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Show tho letter limsi alio ril remarkable report of n THE LETTER EXPRESS BUSINESS. <br><br> The somewhat remarkable report of a Commission of Post Office officials, recommending the suppression of the letter-express business of Wells, Fargo & Co., enumerates as one of the offenses of the Company the well-known fact that that Company endeavors, by every means in its power to render its service more effective than the regular service, and adds that it has thereby become a "formidable competitor with the Government for public patronage." It is also stated that the "Express Company employs four or five hundred agents, some of whom are Postmasters. The people of the Pacific Coast who remember the time when but for the facilities afforded by this Express, communications between different towns and cities would have been neither speedy nor certain, will not be convinced by this reasoning that its letter express business should be suspended. It is precisely because the Company has used every means in its power to make its service more efficient than the Government service, that the bulk of important correspondence is now intrusted [entrusted] to its care, though at an increased expense to the sender. The fact that the Company has been liberal, enterprising and faithful will not condemn it on this coast, though it may in Washington. The plea of the Post office Commission is simply that a more enterprising rival may be forbidden to do business, as its business management affords a basis for comparison which is not always pleasant to Government officials. The alleged objections that the Express Company carries its own and the Central Pacific and Western Union, correspondence without charge, is no objection at all, as such conveyance of letters is admitted in the report to be unlawful. To correct this abuse, if it exists, it is only necessary to execute the laws as they stand. It will not be at all difficult by affixing penalties to the violation of law to prevent what is termed unlawful practices by a responsible company. -San Francisco Coll. |