, 1884-02-07
Port Townsend Jefferson County Washington Territory Thursday February
Capt, Beecher and the Evangel.

! BY way of proof OF his previous asser-
! ton about 81 per ton being charged for
/ freight from this place to East Sound. 4
gentleman at that place sends us freight
! bill calling for 81 on % sacks of feed;
/ 80 cents of that amount, however, was
/ charged as advance. That the cItI-
zens of Sen.iahmoo are somewhat eXer-
| cised about the failure To get their mail
carried through twice week may be seen
by the following letter signed by three Of
them and published In the Anacortes
Enterprise. We insert the most of it,
to give both sides fir hearing:
We are surprised at Capt. Beecher's
answer to Anxious Public, in last week 5
RereiHe, wherein he seems to think
Uncle Sam was very presumptuous in
ordering an extension of mail service to
this place, without first consulting him
whether it would be convenient for him
70 perform the service. Capt. Beecher 10
doubt is a very important man in his
own opinion, but unfortunately for him,
Uncle Sam knows nothing of him N this
mail con- ract, as Messrs. Gilmore and
Lott are the parties that he holds re-
sponsible for due performance of the Port
Townsend and Semiahmoo mail contract.
Again Capt. BeecheT finds fault with
Uncle Sam for giving such small pay for
e~tra mail service We think he knew
Wien lie took the contract from Gilmore
and Lott that thu postoffice authorities
reserved the right to increase the service
if needed by the public, at pro rata on
the contract. He says that these extra
trips do not pay him. nor even the one
trip here, and that we dom need ii. We
certainly do think it little cheeky" for
Capt. Beecher to undertake TO dictate to
community what they want and what
they don't want,and all We can say is, he
may have been very anxious to secure
the contract from Gilmore and Lott who
had taken it at very low figure, S24OO,
compared with 1revio?s contracts, when
10 obtain it, he gave them bonus of one
fourth OF the amount of the contract, be-
sides having to pay for the use of the
steamer Evangel. $3.50 per month. This
amount in connection with the low mail
contract, and ths paying one-fourth to
Gilmore and Lott, is certainly very en-
barrasing for Capt. Beecher. The trou-
be is, there are great many persons
who want mail contracts that are not pre-
pared to carry the mails when they se-
cure the contracts. Then they dictate to
the people what they wal Mt aud what they
don't want. If Capt. Beeeher cannot
carry out the orders of the Ostoffice de-
partment, we say give up the contract,
and let Gilmore & Lott have it. and
thereby save the one-fourth he has to
pay them as subsidy. When first the
contract was let to S. Garfield he re-
ceived $500 per annum. Now these
over anxious contractors have it down
to S2400 per annum. And Capt. Beech
er, in order to have a mail contract. pays
one fourth of the sum to Gilmore and
Lott, and then says, he will have to take
money out af his own purse to carry out
lhe terms of the contract, and in his
opinion the people must suffer the con
sequence. In out opinion there are too
many of such mail contractors, and they
should get down and out, and let Others
VINO can perform the service do so, and
not be finding fault with the small sum
they receive for their serv ees."