The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1892-04-21
\ CENT POSTAGE.
1niuStr!on. iir. Patterson, WIN Is not al
together DlSlntsrested,

-
Industrlon. iir. PATTERSON, w,u |, not Al.
together DlSlnisrested.
Special DeSpdteh 10 he M.cligareT.
WAsrISoroS, D, G., April 20.-It
has been developed that the huge petit
ton OF four thousand or moro business
firms OF Chicago aud other Illinois
cities for one cont postage, that is on
It's way to Senator Palmer and Con.
gresham Post, has been secured by ono
Patterson, formerly editor OF n postal
paper in New York, who has been OPP.
Grating for several months in Chicago
and St. Louis. Early In January, mem.
bers Of Congress began receive letters
from constituents asking them to state
their position on tho n cent postage
question. Tho writer's OF tho letters
which have thus been addressed to con.
gressmen, and thus been replied to,
have boon promptly forwarded to Pat.
tcrson, and have doubtless formed tho
basis OF his recent claim that lie has tho
sure supper. OF ono hundred and fifty.
six members Of the house for a
II cent postage bill. The persons 10
comply with Patterson's request 10 Sc
cure the pledges OF congressman have
evidently been mostly business men in
tho large cities and towns, rs tho agita.
ton Tor tho ono cent postage rate,
which Patterson has been causing by
means Of the Illinois petition us well as
by letters, recitcs that free delivery
ought not to be extended, in accord.
anco with the postmaster generals sue.
cessiul and inexpensive experiment,
into small communities and farming
districts; and the petitions further at!
tacl; postal telegraphy and postal say
ings banks, two other proposed meas
urog which are especially desired by
country patrons OF tho mails.
An interesting thing is that such
strong Democratic newspapers as the
Louisville Courier Journal, and the Chi
caSo Mw., and especially tho Chicago
Heral3, which, us Is well known, is sup
porting Senator Palmer for the Demo-
cratic nomination for President, ara
strenuously opposed 10 one cent postage
on the ground taken by the postmaster
general in his Inst annual report, and
in n recent letter TO Chairman Elcnder-
son, OF tho house committee on post
offices and post roads; namely, that
while it is n desirable reform in the
near future, the deficit In tho postal
revenues which 1t would cause would
be entirely too great under present
conditions. 1t is pointed out that, by
tho most careful estimates, the reduc-
ton OF postal revenues duo to cutting
tho letter rate in half would DO almost
S23,000,000 annually, and that any in
crease OF business that would follow,
(which would also necessitatc increased
accommodations, new p~ostollice build
ings, carriers, etc., and increased clerks,
would not p~crccptibly reduce that fall
ing oil. 1t is argued further that the
demand for one cent. postage has been
noticed to come almost invariably from
large business houses which, OF course,
have large postage bills, and almost
never from the casual letter writers who
furnish the bulk OF the postal revenue.
Patterson is believed to be tho same
man who lobbicd through Congress Il
few years ago n bill increasing the al
lowances Of third. class postmastcrs, and
who boosted at the time that the Job
had been worth more than $1,000 to
him; and he is also said to be the same
Patterson who more recently received
from 81, 900 to $1,000 from various or.
CARNATIONS OF railway postal clerks Tor
work he was supposed 10 do in Wash.
ington in the interest OF an unsuccess,
ful measure Of theirs.