Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-02-28
4 FALSE KEY.

| The debate in the House on the postotfice
deficiency bill has resulted in placing Post
master General Key in a somewhat unpleas-
ant position before the public. 1t seems that
he has disregarded the law of Congress by
mourning liabilities in excess of appropria-
nearly two million dollars, which he impu-
IDENTIFY demands that Congress shall make up.
| This 'star" service has increased very much
| of late years-faster in proportion than tho
development of the country. The money is
| mainly spent at the West in paying con-
| tractors for delivering the mails at points
| remote from railroad stations. Many of
these routes are long and the stations far
distant from each other. The population is
sparse and as class not given to receiving
or sending letters. On one route in Mon
tana which cost the government nearly q
hundred thousand dollars last year for tri-
weekly delivery of the mail, the agent car
ried but three letters and one newspaper
during a period of ninety days. 1t is one
of the routes, too, which now demands a
daily service, and Mr.. Key asks Congress to
comply with the request of the contractor.
While we do not assert that the star SER
vice is ussless-for it is in some sections a
great convenience-we are firmly convinced
that it is vastly too expensive. People who
live remote from civilization no doubt like
to hear news of the outer world as often as
possible. Though the mail carrier might
not bring them letters from friends, or news
papers either, he is able to tell them how the
world wags, and this is considerable of a
pleasure. Yet we hardly think it is the duty
of the government to give them this pleasure
at such an enormous cost. Many places that
now have daily mail do not need more than
weekly service, and there are other routes,
now served tri-weekly or semi-weekly, that
do not need as frequent visits from the post
man.
1t was charged in the debate, and has been
substantiated by evidence, that the star SER
vice is run in the interest of the contractors
rather than in the interest of the people who
are supposed to be benefited by it. Of course
it is to the interest of the contractors to SO.
cure as many trips as possible, and Mr.. Key
seems to have been disposed to play into
their hands as much as possible. He has
carried it little too far, however,-so far
that Congress has been compelled to take
cognizance of it. The result will be that Mr..
Key will be awoke to the consciousness that
he must pay at least some respect to the laws,
and confne his favors to his friends within
the limits prescribed by Congress. He will
be Taught that when Congress gives him an
allowance for the expenses of his depart
ment it does not intend that he shall exceed
that allowance if it shall suit his convenience
or caprice.
The gravest fault of Mr.. Key, however, is
his insolence to Congress. He made no men
ton of the deficit in the star service in his
annual report, and when compelled to call
the attention of Congress TO it he delegated
subordinate to send a communication to
that body informing it of the fact, and stat
ing that unless an appropriation was i'm
mediately forthcoming he would reduce the
service on all routes to one delivery week.
He followed this Immediately with an order
thus reducing the service. Such imperti-
nence needed rebuke, and we are glad to see
that leading men of both parties united in
utteriIg words of condemnation. All who
have been heard upon the question declare
that the appropriation of last year was ample
for the needs of the service. If the post
master general had shown ordinary business
capacity there would have been no need of
asking for more funds. But he established
new routes where none were needed, he in
creased the service on other routes where
such increase was demanded by nobody but
the contractors, and by such means has ex-
hausted the funds at his disposal three
months before the close of the fiscal year.
He has been guilty not only of a violation of
law, but of gross disrespeet to Congress, and
deserves all the censure that he has received.
We question, however, whether he should
be, as Gen. Hawley suggests, impeached
| for his conduct. The least that Congress
| will do, however, is to administer to him en-
| emphatic rebuke for his presumption in set
| ting at defiance its acts and insulting the
| source from which he derives both his Office
| and the means with which to carry it OF.