New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1885-10-06

THE POSTMASTER G ENERADS BLUNDERS
A Washington dispatch which we printed
yesterday presented in detail the nature,
origin and progress of the controversy between
the Postmaster General and the American
steamship lines concerning the conveyance OF
the United States mails to foreign ports.
Negotiations between the parties to the dispute
have now ceased, and Mr.. Villas, the young
Western statesman who has suddenly found
himself in the control of a machinery the
vastness and Importance of which he seems
wholly unable to appreciate, has been placed
upon a Illuminating defensive. He is arrai2ned
before the country and will soon be accused
before Congress upon series of grave charges.
That Mr.. Villas deliberately set out to ruin the
foreign mail service no one supposes but his
ignorance, obstinacy and self-conceit have
resulted not only in breaking up mail facilities
which years of labor and vast outlays OF
capital have been required to create, bht they
have imperilled the interests of commerce
that is reckoned in hundreds of millions.
We are disposed to make generous allow
ances for the fact that if Mr.. Cleveland were to
devote all his energies during the next hall
year to the correction of the blunders he HIM
self has committed since his administration
began, his hands would be fully occupied.
Even if his abilities were equal to the
emergency, it would really be too much to ask
that he should rectify the acts of Mr.. Bayard,
VINO has seriously impaired the usefulness OF
our consular service of Mr.. Manning, who has
disturbed and vexed our importers; of Mr..
Whitney, who has wrecked private enterprise
and inflicted heavy and inexcusablc expense
upon the country; of Mr.. Garland, who has
brought the honor of the Department OF
Justice into question; of Mr.. Villas, who has
attacked the foreign mail service, endangered
great business interests, and added TO the
burdens that Cypress American shipping. The
only reform that can be reasonably expected Is
that he shall turn out all these incompetent
persons and tako a fresh start, and in no
branch of the public service is this particular
reform more imperatively demanded than in
the Post Office Department
Mr. Villas is one of those politicians who
come to grief by acting on the theory that
popular favor is to be won by advertising
themselves as reformers rather than by efficient
business administration. He proposes to
protect the Treasury, but his method of cutting
down expenses shows his stupidity, his folly
and his recklessness, not his prudence. The
fol the expenses of the foreign mail service,
half of it to be paid for carrying the European
and half for tho Southern and Oriental mails.
He pays the English, French and German lines
their 100000 without murmur or question,
and upon the sum designed for our own COM
panies he performs his economical experiments.
Elevating himself above Congress, and above
his predecessors in Office, by whom this
question had been iaboriously studied, he
presumes to legislate for himself and directs
the American steamship lines to take the
pittance he offers them or nothing. Upon their
refusal to accept his nggardly arrangement
or to carry the mails except upon the terms
Congress fixed, he ventures to consign the
United States mails to indirect routes of all
sorts, even trusting them to broken-down canal
tugboats and fishing smacks. 1t apparently
matters nothing to Mr.. Villas that the business
between the Southern and Eastern continents
and America is being delayed from two to
thirty days while he fights American shipping
and violates postal treaties. 1t is a matter OF
no concern to him that he practically leagues
branch of our Government to the heavily SUBJ
sidized foreign lines and joins with them to
destroy our shipping and our commerce. All
this is involved in his idea Of economy, and he
seems content to risk it all If only he can save
a couple Of hundred thousand dollars out of n
most important branch of the postal service.
If his ears are not as dull as his wit, MI. Villas
will give heed to the strong and earnest voice
of protest with which the commercial world
greets his absurd and mischevOus experiments
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