Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-02-03
WORCESTER.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY a. 1871.

The FRANKINe ABUsE.-There have beer
many strong arguments made in favor Of abol
ishing the franking privilege, but none stronger
than that offered by Postmaster General Ores
we'll in the figures lately submitted TO congress.
D ring the six months ending June 30, 1870,
there were transmitted 1O,S94,49I franked let
ters which, had postage been collected, would
bave yielded $685. 70. Add to this printed
matter during the same period transmitted un-
der frank, 2655, 1876 pounds, postage 1888 59S.S6,
aud we have total Of 81, 271 ,663 IS postage
paid by public tax. This for six months; for
the year 1870, S2543, 32770. From this 1t APP
pears that il costs the people S96S, 1927 20 more
for the postage Of congressman than for their
salaries.-Utied Herald, Jan. 2Srd.
This statement of the case is not creditable to
so good journal as the Utica Herald So far
as "the postage of congressman" is concerned,
IL Is very grave Misrepresentation. If the
editor of the Herald will investigate the matter
carefully, be will discover that about seven
eiEhths of the franked letters that passed
through the mails, were sent and received, not
by congressman, but by the heads of depart
ments and their subordinates, and that the cor
respondence related wholly to business of the
government. The government must, in any
case, pay postage on such letters, either by
having money appropriated from the treasury
for the purpose, or by carrying them free in the
mails. So far as weight, land, consequently,
POSTAGE, is concerned, half the franked letters
are sent or received by the treasury and post
Office departments.
A large portion of the printed matter sent free
by mail, goes from the departments. That sent
by congressman, is sent by order of the house or
senate, and the privilege" of sending it is very
far from being costly luxury TO a few as
the editor of the Utica Herald will learn from
experience, before the close of the next con-
gress. The document business" is a nuisance
that ought to be suppressed; and, by suppress
ing it, twenty times as much money would be
saved to the government as can be saved by
merely abolishing the franKing privilege. Con-
gressmen have no personal interest whatever in
the sending of franked "printed matter in the
shape of puDlic documents; it yields them no
benefit and brings them nothing but annoyance,
loss of time and the privilege" of hiring clerks
to prepare their documents for the mails, and
paving for this service out of their own pockets.
We do not oppose abolishng the franking
privilege; but we do oppose and denounce the
attempt to have it abolished by means of false
pretenses. The matter is falsely represented by
those who talk as if all the ranking were done
by congressman, while it is true, that postage on
all the franked letters of both houses, for year.
would not amount to one-third (perhaps not
one quarter), of that on the correspondence of
either the treasury the post office department.
Congressman do not average ten franked letters
each per day; if the statements of the Utica Her.
aid he mo, ha OH
letters for each OF the 865 DAYS in the year.
This needs only to be stated to show its absurdi-
~. The truth is, the postmaster general him
self had not taken pains to understand the mat
ter, when he began his talk against the franking
privilege; and his Misrepresentation have mis-
led others. In his report made in December
1859, be stated that the government would save
more than five million dollars" year, by abol-
ishing the franking privilege Now he thinks
that posta.e on all the franked matter, of every
description, would amount to about two and
half millions annually; but he omits to point
out that most of this franked matter is govern
ment business, and must, under any circum-
stances, 20 free, or be paid by the government
1t may be wise to abolish he ranking priv
lege, because it is liable to abuse There are
always few members of congress who misuse
it. Most OF their legitimate franklng relates TO
the public business. They correspond with
their constituents; but some members do more
than this They use the frank to circulate
prospectuses, medical circulars, and the like
Not many do this 1t may be, however, that the
most effective method OF preventing these abuses
is to abolish franking altogether, so far as the
two houses of congress are concerned. Ii this
method is not adopted, we hope some other will
BE- tried At any rate, let congress suppress the
document business as soon as possible. Sup
press it, and vast amount of money will be
saved to the government, which is now wasted,
annually, in paying for the manufacture Of
something like thousand tons of documents,
most of which the government should not nm
dertake to circulate.