New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1873-01-02
VIII I 1t Costs.

I
a great deal more than quarter OF million
Of dollars. 1t is not what is paid to the Bal
timore and Ohio and other roads for taking
the matter out of this city that taxes the ma
| ton so severely, but what is paid to the rail-
road and stage lines all over the country in
extra charges because Of extra weight I'M
! posed upon the mails. Contracts for carry
/ ing mail matter are generally by weight.
| Thus it happens that a very heavy tax falls
upon the Post Office Department through
! this privilege. The Chronicle supposes that
the Philadelphia Convention committed the
! Republican Administration to the repeal 0!
/ the ranking law.--DGily Chronicle.
! We have the highest possible respect for
the Postmaster General, and are willing to
! take his word as to any statement he may
make in regard to matters he has carefully
! investigated But we are not willing to take
t his word that the Thanking privilege costs the
I Government, or Post Office Department,
! which we take to mean the same thing,
/ So 900, 900 annually, and is therefore great
| burden, because we are confident he does
not make it upon his own knowledge, or as
| the result Of personal examination. We be-
icve the statement is made in perfect good
faith and from conscientious desire to pro-
mote the public interest.
Still, we are satisfied that it is a very great
error, and that the franking privilege imposes
hardly perceptible tax upon the Govern
ment or Department. Our reason for enter
tanning this belief is the fact that if every
public document printed by the Government
were made into a bound volume and sent
free through the mails, and if each member
of Congress, and thirty-fve other persons
possessing the franking privilege, were to
send and receive 10000 letters each, yearly,
the legal postage on the whole would not
amount to more than 100000. But not
more than half tho documents printed are
made into bound volumes, on which the post
age is a cent pound. Nor does each men,
Der of Congress send and receive more than
5000 letters on an average, which would be
a very high estimate. And, besides, not
more than half the documents printed are
sent from here under frank.
We will admit, however, that seven hun
drcd and fifty tons Of paper are annually
printed in documents and put into bound
volumes, on which the legal postage is one
cent pound, and that each member of Con-
gress and other persons entitled to the priv
ilege sends and receives 5000 letters yearly,
making so4O, 900 annually for the former and
eco 600 annually for tho latter. This would
make an aggregate Of 100000, the precise
amount we stated in the article to which tho
Chronicle refers in the paragraph quoted above.
And in our calculations of the bound volumes
sent away under frank We include the Con-
oressiona, Globe.
At most, then, there Is an average Of
not more than two tons Of franked matter
daily sent through the mails, free, yearly.
Nine-tenths of this matter originally leaves
Washington, and by the time it is an hundred
miles or so from the city, has begun to branch
off in different directions, and is finally dis
tributcd through 4 thousand channels all over
the Union, each railroad, and stage, and
steamboat line carrying so small a portion Of
the original bulk as to be almost literally i'm
perceptible. To mono of them is this free
matter Of the slightest consequence, as it
does not cost one of them. out Of an hun
dred, an extra dollar; and there is good rea-
son to doubt whether tho mail contracts are
let any higher than they would If the frank
ing privilege were abolished.
For these reasons, based on incontrovcrti-
BILE facts, or on estimates that go to the very
outside of facts, we think the Postmaster
General is greatly mistaken in his statement
of the cost of transporting free matter. Ifhe
,,;n tho
Office the quantity Of paper printed into pub
| lie documents, at the Globe Office the weight
of Congressional, Globes printed and bound,
and at other sources, the number of free let
| tcrs sent and received, he will ascertain that
| we are right and he Is wrong. OF course, we
have not referred to the correspondence Of
other branches of the Government which is
carried free by the Post Office Department.
If that were paid for it would be simply rob-
bling Peter to pay Paul, as it must still come
out Of the Treasury, and its only object
would be to enable the Post Office Depart
ment to make better financial showing at
the expense of other departments. SO that
is matter of no consequence to the people,
| since it is not expected that heads of Depart
ments and Bureaus, chief clerks, &C., shall
pay the postage on their official correspond
ence.
But the consideration that tho franking
privilege is really source Of very little ex-
pensc to the Post Office Department, or the
Government, is not our only reason for OPP
posing its abolition. We believe it is of
great public advantage, and worth infinitely
more to the people than all it costs. This is
especially truo Of the colored population Of
the country. 1t is the only means by which
the public documents printed at the expense
of the Government will ever reach them.
They arc not able to pay the postage on
them and it would bankrupt their representa-
tves to prepay tho postage on them and
their correspondence. We have time, now,
only briefly to suggest this objection to the
repeal of the ranking law. Every ono will
see its force, without a labored argument,
and so we leave it.
Constituting the action Of the Philadelphia
Convention upon the franking privilege in
the light of the facts we have stated, will