Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-07-09

go on paying the railroads on that basis
of weight.
One congressman in Michigan is author
ity for the statement that he received
three wagon loads of publications Of va
rious kinds at his home. after Congress
had adjourned, for three years in sue
ceSsion, before he found out the system.
At first he thought it a mistake, but care
full Investigation showed that the practice
was being systematically carried on. This
pile Of government publications, most OF
them out of date. either had TO be thrown
away at complete loss or shipped back
to Washington, again as ranked matter.
so that the government could get httle
money back by selling them for old paper
An official report recently made In the
Senate pointed out that thousands of pub
locations are thus sent to libraries
"A startling incident of the extent OF
this practice was reported &c the commits
sion by the librarian of the Louisville
Free Public Library, says the report
THE Louisville librarian stated that last
fall he received 1900 documents that had
been franked to a cit zen of Louisvil..
Nearly all OF these publications bore the
dates OF 1900 to 1904, and many OF their
were duplicates. In the lot were twentJ
mail sacks OF the 1901 year books OF tht
Department of Agriculture, total OF
100 copies OF that publication alone.
Out of the entire number the Louisville
librarian says there were only about 3Ol
volumes that his library desired. and he
forwarded the remainder, about 2,.U vol
umes, to the superintendent of documents
in Washington. the government; having L
bear the expense of mailing this wagon
load Of publications from Washington 10
Louisville and from Louisville to Wash
ington."
It is claimed in this Official report by a
commission of The Senate tha. from 1895
to 1909 there were go. 164 useless docu-
ments returned TO the superintendent OF
documents at Washington, to &c sold as
nt~ n3f he
government paid the railroads postage
charges both ways, becau.e they were
mailed as free matter"
The Barlow case has figured in a
number of investigations OF this abuse of
the ranking privilege. In thst case 1t
claimed that many GaCkS of this
tranked matter were delibei ately held up
at New Orleans SO that they woulo
over certain railroad during the mail
Weighing period.
The use OF the congressional frank nv
the campaign committees IS not contrary
to law, but there are many members Of
Congress and government authorities who
consider 1t an aDdSe of the rec mailing
privilege. In 1905 Congress prohibited the
''loaning' of the congressional frank, but
added this proviso to the law:
This provision shall not apply to any
committee composed of members of Con-
gress."
The republican and democratic con-
sressional committees sent out last year.
under this provision. parts of the Con-
gressional Record" that would have cost
them thousands if not hundreds Of thou
sands of dollars In postage. OF one
pamphlet alone the republicans printed
5000. 600 copies.
The entire democratic campaign book
was sent out under a congressional frank.
The book was made up of .'campaig n
thunder that had been delivered in Con-
gress. but to make it fully frankable
Chairman Lloyd of the democratic COM
mittee read to the House of Representa-
tives the title. index and subheads Of the
proposed book. This made 1t all part
Of the Congressional Record
The republicans sent out many copies of
the STORY of q Tariff in the same way,
under congressional franks. This cam
paign book was also composed Of con-
gressional speeches. Invididual speeches
were printed and circulated by hundreds
OF thousands Of copies The democratic
campaign book and many of the republi-
can publications were held up in the
Washing ton post ONCE for some time. but
It was finally found they must be admit
ed to the mails 90 wholly frankable mat