Omaha daily bee., 1886-12-16


me December 10, with the compliments of the
secretary to the postoflice.
SECRETARY BLAcKwooD's STATEMENT.
Considerable misapprchension appears to
prevail regarding the arrangement made for
the conveyance of the mails from this coun-
| try to the United States. The facts are
are these For several years past the Gu
nard Inman and White Star companies have
secured monopoly in the conveyance of the
| mail by forminga combination against the
| postoflice and refusing absolutely to carry
! any mails unless allowed to carry ALL except
! ing only letters specially subscribed by the
| Senders for conveyance by other ships. In
| the interest OF the public who have con-
| Stanty demanded the free use OF all or any
| fast Atlantic steamers, the pOstoiiice has long
| endeavored to break up this monopoly. As
| long ago as the lst of October last the post
master general had before him offers for the
| conveyance of the mails, not only without
monopoly but on terms lower by 2j per cent
| than those paid to the late contractors, but
owing TO the desire of the government to Sc
| cure the services OF all the best ships for the
| regular mails, negotiations were for some
| time pending with the Cunard and White
| Star companies. These two companies
having ceased to combine with their
| former colleagues. the lnman COM
| pany, persistently refused to waive
the exclusive right which they had de.
manded for themselves alone and their ten
der was so framed as to give to them the ex
| elusive conveyance of the mails for nearly
| two years with the above mentioned excep-
tion of specially superscribed letters-an eX-
cepton of which the public avail themselves
| but little, partly through want of informa-
ton with regard to other ships competing
30. sl,n..
| through the natural expectation that the post
office will send all letters by the speediest
means available. The Cunard and White
Star tender was moreover, limited in the first
| instance to two days in each week, Wednes-
| day and Saturday. This limitation the gov
| ernment at once declined and asked the two
| companies whether they would be prepared to
| carry the American mails on the two days of
the week; Thursday ana Saturday as former
| ly, leaving The postmaster general to provide
for the third dispatch from other services of
| fered him. The two companies declined to
| consent to that condition or even to under
take the conveyance of the mails on Thurs
day and on such Saturdays as were other
| wise provided for. But eventually the
Cnnard company offered to provide a third
service i'll each week by carrying the mails to
Boston by their Tuesday steamships in
addition to the two services to New York.
Having regard to the inferior speed of the
ships on the Boston line, 1T was evident to
the postmaster general that such service
could not be either satisfactory to the public
or creditabe to the postotfice, for there
seemed probability that the mail via Boston
would eventually be Outstripped by the
| Thursday mail direct to New York. Bearing
in mind that the postof1ice would be pre-
cluded by the terms Of the Cunard and White
Stnr NlTn
ment in the service for nearly two years.
however urgently such improvements might
be demanded, the government felt they had
no alternative but to refuse the joint tender
and to close at once with offers which the
postmaster general had received from two
other British companies for the conveyance
of Tuesday and Saturday mails and to use
the right which he enjoys under the inter
national convention of the postal union to
secure the conveyance of the Thursdays
mail by the packets OF the North German
Lloyd. Indeed it was found that If the post
Office was to secure tolerably satisfactory
service OH Tuesdays it had no option for
Thursdays service, except by the North
German Lloyd, as the Oceanic company de.
clined to prOvide one if the
postof1ice continued to use steam
ers of other lines on Tuesdays.
| Under the arrangement thus made for the
next three months Tuesdays mails will go
as formerly by the Inman international line,
| the new owners of which have undertaken
to improve the fleet generally, and to replace
one of their ships which is slow by faster
one. Thursday mails will be forwarded from
Southampton by express steamers of the
North German Lloyds, which the
owners will detain at Southampton
for Thursday nights mail.
| Sta of tnn
whose offer for Saturdays mails has been ao-
cepted, are the Alaska and Arizona, for the
use of which rs regular mail packet the pub
| lie has so long been deSirouS and the post
master general is not prevented from using
other steamers than those of the companies
whose offers have now been accepted. If
the Cunard and White Star companies elect
on reconsideration to make tender on the
same footing as other owners, there is moth
ing to prevent the use of their ships after the
end OF February. AS an impression seems to
exist that the postmaster has made con
tract with foreign country heavily subsi-
died by its own government, it may be
well To state that no contract has been made
with the North German Lloyd, and further,
that the mail service to America, formed by
that company Is not subsidized by the Ger
man government. The German mails to
America are carried by the I.loyd'S steamers,
which are British built, at a considerably
lower rate per pound than that which the
postmaster pays for the con
veyance of the mails via Queenstown.
In the public comments on this employment
of British built steamers owned by a foreign
company, it seems to have been entirely for
gotten that the United Kingdom is one of
the states composed the universal postal
union and is thus party to the international
convention, the main principle of which is
that it gives to every state in the union the
Unrestricted use of all postal services by land
or sea of every other state, at certain moder-
ate rates fixed by the convention. This com
pact imposes on Great Britain the duty of
carrying the foreign mails very extensively
all over the world at fixed rates. 1t is by
virtue of the same COMPACT that the British
post0llice not set free by the termination of
its recent contracts, completes an otherwise
imperfect service by sending the regular mails
by express ships of the German Lloyds.
Letters so transmitted have been limited to q
mere handful specially superscrbed by the
writer's while all the states of the continent