Postal Riders and Raiders

by W. H. Gantz

Still, I repeat that its reported figures for the total tonnage of “free in county” for carriage and delivery of second-class mail matter are not sufficiently reliable to warrant their use as a basis for making a dependable estimate of the tonnage of another free division of second class mail. Especially unreliable are the figures reported as total tonnage of free-in-county-matter as a basis for estimating the tonnage of a division of the service so far removed from “free in county” as is that of free franked and penalty matter.

All that aside, however, the fact is the Postoffice Department should receive credit for every pound of franked or penalty matter it handles for the legislative and other departments of the government service.

Mr. Britt himself appears to recognize the force of that fact. On page 335 of the department report for 1910, he speaks as follows:

The public mind seems unusually acute on the subject of free mailing facilities, and there is much criticism in the public press of the continuance of the franking privilege and the use of the penalty envelope, the suggestion being often made that the same should be abolished and that this department should receive proper credit in accounting for matter now being carried free. It is therefore suggested that consideration be given to the desirability of eliminating the transportation of mail matter under frank or penalty clause, in order that the Postoffice Department may receive due and proper credit for the tremendous, and in some part possibly unnecessary, services which it is performing free, to its apparent financial embarrassment.

It is probably true that the use of the penalty envelope and the franking privilege is availed of with undue liberality, even if not actually abused, as is often alleged; that is to say, the same care is not taken to confine the mailings of governmental and congressional matter to only that which is necessary as would undoubtedly be the case if there were a strict accountability for their use.

It will be noted that Mr. Britt in the foregoing covers other than second-class mail matter. Taking the figures of his estimate of the volume of free franked and penalty matter of the second-class (51,000,000 pounds in round numbers, which I believe is so conservative as to be far below the actual tonnage), then the various other departments of the government are raiding the revenues of the Postoffice Department to the extent of $510,000 for the carrying and handling of their second-class mail alone. That is, they are requiring the Postoffice Department to render to them without pay or credit over a half-million dollars’ worth of service a year. That is figured at the 2nd class rate of 1 cent a pound. If Mr. Britt’s own estimate, on another page of the same report, that it cost the Postoffice Department 9 cents a pound to transport and handle second-class mail, is correct, which as previously shown it is not, then other departments of the government would be raiding the postal service revenues—revenues which private individuals, firms, corporations and governments subordinate, now alone pay—to the extent of more than $4,500,000 a year.

It must be borne in mind by the reader, however, that Mr. Britt’s estimate of 51,000,000 pounds (a round figure) of second-class matter carried and handled free by his department for other departments of the federal government does not represent the total of service rendered those other departments for which the Postoffice Department received neither pay nor credit. Far from it.

Hundreds of tons—how many hundreds of tons, I do not know, nor have I been able to find an authority or record to inform myself—of letters and other sealed matter were carried and distributed by the Postoffice Department for other departments. For that service not a cent in pay or credit was received.

It must be remembered that the service rate for carrying and handling the class of matter (first-class) we are here speaking of is 2 cents per ounce or fraction thereof. That is, the rate is not less than 32 cents a pound, not 1 cent a pound as is the rate on second class on which Mr. Britt gives his estimate of tonnage carried.

Why should not the Senate and the House, the Judicial, War, Navy, Interior and other departments of the government be required to provide in their annual appropriation bills for paying for the first-class service furnished them by the Postoffice Department?