The Colorado statesman., 1910-01-29
Postoffice Department Has No
Thought of Cutting Them,
Despite the Deficit.
WORTH THE COST INVOLVED
5alIinger-Pinchot Row Stirs UP Much
Bitterness In Washinston-Public
Hearings Are Likely to Be
Lively.

every effort that it can to find way
90 cut down the expenses of govern
ment. In former years there has been
the appearance of a striving after
saving rather than real saving it.
self. but this year results are being
accomplished. 1t can be said. how
ever. that while there will be pairing
of expenses in practically all the APP
preparation bills there will be no at
tempt to curtail expenditures which
will cripple the rural mail deliveries
of the country.
Postmaster General Hitchcock was
The last of the cabinet chiefs to hand
in his annual report. He had a hard
problem to solve. The demands made
by the people on the postofIice de-
Dartment are greater year by year,
and there is always resentment of any
recommendation that an increased
price should be added to any service
rendered by the department to the
people. Perhaps the country will have
One-cent first-class postage some time
in the near future. for while the cost
of maintaining the department is ir-
creasing it is hoped that means will
he found to make the revenues great
er and yet to allow a decrease in the
cost of letter postage.
The postmaster general is a firm
believer in the rural route system.
The delivery of letters through the
country districts costs the govern
ment several millions of dollars year
more than the returns. but the i'm
mense convenience to the people who
live outside of the great centers more
than overbalances. in the eyes of the
department chiefs. the extra money
needed to continue the service.
Ambitious Plans on Foot.
Demands will be made during the
next year to find some place in which
the lostofice department expenses
may be cut materially. and some
means by which the income may be
increased without affecting the purses
of the great body of the people. If
the present postmaster general can
put his department on paying basis
he will count it a victory sufficient to
make his administration stand in a
bright light. There seems to be little
chance. however. that affairs can be
so arranged that the pages of the
ledger of the postofiice department
VIII balance themselves at the end of
the next year
One thing can be taken for granted,
the rural route service of the country
will be strengthened year by year.
even though it be necessary to weak
en- some of the other branches of the
service.
Satisfied with Anti-TruBt Law.
President Taft seems to have found
To his own satisfaction, as shown by
his recent message. that the Sherman
antitrust law is equal to every de-
mand that the country makes of it.
This is the presidents legal opinion.
and until some greater lawyer or law
yers or group of judges find to the
contrary it probably will have to
stand. The fact that the interests
that have attacked the Sherman law
have been so diametrically opposed to
one another seems to have convinced
the president that the law must be a
pretty good one. At any rate he has
advised that it remain unchanged on
the statute books.
There are several celebrated cases
upon which the supreme court of the
United States has yet to pass judg-
snent, cases which came into the
courts as q result of the entering of
government prosecution under the
Sherman law. The case of the Stand
ard Oil Company. which was decided
adversely to the great corporation,
VIII come before the high court with
On short time. The lower court.
Oh, f,, bn rif fu Of 10
ctared the Standard Oil Company to
be a corporation in restraint of trade.
This was Sherman law case and it
Is expected that within few weeks
the supreme court will decide it.
Bitterness in Pinchot Row.
When the members of the committee
en- Investigation into the Ballinger-
pinchot controversy get into the real
heart of their work the case unques-
tionably will prove to be one of the
most interesting which has ever been
heard in the capital. 1t would be hard
for anyone at a distance to realize
the intensity of feeling that there is
I'm this city over the matter, which con-
gress has finally taken into it's own
bands at the request of Secretary of
che Interior Ballinger.
Indications are that the congression-
al Investigation which the secretary
has demanded, will take on much the
form of an actual trial, stout de-
Tense and well-defined prosecution.
Several of the land cases which have
had or are yet to have their day in
court, probably will figure prominent
w in the proceedings before they are
ended. There are several cases which
were tried In different parts of the
country when MIR. Ballinger was COM