New-York tribune., 1874-10-14
REFORM IN THE POST OFFICE DEPART
MENT

MENI.
The new Postmaster General finds more
wriggling things under the fiat stone he has
turned over in his Department than possibly
he had any idea of. But it needed to be
turned over nevertheless, and he has the graf
itude of the country to console him for what
ever actions at law or Indignation meetings
or other discOmfOrting circumstances his action
NAV have brought upon him. 1t is not strange
that grave abuses should have taken root in
the administration of the postal service. OF
that in a period when all nOxiOus growths have
been fostered by prevalent corruption, they
should have spread over pretty much the
whole service. Each head of the Department
in succession has received legacy of un-
wholesome precedents and crooked devices,
which has been carried along in rOu-
tine way, and handed down with its ac-
cumulatiOns to the next, until the whole
system has become permeated with them The
practice of giving the patronage of the Depart
ment to Congressman who used the Post
Offices in their districts for the corrupt and
mischevous purpose of electing and reflect
ing themselves is perhaps the tap-rOot of evil,
but it had its counterpart for years In the
abuses of the franking privilege, and has still
a vicious but very natural accompaniment in
the dead heading business of the Postal Agency
appointments, and the practices of the middle
men or claim agents who combine with De-
partment subOrdinates to make the transac-
ton of business difficult in order that they
may derive from it commissions and fees.
Unlike his chief, the Postmaster-G General
"reads the newspapers" and none more care
fully and intelligently than those which ciiti-
else his own official acts or the policy of his
party. He seems, too, to have made up his
mind that where there was 30 much talk
about the need of reform there must
be something to reform, and that
the people were getting very tired
of promise that was always so out of all pro-
portion to the performance. He has accord
ingly applied to the transactions of the De-
! partment tho ordinary rules of business, and
this of, itself is to set on foot reform of q
radical character. He will meet serious oppo-
sition in it; indeed it has begun already, but
we have faith that he will 60 ahead in spite
of it and give us in one Department at least
something practical in the way of reform in
stead of theoretical talk and visionary plans
in annual reports. To accomplish this, how
ever, he needs to be not only earnest, sincere.
and persistent but to set himself stubbornly
against the dismal twaddle of the politicians
that "the party" is endangered whenever
fiat stone that covers creeping things is turned
over, or a scamp or set of scamps are led out
by the ear. 1t would be well enough also for
him to forget that there is any other Office, as
for instance United States Senator, or Vice
President or President, where he could do
more or better service. The usefulness of
officials is seldom promoted by their allowing
themselves to think of the rounds in the lad
der above them.
Gov. Jewell has made two or three orders
since his accession to the Department which
give the public reason for expecting good
work from him. His order prohibiting the
sale of stamps to persons residing outside the
delivery of the Office where the sale is made,
though not generally understood, was aimed
at an abuse by which the Government has
lost thousands Of dollars per annum. A prac-
tice had grown up among the small POstmas-
terra whose salaries were paid hy commissions