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Show RICH COUNT iT MALLS. Wo publish in the Herald this morning a somewhat lengthy communication communi-cation from Paris, lUoh oounty, on the manner in which the mails have been cirricd, or not carried, to that county. On the same subject colonel Wickizor, special mail agent, is in comm"nication with gonoial C. C. Rich. Colonel Wickizcr went over the route Irom this city to Franklin somo time ago, and would have gone through into Bear Lake valley but found there was some twonty miles of walking on show shoes to do, a trip which was too severe for him to undertake. The people of Kich county have had more complaints to mate with regard to the carrying of mails during iho past eighteen months than we can remember of their having occasion to mako previously since the oounty was sottled. Not only have the mails not been carried promptly during 1 the winter, which is a herculean task over the divide between Cache and Kich counties in severe seasons, but 1 during last summer there were com plaints, and a large number of people who desired to have the Herald hesitated about taking it becau.se they had no certainty of receiving it with aoy degrco of regularity. The existing grievance ia that the mails are not carried as they should be. What arc the oauses? We have inquired in-quired into the matter and have arrived arriv-ed at these conclusions: Captain Howe took the contract too low, just as Mr. Nelson, according to Mr. Hoge's letter, took his sub-contract too low. Neither could perform the service for the amount specified in the contract. But bath had made a contract and were bound by it. The post office department depart-ment expected the mails to bj regularly regu-larly carried, "and the people had a right to expect the same. The error of judgment by which the contract was accopted at too low a figure is ono for which neither the postal department nor the public are responsible. Still, it is a cause which must not be lost sight of when considering the question ques-tion of hiring mail service over so difficult a route as that into Kich county from Cache county. No contractor or sub-contractor has any rijiht to threaten to stop a mail service ser-vice because the public grumble at the mails not being properly carried; nor to stop carrying tho mail for any cause bat a positive imposibility to do so. And Mr. Nelson, if ho stopped mail service as alleged, should remain without with-out his thousand dollars indefinitely, for if ho made a clear contract to carry tho mails properly, he violated it and should be without remedy. The same rule applies to captain Howe, who, we understand, has not yet been paid, and by the terms of his contraot is not required to pay iMr. Nelson until un-til he receives his own pay. The people of Kich county should have their mails regularly, promptly, and as the postal department pays for them being carried. Colonel Wickizer, we believe, has energetically endeavored endea-vored to have the mails properly and faithfully carried in all parts of the Territory, but still complaints come in, and none stronger than from Bear Lake. it seems that the quickest remedy will be to have the route chauged and send the Kich county mails from K vans ton up Bear River valley, and put the mail service in the hinds of competent sub-contractors who, understanding their duties to the public and the postal department, will h nctly and honorably perform them. |
