Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1890-03-11
THE FRANKlNo PRIVILEGE.
Three Ladies' who DO Not Have to buy
Postage Stamps.


There are but three persons in the United
States, other than those holding public Of
fee, who are allowed to receive and send
mail matter free of postage, writes a Wash
ington correspondent. these three persons
are the widows of the late Presidents
Polk, Garfield and Grant. An act OF
Congress is required to grant this privilege
to any one, and it has been so granted to
the widows of Presidents since 1886, when
the first act was passed comforting the dis
tinction u on Mrs. Dolly P. Madison.
According to the United States Postal
Laws and Regulations, which is a COM
pilation of the rules published for the in
formation ana guidance of postmasters and
other officials, Mrs. Tyler was not entitled
to the benefits Of franking mail matter, and
it is true that no law was ever passed
in her case She was, in a sense, a victim of
one of those peculiar oversights Of Congress
which are of frequent occurrence. The
Post-Office Department, however, appre-
ciating the fact that Mrs. Tyler was in equity
entitled to the same privilege which had by
law been granted to Mrs. Polk, Mrs. Gar
field and Mrs Grant, accepted her frank in
lieu of postage and collected nothing upon
matter mailed to her address.
There is rather peculiar fact connected
with the case of Mrs. Polk also. The act
granting her the privilege of free postage
was passed in 1850. Since thatdate all laws
conferring the franling privilege have been
once or twice repealed; the last time in
1873, and no act has since been passed in
favor of Mrs. Polk There is no law on the
statute books to-day, therefore, emitting her
to the benefits of free postage, but it 10 al
lowed her arbitrarily by the department,
and the Postal Laws and Regulations name
her as one of the persons legally entitled to
the benefits of the franking law.
1t is not generally known that the law ex-
tending the franking privilege to these
aides also provides explicitly that mail mat
TER including letters, newspapers and pack
ages addressed to them, is exempt from the
payment of postage. The only explanation
If this somewhat peculiar provision of law
is that when Congress passed the first of
these private acts it failed to notice that
free postage to the senders of mail conferred
no sort of benefit upon the persons Gd.
1ressed. Mrs. Polk, for instance, is not
benefited in the slightest degree because
some person who wishes to write her let
ter is not required to affix q stamp to it,
Yet when the Laws in favor of all the Presi-
lent's widows who came after Mrs. Polk
we're passed, the same language was used
and stands upon the statute books to-day.
A sort of fatality in the direction of MAX
ing mistakes seems to have followed the
course Of .w-malzin on the subject of the
ranking privilege, and the mostelu upendous
Ilunder of all that Congress made in the
drst general act passed has never yet been
corrected. This is the failure TO provide
penalty for violation of tho law. Although
here have been as many as fifty franlIng-
privilege acts passed by Congress since
$40, not one Of them provides any penalty
or their infringement or evasion. This
cry singular oversight is cause OF much
nconvenienco and annoyance to tho postal
,fflcials, and because of it very few arrests
AVE been made, although the one franks
" unauthorized persons and on unfranka-
de matter Is of very frequent occurrence.