National Republican., 1881-07-25
Mr.. James's FaiIacy.


management of his Department on bust
ness principles" is to cut off mail routes
and postal facilities not directly remuner-
ative till the Post-Ofiice Department is
selEsustaining. The self-sustaining idea
appears 20 have taken possession of that
gentleman's head TO the exclusion of
others which ought to have place there,
if for no other purpose than to test the
soundness of his pet scheme. One thing
is certain. Mr.. JlAnes does not properly
comprehend the purpose of his Depart
ment, nor understand its true relations
toward the whole country, In the first
place, it was never intended the Post Office
Department should be self-sustaiaing.
1t never was. If ever is brought within
that limit its usefulness will be seriously
impaired, and it will have ceased to be
what it was originally to be, and up to
Mr. James's advent has been, to wit;
Department Of the people, afiording mail
facilities to all parts of the country, the
main idea being that the mail-carriers
shall keep step with the settler even TO
the farthest habitation, while to the
older and more thicltly populated it keeps
pace with increasoin population, commer-
C;al Importance, spread Of intelligence,
and growth in civilizations and all this
with no purpose of having the cost kept
within the receipts, or the slightest eX-
pectation that the Department, so long as
there is new and distant regions to sup
ply with mails, will ever be self-sustain-
ing.
What Mr.. James is expected to do is,
with as much economy as possible, to
afford to all parts of the country mail
facilities in such frequency, speed, and
manner as their relative Importance shall
demand. He is expected to comprehend
that to the frontier settlement mail
| once a week is rs much his duty to sup
ply as the twice or thrice day mails to
the great cities. Because route will not
be self-supportiug is no reason why it
should not be opened or, when opened,
cut of. If Mr.. james is going to cut of
whatever is not directly self-sustaining,
| when he comes to deal with his masters,
the people, speaking through Con
gress, he will be asked 10 stop
free delivery in cities. If he responds
that free delivery is warranted by ex-
perence, tho frontiersman, whose mail
he has stopped, will tell him what he APP
pears not to have learned-that not since
mails were first carried has there been q
route that was self-sustaining from the
start. Experience in this respect has
been uniform as the country has eX-
panded and increased in population,
Routes that exceeded in cost many times
the receipts have come to afford an i'm
mense surplus, and have rendered the re-
duction of postage practicable. If Mr.
James has determined to stop all mails
that are not self-supporting, and in this
way expects to make his Department
selrsustaining, he has undertaken what
stronger and ADLER men would shrinl;
from. In the first place, it is not possible
without working revolution to which
the people will not submit. If it were
possible il would be great injury. While
apparently saving, it would prove o.
that kind of economy which destroys in
tha end, What he is expected to do is
TO see that the money is honestly spent
in sending the postmen, the heralds of q
busy world, to the farthest settler.