OCR Text |
Show THE CUBA MAIL. It is said that Judge Bryant, Assistant Attorney-General for the Postoffice Department, De-partment, has informed the Postmaster-General Postmaster-General that bids for carrying the mails between Key West and Cuba may be entertained en-tertained from persons who are not American Ameri-can citizens. This announcement seems to have startled the Maritime Exchange, although why it should is difficult to understand. un-derstand. The greater part of American trans-Atlantic mails are carried by foreign ships, and they are carried by foreign ships because in some instances there are no American ships going to the ports for I which the mail is destined. In other in stances foreign ships carry the United States mail because they do it cheaper than American boats will, and do it with greater' dispatch. Most of the United States mail destined for England and the Continent is carried by English ships and there has been no complaint about the matter, mat-ter, so long as the service was well done, and why should bids for carrying United States mails between Key West and Cuba j be restricted to American citizens? If American citizens will carry the mails between the places named for the same compensation and with the same dis-. patch and safety as one who is not an American citizen will do it, then the preference should be given to the American Ameri-can citizen, but not otherwise. The business busi-ness of carrying mails is not primarily to furnish freight to American ships, but to afford a rapid and 'safe interchange of commercial and other correspondence, and the csmtoany . or persons who will do this withthl greatest dispatch, regularity and safety and for the lowest compensation should be. given the contract. If a person who is not an American citizen will deliver the mail in Havana ten hours sooner than o"ne who is an American citizen, should the public be made to wait for its mail that an I American may. carry it? |