Hutchinson gazette. [volume] (Hutchinson, Kan.) 1895-1902, 1898-02-17
AN INFAMOUS MEASURE.
SENATOR BUTLER BRANDS THE
LOUD POSTAL BILL AS SUCH.
Instead OF EconOmizing on the Present
ExhOrbitant Price at Present Paid
Railroads for Transporting Mails, 1t
aims to cut out Cheap Publ cations.

Last week the senate committee on
post offers and post roads, by ma
jority report made favorable report
on the Loud postal bill. Senator But
Ter opposed the bill in toto, and gave
notice that he would prepare substi-
tute for the bill and make minority
report The chairman of the commit
tee on post offices and post roads refer
ferred the bill to the senate, present.
ing the majority report favoring the
bill, before Senator Butler could get
his minority report ready. Whereupon
Senator Butler rose in the senate and
entered protest against the bill as
follows:
Mr.. Butler-Mr. President, would
not detain the senate now, at this late
hour, were it not that this majority re
port has come up from the post office
committee, of which am a member. l
am opposed to the bill do not con-
cur in the report made by majority
of the committee. ] am preparing a
minority report If that report were
ready and could go into the record on
the same day with the majority report,
l would be content to wait till this bill
should be taken up for action. The
minority report will not be ready be-
fore tomorrow. / cannot allow the
majority report to go into the record
to-day without stating briefly some of
my objections to the mischievous meas
ure.
The real purposes of this measure do
not appear on its face. Its real pur-
poses, or at least its effects, if it should
become law, are far reaching and
dangerous. The gold-ring, the monop-
olies, and trusts already control the
avenues and agencies of rapid commun-
ication and intelligence. They filter
and control the news that appears in
the daily press each morning. They
now seek through this bill to close up,
us far as possible, the only avenue left
free and open. This bill is seeking to
run the gauntlet of congress under
false pretenses.
The friends of this bill, known as the
Loud postal bill, come to congress un-
der the guise of reform and economy,
and ask you to pass bill. A bill that
will do what? A bill that will cut out
of the mails larger part of the litera-
ture that the people of to-day receive,
desire to receive through the mails as
second-class rates. A bill to do what?
A bill to deprive the people who live
along the star routes of one-half OF the
privileges which they to-day receive
from the postal system of this countryi
q bill intended-if not intended, that
would be the result-to cut out from
the mails all standard works now pub
lished in a cheap form with paper Gov
ers; that is, the works of Dickens,
Scott, Hawthorne, Washington Irving,
and hundreds of others which are now
being published in cheap form and are
going through the mails as second
| class rates. Even Webster's Unabridg-
ed Dictionary to-day goes to the peo-
pie out in the country in cheap form
with paper cover.
"Coin's Financial SCHOOL, and books
of that kind have gone through the
mails to possibly every post office in
America, and more are going. This bill
cuts all these books out of the mails.
Is that the purpose of those who favor
this bill? The man who lives in city
can buy them at news stand The
man who lives in the country and who
relics upon the postal system to bring
him in touch with civilization, is de-
pendent upon the mails to give him the
benefits that the man who lives in the
city or who rides frequently upon a