The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-12-25
POSTAL LEGISLATION.
New Ideas Likely to Become Law
During the Present Session.

Philadelphia Ledger: Three important
postal bills were passed by the federal
/ house of representatives yesterday. One
of the bills authorizes the use of private
postal cards with stamp Affixed another
! provides for the insurance to the amount
OF $40, of all registered packages lost in
the mail. and the third bill provides for
rural free mail delivery upon the petit
ton OF ~ persons at one postoffice. The
private postal card project was recon-
mended by the postoffice committee of the
house and by the postmaster general, and
follows the essential features the private
postal card system of England. The En-
gllsh private post cards. bear an adj
hesive half-penny stamp, and must cor
respond in size as nearly as possible to
the weight and size of the post cards
sold by the government. The cards just
authorized by the house must not ex-
coed the present official cards in length
me plan has worked well in England.
and our postmaster general advocates it
Tor the reason that it would save the
government the difference between the
cost of the official cards and the price of
the stamps, and the government would
not, under the proposed arrangement, be
Obliged TO transport and store so many
official cards. The passage of the bill
met with no opposition in the house, and
II 1t reaches the final stage of legislation
= will go into operation July l, 1897.
The bill providing for the insurance of
lost registered letters and packages fixes
the maximum insurance at $40. and no
1SC 10 required III dQQlIlOn 10 the eXlSIlnS
rates for registered matter The English
statute goes much further The British
regulation eXactS a fee of I'd in addition
to the regular postage to effect an in
sdrance of about $40 on lost packets:
but an insurance to the extent of nearly
$3.50 can be secured for Id Mr.. Qu;gg
opposed the bill passed yesterday on the
ground that an insurance fee is not ex-
acted as well as the ordinary postage
charged for registered packages; but Mr..
Bingham showed that only 900 packages
were lost in the mails last year out of
more than 100000 registered, and the
bill passed with feeble opposition. In any
event, the loss to the government Under
the bill would not be large. and the
to the public 1t is the impression with
many that the government compensates
the sender of lost registered packages,
but the security of this class of mail
which packages gone astray can be
traced. The fact that a very small num-
Der of registered letters are lost, while
SO many millions reach their destination.
shows how efficient the department is in
this respect.
Free rural mail delivery presents grave
difficulty, inasmuch as it would entail
great expense upon the government to
furnish carriers in sparsely settled dis
tricts. 1t would be a decided conven-
fence, but the success of the system in
the ,densely populated rural districts of
England furnishes no guide for the in
PRODUCTION of free rural delivery here
save in certain selected regions The
passage of the measure was resisted by
Mr.. Bingham, an expert in postal SUBJ
jects, who argued that the scheme would
increase the liability to mail deDreda-
tons. TIE bin passed by the. significant
vote Of 1O1 to 10. Doubtless the PROPOSE
ton could be madeRfeasible in many por-
tons of the country if the reforms rec
commended by the president and postmas-
ter general could be effected-reforms
which would very materially reduce the
annual postal deficit. A revision of the
rates on second-class matter seems to
be a necessary preliminary to the intro
duction of numerous postal conveniences
enjoyed abroad. The president calls at
tention 10 the fact that seoond-class mat
ter constitutes more than two-thirds of
the total that was carried last year, and
the revenue derived from it was less than
one-thirtieth of the total expense. The
president points out that if certain second
class matter paid only the cost of its
handling the postal deficit would be OBJ
liberated; that there would be surplus
(which might be used to give the people
still better mail facilities or cheaper rates
of postage"