Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-01-21

of 5OOO-or was before the passage
IF tbe 1908 railroad rate law. But the JOY
of having one of Uncle Sans postal
| nasses-the ranking privileges some
thing that but one in 100000 can possess
60 old that its history runs back into
the dim ages when kings and queens De-
slowed fayors as literally as the prlde
brotber hands out the rice at a wedding,
the ranking privilege has always seemed
| to tho nopular mind a most delightful
nerouisite of the man who can get to Con-
gross or into the Senate. Such it may
| have been far back in English history.
but in the United States it has been held
TO be a means of serving the people. The
representative and senator are expected
"a disseminate among their constituents
information of public affairs, and there
fore their letters and the documents that
tbev NAV have to distribute are sent at
public expense.
Naturally the privilege partakes OF a
personal means of enjoyment and power.
The senator and representative, while
they have the ranking privilege. send all
their private correspondence under their
frank. To them the mails are free. and
they do not have to bother to put on the
small red green and blue stickers that
cost the average citizen good hard cash
to buy
In DAYS gone by there was an interpre-
tation of the enjoyment of the THANKING
privilege that made it grotesquely more a
personal perquiSite than 1t could posSlpis
be regarded nowadays.
1t was only a few years ago that the
Post Office Department made the startling
ruling that thereafter typewriters -tnat
is the machines, not the ones who pre-
side over them-should no longer go
through the mails under frank. Inat
was a severe blow to many puDilc men,
who at first could not understand why
their rights should be thus rudeiy cur
tailed. Before that there had been what
by some would be called a wild orgy OF
privilege in the application OF the frank.
In the old days trunks of congressman
and their wives went home by mail. Men
famous In the history of the country,
some who aspired to be President, some
who decided the destiny Of the country.
did this and never thought for inonent
that there was anything wrong ABOUT IL.
Congressional laundry went In the mails
as free AS the water that eventually
cleansed 1t. Dictionaries, libraries. fuTnl-
ture, even pet dogs and cats, went py
mail free for statesmen.
It Is still very fresh in the memory OF
those who knew of the fact that not SO
many years ago a certain eastern sena-
tor. famous as a wit and prime after
dinner speaker. as a joke when young
Washington correspondent got MAJ 1 arri ~.
franked a carload of furniture for the
bride from Albany to Washington.
~
And even now there is a very common
use of the privilege that borders on the
generous bestowal OF the privilege on
friends of public men. The frank IS
nowadays simply the name OF the man
who is entitled to it by virtue OF his cleo
ton to the office of representative or
senator in Congress, and this name is
either printed on his envelopes or stamped
| on his document mail with rubber
stamp.
In the old times the ranking privilege
was one conferred by law, just as 1t IS
now, but it was held in more esteem ana
dignity probably. The man who hao II
always with his own hand signed MS
name to the piece. of mail matter. now
the public man who ever signs his name
is a curiosity. In fact no one does actus
aIly sign his name for the purpose OF
having his letter or package go Tree
through the mails.
member when they received letters that
| actually bore the autograph of the pubic
men who sent them. There arc douOtiesS
MANY who will remember, for instance,
receiving letters from Roscoe Conkling.
Do you who did get his letters REMEMBER
| how he franked his mail?
Conkling was a fine penman-onc or the
big commanding fists" like John Han
cocks But always on his letters ne
wrote his name reversed And ne ola IL
VIII. and he did it himself for many years.
Then he got q capital fellow named Crit
| fths from Remsen who was his private
| secretary for a long time, and ne prac.
| ticed up on that reversed signature untii
he could do 1t as well as his master
When you held the envelope of the Conk-
ling letter up to looking glass You could
| read the name and found it to be as
| handsomely written as 1t ever was d.
| rectly.
| Private secretaries now practice writing
| the signature Of public men to whom they
are attached, and they keep at it until
| they can boast that you cannot tell the
| Imitation from the genuine. But this Is
| not for the mail frank. 1t is to fool the
| constituent who when he gets letter
| from the big man who represents him. or
otherwise, in Washington feels pulled up
at the thought that he is In touch with
| statesman.
| During the civil war the frank was en-
| ployed as q means OF good cheer to the
| soldiers and of comfort to the wounded
and sick. Members of Congress made 1t
i a practice to go through the hospitals in
Washington and other places and look up
| the sick and wounded from their own
states, and to write letters home for
them, or to frank letters that they We're
able with their own hands to write or
perchance some good nurse had written
| for them.
| When the 7th New York Regiment went
| through Washington to go to the front
the regiment was quartered In the Capt.
| toll. and the men slept their first night
| away from home on the hard stones of
of the House of Representatives. For
three days Representative Charles II. Van
| Wyck of New York, and afterward SEN
ator from Nebraska, and the first insur-
gent known in the Senate. sat at his desk
and franked letters home for the men Of
the regiment.
| But with all its lights and shades the
| franking privilege is an institution which
has seldom been the subject of complaint
| or criticism on the part of the American
public. The farmer gets his seeds In q
| franked package. The voter gets his con-
CHEESEMAN'S speeches under frank, and
/ the editor receives his copy OF the Con-
gressional Record the same way. The
| farmers bulletin, the horse book and the
cattle book all get to the farmer under
| the frank. The college professor gets his
geological survey reports that way. A
large proportion of every community
sooner or later is reminded Of the privi-
lege and has documentary evidence of its
beneficent utility.