The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1909-05-21

attention OF the world to our unde-
velOped resources.
WHERE THE GOVERNMENT rs
WRONG.
Experience has proven that nearly
all attempts to operate government
printing houses have made printing
more expensive than when operated
by private enterprise, but an abuse
has crept into the postal department
that has tapped the pockets Of the
people for a long time under the APP
pearance of vast economic problem,
when it is really doing greater harm
than the big mail order houses.
1t is the printing of return adj
dresses on stamped envelopes at gov
eminent expense. The mode of ope-
ration concentrates the business in
one locality instead Of building up
many localities. 1t aids in the con-
gestion of cities and prevents the de-
| velpment of the country. The post
masters all over the country are re-
CURED to act as agents to solicit the
business in connection with their 9TH
er duties, and all orders are sent to-
Dayton, Ohio, where the printing is
done by contract and the government
pays the bill. Then the boxes Of en-
velopes are sent to the customers
scattered all over the United tSates,
and are carried free, or 'franked"
as supplies for the post masters at
the various offices. The post masters
would just as leave put In their timc
buying and selling these envelopes for
the government as to be doing some
thing else. The railroad companies
get paid by the government for all
the tonnage they carry, and at the
end Of the year congress appropriates
as many millions as may be needed
to make up the postal deficit.
The printers all over the country
are the first sufferers, and the peo-
pie at large are the next, although
they do not generally realize when
they pay taxes that part Of this money
goes to pay for those printed envel-
opes that the government has printed
at actual cost, but which it gets car
ried to the customer at the expense
of another account which the people
eventually pay.
II the printers could have clerks
working free of cost taking orders
for such goods, if they could have the
orders transmitted through the mails
free of postage and the goods ship
ped free of cost to the customer, and
have every order paid for before the
goods we're delivered, it would great
ly reduce the cost of production, and
they might then put the work out
at the same price the government
does.
Even while you are reading these
lines many carloads of these govern
ment envelopes are spinning over the
roads free of charge, and every pound
that is in the express car or the
freight car going to a printer in the
same town has to have the carrying
charge paid the moment of delivery.
Those carried for the government are
paid for as a part of the mail con-
tract, made good by direct appropria-
ton of the peoples money.
When the government goes into
business, claiming rights for itself
that 1t prohibits the citizens from
enjoying, it simply smothers indus
try, and makes the smothered ones
help pay for the smothering. If the
manager of printing house should
ask a post master or mail carrier to
make him a list of the names of peo-
pie getting mail at his office or on
his route, he is refused because the
government forbids it, but within the
past few weeks every post master in |
the land was supplied with circular
letters to be addressed to all patrons |
of their offices, and to be mailed to
them without the cost of postage,
calling attention to the fact that the
government will print the return ad-
dress on envelopes for less money
than the local printers will do it. In
that act lies two violations supply
ing the addresses for soliciting bust
ness, and carrying on the business
without paying postage on the matter
handled. Nobody else in business is
given that right.
Then the post master has to take
and transmit all orders, attend to all
The clerical work 1t makes, deliver the
goods, collect the money and forward
u, without charging this service and 4
expense against the account which it
S really expended upon. The only
'esult is that the printing business
s injured, the postal business is over
lone, the direct cost OF printing is I
ess and the cost of operating the pos J
al system is increased, and paid for !
n the other way. II
When the public comes to under- !
tand this they will join in the pro- /
est against discriminating in favor 1
4 other localities but their own, and r
viii write to their representatives in 4
Washington to vote for the bill to a
ut it out. 1t is part of the tre-
lendous error In public printing that h
The Big Stick" has been used q
gainst SO successfully to reduce USE 4
sss expenditures. Il
How many times has your own q
ost master boasted to you in the /,