Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 February 1891 — PENNY POSTAGE. [ARTICLE]

PENNY POSTAGE.

A Hill Introduced for the Establishment of a Parcels Post. The annual report of the Postmaster General has piovoked considerable inquiry as to the necessity for reform in postal rates The Ideas advanced by different writers upon the subject as to the most desirable changes that could be made are generally promptod by personal, or business interests. Many believe that the public generally will take the view that the Postal Department was established for the safe and rapid transmission of letters of a business or personal nature, and for the prompt dissemination of news matter, and that all other undertakings of the Postal Department should be secondary to this. The public demand not only the rapid and safe transmission of letters and news matter, but that the rates on this legitimate class of mail matter shall be placed at the lowest figure consistent with its cost The report of the Postmaster General shows that the present 2 cent per ounce rate on letters yielded the Government during the last year, $38,000,000, and that the actual cost of carrying and delivering sueh letters for the same period was but $8,000,000, leaving a clear profit of $30,000,000. But the final balance shown in the report shows that, instead of there being a profit of $30*000,000, there was an actual deficiency or loss of $5,768,300. Inquiry into the causes of this deficiency diseases the fact' that it is due— First, to Carrying through the malls at rates largely under cost, tons of matter composed principally of advertising schemes and dodges of every character, and merchandise packages of every nature, overburdening the already overtaxed facilifciesof the mails to such an extent as to render the prompt transmission and delivery of HegiAmate mail matter almost an impossibility. Second, to the shipment through the mails 'Of Government freight that could and should be forwarded through other channels at much lower cost. In the face of this report a bill has been introduced in Congress for the establishment of a parcels post, which proposes still lower postal rates than are uow in effect on a class®! business that has been largely instrumental in reducing a profit of $30,000,000 to an actual loss of $5,768,300. It is mot of as much importance to the average citizen that the cost for the transmission of a package of merchandise or otker articles of like cliaracter through the mails shall be less than the government pays for transporting it, as that the rates of postage on regularly established newspapers and l>ersonal and business letters which are the province and property of all shall be placed within the reach of all. The revenue of the Postal Department, if properly applied, fully justifies the reduction of rates on letter postage, and it is undoubtedly*the duty of every voter to urge upon their Representatives in Congress to legislate for penny postage on letters and for the continuance of the present reasonable rates that are afforded the legitimate newspaper interests of the country. The surplus revenues of the Fostal Department should be used for.this purpose, and for the improvement of the facilities for local delivery of letters and newspapers, and for the extension of mail routes to regions of the country not already favored with acceptable pos al communications, and they should not be used to build up a branch of public service that is not required by the public, and which experience has demonstrated wi[l exhaust the revenues and absorb the facilities needed for other aftd more important branches of the postal service.— Chicago Eagle. A number of young unmarried women, gmpldyed in various shoe factories of Brockton, Mass., have formed a syndicate for the purchase of real-estate for investment. Already they have bought nine lots and are negotiating for another block. It is their intention to build on all the lots and rent A large stone ; sarcophagus of the Roman age has just been found close to the railway station of fladra, In the suburbs of Alexandria. It is richly ornamented with Scripture, but is not j sufficiently disinterred to bo opened.