Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-04-26
of mail facilities, and the deprivation of

of mail facilities, and the deprivation of
those facilities as regards many hundreds of
small places on the Pacific coast. The Gov
eminent comes to this coast and finds
IN operation perfect system of mail
carriage, supplementing and extending its
own agencies. 1t has no ground of COM
plant on the score of loss of revenue, be-
cause every letter carried by Wells, Fargo
& Co. pays full Government postage, in adj
dition to the express charges. As large
number of Wells, Fargo's routes are to
places where no postoffices exist, it is per-
fectly clear that so far from losing anything
in this way, the Postoffice gains consider
ably, since it would not obtain anything
for letters carried on any of these routes if
Wells, Fargo & Co. did not carry them.
And this circumstance adds to the unrea-
sonableness of the proposition to prohibit
the carriage of letters by the Express Com
pany, for it demonstrates that in carrying
out that proposition Government must not
only deprive a great many people of all
mail facilities, but must diminish its own
resources. Is it worth while for a
Government Department to take so
much trouble with no better results
than ~ the injury of the public, and
~ the injury of itself? The Express Com
pany makes much new business for the
Government, and does not deprive it of
anything. The Government receives its
three cents for every Express envelope
sold, and thousands of these envelopes are
sold every month for transmission upon
routes which include no Postoffices. Wells,
Fargo & Co., have established themselves
in the esteem and confidence of the people
of California and the Pacific slope gener-
ally, because they have furnished most
comprehensive and perfect system of trans
portation. No Postmaster General has any
Justification for abolishing the state of
things now existing, unless he is prepared
to do for this public, as regards the carri-
age Of letters, all that Wells, Fargo & Co.
are doing. To talk of prohibiting the car
riage of letters by the Express Com
pany without offering to supply the
place of that agency, is, as we
have shown, to make wanton and
most injurious attack upon the only
means of communication possessed by
a considerable percentage of the population
of this coast. We cannot believe that the
Postmaster General or Congress would
Understandings contemplated mischievous
and at the same time useless a step. For
it is unquestionably proposition in which
all the implications are against public
policy, and which contains no compensa-
tions. Wells, Fargo & Co. fulfill separate
and distinct function, in no way trenching
upon or injuring the business of the Postal
Department. They furnish facilities which
the Postofice Department has never pro-
vided. They have consequently done very
much to promote settlement, business, and
civilization, on the Pacific coast, and they
are Indispensable to the people. The
Postmaster-G General would commit a most
serious error if he should allow himself to
be persuaded into sanctioning SO unjusti-
fable and damaging policy, and it is to
be hoped that Congress will not stand by
alphabetically and see such an injury in
ficted upon California and her neighbors