Idaho semi-weekly world. (Idaho City, Boise County, Idaho Territory) 1867-1868, 1867-07-13

be at Washington to any negligence or bad
lconduct on the part of mail contractors. With
adamantine stOicisn, the Department rejects
lall complaints which do not come supported
with all the tediousness and formalities of dig
Unified and red tape circumlocution, and turns
aside with inefable disdain from any charges
which appear through the medium of newspa-
pers In its own mole-like superabundant wis
dom, the Department seems to assume that a
whole community, at a distance of three thou
sand miles from Washington, cannet and new
tr does know near so well what concerns the
coming and going, of delays, or miscarriages,
or accidents, which occur in the transmission
of the mails, in their own immediate neighbor-
hood, as that omniscient, heavy body-the De-
partment itself. AS we appreciate this for
midabie obstruction to any correction of abuses
Ipractised by mail contractors we feel that it is
almost vain to hope for any redress or relief to
the people at the hands of the Washington
magnates And yet the suferings and losses
endured by the people of idaho, by the crimi-
nal negligence and reckless violation of duty of
the Overland Mail contractors, call loudly for
remedy and redress.
For the past four or five months this portion
of the country has been almost totally deprived
of mail communication with the vast country
east of the Rocky Mountains. True, all the
time, the very rich, very influential, and very
independent Company which has the mail con-
tract, has brought across the continent very
few mailed letters, still fewer papers, almost
no magazines, but quite number of lumber
some "Pub. Docs )" which nobody cares for.
But all this amount Of mail, wonderfully small
as it was in proportion to the mail left on the
roadside or destroyed by carriers along the
line, came irregularly and usually in damaged
condition. These irregularities and losses
might be attributed to the uncommonly bad
condition of the roads, to the Interruptions and
ravages of the hostile Indians on the Plains, or
to other circumstances beyond the control Of
the contractors, were it not for some other
facts which are inseparably connected with
them. For instance, during this whole time +
the C0mpany's stages came through quite reg
ularly, and brought along passengers and Ex-
press matter This fact, of itself, ought to be
sufficient to warrant the Postmaster General
in Withholding from the contractors every dol
lar of contract money covering the whole time
in which it can be proven they held back mail,
and took forward either passengers or Express
matter, in also inficting upon them penalty
for the grieyous violation of their contract
bond, and, further, in Immediately declaring
their contract to be forfeited.
As mail carriers, Wells, Fargo & Co. ought
to be bound by precisely the same rigid arti
cles which the Department exacts from other
mail contractors. They are required to carry
the mail, let whatmay be left behind. IF Email.
and passengers, and express matter are await
ing transmission, the contractor is bound first
70 take the mail, and neither passenger nor ex-
press is to have preference over the mail. IfI
passengers, or express, or both come through /
Ind any mail is left behind, the contractors
should be mulcted for violation of their con-
ract. The Government does not pay Wells, :
Fargo d Co. to carry passengers across the j
it does not pay that wealthy and 0
powerful Company to carry their own express n
overland. 1t pays them singly and solely for 9
carrying the mail, in preference to everything ID
Use. Government does not impose the con-
ract upon them; the Company sought it, and
l.
btained it by binding themselves to faithfully
erform the service for the stipulated great !
um. Our people have been as good as cut off
rom intercourse with the other side of the J
ointment for about FIVE months, because of the b
allure of that Company to carry through the ;,
Verland mail. Passengers who have come tN
trough, during each week, in all this time, Il
mite in saying that vast piles of abandoned 4
lails were seen along the route. Not one of al
nem all ever saw an Express box or package C.
,ft over at any station, much less atwild, lone
I. desolate spots on the Plains, or at the cross
lgs of streams, where q single freshet would y
. very likely to wash the deposit away to de g
truction. as they have seen the U. s. mails
,ft. at the mercy of the elements, or subject !,
. the caprice or disposition of every wayfarer. d.
md to aggraVate this shameful wrong, word 90
ow reaches us, by the Salt Laks Tedette of
uly 9th, that /" about one hundred tons of mail
natter" which had accumulated at North Platte T
rossing, and was piled up there by the Com