The Brownsville daily herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1897-1910, 1909-12-07
PRESIDENT TAFT TO CONGRESS-
Continued From First Page)
Old Age Civil Pensions.

-nost of the great industrial or
CARNATIONS, and many of the we'll
conducted railways of this country,
are coming to the conclusion that a
system of pensions for old employ
eess and the substitution therefor of
younger and more energetic servants,
promotes both economy and effici-
ency of administration,
! am aware that there is a strong
feeling in both houses of congress
and possibly in the country, against
the establishment of civil pensions,
and tina, IS has naturally grown
out of the heavy burden of military
pensions, which II mas always been
the policy of our government to as
sumo; but ] am strongly convinced
that no other practical solution OF
the difficulties presented by the SUI
peraRnuation of civil servants can
be found than that of a system of
civil pensions,
Wants Congress- Hands Off Sugar
Fraud.
4 regret to refer to the fact of
the discovery of extensive frauds in
the collection of the customs revenue
at New York City, in which num-
Der of the subordinate employees in
weighing and other departments
directly concerned, and in
geh the beneficiaries were the
american Sugar Refining Company
and others. The frauds consisted in
the payment of duty on under
weights of sugar. The government
has recovered from the ApleFican
Sugar Refining CompapYa1 that it
is shown to haye-been defrauded OF.
The sum WAS received in full of the
amGdTft due, which might have been
recovered by civil suit against the
beneficiary of the fraud, but there
was an express reservation in the
contract of settlement by which the
settlement should not interfere with
or prevent the criminal prosecution
of everyone who was found to be
subject to the same.
Criminal prosecutions are now
penang against a number of the
government officers. The Treasury
department. and the Department of
Justice are eXerting every effort to
discover all the wrongdoers, includ-
ing the officers and employees of
the companies who may have been
privy to the fraud. 1t would seem
TO me that an investigation of the
frauds by Congress at present, pend
ing the probing by the Treasury De-
partment and the department of
Justice, as proposed, might, by Civ
ing immunity and otherwise, prove
an embarrassment in securing con
viction of the guilty parties
The POstoffice Deficit.
The message calls attention to the
deficit in the postoffice department
for the last fiscal year, amounting
to SI7,50O,00O and says the loss was
due largely to the low rate of postage
of / cent per pound, on second class
mail, including newspapers, maya
zines and miscellaneous periodicals,
statistics showing that second-class
mail the past fiscal year constituted
63.9I per cent of the weight of ali
the mail and yielded only 5.19 per
cent of the revenue. A higher rate
of postage upon magazines and pc
riodicals is suggested, they being
much heavier than newspapers and
containing "a much higher proper
ton of advertising matter, while
the average distance of their trans
portation is three an half times
as great. The actual loss on second
class matter is about S63, 100000 a
wear. Rura lfree delivery also in
volyed a loss of S2S,000,000. The
letter hostage and other sources o.
income offset these losses in part.