Arizona republican., 1909-12-22
NO NEED FOR WORRY.
 FOR THE PRESENT
Unlikely That a Great Deal of Mail Was Destroyed in the Benson
 Wreck.

Nothing more senlightening has yet
 been heard concerning the mall sup posed to have been lost in the wreck
 near Benson last Saturday night. Post master McClintock sass that IL IS im- probable that a great deal of mail mat ter was destroyed even though there
 was lots of it on that train. So far as
 learned there was no fire and most oi
 the mail would not be injured by jolt or a jar however great, or even by be- ing crushed under the weight Of car Some few Christmas things might be and some letters and papers might be torn The registered letters and par cells were all tightly packed in sacks and would withstand {. good deal Of rough usage before many articles would be ruined.
 The postmaster advises that there. is | no great occasion for uneasiness on the part of those who sent registered mail unless they know the articles were very easily broken. until after they have had time to have returned to them the pink card receipts that are to be signed by those to whom parcels are consigned, on delivery of the same. If these do
 not come back within a reasonable | | mas rush of mail matter and sufficient | time for consignees to be notified by i the receiving offices, it will then be | in order for those sending parcels to
 bring in their receipts and have tracers | started.
 This incident emphasizes the advan- | tages of having valuable mail register ! ed. in addition to the satisfaction or
 knowing that a letter is duly received. 1 Through the postal books and system | of receipts register can be traced 1 somewhere. When the jumping off l place is found it will be quickly known ] if loss is due to some disaster like that | of the Benson wreck. If nothing of
 that kind develops it will be up to the
 last man who receipted for it to tell ! what became of it and if he cannot successfully do so he will be pretty apt
 to have to pay for it if he has any re-
 sources in addition to being punished if he has been either negligent or dis honest.
 1 If loss or destruction is due to any
 weakness of the governments system. or the money cannot be collected from
 a dishonest official. the government is
 liable to the amount of the value of the
 package. not exceeding $50. The max
 imum amount was s25 until a short
 time ago but when the 10 cent registry fee was restored the liability was dou-
 bled. IL is quite apparent that the
 government only has to pay for linn
 ited number of parcels for the check
 ing system is so complete that the
 tracing generally leads to some respon-
 sible source. Whether the government |. is responsible in the incident of a train wreck due to the carelessness on the part of it's employees. or due to an act
 of Providence. is an open question. , Whether. therefore. it is responsible in , the case of the Benson incident. if reg
 istered mail has been lost. is yet an , open question so far as any one here , has announced. The lawyers may know but it is a question they could , probably argue from either side. While Phoenix doubtless had what would seem to be large amount of 5 mail on the Golden State Limited, ii l was comparatively little beside the ? California mail in the same car. The , Los Angeles Times in it's story of the
 wreck says California contributed to , the mail cargo as follows:
 "All mail accommodating in this city 5 Clos Angeles). from 6 pm. December 3 r to am. December IS. addressed tc eastern and southern states. except r Iowa. Nebraska, Minnesota. Wisconsin North Dakota and South Dakota. IT < all twelve pouches of letter mail ant [ 860 sacks of other classes of ordinary
 mail were dispatched; also l01 pouche: : of registered mail originating in Los r Angeles and 21 pouches of registered l mail originating at points in southern Q California outside of Los Angeles.