Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 1.djvu/861



If any person shall enclose or conceal a letter or other thing, or any memorandum in writing in a newspaper, or among any package of newspapers, which he shall have delivered into any post-office, or to any person for that purpose, in order that the same may be carried by post, free of letter postage, he shall forfeit the sum of five dollars for every such offence; and the letter, newspaper, package, memorandum, or other thing, shall not be delivered to the person to whom it is directed, until the amount of single letter postage is paid for each article of which the package shall be composed.

No newspapers shall be received by the postmasters to be conveyed by post, unless they are sufficiently dried and enclosed in proper wrappers, on which, besides the direction, shall be noted the number of papers which are enclosed for subscribers, and the number for printers.

The Postmaster General, in any contract he may enter into for the conveyance of the mail, may authorize the person with whom such contract is to be made, to carry newspapers, magazines and pamphlets other than those conveyed in the mail.

When the mode of conveyance, and the size of the mails will admit of it, magazines and pamphlets may be transported in the mail at one cent a sheet for any distance not exceeding fifty miles, at one cent and a half for for any distance over fifty and not exceeding one hundred miles, and two cents for any greater distance.

. And be it further enacted, That the Postmaster General be authorized to allow to the postmasters, respectively, such commission on the monies arising from the postages of letters and packets, as shall be adequate to their respective services and expenses: Provided, that the said commission shall not exceed thirty per cent. on a sum over one hundred, and not more than three hundred; and twenty per cent. on any sum over four hundred and not exceeding two thousand dollars; and eight per cent. on any sum collected, being over two thousand four hundred dollars; except to the postmasters, who may be employed in receiving and dispatching foreign mails, whose compensation may be augmented, not exceeding twenty-five dollars, in one quarter, and excepting to the postmasters, at offices where the mail is regularly to arrive between the hours of nine o’clock at night, and five o’clock in the morning; whose commission on the first hundred dollars, collected in one quarter, may be increased to a sum not exceeding fifty per cent. The Postmaster General may allow to the postmasters, respectively, a commission of fifty per cent. on the monies arising from the postages of newspapers, magazines and pamphlets; and to the postmasters, whose compensation shall not exceed five hundred dollars, in one quarter, two cents for every free letter delivered out of the office, excepting such as are for the postmaster himself; and each postmaster, who shall be required to keep a register of the arrival and departure of the mails, shall be allowed ten cents for each monthly return which he makes thereof to the General Post-Office.

. And be it further enacted, That if any postmaster, or other person authorized to receive the postages of letters and packets, shall neglect or refuse to render his accounts, and pay over to the Postmaster General the balance by him due at the end of every three months, it shall be the duty of the Postmaster General to cause a suit to be commenced against the person or persons so neglecting or refusing: and if the Postmaster General shall not cause such suit to be commenced within six months from the end of every such three months, the balances due from every such delinquent shall be charged to and recoverable from the Postmaster General.

That all suits which shall be hereafter commenced for the recovery of debts or balances due to the general post-office, whether they appear