Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-08-24
FRANKlbG PRIVILEGE
. &c
Denied thesD District of Column
= .
bia Officials.
OPINION" BY MR.. RoBB
POSTMASTER GENERAL PAYNE IS
SUES AN ORDER.
Review Of Law and Court Decisions on
Question Raised by Conn
missioners.

The District of Columbia is not entitled to
the ranking privilege for any purpose
whatever. Hereafter all mail that leaves
the District building will have to be
stamped as IL 1t related to the business OF
a private concern
In raising the question as to the right OF
the Commissioners to use the ranking priv
llege on correspondence relating to Fourth
OF July celebrations, the entire question OF
the right OF the District Of Columbia to that
privilege for any purpose was raised. This
matter was gone into very thoroughly by
Assistant Attorney General Robb, and he
has given Postmaster General Payne an
opinion to the effect that the officials of
the District are not officers of the United
States In the sense that would entitle them
to the ranking privilege Legally the Dis
trlct Is declared to be mere municipality,
winch In. no way has any claim on the
Thanking privilege
In accordance with this decision Post
master General Payne today issued an or
der which will in the future deprive the
commissioners of the District from the use
or the ranking privilege.
If this privilege should be accorded the
Dlstrict Of Columbia in the future 1t can
only be done by special legislation of Con-
gress, unless the opinion which the &C
ton is taken should be reversed either upon
appeal to the Attorney General or by
means OF case carried to the courts of the
District. If the Commissioners should
want to test the case in court they might
continue to use the penalty envelope, SUBJ
Ject themselves to fine of $500 and in that
way have their right to use the penalty
envelope decided in court
Mr.. Robb's Opinion.
THE question presented in this letter."
says Assistant Attorney General Robb in
referring hp mi of
Commissioners. necessarily and primarily
involves the right of using the penalty
envelope by or under the direction of the
Commissioners of the District of Column
bta In any case"
Gen. Robb quotes the laws of March g.
1871 and July 5, 1884, bearing on the frank
Ing privilege, and says:
The law of 1877 authorized onIy the
departments to use the penalty envelopes
The first clause2of that law is a very gem
eIal and sweeping enactment and if the
otner clauses had been omitted it would
not nave been necessary to pass the amend
ment of 1884. But the other clauses show
clearly the intention of Congress to limit
the application of the law to the execu-
tive departments at Washington, D. C.
An Old Opinion Quoted.
The following from the official opinion
of the Attorney General is quoted:
In regard to the inquiry, whether the
use of the official envelope is limited to the
executive departments and the bureaus or
offices therein at the seat Of government
l think that an affirmative answer is re-
CURED by the language of the statute
The general clause, in section r. s1,1oted
above, viz. that its hall be lawful to trans
NIT through the mail free of postage, any
letters. packages, or other matters relating
exclusively to the business of the govern
ment is qualified by the proviso in the
same section which requires the letter or
package to have Endorsed thereon the name
of the department, and, if from a bureau
or office. the names of the department and
bureau or office, as the case may be, whence
transmitted That the word department
here means executive department Is indi-
Gated by the language employed in the next
section, requiring each of the executive
departments (for the purpose of carving
the law into effecD to provide for itself
and Its subordinate offices the necessary
envelopes, and that the words bureau or
office mean a bureau or office in such ex-
ecutive department Is to be implied from
the requirement that the name of the de-
partment shall appear on the letter or
package with that Of the Office or bureau
THE several executive departments are
by law established at the seat of govern
ment; they have no existence elsewhere
deemed bureaus or Offices in any of these
departments which are constituted such
by the law of its organization. The de-
partment, with its bureaus or offices, is in
contemplation of the law an establishment
distinct from the branches of the public
service and the offices thereof which are
under Its supervision. Thus, the office of
postmaster, of collector of internal rpva
nue., or of pension agent, Of consul is
not properly a departmental ofice-not an
office in the department having supervision
| over the branch Of the public service to
|. which 1t belongs. True, an official rela-
ton exists here between the office and the
department., one. moreover, of subordina-
| ton of the former to the latter but this
does not make the Office part of the de-
partment.
AS then. the words bureau or office
| employed IN the provso are to be taken
to signify bureau or Office in any of
these departments, such bureau or office
must be of the same locality. established
at the seat of government"
Opinions of Attorneys General, Vol XIV.
p. 1861
Law of 1884.
Mr.. Robb continues:
$50 the amendment of 1884 was adopted,
and the law of 1877 extended to all Off
GERS of the United States government not
| including members of Congress- who do
not receive a fixed allowance as compensa-
! ton for their services. including expenses
of postage But this, like the law of 1877,
restricts the use of the penalty, envelope
to official mail matter, t. e., matters re-
lating exclusively to the business of the
government of the United States The
officer is not entitled to use the penalty
envelope for his private mail or the mail
Of anything but the United States govern
ment. 1t is from the amendment of 1884
that the Commissioners of the District of
Columbia deriveifheir right to use the pen
atty envelope if(sueh right exists
1T is necessary 70 consider "a whether
or not the Commissioners of the District of
! Columbia are officers of the United States;
and 90 If the business of the District of
Columbia is exclusively the business of the
UHited States. 81 e.
THAT the Commissioners of the District
of Columbia are not officers of the gen
eral government Of, the United States, but
are the officers def 3the municipal corpora
ton of the Distrctaof Columbia is a fact
well established by1lthe acts of Congress
to provide goserAmeIN for the District
of Columbia and bygdecisions Of the United
States Supreme Court in cases where the
status of the District of Columbia has been
called into question:
THE act of February q, 1871. entitled,
An act to provide government for the
District of Columbia commences as fol-
lows:
That all that part of the territory of
the United States included within the lin
its of the District of Columbia be. and the