San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1888-02-27
THE POSTAL SERVICE.

If there Is any one thing upon which
public opinion In this country seems
agreed 1t is this--thst under this pres
ent democratic administration the mail
service OF the country has gone from bad
to worse, until Ii has become cause OF
universal complaint. Not only Is this
the case In Texas, where the excuse has
been made that the service is over
widely extended area Of country, and
far from the great oenters Of population,
and where the returns from the service
are so meager that clerkships have been
reduced to the minimum. The COM
plain comes from the most densely popu-
lated sections Of the east as well as
from the sparcely settled southwest.
New England and Texas join hands IN
making the complaint, and the demo-
cratic journals are as loud and deep In
their condemnstions o. are the republi-
can critic Of the administration. Even
New York and Boston complain that the
mercantile business Of those cities suffers
from the inelficency Of the postal service.
The Boston Herald makes the following
specimen kick, which may be taken as a
fair sample Of many others:
From the statements Of opinion which
have been published, coming from a
number Of prominent Boston business
men, 1t Is evident that a strong feeling
exists In the mercantile circles OF this
.,stV fhaN tYnp
be made In our postoffice facilities. Let.
tiers received in the morning In the post
office are delayed in their delivery, be-
cause. with the limited number OF clerks
TO perform the work, IL is physically
impossible to speedily finish 1t. There
ought to be from thirty to fifty new
clerks and letter-carriers appointed, II
our citizens are to have the advantages
arising from remarkably efficient
local postofIice service. Letters which
arrive In New York by the mail from
the sOuthw west late in the evening are
frequently not delivered In Boston to
whOm they are addressed until thirty
six hours after their receipt in New
York; while letters sent from Boston TO
points in the south and southwest some
times have to remain over In our own or
the New York postOffice near y twenty
four hours before they can be forwarded.
Our merchants complain that these de-
lays place them at a serious disadVan-
tage. II the postOffice department has
not the right needed to make special
terms for an efficient New England mail
service, then congress, now in session.
should be requested to endOw IL with
the needed authority.
The country requires better service,
that goes without saying. More mail
trains, greater expedition in handing
mails, greater promptness in distribu-
ting matter IN the offices. 1t is safe to
say that 10 improvement will be made
until after next fall. This government
has staked its everlasting all on "re-
trenchment and reform" and will put in
pawn every department Of the public
service and impair its efficiency In order
to make it appear that the revenues of
the government are excessive aud a
great surplus accommodating which only
a democratic administration could care
for and reduce. The public service In its
most important branch is falling into
decay, the commercial interests Of the
country are lost sight OF, the means OF
communicating intelligence is handl-
capped, the servants of the people in
the postal department of the govern
ment are oVer-worked, and the public
continually annoyed and their plane dis
arranged because Grover Cleveland and
his advisers have determined to show
retrenchment in the expenses Of the
government as demooratioally admins.
tered.