by any member of Congress or delegate receiving seeds for distribution from said Department, together with agricultural reports emanating from that Department, and so transmitted, shall, under such regulations as the Postmaster-General shall prescribe, pass through the mails free of charge. And the provisions of this section shall apply to ex-members of Congress and ex-delegates for the period of nine months after the expiration of their terms as members and delegates. (18 Stat. 343.)

This section was part of the postal service appropriation act for the fiscal year 1876, cited above.

The words "Commissioner of Agriculture" inclosed in brackets in this section, were superseded by the provisions making the Department of Agriculture an Executive Department under the control, and supervision of a Secretary of Agriculture, of Act Feb. 9, 1889, c. 122, § 1, ante, § 789.

Bulletins issued by experiment stations were required to be transmitted free in the mails by Act March 2, 1887, c. 314, § 4, post, § 8882.

§ 7381. (Act March 1, 1899, c. 327, § 4.) Franking privilege extended to Hawaiian Islands.

The franking privilege, as the same is regulated by law, shall extend to the Hawaiian Islands. (30 Stat. 966.)

This was a provision of the postal service appropriation act for the fiscal year 1900, cited above.

The provisions of this section preceding this paragraph, related to an investigating commission previously created. They are omitted, as temporary merely. The franking privilege was regulated by Act March 3, 1875, c. 128, §§ 5, 7, Act March 3, 1877, c. 103, §§ 5, 7, Act March 3, 1879, c. 180, § 29, as amended by Act July 5, 1884, c. 234, § 3, Act July 2, 1886, c. 611, Act Jan. 12, 1895, c. 23, § 85, Act Feb. 20, 1897, c. 268, and Act April 28, 1904, c. 1759, § 7, ante, §§ 7377-7380.

§ 7382. (Act June 26, 1906, c. 3546.) Matter admitted to mails under penalty privilege restricted to matter admissible on prepayment of postage.

Hereafter no article, package, or other matter, except postage stamps, stamped envelopes, newspaper wrappers, postal cards, and internal-revenue stamps, shall be admitted to the mails under a penalty privilege, unless such article, package, or other matter, except postage stamps, stamped envelopes, newspaper wrappers, postal cards, and internal-revenue stamps would be entitled to admission to the mails under laws requiring payment of postage. (34 Stat. 477.)

This was a provision of the postal service appropriation act for the fiscal year 1907, cited above.

Provisions for transmission through the mails, free of postage, of matter relating to official business, when indorsed as prescribed, were contained in Act March 3, 1877, c. 103, §§ 5, 6, ante, §§ 7369, 7370.

§ 7383. (Act June 26, 1906, c. 3546.) Lending or permitting use of frank by or for any committee, organization, etc., unlawful. Hereafter it shall be unlawful for any person entitled under the law to the use of a frank to lend said frank or permit its use by any committee, organization, or association, or permit its use by any person for the benefit or use of any committee, organization, or association:

Provided, That this provision shall not apply to any committee composed of Members of Congress. (34 Stat. 477.)

This was a provision of the postal service appropriation act for the fiscal year 1907, cited above.

Provisions conferring the franking privilege, were made by Act April 28, 1904, c. 1759, § 7, ante, § 7379.

§ 7384. (Act April 27, 1904, c. 1612.) Reading matter for the blind to be transmitted free.

Books, pamphlets, and other reading matter in raised characters for the use of the blind, whether prepared by hand or printed, in single volumes, not exceeding ten pounds in weight, or in packages, not exceeding four pounds in weight and containing no advertising or other matter whatever, unsealed and when sent by public institutions for the blind, or by any public libraries, as a loan to blind readers, or when returned by the latter to such institutions or public libraries, shall be transmitted in the United States mails free of postage, and under such regulations as the Postmaster-General may prescribe. (33 Stat. 313.)

This was an act entitled "An act to promote the circulation of reading matter among the blind."

Magazines, periodicals, etc., for the use of the blind were to be transmitted in the mails free of postage by a provision of Act Aug. 24, 1912, c. 389, § 1, post, 7385.

§ 7385. (Act Aug. 24, 1912, c. 389, § 1.) Magazines, periodicals, etc., for the blind to be transmitted free.

Hereafter magazines, periodicals, and other regularly issued publications in raised characters for the use of the blind, whether prepared by hand or printed, which contain no advertisements and for which no subscription fee is charged, shall be transmitted in the United States mails free of postage and under such regulations as the Postmaster General may prescribe. (37 Stat. 551.)

This was a provision of the postal service appropriation act for the fiscal year 1913, cited above.

Books, pamphlets, and other reading matter for the blind were to be transmitted free to or from public institutions or libraries to blind readers by Act April 27, 1904, c. 1612, ante, § 7384.

Sec.

government department or bureau; restriction of rate. 7396. Letter-sheet envelopes, double postal cards, double-letter envelopes.

7397. Deliveries of postal cards, etc., by contractor.

7398. Improvements in stamps and envelopes.

Sec.

7399. Sale of stamps at post-offices. 7400. Price of stamped envelopes, etc., sold by Post-Office Department. 7401. Stamps and envelopes at a discount.

7402. Selling stamps at more than face. 7403. Stamps to be defaced.

7404. Uniform ink or appliance for canceling postage-stamps.

§ 7386. (R. S. § 3914.) Postage stamps.

The Postmaster-General shall prepare postage-stamps of suitable denominations, which, when attached to mail-matter, shall be evidence of the payment of the postage thereon.

Act June 8, 1872, c. 335, § 168, 17 Stat. 304.

Provisions for the manufacture of special delivery and adhesive postage stamps by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing were made by Act April 21, 1902, c. 563, § 1, post, § 7387.

§ 7387. (Act April 21, 1902, c. 563, § 1.) Special delivery and postage stamps; manufacture by Bureau of Engraving and Printing.

Hereafter, when in the opinion of the Postmaster-General the interests of the Post-Office Department require it, the manufacturing of special-delivery and adhesive postage stamps may be done by the Treasury Department (Bureau of Engraving and Printing), in conformity with an agreement satisfactory to both the Postmaster-General and the Secretary of the Treasury. (32 Stat. 117.)

This was a proviso annexed to an appropriation for the manufacture of postage and special delivery stamps in the postal service appropriation act for the fiscal year 1903, cited above.

Provisions authorizing the Postmaster-General to prepare postage stamps were made by R. S. § 3914, ante, § 7386. Provisions for special delivery stamps were made by Act March 3, 1885, c. 342, § 3, ante, § 7284.

Contracts for manufacture of stamps, etc., were not to be made with any Department or Bureau below the cost of such work, by a provision of Act June 26, 1906, c. 3546, post, § 7388.

§ 7388. (Act June 26, 1906, c. 3546.) Contracts for manufacture of stamps, etc., by Department or Bureau, not to be below cost of work.

No contract for the manufacture of adhesive postage stamps, special-delivery stamps, or books of stamps shall be made by the Government with any Department or Bureau of the Government below the cost of such work to the Government. (34 Stat. 475.)

This was a proviso annexed to an appropriation for manufacture of postage stamps, etc., in the postal service appropriation act for the fiscal year 1907, cited above.

§ 7389. (R. S. § 3915.) Stamped envelopes.

The Postmaster-General shall provide suitable letter and newspaper envelopes, with such water-marks or other guards against counterfeits as he may deem expedient, and with postage-stamps with such device and of such suitable denominations as he may direct,

impressed thereon; and such envelopes shall be known as "stamped envelopes," and shall be sold, as nearly as may be, at the cost of procuring them, with the addition of the value of the postage-stamps impressed thereon; but no stamped envelope furnished by the Government shall contain any lithographing or engraving, nor any printing except a printed request to return the letter to the writer. Letters and papers inclosed in such stamped envelopes shall, if the postage-stamp is of a denomination sufficient to cover the postage properly chargeable thereon, pass in the mail as prepaid matter.

Act June 8, 1872, c. 335, § 169, 17 Stat. 304.

This section was amended by Act Feb. 27, 1877, c. 69, § 1, 19 Stat. 250, by adding at the end thereof a provision requiring the Postmaster-General to prepare special stamps or stamped envelopes for official business. Such special stamps or stamped envelopes were abolished, and so much of this section as related to stamps and stamped envelopes for official purposes was repealed by Act March 3, 1879, c. 180, § 29, as amended by Act July 5, 1884, c. 234, § 3, ante, § 7371.

The provision of this section that stamped envelopes should not contain any lithographing, etc., nor printing, except a printed request to return the letter to the writer, was re-enacted by Act June 23, 1874, c. 456, § 1, post, § 7390.

Return requests on envelopes furnished by the Postmaster-General were permitted by Act March 3, 1893, c. 213, § 1, post, § 7391.

The Postmaster-General was required to contract for all envelopes, stamped or otherwise, designed for the public or for the Departments, by the Printing and Binding Act of Jan. 12, 1895, c. 23, § 96, 28 Stat. 624, which was superseded by similar provisions of Act June 26, 1906, c. 3546, post, § 7388.

§ 7390. (Act June 23, 1874, c. 456, § 1.)

Stamped envelopes not to contain any lithographing, etc., nor printing, except return request.

Hereafter no envelope, as furnished by the Government, shall contain any lithographing and engraving, nor any printing except a printed request to return the letter to the writer. (18 Stat. 231.)

This was a provision following an appropriation for the manufacture of stamped envelopes and wrappers in the postal service appropriation act for the fiscal year 1875, cited above.

This provision re-enacted a similar provision regarding stamped envelopes, of R. S. § 3915, ante, § 7389.

§ 7391. (Act March 3, 1893, c. 213, § 1.) Return requests on stamped envelopes.

It shall be lawful after the thirtieth day of September, eighteen hundred and ninety-four, for the Postmaster-General to have the usual requests for the return of letters, printed upon stamped envelopes sold by the Post-Office Department through postmasters. (27 Stat. 733.)

This was a provision following an appropriation for the manufacture of stamped envelopes, etc., in the postal service appropriation act for the fiscal year 1895, cited above.

It superseded the provisions prohibiting the Postmaster-General from printing return requests on envelopes sold by postmasters, made by Act July 13, 1892, c. 165, § 1, 27 Stat. 147, and may be regarded as restoring the provisions on this subject contained in R. S. § 3915, and in Act June 23, 1874, c. 456, § 1, ante, § 7390.

§ 7392. (Act June 26, 1906, c. 3546.) Contracts for envelopes by Postmaster-General.

The Postmaster-General is authorized to extend, for a period not exceeding six months, the contract for official, registry, and deadletter envelopes for the postal service for the calendar year ending December thirty-first, nineteen hundred and six; and thereafter the Postmaster-General shall contract, for a period not exceeding four years, for all envelopes, stamped or otherwise, designed for sale to the public, or for use by the Post-Office Department, the postal service, and other Executive Departments, and all Government bureaus and establishments, and the branches of the service coming under their jurisdiction, and may contract for them to be plain or with such printed matter as may be prescribed by the Department making requisition therefor: Provided, That no envelope shall be sold by the Government containing any lithographing or engraving, nor any printing nor advertisement, except a printed request to return the letter to the writer. (34 Stat. 476.)

These were provisions of the postal service appropriation act for the fiscal year 1907, cited above.

They superseded previous provisions relating to the same subject, made by the Printing and Binding Act of Jan. 12, 1895, c. 23, § 96, 28 Stat. 624.

R. S. § 3735, provided that it should not be lawful for any of the Executive Departments to make contracts for stationery or other supplies for a longer term than one year from the time the contract is made. This section was not to apply to contracts for mail-bags, mail-locks and keys, postal cards, postage-stamps, newspaper wrappers, or stamped envelopes, by Res. March 24, 1874, No. 6, ante, § 7260.

§ 7393. (R. S. § 3916.) Postal cards.

To facilitate letter correspondence, and to provide for the transmission in the mails, at a reduced rate of postage, of messages, orders, notices, and other short communications, either printed or written in pencil or ink, the Postmaster-General is authorized and directed to furnish and issue to the public, with postage-stamps impressed upon them, "postal cards," manufactured of good stiff paper, of such quality, form, and size as he shall deem best adapted for general use; which cards shall be used as a means of postal intercourse, under rules and regulations to be prescribed by the Postmaster-General, and when so used shall be transmitted through the mails at a postage charge of one cent each, including the cost of their manufacture.

Act June 8, 1872, c. 335, § 170, 17 Stat. 304.

Postal cards were required to be transmitted through the mails at a postage of one cent each, including the cost of manufacture, by Act March 3, 1879, c. 180, § 9, ante, § 7353.

Restrictions on contracts for manufacture of postal cards and bids therefor by any department or bureau of the government were imposed by a provision of Act May 12, 1910, c. 230, post, § 7395.

§ 7394. (Act June 11, 1880, c. 206, § 1.) International postal cards. The Postmaster-General is hereafter authorized to furnish and issue to the public, postal cards with postage-stamps impressed upon them, for circulation in the mails exchanged with foreign countries under the provisions of the Universal Postal Union Convention of