The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1889-03-20
OUR POSTAL FACILITIES.

iOritv in western Oregon, is
that he instruct his postmaster gen
eraI TO use wide latitude in the man
agement Of mail matters in this sec
ton. The hide bound politicians of
the east do not believe and cannot un-
derstand the leaps and bounds of
progress Of our western communities.
We of CIatsop county have just as
much right to mail facilities as other
citizens of the government who live in
the shadow of the national capitol, or
within sight of Liberty's statue in
New York harbor. Our business is as
important to us as theirs is to them.
Not as compliment nor favor but
as our right do we ask that the ad
ministration give us such mail service
as the necessities Of the people of this
section require.
We have not been treated right, and
while it seemed useless to demonstrate
we "kept still and sawed wood" but
now "a change comes DER the spirit
of our dream" We've got back into
the United States again, and want
equal show with the rest of our sister
states.
Mr.. Wanamaker, the new postmaster
general, is a business man, and not a
closet student. He is now at the
head of the postoffice department.
The postofiice department mingles
with the throbbings of almost every
heart in the land. In the amplitude
of its benefcence it ministers to all
climes and creeds and pursuits, with
the same eager readiness and with
equal fullness of 6delity. 1t is the
delicate ear-tru1np through which
alike all nations and families and isO-
lated individuals whisper their joys
and their SORROWS, their convictions
and their sympathies, to all. who listen
for their coming. Naturally enough
such an institution has ever been, and
still is, a cherished favorite with the
American people. The country has
constantly manifested the most in
tense solicitudc for the preservation of
its purity and the prosperity of its
administration, and the guilty abuse
of its ministrations, the reckless waste
of Its hard earned revenues, connected
with the humiliations to which it has
been exposed, deeply and sadly
impress the public mind.
flour Astoria postmaster makes re-
QUESTION for stamps, envelopes, postal
cards, ETC., we don't want little jack
daw Of clerk in Washington to send
him half what he ordered and write
him little pert letter telling him that
he didn't know what he wanted and
that half what he ordered was enough,
and then have the Astoria postmaster
begging Portland and elsewhere to
please loan him some stamps to sup
ply the Astoria demand.
If an eastern mail contractor reck-
lessly bids ON Clatsop county or Pa
ciic county mail contract and finding
that he can't make any money on it
throws up the job, we want the post
master generals first or second or
thirty-third assistant to make his
bondsmen pay, and in the meantime
see that the mail is furnished the peo-
pie out here who are not to blame for
the delinquency of a mail contractor
who lives in Ohio or Tennessee.
If a community shows that it is en-
titled to tri-weekly mail we are tired
of seeing it put off with a weekly
mail, grudgingly given.
And we make bold to tell our pub
lie servants that the mail service is
not intended to be a money making
institution. 1t is for the comfort and
convenience of the people, to facilitate
intercourse and aid in development,
andif the expenses happen to exceed
the receipts one or two or twenty
million dollars, what of it!
That's what the money is for.
Let the administration thank God
and take courage that we have a great
country worth developing and not be
eternally scrimping and saving and
trying to make the clothes of a baby
fit the frame of growing man.
THE Historian has no claim or de-
sire for political preference, but it
wants to see this section of Oregon
and Washington given its rights and
what belongs to it, in the matter of
postal facilities.
HERE are the names of those who