The Kennewick courier. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1905-1914, 1906-12-28

The annual deficit III the Postal
Department amounts to about SIS
ooo, 900. 1t arises principally from
two sources. The first is the frank
ing privilege, by virtue of which
the government transports many
thousands of tons of mail free for
Congressman. The other source Of
the deficit is the enormous over
payment of the railroads for carry
ing mail. The m,il i, weighed
not daily by any means, but at stat
ed periods. and from the amount
found at these times the contracts
to- the year are made up. When
the day for the weighing draws
near, Sena ors and others concern
ed in the welfare of the railIo Dads
ill the mails with ton after ton of
worthle documents, furniture and
anything else that will, increase the
weight of the nailbags. Thus the
basis of the contract is comfortably
widened, and for the rest of
the year the mail railroads draw
pay for work which they do not
perform. Why should there not
be defci.?
Large as the deficit is the Postal
Department, and scaudalous as its
origin is, the people of the countr,
do not in general resent it very bit
terly. The benefits conferred by
the postoffice are of such magn:-
tude tn It they willingly overlook
what seem like petty errors i'll its
management aud foot the bills with
out protest.
The only person whom the defc
It greatly disturbs seems to be Mr.
Madden, the Third Assistant Post
master General, who has apparent
~ lost great deal of sleep over the
matter. The postal deficit haunt>
his dreams to such All extent that
he has been driven to devise rem
-dy for it. Does this remedy cut
off the graft of Congressional pick
ers and stealer>? Not at all. Does
it infringe upon the swollen spoils
If the railroads. Not in the least.
Mr.. Madden proposes to make the
people met the deficit by paving
heavier postage on their newspap
ers and magazines. With true Of
fetal pig headedne>s Mr.. Madden
can imagine 10 remedy for the
Effects cf graft except by opening
he way to new graft. He wi hes
to multiply the postage on period
icals by four.
The people who would feel this
impos ton mot heavily are, of
u,lrse, those vino We Ill the coun-
try. They are very much depend
mt upon newspapers and maya
zines for knowledge Of what is GO
ing OH III the world and for their
interest i'll life i'll general. They
are already robbed by the express
companies upon every article which
lhe> presume to purchase 1T dis
lance from their homes. Mr. Mad
den S scheme would still further
restai their opportunities and
larken their lives. What with bad
,ads, the TYRANNY of the express
companies and the constant threat
of the withdrawal of the slender
o )stal privileges viii, h they now
possess, the lot of the jewellers in
tn. country i, by no means envia
BILE.
The plea that the present low
rate of d cent pound Oh periodic
,ls aids many papers of low ella s to
-four sh is he enough; but the evil
is compare lively trilling. 1t is not
BY any means certain that 10 raise
the ties would injure the low-class
periodicals as much as those OF bet
ter character. The bad ones are
and would re main very CHEAP: the
good are necessarily dearer. There
are farm journals Of exceedingl,
doubtful character which can dc
had for 10 cents year. IncaeS'ng
the postal rates. as Mr.. Made"
nronoseS. would not necessarily