National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1881-06-13
Mutterings of the Coming Storm.

Tbs reckless cutting and slashing of the
star-route service, under the pretense of
economy and reform, is rapidly provoking
storm of popular Indignation, the first
mutterings of which can be heard al
ready. Here is one peal from one of the
most influential country papers in the
west:
The Postmaster General has certainly acted with
out due consideration in cutting off the river mails
between Cincinnati and Louisville. The river
| bank has been lined with towns since time when
TO leave the river to enter the wilderness The
| Ohio and Mississippi Railroad north and the Short
Line south of the Ohio were built to reach the ter
minal cities and afford no adequate means for sup
| plying the intermediate river towns. The geogra-
ply of the country, its roads, its whole system is
against such an attempt, and only sheer ignorance
| and reckessness, growing out of an over anxious
desire for credit areformer could have suggested
| such move.
Iftoo much has been paid that is one thing and
it be corrected but the people along the river
are entitled to the mails without any unnecessary
delay of one or two days. The Postmaster General
is trying to devise plan to collect and deliver
mails in New York city every hour, employing a
| thousand or more uniformed letter carriers to
carry them to peoples doors, conveying his car
money without counting it, and in other cities as
well. Then to preach economy in cutting off
river mails between Louisville and Cincinnati is
simple humbug. 1t is saving at the spigot with
the bung pulled out.-Madison Courier.
A special dispatch to the Indianapolis
Journal, in speaking Of this same discon-
| tinuance, SAYS:
The discontinuance of the daily river mail ser
vice on the Ohio between Louisville and Cincin-
natl is greatly regretted by the people in all the
! smaller river towns.
| The Indianapolis Journal, in speaking
of the same subject, has the following:
There is lamentation in Madison. The Star and
the Courier mourn for their " star route" ON the
| Ohio River-the mail between Madison and Gin
| ci nnati-which is not, for Postmaster General
James has taken it. In the effort to compete with
| the Treasury Department in the issuance of q
monthly bulletin showing an immense reduction
ofthe national debt Mr.. James has cut off the mail
service on the Ohio River between the good old In
| diana town and the Ohio metropolis. The Courier
thinks the stoppage the result of the unfavorable
influence of foreign mail agents, who do not like
the run" and it says: THE voice of the people,
which but three years since was given in such en-
phatic terms ought to be respected rather than
the officiouS intermeddlng of foreign appoint
ments'' The Journal Itself has almost been moved
to suggest that 1t would be well IOr the PoStOnce
Department to consider that there were other mat
tiers worthy ofattenton than the sar-route abuses,
to which thus far the entire energy of the
Department mas been devoted. There should be
no iet-up in the investigation of the star-route
frauds, and neither hesitancy nor delay in the
prosecution of any one who has violated the law;
but there are mail routes which are not star" 8"
that badly need "expediting;;" there are over
worked mail clerks Oh regular runs who need
assistance. and, generally speaking, it would be
well both for the Postmaster General and the
public to remember that the postal service is
maintained for the convenience of the people and
for the prompt transaction of the business of the
cou ntry. This is liable TO be forgotten.
The fact of the matter is that a former
head of the Post-Office Department abol-
ished this same service for while, but
such universal howl was raised Oh both
sides of the river against it that it had to
be speedily restored. Change is not re-
form. nor IS saving always true economy.
Mr.. James will learn before great while
that his predecessors were not all fools
or scoundrels, strange as that fact may
seem to him now, under the suggestions
of Gibson, Woodward & Co.