Government, which have seemed to US
to be fragrant abuses. OF ineXeusable failures
on the part of the heads of the Cabinet
Departments to perform their reasonable du-
ties.
Hence. we have till now patiently and ST.
len,iy submitted to everything aud com
planned of noihing. Bnt our endurance is
gone. our patti. nee ia worn out. and our mind
has reached the point where ''gravitatica
shifting, turns the other way
Whoever may be at fault, or whatever
may be the cause. We know not. bnt IL is a
palpabIe fact that our post Office affairs. ope-
rate badly. Making every reasonable allow
ance for unavoidable embarrassmtnts, we are
bound to believe that some parts of the man
agement of Postmaster Reagan are inexcusa-
BILE upon any plea of necessity, and he is
therefore, responsible TO the public for the
evil consequences, aud the public injury
which his mistaken policy or Encouragement
has occasioDed.
We. and the public complain generally
that though the rates of postage have been
very cons derably raised, yet the regularity
and certainty aud extent of the transm'-
siou aud safe delivery Of mail matter. has
been greatly diminished. The delays aud loss
of letters have become so common that the
public ia fast loosing confidence in II. We
ourselves know that letters within the past
two months have been mailed to our address
here, which we have never received. The
same ia true of letters written by us to our
friends. Our patrons almost daily, and from
every direction, complain TO ia that they do
not get the papers regularly, and many Of
them not at all, which we regularly address
TO them through the post Office
We do not make specific charges against
any one particularly, because we believe tn"
evils complained of result from defects and
inefiicieucy in the rystem generally.
But We do complain Of aud protest against
certain regulations of the department en-
forced by the orders Of Postmaster Reagan.
The circulation OF newspapers IL on. OF
the greatest sources of postal revenue.
Hence. any postal regulation which em5ar-
RAISES or diminisbes the business and the cir
culatiop of newspapers. affects injuriUusly
the revenue OF ibe department
II must aipo be admitted that the people
look mainly To the newspapers FIR the in
formation. without which, the public mind
would sink into u state oil apathy and indif-
ference injurious to the public welfare, and
dangerous to the safety OF "A free government I.
And the press publishes a vast amount Of
matter free of charge. which it Is greatly TO
the advantage of all the d partments OF the
government that the public should see. Ii
is therefore, no more than just and wise that
the government should rather encourage
than embarrass the business and circulation
of newspapers.
The patrons of the government post Offices
in the cities and towns, pay the partment
for the use of Office boxes, through which
they receive their post matter. Heretofore
it has been the custom of the publishers of
city papers to furnish their patrons, who
desired it, their papers through their boxes
in the post Office. THUS they got their mail
matter altogether with little trouble to the
city post master. But under late orders of
Postmaster Reagan, papers thus deposited in
the city post Office are taxed with full rates
OF postage, which must be paid in advance.
This order has the effect to keep the city
papers out of the post Office, aud deprives
the patrons of the privilege of receiving
their papers through the boxes, for the use of
which they have paid fair price. AS they
cannot thus get their papers through the
boxes some of them will give them up, and
thus the rent is lost, and the assistant post
master put to the trouble of general deliv-
ery of matter which bad been obtained from
the boxes.
The department will lose money by de-
manding full postage rates on papers deliv-
cred through the post office. Besides, it is
unjust and discourteOus to demand these
rates from the patrons of the post office, who
have paid for boxes.
1t has been profitable BUSINESS to pub
fishers and newsboys to sell daily papers On
the cars. Papers thus circulated could pa Y
a reasonable postage. But the rule has been
to exact from papers thus sold the transient
rates of postage in advance, whether the pa
pers were all sold or not. These transient
rates are about equal to the publishers
prices of the papers thus distributed. Of
course such exhorbitant eXactons diminish
this branch of the newspaper business, and
thus deprive the people of the privilege of
getting the news, and is a positive loss 10
the newspaper business and the post Office
treaury.
The post Office also collects the same rates
of postage on each sheet Of daily paper as
on a weekly sheet. This rule loads daily pa
pers with a government tariff, equal in some
instances to the publishers price of the pa
pers. Of course these exhorbitant rates OF
postage exacted in advance, have the tenden-
CIV to suppress the circulation of daily pa
pers, and thus injure the business of publish
ers, and deprive the public of the best sour
ces of information, as we'll as to lessen the
revenues of the department.
But we could better submit to these ad
vanced rates and exhorbitant tariffs on our
labor aud business, if the department per-
formed faithfully its engagements to carry
and deliver packages safely and promptly to
their patrons.
Since the foregoing article was written
we have seen in the Richmond Examiner, OF
the 10th, an article on the same subject,
from which we make the following extract:
The public are aware that in all countries
in the civilized world, except the Confede-
rate States, newspapers in the mass, in
tended for general sale, are transmitted as
freight on the railroad, without any post
age tax. If the finances OF the Confederacy
were on their last legs, it might be excused
to this extraordinary circumstance, that
tax should be levied upon their Transmission
on the railroads, though this is done at no
cost at all to the government. But when the
post Office department d-mands the whole
price and cost of the newspaper as a mere
gratuity demands as much Tor allowing the
railroads to transmit them at their own cost,
as any large printing establishment, conduc-
ted at great cost, receives for their manu-
facture, the folly of the thing, not to call it
an outrage, appears as mOnstrous and dis
graceful as to inspire feeling of profound
contempt tor The department, which propOs-
ed and enforces the measure. 1t is bad enough
that the governments great Office of intelli
geace should seem to devote It's faculties to
the suppression of information but when it
assumes to demand the whole cost of q news
paper-the leading and most costly agency
of intelligence--in gratuity, for merely al
lowing the railroads TO carry il at their own
expense its DISQUALIFICATION 10 melancholy.
From the Richmond Wing.