The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1873-07-17
The Peutal service Of the Unitea STATES.

The Washington correspondent OF the New
York Henlld, referring to the expiration ofthe
franking privilege, thus hints at proposed re-
forms in tie postal service
Mr.. Creswen is in justifable state of ella
ton at his victory over the privilege to which
Congress elung as long as it could with any
show of respect ;for public opinion, but he Is
conscious of q weighty responsibility growing
out of. his pledges of what he would do for the
postal service Of the country if Congress would
take away the incubus of the frank. After all,
the expense of transporting franked packages
was not tho main, but only an incidental COM
Eplaint of the Postmaster General against the
ranking system. The waste and extravaganza
in printing thousands upon thousands of costly
documents every year that the recipients did
not care Tor enough to pay bare cost OF, either
printing or postage was not q matter Wltnln
eral. and he never alluded to it, though the
subject wss not lost to sight in consequence OF
his abstention.l But he did complain grieyous-
" that it vas impossible to have the mails as
swiftly and surely carried and distributed as
the true interests of the public required, while
a system LISTED under which, without warning
or regularity tons of matter were liable to be
thrown on the postal service at any time, de-
ranging existing plans and contracts, and IN
ducing in persons employed in Transporting,
asserting and delivering the mails, a dangerous
disrespect for much of the matter passing
through THAR hands, One of the most power
full restraints of late years upon serious abuses
Of the franking privilege, except such as were
due to political campaigns, was the belief pos
sessed BY persons who had congressional franks
at command that franked packages were not
treated as carefully as those which were post
paid. Experience, however, has proved that
open packages at low rates OF postage have
suffered through the indifference Of the postal
EMPLOYEES to all but closed letters and packa-
ges. If is now the intention OF. the Postmaster
General to make the transmission and delivery
of newspapers, books, pamphlets, samples and
other large loW-rated mailable matter as swift
and certain as that of the higher rated sealed
matter, while every effort will at the same time
de used to gimplify and shorten the routes and
processes By which the mails are carried and
delivered. Already the force of letter carriers
has been Increased at every free delivery Office
which has made good the claim of advantage
or necessity, and the provisions of the free
delivery law itself havs een applied with
great iberality, so as to give the benefits OF
the law to cities of less than twenty thousand
inhabitants by taking in the suburbs, and civ,
ing. the latter in return for the merely nominal
loss of theit postothces the tree dellvery anu
the two cert rate for local letters. New post
and money order Offices will be established as
fast as they can be with advantage, and special
attention will at once be given to betterlng the
railroad service, as being the chief medium OF
domestic postal communication. i{sxt year
the ocean service will be taken in hand to see
If the cherished plan of daily mail to Europe
cannot be effected. Additional sorting and
delivering clerks will be granted to the larger
Offices for the sakespf expediting the interior
business thereof The Postmaster General
says he will bring the postal service closer up s
the people, ie the latter stand out against any
and ali attempts to restore the franking
1,, nuisance. Those most intimate with him say
that all these salutary changes are to prepare
the; way fer postal telegraphy, to which Mr..
Cresweil still gives his best efforts in aggregat
ing facts to make the project acceptable