ments from time to
time have failed to develop any bids for much-needed
service. This is especially true in regard to several of the
countries of South America, with which we have cordial
relations and which, for manifest reasons, should have
direct mail connections with us. I refer to Brazil and
countries south of it. Complaints of serious delay to mails
for these countries have become frequent and emphatic,
leading to the suggestion on the part of certain officials
of the government that for the present and until more
satisfactory direct communication can be established,
important mails should be dispatched to South America by way
of European ports and on European steamers, which would not
only involve the United States in the payment of double
transit rates to a foreign country for the dispatch of its
mails to countries of our own hemisphere, but might
seriously embarrass the government in the exchange of
important official and diplomatic correspondence.

The fact that the government claims exclusive control of the
transmission of letter mail throughout its own territory
would seem to imply that it should secure and maintain the
exclusive jurisdiction when necessary, of its mails on the
high seas. The unprecedented expansion of trade and foreign
commerce justifies prompt consideration of an adequate
foreign mail service.

It is difficult to believe, but it is true, that out of this faulty
ocean mail service the government of the United States is making a large
profit. The actual cost to the government last year of the ocean mail
service to foreign countries other than Canada and Mexico was
$2,965,624.21, while the proceeds realized by the government from
postage between the United States and foreign countries other than
Canada and Mexico was $6,008,807.53, leaving the profit to the United
States of $3,043,183.32; that is to say, under existing law the
government of the United States, having assumed the monopoly of carrying
the mails for the people of the country, is making a profit of
$3,000,000 per annum by rendering cheap and inefficient service. Every
dollar of that three millions is made at the expense of the commerce of
the United States. What can be plainer than that the government ought to
expend at least the profits that it gets from the ocean mail service in
maki