a_, pp. 64-5.

[335] "To take it (the franking privilege) away would be levelling a
deadly stroke at the liberty of the Press; the information conveyed by
franks may be considered as the vital juices, and the channels of the
Post Office as the veins; and if these are stopped, the body must be
destroyed; it is treading on dangerous ground to take any measures that
may stop the channels of public information.... It is the duty of the
members to dispense the newspapers among those people who cannot,
perhaps, otherwise obtain them, under the protection of franks.... The
establishment of the Post Office is agreed to be for no other purpose
than the conveyance of information into every part of the
Union."--_Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States_,
16th December 1791 (pub. Washington, 1849).

[336] "The poisonous sentiments of the cities, concentrated in their
papers, with all the aggravation of such a moral and political cesspool,
will invade the simple, pure, conservative atmosphere of the country,
and meeting with no antidote in a rural Press, will contaminate and
ultimately destroy that purity of sentiment and of purpose which is the
only true conservatism. Fourierism, agrarianism, socialism, and every
other ism, political, moral, and religious, grow in that rank and
festering soil.... Relieve them (the country papers) from the burden of
postage and they can successfully compete with the city publishers.
Reduce the rate of postage on newspapers and pamphlets, and you diffuse
light and knowledge through the land."--Mr. Venables in House of
Representatives, 18th December 1850 (_Congressional Globe_).

[337] I.e. odd packets posted by members of the public, as against the
regular bulk postings of publishers.

[338] _Report of Postmaster-General_, 1892, p. 68.

[339] "The law cannot be so construed as to permit such an abuse--an
abuse that, while operating to load down the mails with immense masses
of stuff of insufficient value to command cash-paying subscribers to any
extent, would be a wrong to every business institution which issues its
advertising circulars and other matter in an undisguised manner and
therefore pays the lawful rate of postage on them."--Ibid., p. 72.

[340] "The most urgent need of the postal service is the rectification
of the enormous wrongs which have grown up in the perversion and abuse
of the privilege accorded by law to second-class matter. This reform is
paramount to al