The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1873-07-19
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER.
WASHINGTON, D. c.. July u. |!

Last spring when President Grants
inaugural address was given to the
public the opposition press could find
SO little in it to criticise that they
made the most of a few points. Among
other things they held up to ridicule
his remarks with regard to arbitra-
ton between nations, and INDUCED
in many sarcastic remarks about his
"steam- electric millennium" A vote
taken in the British House of Com
mons the other day indicates that
that body does not consider the idea
such a preposterous one, and shows
that our Chief Magistrate has a re-
markable appreciation of the mean
ing of events. Mr.. Henry Richard,
Secretary of the London Peace Society,
moved that it is the opinion of the
House that her Majesty's Government
should communicate with foreign
powers with the view of establishing
arbitration as a permanent resort for
the settlement of differences between
nations. In q speech supporting the
motion he stated that the fear of war
kept four millions of men in arms in
Europe, entailing an annual expense
of So, 100000. A vote resulted
in a tie; the speaker gave the casting
vote in the affirmative, and the reso-
luton was adopted. This endorse
ment of his ideas from so eminent a
source must be highly gratifying to
President Grant.
Some questions have come up in the
various departments since the aboli-
ton of the franking privilege indicat-
ing that our new postal laws do not
work as smoothly as they might. For
instance, suppose person in Iowa
writes to the Secretary of the Treas
ury making inquiries with regard to
official business. If he does not affix
sufficient stamps to prepay the post
age the postmaster there forwards it,
charging the deficit to the postmaster
in Washington. When the letter
reaches Washington the Secretary of
the Treasury has no appropriation
for paying deficient postage, so he
can not receive it, and it goes to the
Dead Letter Office.
Another feature of the new law
which has given rise to much COM
plant is that which prevents the free
exchange of newspapers. This is felt
particularly by the papers in the
smaller cities and towns, and they
will no doubt very generally urge a
of the laws in this re-
spect. The dissemination of informa-
ton among the people is of vital i'm
portancc and it would seem only nat
ural for our government to encourage
it.
It seems like n mere matter of form,
and expensive, to require
all the other departments to buy their
postage stamps of the Post. office
Department, for, of course, it is only
transferring money from one depart
ment to another. The sending out Of
reports from one department is an
to that department, but is a
source of income to the Post-otfice
one balances the other. The object
of the present law is to prevent the
abuse of the official frank, which did
occur under the old law, though not
frequently. The stamps, of course,
must be accounted for and can not
be SO easily used dishonesty; SO that,
though there is some additional ex-
pense involved, such as printing of
the stamps, the extra labor of apply
ing them and of weighing the pack
ages, yet, on the whole, this branch
If the new law is not so Objectionable
IS some others.
Whether or not the evidence of Mr..
John T. Drew will have the effect of
making any more clear to the public
mind the case of ex-Vice President
1olfax, do not know. The fact that
le has recently stated that he knew
'omething about the $1,000 check
payable to rs. c. OF bearer" which
vas produced in evidence before
Judge Poland's committee, has been
'retty generally published. At the
isk of repeating what the reader has
cad n1cnvhoro r mill h,;oQ- tl !