New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1868-12-10

payers with an eXlllDC WHICH uOcs hob sc'h !"
us promotiye of cheerfuness aud good dlges-
ton. Not content with telling them that they
must meet deficit Of over Six Millions Ill the
income of his Department for the current year,
he proceeds to advise them that large deficits
in that Department are to be regarded as the
normal and satisfactory condition, ana that
some twenty to forty years hence, when the
Post Office receipts shall have grown to Thirty
Millions per annum, the expenditure Will
doubtless have been swcllcd to Forty Millions;
so that the deficit will by that time have
reached the highly respectable average of Ten
Millions per annum.
Now, so far are we from being enrptured
10y this prospect that we refuse to acqulesce
in it. We can discern or imagine no valid
reason for taxing those who do not receive
letters and periodicals in order to carry those
missiyes at less than the fair cost of the ser
vice. Let us test the equity of the case 10y a
familiar example: In q certain township, there
are two hundred families whereof ten receive
n hundred letters and five hundred sheets Of
periodicals. per annum, while fifty more aver
age one fourth as much, another fifty one
eighth, while the residue receive no mail
matter whatever: With what justice is this
last-named class taxed in order to supply the
first with ts mail-seryico for twenty five to
fifty per cent less than COST Can any one
say'
If it were absolutely necdful that this should
be so-if mails could not be carried or post
Offices F'.t in operation without-wc might
submit TO it as we do to many Thugs which,
though indcfcnsiblc in the abstract, are yet
tolerated as inevitable. But where is the evil
dcnce that those who use the mails are UNI
willing TO pay the necessary cost Of the
seryico2 When, where and how have those
who use the mails struck against paying
their cost and insisted that part of the cost
must be imposed upon othcrsi
Onr country. we are told, is growing rapidly,
aud new settlements constantly springing up
IN remote wilds and mountain gorgcs, as yet
dc> old IF decent roads, and To which mails
are conveyed with great difficulty and at high
cost. Admit these premises, and what follows
That the man who wants letters from his son
in Ruby Valley or ut either of the Virginia
cities ought to have them brought him for three
cents each, while the balance of the cost
should be imposed on all who pay taxes7 We
do not sec it.
But the injustice is papably aggravated by
the fact that very large proportion of the
contents of the mails pay no postage whatever.
We, for example,, daily receive by mail
some two bushels of newspapers in exchange
for our own; and we pay nothing whatever
for their transmission. Why not With what
justice does the Post Office Department convey
and deliver for nothing this haystack per an
mum of mail matter while no poor widow can
receive letter from her son learning trade,
or her daughter spinning in factory, until the
postage is paidf Nay, the letter cannot start
on its journey till its transmission has been
paid for.
The case is still worse with franked letters
and documents. Speaking generally, these are
received by those best able to pay POSTAGE
while most of the documents have been printed
at the public cost. "Publc printing makes
n heavy item in our tax-bills and the matter
thus printed costs us large additional sum for
its conveyance by mail. Nay: it often loads
and chOkes the mails 80 that those who pay,
first for their newspapers, next for their trans
mission, do not receive them till they are of
little or no use. That which pays nothing OBJ
structs tho movement of that which pays until
il might rs well have been refused conveyance
altogether
1t would seem that simple exhibition of
these abuses would secure their eXtirpation
and so it would but for the circumstance that
those who profit by them are nearer the seats
of power than those whom they wrong. The
more intelligent and influential classes use the
mails largely, and are most apt to receive
documents frankcd from Washington by some
Member of Congress. The greater number arc
nc once ignorant of the wrong and imp0tent
to secure IFS redress.
Senator Ramsey of Minnesota, We rejoice to
see, has submitted bill which contemplatcs
the Abolition of Franking, 50 that letters and
from Members of Congress and
other high fuuctioparics shall pay their post
age. like others Feudal Britain decreed this |
reform years ago. and it seems high time that |
America had followed so good an !
example. OF course there will bo Gas usual |
- no timer to effect this reform yet we en-
treat Mr.. Ramsey TO press 1t at every oppor-
unity, and take care that his bill makes thor
Dugh work. So long rs any parcel whatever
shall pass through the mails without charge,
he work will be incomplete. Make ere,ything |
Day-that is the corner stone-and then let us
SEQ if IL be not possible so to reduce mail
service on Improbable routes and increase the
,eccipts OF the Department that those who use
he mails shall pay tho full cost Of running
hem. II may take years to effect this reform;
,ut that affords no reason for delaying its COM
even an hour. DO let us know ut
he earliest momen. who among our Senators