Postal service -- United States -- Second-class matter
That should make up a pretty fair collection of departmental argument,
views, opinions and “estimates,” should it not? It is very doubtful,
though--debatable, if not doubtful--if the collection is worth $50,000.
Especially does such a valuation appear questionably excessive, when it
is observed that much of the collection is made up of public documents,
the findings of former postal commissions and committees, and of reports
and showings made up by the Postoffice Department at departmental
expenditure of time and money, and not at an expense chargeable to the
Commission’s appropriation. Of course the Hughes Commission may not
have followed the precedent set by most prior postal Commissions, and
by commissions in general. The Hughes Commissioners may not have spent
all of their $50,000 appropriation. Let us hope they did not. However, a
statement of expenditures actually made would be, by some of us at least,
an appreciated “exhibit.”
Another feature of the Commission’s 108-page report that deserves special
attention is the close adherence of its findings to _the findings of
present postal officials_. Even in cases where the opinions of past
officials are quoted commendingly, the opinions usually support and
bolster the opinions of Mr. Hitchcock and his assistants. The report
presents a number of tabulations, among which are several that are
most excellent and informative. However, the tabulations, and the more
important conclusions of the text as well, are based upon “estimates,”
rather than upon ascertained facts. Then, too, these estimates, as is
somewhat annoyingly evident, are all, or nearly all, the departmental
estimates of the present Administration. Of course, that should in no
way impair their value or dependability and it probably would not, but
for two facts: The present Postmaster General has, for two years or
more, displayed great activity--at times, a fevered if not frenzied
activity--to secure the enactment of laws and issuance of executive
orders to accomplish results which, while they may appear most desirable
to him, were considered by many _thousands_ of our people as being very
objectionable, indeed, inimical to the fundamental right of free speech
in this country and a menace to a free press and to popular education.
The “estimates” which the Hughes Commission has published as basis for
its findings quite uniformly, if not entirely, support the contentions
which the Postmaster General has been making--at times, making with
little or no warrant of fact to support.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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