The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-01-29

leGo-A Little BILL bat Great he-
form.
An agreeable surprise has been given the
country by the House of Representatives in
the passage of the bill. as it came from the
Senate. abolishing the franking privilege.
whereby only the Presidents signature is
needed to make this repeal o law of the land.
As no doubt is entertained Of the President
approval of the measure the bill may be con-
sidered law. 1t is brief. but to the purpose
It provides that from and after the LIST OF July
next s.an official correspondence, of whatso-
ever nature, and all other mailable matter
(public documents, 10. sent OF by members
of CONGRESS. &c.), shall be chargeable with the
same rates of postage as may be lawfully i'm
posed upon like matter sent by or addressed
to other PERSONS In other words, the cor
respondence of members of the Cabinet and
| of Congress and other federal officials, and
| the public documents Of all descriptions, and
garden seeds and books, photographs, hand
kerchiefs, gloves, ''old clo'," &C.. &C., now
sent free under Congressional or Executive
department or bureau franks from Washing
ton to all parts of the country shall, from and
after the LIST of July next, pay the usual rates
of postage for such letters. pub. docs" or
other mail matter, without distinction of
official position, race, place or previous con-
dition of servitude.
| To Postmaster General Creswell, we be-
lieve. more than to any other man. belongs
the honor of this important measure of re-
form. From the beginning of General
Grants administration-of course with the
hearty support of the President-he has fought
for that measure with persistency and ear
nestness which would admit of ''no such
word as fail" though from year to year baf-
fed, disappointed and defeated. But his per-
severance and his arguments have at last car
ried the day, and very unexpectedly, too. The
bill which now awaits the signature of the
President passed the House last week and was
sent to the Senate to be killed. Anxious, how
ever, to divert the attention of the country
from the Credit Mobilier scandal, the Senate
not only took it up in earnest but added de-
sirable amendments and sent it back to the
House. Thus the representatives Of the people
were forced to act on the measure. But let
us, still remembering in such cases the good
example Of Sancho PAnza, ''bid God bless the
giver, nor look the gift horse in the mouth. :"
| The Postmaster General, from time to
time, has shown that the actual loss
to his Department from franked letters
and documents has ranged from two to
three millions of dollars year. For the
Presidential canvass of 1872, if all the franked
letters and campaign documents sent out from
Washington and other points on both sides
had paid the usual postage charges it is
probable that there would have been saving
of at least four millions of dollars to the De-
partment. From May and June to the Greeley
and Brown explosion of October the mails
from Washington for the East, the West the
North and South were encountered with tons
of electioneering rubbish. Special Congress
sional committees were kept industriously
employed for months in preparing pamphlets
and speeches exhibiting the virtues of the
administration and the vices of the opposition
elements, and, on the other hand, the corrtp-
ton of the party in power and the millennium
which would be inaugurated with the cleansing
Of the Augean stables under Greeley and Brown.
And scores of folders were employed in the
packing up of all this political chaff and dozens
of clerks in addressing and frankng it under
this OF that or the other Congressman's per-
mission or Instructions; and all this
mass of perilous and scurrilous stuff
from day to day, beginning with the party
conventions of May and June and culminat-
ing in the opposition collapse of October, was
packed off ''free" through the mails. And
this was the real secret of the smothering of
the abolition bill in the House at the last ses-
sion. All parties concerned desired at least
once more the full advantages of the franking
privilege in the rough, hot work of Presi-
Dental contest We presume that all parties
are now satisfied that the game was hardly
worth the candle.
On the final test, upon the passage of this
sweeping bill of reform, only forty eight
members were found in the negative. These
forty-eight Solons, no doubt, conscientiously
believe that in their privilege of ranking
letters newspapers, pamphlets, books, garden
seeds and other notions to their constituents,
the advantages accruing to the people and
their representatives ought not to be measured
by the paltry deficiency of four or five mil
lions as between the receipts and the expenses
of the Post Office Department.. But these unfor-
tunate men will learn wisdom from expert
ence. Besides, the new law does not go into
effect till July, and in the interval those mem
bers of the two houses who contemplate with
painful forebodings the payment of
their postage can bring up their arrearages in
correspondence and clear their desks Of all
their accumulations of mail matter. Justice
is, therefore, SO far tempered with mercy in
this bill as to adapt it somewhat even to the
fixed habits of those Bourbons ''who never