Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1913-07-03

throw off all limitations and those who
wished to abolish franking altogether,
by provision that the charge for any
excess of weight on franked matter
should be paid out of the contingent
fund of the House to winch the member
concerned belonged In 1873 Thanking
was abolished, but in 1874 special rates
were made for public documents; aad
in 1875 such documents, and all matter
which formed part of the Congressional
Record, were made ma:lable under a
members signature written by him. "
In 1891 the correspondence of mem
Der with officers Of the government, if
on public business, was allowed to go
free, and later amendments of the law
have sanctioned the use of printed
fac-simile of a members signature,
and otherwise enlarged the privilege.
Mr.. Leupp decorates his article with
many interesting details. The follow
ing paragraph tempts reproduction:
Nearly every postmaster general for
generation past has attempted to
tackle the Thanking problem, moved
thereto by the discovery Of some mis-
use Of authority. One instance which
excited wide comment at the time Of
it's occurrence was where member of
Congress from a western state, having
bought condemned safe at one of the
auctions Of government property in
Washington, pasted label upon it
with a frank, and sent word to the
postmaster of his House to take posses
sion Of it. and send it home for him by
mail. AS it weighed about six thous-
and pounds it not unnaturally became
a subject Of comment more forclble
than elegant among the postal clerks
who had TO handle it, and the incident
stirred the postmaster general then in
Office to demonstrate and bring that
sort of abuse to stop by an indirect
resort to publicity. In the old days,
when the War Department maintained
a large number of isolated army posts
in the wild frontier country and found
desertions among the enlisted men and
dissipation among the officers becoming
epidemic on account of the lack of ia
cilities for wholesome amusement, a
great deal Of liberaity was exercised
in constituting the franking privilege, so
as TO enable the posts to bring billiard
tables and like paraphernalia for clubs
and barracks. There seemed to be no
other way. of moving the things from
civilization to the wilderness except at
prohibtive cost, and the Washington
authorities simply charged the irregu-
lar business to discipline account The
tools of men engaged in scientific work
for the government in remote regions
OF the west have been transported I'M
der frank without protest, for obvious
reasons; it was simply the govern
ment way Of passing it's money from
one hand into the other. In all such
cases. of COURSE, the railroads which
weighed il carried the franked matter
up without reference to its peculiar
character and charged as much for
every ton as if it had been books of in
struction for postmasters or cancehng
stamps for their Offices,
Mr.. Leupp gives much more informa-
ton in the same vein, but what has
been cited is sufficient to demonstrate
the character Of the situation and the
imperative need Of reform. The mat
ter is worthy the attention of President
Wilson, who likes TO be active and cas-
ily might be active in worse cause
than that of relieving the Postotiice
Department from the burdens outrag-
eously imposed upon it by the abuse Of
the Thanking privilege. Senator Ken
yon's bill deserves the support of hon
est members of Congress of both
houses, irrespective of party,
M;.s Nettie V. Wallis