Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-12-05

appropriated is wholly inadel1ate. The
pay OF postmasters is limited not by ap-
preparation bills but by fixed statutes, and
to the extent of their legal compensation.
The gross revenues of the postal service
are not only appropriated but hypothecat-
ed to their payment. Postmasters collect
the postal revenues, and they ere author
lied by law to deduct from moneys in their
hands their legal compensat ton. They
account to the treasury for the excess only.
| 1t not dollar is appropriated.
postmasters will receive their salaries ali
the same. 1t seems hardly practicable,
| therefore, to effect much in the interest of
economy by appropriatipg $S,OOO,O0O to
| pay pOstmasters, while we place $4,000
coo in their hands out of which they NAV
help themselves to the full extent of their
legal dues.
The postmaster general culls some sta
tistics from the report of First Assistant
Postmaster General Hatton and proceeds:
l. quite concur IN thu recommendation of
the first assistant postmaster general for
the reformation and augmentation
OF the blank agency. Still
the suggestions OF that officer as to a gen
1 i
| able report of the first assistant postmas-
ter general calls attention to the great diff
Guilty experienced in adjusting salaries to
postmasters of the first three classes. and
! IL making allowances for Office expenses
to those of the first two classes. He does
not exaggerate those difficulties. Il may
| well be doubted if he could exaggerate
them. Necessity herself, though admitted
N q IA Of
invent more cumbrous or complex meth
cd of adjusting salaries. Speak
ing of clerk hire, the report saws:
Postmasters are eager for large allowances.
The most importunate are apt to be the
best served. They ask earliest and often
est. They employ every kind of entreaty,
and political. The clerk must act upon
such cases as the postmaster pre-
sents. He has no means of rebuttinp it.
1t is not surprising, therefore, that recent
investigation by the first assistant post
master general resulted in a reduction at
eight offices amounting in the aggregate
to $54,530. Congress is invoked to make
one more effort to engraft upon the postal
and a recommendation is made that post
After the fullest consideration have been
able to give the subject of a postal
telegraph, l am forced to the
conclusion that the time has fully
come when the telegraph anu postal service
should be embraced under ono manage
ment." After assigning reasons for the
conclusion, the postmaster general contin-
uesi When composition profits the pub
lie who purchase tie service, ii becomes in
furious to the companies which sell. |
When it becomes injurious to the
companies. composition is extinguiahed
by the purchase and absorp-
ton of the competitor. The price paid for |
the franchise of rival concerns purchased |
is but little. 1t concerns the public deep
ly. People must pay fees which will yield |
dividends on new and old capital. So it |
has happened that ono corporation which |
has built the most miles of telegraph, has |
been the largest purchaser of telegraph |
property. It must continue to be so. No |
matter how rich q company
may be, it is powerless to prevent the or
ganization of new and competing enter |
prizes. Its sole protection is to buy |
when tho new rival proves hurtful. No |
matter how conservative and Just may be |
the management of tho purchasing COM
pany, it will demand from the public divi- |
dends on the capital invested to extinguish |
the rival. The only security capital can
have against these recurring aids is to |
surrender the business to the government. |
The only protection the public can have
against these multiplied exactions is for |
the government to assume exclusive con-
troll over the transmission of domestic
messages by electricity. The telegra oh is
too terrible to be welded by otherithan re-
representatives. of the whole people.