The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-08-05
The Overland Malls.

From The Tribune.
The General Government pays $750000 per
annum for the transportation Of its mails be-
tween Kansas and California, the greater part
of this sum being expended for the carriage by
coach across the Plains from the western ter
minus of the Union Pacific Railroad to the ter
minus of the Overland Route in California.
The contract for this service is held by the
express -freighting firm of Wells, Fargo & Co.
There is manifest impropriety in allowing
any express company to take a contract for
carrying the United States mails, because there
must always be more or less competition be-
tween such private companies and the Post
Office; but recent act of Congress has aggra-
waited the mischief by providing that books,
pamphlets, newspapers, and all mailable matter
except letters, shall be charged, when sent by
the overland mail, full letter postage. That is
to say, we give the contract for transportation
to persons who have direct pecuniary inte-
rest in performing it as badly as possible, so
that we may be driven to patronize their rival
line, and then do them the additional favor OF
raising our rates so high that there can be no
possible inducement to put anything into the
mail which can be kept out of it. Letter post
age is So cents per pound: the express charge
under the laws respecting common carriers,
are liable for loss and damage, while the Post
| Office is not.
The result of this system might easily be
predicted. We are assured that only frac-
tion of the mail-bags sent west by this route
ever reach their destination, while Wells,
Fargo & Co. seldom fail to deliver their own
packages promptly. Our correspondent A.
X. M. writes in his letter published to-day
hot Of frfx Nf NI,n
him by mail he has received but two, and OF
the Times, sent semi-weekly since the 1st of
May, he has received only one number. At
some stations along the road he found tons of
mail matter piled up waiting the convenience
of the company to be transported. Sometimes
mail bags may be seen scattered along the
wayside, apparently dropped from the coaches
by accident and abandoned There has been
only one coach stopped by the Indians this
season, and yet tons of mail matter have been
lost. If the company can transport private
packages with speed and safety, it is an insult
to common sense to tell us that they cannot
do the same for the mails.
They have now got into their hands the
transportation of nearly all transient printed
matter, and more than half the letters between
California and Utah. Business men are glad
to pay the regular postage, and three times as
much in express charges additional because
there is no reasonable expectation of their cor
respondence being safely delivered otherwise.
Stamped envelopes, with Wells, Fargo & Co. IS
imprint on them, are regular articles of mer-
chandise in the far Western territories, and
will be so long as the carriers of the regular
mails are allowed every inducement to lose,
delay, and confuse them. This disgraceful
state of things is of course notorious all through
the Pacific coast and the Territories, and we
cannot suppose that it is unknown at Wash
ington. If the Postmaster General has any
excuse to offer for his culpable conduct in the
matter, and especially for his neglect to en-
force the contract with the company, and hold
them to accountability for loss and delay, we
shall be Glad to hear II -