Morning appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1877-1906, 1880-03-19
THE EXPRESS MAIL BUSINESS.

The effort to prohibit Express Companies,
from carrying mail matter now being
made at the Postotfce Department,
is attracting considerable attention on this
coast, where the business is 80 extensive
through Wells, Fargo & Co. We reproduce
from the San Francisco Bulletin of the 10th
inst, the following editorial, which appears a
fair statement of the rights Of the case: Gao
cording to the telegsaphic summary, the re-
port of Commission, originating with the
Postoffce Department, takes the ground that
Wells, Fargo i Co. s Express should be pro
hibited from carrying letters. That is a red
tape conclusion. No prohibition of that kind
should be- made The express companies of
this coast have furnished facilities which never
would have been furnished by the Pustotfice
Department. Wells, Fargo & Co. have trans
ported letters to remote mining camps where
there we're no mail facilities, where they are
wholly inadequate. Moreover, this company
has carried valuable letters, not only with
greater dispatch, but with far greater measures
of safety. One other fact. The Express Com
pany by reason of this service has actually in
creased the Postofice revenue 1t has done
this by carrying letters wherever there were
no poststfice facilities, SO that without the aid
of the Express, no letters could be sent to re-
mote places.
THE intimation that the revenue had been
decreased because the Express Company had
carried letters of more than half an ounce in
weight for one postage, is not true so far as our
observation goes, nor is it true according to
the testimony of those who have very large
dealings with the Express Company The la:
ter is punctillious in this respect. 1t demands
that the full postage shall be placed in stamps
on every letter carried by express. Some of
the large mining companies, knowing how ex-
acting the rule is in this regard, keep scales in
their offices, and never let an express letter 60
out without the requisite stamps. If by any
inadvertence, a letter goes without proper post
age, the stamps are placed on it at the Express
office and the charges collected. The reason
ing of the Commission, isthsrefore erroneous.
No doubt the objections come in good part
amount Of CO omissions on the sale of stamps.
These are bought by the thousand dollars
worth at the central offices. The Expire IS
Company has transported letters on horseback
and by m en- on snowshpes, where no mail car
riers were commissioned to go. 1t has afford
ed most desirable facilities to the people of
the Paci6, Coast. They have for years been
willing, for the greater certainty, to add the
express charges tn the postage, and have not
complained of the tax They bear the bur
den, whatever it may be, cheerfully, and do
not ask for any such prohibition as that sug
gested by this Postoffice Commission.
Indeed, it would be a calamity to the peo-
pie if their facilities were now cut off for send
among the mining camps Of the Pa
cihc coast, is special and peculiar. No mail
facilities have ever adequately discharged this
service, and it is not likely that they will here
after The Government has heretofore ig-
nored this service in good part. 1t has been
slow to let contracts for carrying mails sixty
or hundred miles from beaten thoroug hfares
in the mountains in order to reach mining
camp, where the service in summer must be
performed by following trail, and in the win
ter by some hardy adventurer on snow shoes
1t the Government gets its full reyenus Oh ev
cry letter, it ought to be satisfied that the
service of transportation is performed gratui
tously for thousands of people, inasmuch as
they are satisfied to pay for these greater faci-
tiles. The reasoning of the Commission is |
wholly ihconclusive 1t takes no account of
the peculiar exigencies ofthis part of the coun
try, and it ignores altogether the real services
which the express companies have actually
rendered in these mountainous regions. Such
a report GU ght ia go on the top shelf and sea
son there for the next quarter of century
1t will be time enough to heed it's suggestions
when the people have offered complaints that
these enlarged facilities are in the way of their
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