Perth Amboy evening news., 1909-03-18
HOW UNCLE SAM
ROBSPRINTERS
Effort Being Made to Stop
Government Offering to
Print on Envelopes.
THE DRAWING FOR SEATS
LFrom the NEWs correspondent.J

fFTOn fhe " r. wy COiTcSpOHuSHtt
Washington, March 1S-Through
out New Jersey, among the printers
especially. there is strong senti'
IN ent against the recent action OF the
Post Office Department in authoriz'
ing the postmasters in different ci-
ties and towns to announce that the
government would print return re-
quests on envelopes free If an order
of 500 or more was placed. 1t is
claimed that this will take away a
lot of business from the printin
offices in many of the smaller towns,
and at the same time it will not add
to the revenue OF the government
This scheme is not limited to any
one state, but the plan is general.
Printers throughout the United
States are opposed to the scheme,
and are endeavoring to arouse sem
timent in opposition to the plan or
the Post Office Department. In other
words, they would like to have con-
gress prohibit the department from
making any offers of this sort be-
cause of the fact that the local print
ers are the sufferers by the loss of
so much business. The editor of an
Ohio newspaper has made an. inves-
tigation OF the matter and he esti-
mates that the plan. IL carried out,
will take five million dollars away
from the printers of the United
States.
When 1t takes the notion the
House of Representative is decided
ly inconsistent. No better illustra-
tion of this fact can be cited than
the drawing for the seats with the
convening of new congress. Con-
gress has passed a law prohibiting a
lottery, and yet every two years 1t
conducts one in the Capitol. The
drawing of the seats in the House of
Representatives is lottery pure and
simple, and the men who have just
come here for their first terms have
as much of a chance of drawing a
good seat as men who have been
here twenty odd years.
Lottery at the Capitol.
In everything else in connection
with the House the term of mans
service has much to do with his as
signment or what he can get in the
way of appropriations. Not so. how
ever, with his seat. This is incon-
sistent Instead of the seats being
drawn in the manner in which it is
done and has been done for years,
the men who have been here the
longest should have the first choice.
then in the order of service the Sc
lection of seats should be made. un-
til the new congressman would have
wfraf was left. 1t does not seem
right that man who has been in
for fifteen or twenty years
should be obliged to take his
chances on the mere drawing of a
cube from a hat and perhaps be
obliged TO wait until no desirable
seat was left, while some tyro in
legislative matters through the op-
Grafton Of this lottery, gets one of
the best seats in the House.
The Tariff Bill.
After months of hard work the
tariff bill was finally presented TO
congress yesterday afternoon, and in
order that the congressman might
have a little time to digest some of
its provisions the House adjourned
Immediately after the bill had been
presented. From now until the final
action shall have been taken upon
the bill it Is to be expected that the
will all be importuned
by the different interests affected to
modify this or that provision of the
bill. There are 234 pages in the bill.