The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1908-11-19
WASHINGTON LETTER.

Journalists, of whom there are
always many in Washington,
whether Congress is in session
or during vacation, are just now
devoting themselves to cabinet
making and to the discussion of
the senatorial prospects of vari-
GUS men prominent in political
and official life, with side glan-
ces at the tariff tinkering which
is going on in the Office halls of
the House of Representatives,
west of the Capitol. It has been
the expectation of many that
Secretary Root would be retained
as premier, or the head of Taft's
cabinet, but it is now known that
the distinguished Secretary can
not be retained by President-e-
lect Taft. He and the president
elect are close friends. Their
association for years at President
Roosevelt's cabinet table has
built up mutual regard and cor
fdence, but Secretary Root seeks
another and a more active field.
Seek" perhaps is not the word.
It is being thrust upon him. He
| is not and has never been a seek
er or a candidate, but in this
case, as in others, the Office is
seeking the man. 1t is expected
that he will succeed Senator Platt
| of New York and the contrast
between the two men is sharp E.
nough to mark an era and en-
phasize a revolution. Thousands,
perhaps millions, of pessimists
will take heart and hope when
the attorneyship of the express
companies shall, in the person of
Senator Platt, be removed from
the floor of the Senate, and when
man of the fame and force Of
Root shall represent, in the A
merican House Of Peers, the
most populous and the wealth.
est state of the Union. He will
do more than represent the state,
he will represent the United
States and his counsel and infu-
ence will not be withheld from
his friend in the White House.
The Postmaster General has
completed his report which will
go with the Presidents message
to Congress. It shows a deficit
of over SIG, ,OOO,O the greatest
deficit in the history of the De-
partment. The reason of this
deficit is that the government
permits the express companies
to filch from it the profitable end
of the mail carrying business.
The Department is employing ov-
er 80, 900 carriers on the rural
routes and some of these are able
to put in their pockets all of the
mail they carry. But this coun-
try lags behind the rest of the
civilized world and a large por-
ton of the half-civilized or bar
barrie peoples of Asia, and is
without the parcels post, a most
important and necessary append
age of modern life. "There are
four objections to the parcels
post" said Postmaster General
Wanamaker years ago. They
are the four express companies. "
But if there was a parcels post,
such as they have in all Europe
an countries and in some Asiatic
countries, such as they have in
Egypt and northern Africa, eigh-
teen millions of persons who are
served by the rural route system
could have a greatly superior and
actually indispensable service and
instead of a yearly deficit of mil
lions of dollars, the postal service
would be a source of profit to the
government.
The tariff reformers, as they
are flatteringly called, have been
in session for a week at the Cap
itol and it is predicted that much
III - lov,a hofo,.o tho as.