The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1875-03-25

Important Postal Change.

During the closing hours Of Congress
some of the members who have the wei
fare of the country at heart and do not
want to see the Government imposed up
on by the people q took it into their
hands tina, it was necessary to give q
partial restoration to the Franking Priv
ilige so they could send their speeches,
&c, home to their constituents who were
suffering (s) to read them, without any
expense other than the trouble of signing
their name on the package. They ev-
identity foresaw that this would increase
the bulk OF the mails to great extent
and in er.er to avoid this it became nee
Ccssary to cut down somewhere else, and
AS they could think of no other available
point to curtail expenses they doubled the
rate Of postage on third class mailable
matter-thus taking money out of the
pockets of the people to pay their own post
age with. We copy the following from
the Philadelphia Public Ledger:
ION the last day of the recent session of
that at least four of the great appropra-
tion bills were being "railroaded" through
Congress in the last hours of the session.
and that members were thus called upon
to vote upon measures and for and against
reports of conference committees with
out having any intelligent understanding
of what they were about. To this we
have now to add that some of the legisla-
ton thus driven through would never
have got very far if it had been proposed
sufficiently early in the session to permit
the constituents of Congressman to be
heard before final action. We have al
ready case in point that illustrates bcth
these observations. In the dying hours
of the Congress, and while the ''Sundry
Civil Bin" was being rushed through, and
when the members of both houses were
exhausted after an all-night session,
very small amendment was tackled upon
that bill which makes very large and
important change in the postal laws.
And the change is as sudden as it is i'm
important. The amendment was to strike
out two words, 1.-TWO ounces" in an ex-
listing postal law, and to insert the one |
word ''ounce" in their place.
This amendment, small as it looks, has
revolstionizcd the rates Of postage on what
fs known as third class Mailable matter"
Withour mentioning money at all, it just
doubles TIE rate Of postage on every one
of the following descriptions of articles:
'bcoks, !" pamphlets, "maps, "arints,"
''engravings." "transient magazines, Pc |
riodicals and newspapers" circulars,
''handbills, "posters, occasional pub
locations, J" 'prospectuses," "book manu-'
scripts" "proof- "'correctcd proof
Sheets" blanks" flexible patterns,
samples Of merchandise" sample cards.
photographic paper, "''lctter envelopes,
postal envelopes and wrappers" ''plain
and ornamental paper" photographs"
''sesds," cuttings, bulbs" roots"
sscisns." and all other articles usually
Sent BY mall except letters and newspa-
pers and periodicals mailed by the pub !
fishers. Az the Law stood prior to this
little amendment. any person could send
the foregoing articles by mail at the rate
cf one cent Tor every tvo ounces; sow the
rate i one cent for every OUNCE. The
Fate is doubled, and the additional cost
% those who use the Post office for send
ne these articles runs up to Millions OF 9
dollars every year. "a