The Portland daily press., 1874-06-20

postage on newspapers or periodicals not ex
ceeding two ounces in weight, and circulars
when the same are deposited in letter-carriers
Office for delivery by the office or its carriers.
shall be uniform at one cent each, but period
Gals weighing more than two ounces .sbaT he
subject to postage of two cents each and these
rates are to be prepaid by stamps.
The amendment allowing single copeis of
newspapers to 60 through the mails free within
its county was cOncurred in. u.!
The amendment allowing four pound pack
ages of the third class to be transmitted by
mail was, after considerable discussion, concur
red in.
The amendment which required an oath of
ification. a.El
The amendment making charge of newspa-
per postage to commence on the first of July
next was concurred in. rr ....
The amendment fixing the salaries of post
masters was nOn-concurred in t..fI.
All the remaining Senate amendments were
non-concurred in except the last, which exempts
public documents from prepayment and limits
the postage to rs cents a volume.
Mr.. Burchard OF Illinois, moved to amend by
striking out the first part of the amendment,
which relieves public documents from prepay
ment, and the last part, which limits the %
cents postage, to documents already printed.
Mr.. Hawley of Connecticut, regarded the
Senate amendments, to a considerable extent,
as a restoration of the franking privilege, and,
therefore objected to it. He was not goins to
Join any common court or slang about the
Thanking privilege. 1t had its uses, but it had
been abused and the public sentiment had been
in the direction of paying something for every
thing passing through the mails, and the Re-
publican party had certainly adopted that idea.
He wished the experiment to be adhered to for
three or four years at least The public senti-
ment was not yet ready to abandon the expert
ment or to restore the Thanking privilege, di-
rectly or indirectly.
Mr.. Parker of Mississippi, replied to and de-
MED that the Senate amendment was in any
sense restoration of the Thanking privilege.
1t did not permit documents to go through the
mails free of charge. He characterized the agi-
tation for repeal of the ranking privilege as
nothing but humbug, and said that in petitions
got up by the Postmaster General, names from
the grave yards and tombstones were put For
his part, after the people had demanded that
the pay of members of Congress should be re-
duced so that no member could live decently
upon it, he did not propose to pay postage on
public documents.
Mr.. Garfield of Ohio called attention to the
proviso that the Congressional Record, or any
part thereof, shall go through mails free of
postage. He regarded it as a little bit of moral
bribery. Under that member could have his
speech under the heading, "Appendx to Con
gressional Record" and could have it sent
througd the mails free. 70
Mr.. Mills of Texas moved to amend Sen
ate amendment by reducing limit of post
age on public documents from 25 cents to 10
cents per volume. Carried-yeas, 124; nays,
112 .sfr-t 0.l. t-T -
The question required on the division of Nh.
lBurchard's motion to strike out the first part of
Senate amendments exempting public docu-
ments from prepayment, which was rejected.
The next division was on Mr.. Burchard's
motion to strike out the part of the Senate
amendment, the provision only to documents
already published or ordered, and it was agreed
to. The last division of Burchard's motion to
strike out the proviso that the Congressional
Record, or any part thereof he carried through
mails free of. postage, was agreed to-107 to So.
The Senate amendment thus modified was
was concurred in-yeas, 113; nays 11S. The bill
goes to a Conference Committee.