On page 11 of the report of the Postoffice Department for the fiscal year 1909-1910, Mr. Hitchcock very frankly states the fact and gives his personal opinion of the extent of the franking raid upon the service of his department. He also suggests a partial remedy which also I shall quote because it is a good suggestion, on right lines, and for making it Mr. Hitchcock deserves the thanks of a people over-burdened by the abuses his suggestion would, I believe, correct in material degree. At any rate, the suggestion is on right lines. Following is what he says: The unrestricted manner in which the franking privilege is now being used by the several federal services and by Congress has laid it open to _serious abuses_--a fact clearly established through investigations recently instituted by the department. While it has been impossible without a better control of franking to determine the _exact expense to the government_ of this practice, _there can be no doubt that it annually reaches into the millions_. It is believed that many abuses of the franking system could be prevented, and consequently a marked economy effected, by supplying through the agencies of the postal service special official envelopes and stamps for the free mail of the government, all such envelopes and stamps to be issued on requisition to the various branches of the federal service requiring them, and such records to be kept of official stamp supplies as will enable the Post office Department _to maintain a proper postage account_ covering the entire volume of free government mail. “_There can be no doubt that it annually reaches into the millions_,” says Mr. Hitchcock of the cost to his department of transporting and handling the government free mail matter--frank and penalty matter. It should also be noted that he says that “the unrestricted manner in which the franking privilege is now being used by the several federal services and by Congress, has laid it open to _serious abuses_.” Not only are the foregoing statements of our Postmaster General true, but with equal truth he could have said that the abuses of the postal service practiced by other federal departments have encouraged--have coached, so to speak,--the Postoffice Department into _abusing itself_. Those crates of fruit and cases of canned goods which I saw loaded into mail cars were probably for some postmaster who conducted a grocery or fruit stand, as a “side” to his official duties. Or they may have gone to some “friend” or “good fellow” along the line, or to some one who stood for a “split” of the express charges on such a shipment.