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Show TO CARRY OCEAN MAILS- Waanamaaar lavltan: Propumtia From the OwDiri f Airirriean ataitrcmhlpy. Washington, July 16. A formal notice of the postoilice department inviting in-viting proposals for ocean mail lettings has been issued. It cites the act of March 31, 1WH, and is unusually explicit, ex-plicit, because the act of congress requires re-quires the advertising of the route, which must be set forth in full and all the details of time, tr'ps, etc. The law requires thq insertion of tho advertisement advertise-ment in at least two daily papers of fourteen of the principal cities, but no appropriation was made for advertising, so the postmaster-general is hampered by the small appropriation mado annually annu-ally to cover tiio ordinary advertising of the department. Proposals are invited from steamship companies for carrying the American mails to foreign countries in vessels of American build or construction, arid of the highest speed in their respective classes, over routes minutely described. The advertisement is the result of three months of conference at the department. depart-ment. In 'the fiscal year ended June Sto, 1h0, just sixty cents were earned by American ships in carrying United States mails to Europe. During the same period there was paid to foreign ships i 1,3.17.608 for conveying mails from the I'nilcd States to Europe. 'J'Ua postmaster-general souks by advertisement adver-tisement to change this unfavorable showing by putting a lirst-class rapid weekly service on two transatlantic routes, oue to Great Britain direct and the other to a continental port. He in eks, also, by similar means to expedite expe-dite and make more frequent and reliable re-liable tho mails to Central and South American ports, and to Australia ami Asia. Details of these arrangements appear iu tho advertisement. |