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diff --git a/27196.txt b/27196.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..637ea9b --- /dev/null +++ b/27196.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4644 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Cheap Postage by Joshua Leavitt + + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no +restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under +the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or +online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license + + + +Title: Cheap Postage + +Author: Joshua Leavitt + +Release Date: November 7, 2008 [Ebook #27196] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHEAP POSTAGE*** + + + + + + CHEAP POSTAGE + + REMARKS AND STATISTICS + + ON THE SUBJECT OF + + CHEAP POSTAGE AND POSTAL REFORM + + IN + + GREAT BRITAIN AND THE UNITED STATES. + + BY JOSHUA LEAVITT, + + COR. SEC. OF THE CHEAP POSTAGE ASSOCIATION. + + "The well-ordering of the Postes is a Matter of General Concernment, and +of Great Advantage, as well for the preservation of Trade and Commerce as + otherwise."--Statute of Charles II. + + Boston + + Published for the Cheap Postage Association; + + By Otis Claps, Treasurer, + + No. 12, School Street. + + 1848 + + + + + +CONTENTS + + +PUBLISHING DIRECTION. +CHEAP POSTAGE. +APPENDIX. +Footnotes + + + + + + +PUBLISHING DIRECTION. + + +Subjoined are the proceedings under which the following sheets were +prepared and are now published: + +"At a meeting of the _Board of Directors_ of the CHEAP POSTAGE +ASSOCIATION, on the 31st of March, 1848, Dr. Howe, Dr. Webb, and Mr. +Leavitt were appointed a Committee of Publication. And on motion of Dr. +Samuel G. Howe, it was + +"_Voted_, That the Publishing Committee be authorized to procure the +compilation of a pamphlet on the subject of Cheap Postage and Postal +Reform. + +"At a meeting of the Board, on the 25th of April, 1848, Mr. Leavitt, the +Corresponding Secretary, on behalf of the Publishing Committee, reported +the copy of a pamphlet on the subject prescribed. And on motion of Mr. +Moses Kimball, it was + +"_Voted_, That the pamphlet be printed for general circulation, under the +direction of the Publishing Committee." + +J. W. JAMES, +_Chairman of the Board_. + +CHARLES B. FAIRBANKS, _Recording Secretary_. + +BOSTON, April 26, 1848. + +BOSTON: +PRINTED BY FREEMAN AND BOLLES, +DEVONSHIRE STREET. + + + + + +CHEAP POSTAGE. + + +For more than eight years, the people of Great Britain have enjoyed the +blessing of Cheap Postage. A literary gentleman of England, in a letter to +his friend in Boston, dated London, March 23, 1848, says--"Our Post Office +Reform is our greatest measure for fifty years, not only political, but +educational for the English mind and affections. If you had any experience +of the exquisite convenience of the thing, your speech would wax eloquent +to advocate it. With your increasing population, a similar measure must +soon pay; and it will undoubtedly increase the welfare and _solidarite_ of +the United States." + +Mr. Laing, a writer of eminence, said four years ago, "This measure will +be the great historical distinction of the reign of Victoria I. Every +mother in the kingdom, who has children earning their bread at a distance, +lays her head upon her pillow at night with a feeling of gratitude for +this blessing." + +An American gentleman, writing from London, in 1844, says, "It is hardly +possible to overrate the value of this [cheap postage] in regard to the +exertion of moral power. At a trifling expense one can carry on a +correspondence with all parts of the kingdom. It saves time, facilitates +business, and brings kindred minds in contact. How long will our +enlightened government adhere to its absurd system?" + +The London Committee, who got up a national testimonial for Mr. Rowland +Hill, speak of cheap postage as "a measure which has opened the blessings +of free correspondence to the teacher of religion, the man of science and +literature, the merchant and trader, and the whole British nation, +especially to the poorest and most defenceless portion of it--a measure +which is _the greatest boon conferred in modern times on all the social +interests of the civilized world_." + +The unspeakable benefits conferred by cheap postage upon the people, are +equalled by its complete success as a governmental measure. The gross +receipts of the British Post-office had remained about stationary for +thirty years, ranging always in the neighborhood of two millions and a +quarter sterling. In the year 1839, the last year of the old system, the +gross income was L2,390,763. In the year 1847, under the new system, it +was L1,978,293, that is, only L413,470 short of the receipts under the old +system. A letter from Mr. Joseph Hume, M. P., to Dr. Thomas H. Webb, of +Boston, dated London, March 3, 1848, says, "I am informed by the General +Post-office, that the gross revenue this year will equal, it is expected, +the gross amount of the postage in the year before the postage was +reduced." Mr. Hume also encloses a tabular statement of the increase of +letters, together with a copy of the Parliamentary return, made the +present year, showing the fiscal condition and continued success of the +Post-office. He sends also, a copy of a note which he had just written to +Mr. Bancroft, our Minister at the Court of St. James, as follows: + +(COPY.) + +Bry. Square, 2d March, 1848. + +_My Dear Sir_, + +I have the pleasure to send you the copy of a paper I have prepared, at +the request of Mr. Webb, of Boston, to show the progress of increase of +the number of letters by the post-office here, since the reduction of the +postage, and I hope it may induce your government to adopt the same +course. + +I am not aware of any reform, amongst the many reforms that I have +promoted during the last forty years, that has had, and will have better +results towards the improvement of this country, morally, socially and +commercially. + +I wish as much as possible that the communication by letters, newspapers +and pamphlets, should pass between the United States and Great Britain as +between Great Britain and Ireland, as the intercommunication of knowledge +and kindly feelings must be the result, tending to the promotion of +friendly intercourse, and to maintain peace, so desirable to all +countries. + +Any further information on this subject shall be freely and with pleasure +supplied by, yours, sincerely, + +(Signed) JOSEPH HUME. + +His Excellency George Bancroft. + +MR. HUME'S TABLE. + +_Estimate of the number of chargeable Letters delivered in the United +Kingdom in each year, from_ 1839 _to_ 1847.(1) + +Year. Number of Letters. Annual Increase. Increase per cent. + Millions. Millions. on the No. for 1839. +1839. 76(2) +1840. 169 93 123 +1841. 196-1/2 27-1/2 36 +1842. 208-1/2 12 16 +1843. 220-1/2 12 16 +1844. 242 21-1/2 28 +1845. 271-1/2 29-1/2 39 +1846. 299-1/2 28 37 +1847. 322 22-1/2 30 + +The most important of the tables contained in the parliamentary return +will be given in the appendix, either entire, or so as to present the +material results in their official form. The contents of that document +have not, to my knowledge, been in any manner brought before the people of +the United States. + +It is humiliating to think, that while a system fraught with so many +blessings has been so long in operation, and with such signal success as a +financial measure, in a country with which our relations are so intimate, +I should now begin to prepare the first pamphlet for publication, designed +to give the American people full information on the subject; this +publication being the first effort of the first regularly organized +society, now just formed, for the purpose of securing the same blessings +to the citizens of this republic, which the British Parliament enacted, +after full investigation, nine years ago. If we look at the various +political questions which have already in those eight years grown +"obsolete," after occupying the public mind and engrossed the cares of our +statesmen, to the exclusion of the great subject of cheap postage, and +consider their comparative importance, we shall be satisfied that it is +now high time for a determined effort to satisfy the people of the United +States with regard to the utility and practicability of cheap postage. + +Prior to the year 1840 the postal systems of Great Britain and the United +States were constructed on similar principles, and the rates of postage +were nearly alike. Both were administered with a special view to the +amount of money that could be realized from postage. In Great Britain, the +surplus of receipts above the cost of administration was carried to the +general treasury. In the United States, the surplus received in the North +was employed in extending mail facilities to the scattered inhabitants of +the South and West. In Great Britain, private mails and other facilities +had kept the receipts stationary for twenty years, while the population of +the country had increased thirty per cent., and the business and +intelligence and wealth of the country in a much greater ratio. In the +United States, there was a constant increase of postage, although by a +less ratio than the increase of population, until the year 1843, when, +through the establishment of private mails, the gross receipts actually +fell off, and it became apparent that the old system had failed, and could +never be reinvigorated so as to make the post-office support itself, +without a change of system. + +In Great Britain, the government, after full investigation, became +satisfied that it was impossible to suppress the private mails except by +under-bidding them, which they also ascertained that the government, by +its facilities, could afford to do. They also became satisfied that no +plan of partial reduction of postage could restore the energy of the +system, but the only hope of ultimate success was in the immediate +adoption of the lowest rate. And although the public debt presses so +heavily as to put every administration to its utmost resources for +revenue, they resolved to risk the whole net revenue then realized, equal +to above a million and a half sterling, as the best thing that could be +done. In the United States, the government, without extensive examination, +resolved to do what the British government dared not attempt, that is, to +put down the private mails by penal enactments. It also resolved to adopt +a partial reduction of the rates of postage; and without regarding the +mathematical demonstration of its futility, persevered in regarding +distance as the basis of the rates of charge. + +A few extracts from the Debates in Parliament, will show several of these +points in a striking light: + + + The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Francis Baring, on first + introducing the bill, July 5, 1839, declared his conviction that + the loss of revenue at the outset would be "very considerable + indeed." He said the committee had considered that "two pence + postage could be introduced without any loss to the revenue," but + he differed from them, and found "the whole of the authorities + conclusively bearing in favor of a penny postage." And he + "conscientiously believed that the public ran less risk of loss in + adopting it." Referring to the petitions of the people, he said, + "The mass of them present the most extraordinary combination I + ever saw, of representations to one purpose, from all classes, + unswayed by any political motive whatever, from persons of all + shades of opinion, political and religious, and from the + commercial and trading communities in all parts of the kingdom." + + + Mr. GOULBURN, then one of the leaders of the opposition, opposed + so great a sacrifice of revenue, in the existing state of the + country, but admitted that it would "ultimately increase the + wealth and prosperity of the country." And if the experiment was + to be tried at all, "it would be best to make it to the extent + proposed," for "the whole evidence went to show that a postage of + two pence would fail, but a penny might succeed." + + + Mr. WALLACE declared it "one of the greatest boons that could be + conferred on the human race," and he begged that, as "England had + the honor of the invention," they might not "lose the honor of + being the first to execute" a plan, which he pronounced + "essentially necessary to the comforts of the human race." + + + Sir ROBERT PEEL, then at the head of the opposition, found much + fault with the financial plans of Mr. Baring, but he "would not + say one word in disparagement of the plans of Mr. Hill;" and if he + wanted popularity, "he would at once give way to the public + feeling in favor of the great moral and social advantages" of the + plan, "the great stimulus it would afford to industry and + commercial enterprise," and "the boon it presented to the lower + classes." + + + Mr. O'CONNELL thought it would be "one of the most valuable + legislative reliefs that had ever been given to the people." It + was "impossible to exaggerate its benefits." And even if it would + not pay the expense of the post-office, he held that "_government + ought to make a sacrifice for the purpose of facilitating + communication_." + + + _July_ 12, the debate was resumed. + + + Mr. POULETTE THOMPSON showed the impossibility of making a correct + estimate of the loss of revenue that would accrue. One witness + before the committee stated that there would be no deficiency; + another said it would be small; while Lord Ashburton declared that + it would amount to a sacrifice of the whole revenue of the + post-office. + + + Mr. WARBURTON denied that the post-office had ever been regarded + as a mere matter of revenue; the primary object of its institution + was to contribute to the convenience of the people; its advantages + ought to be accessible to the whole community, and not be made a + matter of taxation at all. + + + VISCOUNT SANDON, of the opposition, said he had long been of the + opinion that the post-office was not a proper source of revenue, + but it "ought to be employed in stimulating other sources of + revenue." + + + _July_ 22, another discussion came on. + + + Sir ROBERT PEEL admitted that "great social and commercial + advantages will arise from the change, independent of financial + considerations." + + + _August_ 5, the bill was taken up by the peers. + + + VISCOUNT MELBOURN, in opening the debate, dwelt upon the + extraordinary extent of the contraband conveyance of letters, as + the effect of high postage, and said this made it necessary to + protect both the revenue and the morals of the people by so great + a reduction. The means of evasion were so organized, and resort to + them was so easy, and had even become a habit, that persons would, + for a very small profit, follow the contraband trade of conveying + letters. It was therefore clearly necessary to make the reduction + to such an extent as would ensure the stopping of the contraband + trade. + + + The DUKE OF WELLINGTON admitted "the expediency, and indeed the + necessity" of the proposed change. He thought Mr. Hill's plan "the + one most likely to succeed." He found fault with the financial + plans of the administration, but for the sake of the reform of the + post-office, he said, "I shall, although with great reluctance, + vote for the bill, and I earnestly recommend your lordships to do + the same." His customary mode of expressing his opinions. + + + LORD ASHBURTON expected the cost of the department, under the new + system, would amount to a million sterling, which must be made up + out of several pence before you could touch one farthing of the + present income of a million and six hundred pounds. There could be + no doubt that the country at large would derive an immense + benefit, the consumption of paper would be increased considerably, + and it was most probable the number of letters would be at least + doubled. It appeared to him a tax upon communication between + distant parties was, _of all taxes, the __ most objectionable_. At + one time he had been of the opinion that the uniform charge of + postage should be two pence, but _he found the mass of evidence so + strongly in favor of one penny_, that he concluded the ministers + were right in coming down to that rate. + + + The EARL OF LICHFIELD, Postmaster-General, said the leading idea + of Mr. Rowland Hill's book seemed to be "the fancy that he had hit + upon a scheme for recovering the two millions of revenue which he + thought had been lost by the high rates of postage." His own + opinion was, that the recovery of the revenue was totally + impossible. He therefore supported the measure on entirely + different grounds from those on which Mr. Hill placed it. In + neither house had it been brought forward on the ground that the + revenue would be the gainer. He assented to it on the simple + ground that THE DEMAND FOR IT WAS UNIVERSAL. So obnoxious was the + tax upon letters, that he was entitled to say that "the people had + declared their _readiness to submit to any impost_ that might be + substituted in its stead." + + +The proof is thus complete, that the British system was actually adopted +with sole reference to its general benefits, and the will of the people, +and not at all in the expectation of realizing, in any moderate time, as +much revenue as was derived from the old postage. The revenue question was +discarded, from a paramount regard to the public good, which demanded the +cheap postage, even if it should be necessary to impose a new tax for its +support. The extravagant expectations of some of the over-sanguine friends +of the new system, were expressly disclaimed, and the government justified +themselves on these other considerations entirely--considerations which +have been most abundantly realized. It will be easy to show that the +benefits and blessings anticipated from the actual enjoyment of cheap +postage, have fully equalled the most sanguine expectations of the friends +of the measure, and have far exceeded in public utility, the pittance of +income to the treasury, which used to be wrung out by the tax upon +letters. The same examination will also show, that there is no substantial +reason, either in the system itself, or in any peculiarity of our +circumstances, why the same system is not equally practicable and equally +applicable here, nor why we should not realize at least as great benefits +as the people of Great Britain, from cheap postage. + +Mr. Rowland Hill published his scheme in a pamphlet, in 1837. In 1838, it +had attracted so much notice, that between three and four hundred +petitions in its favor were presented to Parliament, and the government +consented to a select committee to collect and report information on the +subject. This committee sat sixty-three days, examined the +Postmaster-General and his secretaries and solicitors, elicited many +important tabular returns, and took the testimony of about ninety other +individuals, of a great variety of stations and occupations. They also +entered into many minute and elaborate calculations, which give to their +results the value of mathematical demonstration. Their report, with the +accompanying documents, fills three folio volumes of the Parliamentary +Papers for 1838. Its investigations were so thorough, its deductions so +cautious and candid, and its accumulations of evidence so overwhelming +that they left nothing to be done, but to adopt the new system entire. + +In this country, no such pains were taken to collect facts, no means were +used to spread before the people the facts and mathematical calculations +and irrefragable arguments of the parliamentary committee; little study +was bestowed on the subject even by our legislators but with a prejudged +conclusion that the reasonings and facts applicable to Great Britain could +not apply here, on account of the length of our routes and the sparseness +of our population, a partial reduction was resolved upon, which retained +the complication and the cumbersome machinery of the old system, while +affording only a small portion of the benefits of the new. + +The effect has been, that while the British system has gone on gathering +favor and strength, the American system, after less than three years' +trial, has already grown old, the private mails are reviving, the +ingenuity of men of business is taxed to evade postage, and a growing +conviction already shows itself, that the half-way reduction is a failure, +and it is time to make another change. That is to say, the partial +reduction has failed to meet the wishes of the people, or the wants of the +public interest, or the duty of the government in discharging the trust +imposed by the constitution. Indeed, there ought not to be a great deal of +labor required to prove that there is only one right way, and that the +right way is the best way, and that it is better to adopt a scientifically +constructed machine, which has been proved to be perfect in all its parts, +than a clumsy contrivance, the working principle of which is contradicted +by mathematical demonstration. I propose to present several of the main +principles involved in the reduction of postage, illustrated by facts +drawn from the parliamentary papers, and from other authentic sources. + +I. _Reduction of Price tends to increase of Consumption._ + +Our own partial reform in postage proves this. In a report of the +committee on post-offices and post-roads, made to the House of +Representatives, May 15, 1844, it is said, + +"Events are in progress of fatal tendency to the Post-office Department, +and its decay has commenced. Unless arrested by vigorous legislation, it +must soon cease to be a self-sustaining institution, and either be cast on +the treasury for support, or suffered to decline from year to year, till +the system has become incompetent and useless. The last annual report of +the Postmaster-General shows that, notwithstanding the heavy retrenchments +he had made, the expenditures of the department, for the year ending June +30th, 1843, exceeded its income by the sum of $78,788. The decline of its +revenue during that year was $250,321; and the investigations made into +the operations of the current year, indicate a further and an increasing +decline, at the rate of about $300,000 a year. Why this loss of revenue, +when the general business and prosperity of the country is reviving, and +its correspondence is on the increase?" + +The report of the Senate Committee at the same session, made Feb. 22, +1844, says that "the cause of this great falling off, in a season of +reviving prosperity in the trade, business and general prosperity of the +country, cannot be regarded as transient, but, on the contrary, is shown +to be deep and corroding. The cause is the dissatisfaction felt generally +through the country, but most strongly in the densely peopled regions to +with the rates of postage now established by law, and the frequent resort +to various means of evading its payment." + +The result was the passage of the act, now in force, by which the postage +was reduced one half, to begin on the first day of July, 1845. The last +annual report of the Postmaster-General gives the result. He says: + +"It is gratifying to find that, within so short a period after the great +reduction of the rates of postage, the revenues of the department have +increased much beyond the expectation of the friends of the cheap postage +system, while the expenditures, for the same time, have diminished more +than half a million of dollars annually, and that the department is in a +condition to support itself, without further aid from the treasury." + +The number of chargeable letters passed through the mails in 1843, was +stated in the Report at 24,267,552, yielding the sum of $3,525,268. The +number for the year ending June 30, 1847, was 52,173,480, yielding +$3,188,957. Thus the reduction of price one half, has in two years more +than doubled the consumption, and already yields nearly an equal product. + +The experiment in Great Britain shows that a still greater reduction may +be perfectly relied upon to give a rate of increase fully proportionable. +The "Companion to the British Almanac," for 1842, says, "The rate of +postage in the London district, (which includes the limits of the old two +penny post,) averaged 2-{~VULGAR FRACTION ONE THIRD~}_d._ per letter, before the late changes; at +present it averages about 1-1/4_d._, and the gross revenue already equals +that of 1835. The gross receipts in 1838, the last complete year under the +old system, were L118,000; the gross revenue for 1840, the first complete +year under the new system, was $104,000." + +The parliamentary committee, in their report in 1838, state, as the result +of all their inquiries, that the total number of chargeable letters +passing through the post-office annually, was about 77,500,000; franks, +7,000,000; total of letters, 84,500,000. The average postage per letter +was 7_d._ The gross receipts annually, for six years, ending with 1820, +were L2,190,597. For six years, ending with 1837, they averaged +L2,251,424. For the year 1847, the number of letters was 320,000,000, and +the gross receipts nearly equal to the old system. Here a reduction of the +price three-fourths, has increased the consumption fourfold. Some other +cases of similar bearing, may be worth stating, taken chiefly from the +parliamentary documents. + +Before the reduction of the duty on newspapers in England, the price was +7_d._, and the number sold in a year was 35,576,056, costing the public +L1,037,634. On the reduction of the duty, the price was reduced to +4-3/4_d._, and the public immediately paid L1,058,779, for 53,496,207 +papers. + +Under the high duty on advertisements, when the price was 6_s._ each, the +number was 1,010,000, costing L303,000. By the reduction of the duty, the +price fell to 4_s._, and the number rose to 1,670,000, costing L334,000. + +Formerly the fee of admission to the Armory of the Tower of London was +3_s._, at which rate there were in 1838, 9,508 visitors, who paid L1,426. +In 1839, the fee was reduced to 1_s._, and there were 37,431 visitors, who +paid L1,891. In 1840, the fee was reduced to 6_d._, and the number of +visitors in nine months was 66,025, who paid L1,650. During the entire +year ending January 31, 1841, there were 91,897 visitors, who paid L2,297. + +The falling of the price of soap one-eighth, increased the consumption +one-third; the falling of tea one-sixth, increased consumption one-half; +the falling of silks one-fifth, doubled the consumption; of coffee +one-fourth, trebled it, and of cotton goods one-half quadrupled it. + +A multitude of similar facts could be collected in our own country, +showing the uniform and powerful tendency of diminished cost to increased +consumption. A gentleman who is interested in a certain panorama said +that, in a certain case, the exhibiter wrote to him that the avails, at a +quarter of a dollar per ticket, were not sufficient to pay expenses. "Put +it down to twelve and a half cents," was the reply. It was done, and +immediately the receipts rose so as to give a net profit of one hundred +dollars a week. + +These facts prove that there is a settled law in economics, that in the +case of any article of general use and necessity, a reduction in the price +may be expected to produce at least a corresponding increase of +consumption, and in many cases a very largely increased expenditure. So +that the amount expended by the people at low prices will be fully equal +to the amount expended for the same at high prices. The people of England +expend now as much money for postage, as they did under the old system, +but the advantage is, that they get a great deal more service for their +money, and it gives a spring to business, trade, science, literature, +philanthropy, social affection, and all plans of public utility. + +II. _Nothing but Cheap Postage will suppress Private Mails._ + +It is true that, in this country, private mails are not of so long +standing, nor so thoroughly systematized as they were in Great Britain +before the adoption of cheap postage. But on the other hand, the state of +things in this country affords much greater facilities for that business, +and renders their suppression by force of law much more difficult and more +odious than in Great Britain. + +On this head, the report of the Parliamentary Committee contains a vast +mass of information, which made a deep and conclusive impression, upon the +statesmen of that country. They found and declared that, "with regard to +large classes of the community, those classes principally to whom it is a +matter of necessity to correspond on matters of business, and to whom also +it is a matter of importance to save, or at least to reduce the expense of +postage, the post-office, instead of being viewed as it ought to be, and +as it would be under a wise administration of it, as an institution of +ready and universal access, distributing equally to all, and with an open +hand, the blessings of commerce upon civilization, is regarded by them as +an establishment too expensive not to be made use of, and as one with the +employment of which any endeavor to dispense by every means in their +power." And among "the commercial and trading classes, by dint of the +superior activity, had in a considerable degree relieved themselves from +the pressure of this tax, without the interference of the legislature, by +devising other means for the cheap, safe and expeditious conveyance of +letters." Some specimens of these expedients, as developed by the evidence +before the Parliamentary Committee, will be at once curious and +instructive. + + + M. B. Peacock, Esq., solicitor to the post-office, detailed the + methods which the department had used to suppress the illicit + sending of letters. By law, one half of the penalty, in cases of + prosecution, went to the informer, but of late, informations were + given much less frequently, and he thought the diminution of + informations was owing to the fact that, about five years before, + there had been a call in parliament for a return of the names of + informers. He said the post-office had done all in its power to + put a stop to the illegal sending, _but without success_. And he + was decidedly of opinion, that the prevention is beyond the power + of the post-office, and could only be done by reducing the rates + of postage. + + + Mr. G. R. Huddlestone, superintendent of the ship-letter office, + gave an account of the illicit sending of letters from London to + the outports to go by sea. He said they were customarily sent in + bags from the coffee houses, and by the owners of vessels, in the + same way as from the ship letter office, and no means had been + devised which could put a stop to it. Of 122,000 letters sent from + the port of Liverpool in a year, by the American packets, only + 69,000 passed through the post-office. The number of letters + received inwards, from all parts of the world, by private ships, + was 960,000 yearly; the number sent outwards through the + post-office, was but 265,000. In the year ending October 5, 1837, + there were forty-nine arrivals of these packets, bringing 282,000 + letters. The number of letters forwarded from London by post to + Liverpool for these lines, was 11,000; the number received in + London from these lines, was 51,000 a year. + + + Mr. Banning, postmaster at Liverpool, stated that, in return for + 370,000 ship letters received at his office in a year, addressed + to persons elsewhere than at Liverpool, only 78,000 letters passed + through that office to be sent outwards. And yet the masters of + vessels assured him that the number of letters they conveyed + outwards was quite equal to the number brought inwards. + + + Mr. Maury, of Liverpool, said that on the first voyage of the + Sirius steamship to America, only five letters were received at + the post-office to go by her, while at least 10,000 were sent in a + bag from the consignee of the ship. + + + Mr. Bates stated that the house of Baring & Co. commonly sent two + hundred letters a week, in boxes, from London to Liverpool, to go + to America--equal to 10,000 a year. + + +These things were done under the very eye of the authorities, and yet no +means had been found to prevent it. What police can our government +establish, strict enough to do what the British government publicly +declared itself unable to do? + +The correspondence, of the manufacturing towns, it appeared, was carried +on almost entirely in private and illicit channels. In Walsall, it was +testified that, of the letters to the neighboring towns, not one-fiftieth +were sent by mail. Mr. Cobden said that not one-sixth of the letters +between Manchester and London went through the post-office. Mr. Thomas +Davidson, of Glasgow, stated the case of five commercial houses in that +city, whose correspondence sent illegally was to that sent by post in the +ratio of more than twenty to one; one house said sixty-seven to one. + +In Birmingham, a system of illicit distribution of letters had been +established through the common-carriers to all the neighboring towns, in a +circuit of fifteen miles, and embracing a population of half a million. +The price of delivering a letter in any of these places was 1_d._, and for +this the letters were both collected and delivered. Women were employed to +go round at certain hours and collect letters. They would collect them for +2_d_. per hundred, and make a living by it. The regular postage to those +towns was 4_d_., besides the trouble of taking letters to the post-office. +Hence there was both economy and convenience in the illicit arrangement. +The practice had existed for thirty years, and when it was brought in all +its details to the notice of parliament, no man seems to have dreamed that +it was in the power of the government to suppress it by penal enactments. + + + An individual, whose name and residence are, for obvious reasons, + suppressed, gave the committee a full description of these private + posts. He said that, in the year 1836, he kept an account of his + letters; that the number sent by the post-office was 2068, and + those sent by other means were 5861. Of these, about 5000 were to + places within twenty miles, all of which were sent for 1_d_. each. + Some carriers made it their sole business to carry letters. Some + of them travelled on foot; others went by the stage coach to the + place, and then distributed their letters. He found the practice + prevailing when he began his apprenticeship in 1807. The + population of the district thus accommodated was from 300,000 to + 500,000. The practice was notorious, and used by all persons + engaged in business. The object of a great deal of the + correspondence was to convey orders, notes of inquiry, and other + information to and from the small manufacturers, to whom it would + be a tax of twenty-five per cent. on their earnings, if the + letters were sent through the post-office at 4_d_. The letters + were commonly wrapped up in brown paper, or tied with a string, + some directed and some not. Very few persons thought about the + practice being illegal. He had never heard of an attempt by the + post-office to institute legal proceedings. It would absorb the + whole revenue of the post-office to carry on the prosecutions that + would be required to stop it, and without any effect, as most of + the carriers were worth nothing. To suppress it by law, would be + very injurious to the trade of the place. The only way to + supersede it is to reduce the postage to 1_d_. Were this done, the + post-office would be preferred, for its greater certainty, even + though the carriers would go for a halfpenny. The post-office + would unquestionably receive more money by the change. + + + "E. F.", a manufacturer, described what he called the + _free-packet_ system. Those manufacturers who did much business + with London, in forwarding parcels through the stage coaches, were + allowed by the coach proprietors to send a "free-packet," without + any charge, except 4_d_. for booking; and this package contained + not only the letters and patterns of the house itself, but of + others, who thus evade the postage. + + + "G. H." had been a carrier, from a town in Scotland to other + towns. There were six carriers, and they all carried letters, + generally averaging fifty a day, and realizing from 6_s_. to 7_s_. + per day, although there were four mails a-day running from the + town. The business was kept in a manner secret. Reducing the + postage to 2_d_. would not stop the practice, because the carriers + would still take the letters for 1_d_.; but a penny postage would + bring all the letters into the post-office, and then the + post-office would beat the smuggler. + + + Mr. John Reid, of London, formerly an extensive bookseller in + Glasgow said his house used to send out twenty to twenty-five + letters a day, and scarcely ever through the post. Of 20,000 times + of infringing the post-office laws, he was never caught but once, + and then the government failed in proof, and he had the matter + exposed as a grievance in the house of commons. He had seen a + carrier in Glasgow have more than 300 letters at a time, which he + delivered for 1_d_. Nearly all the correspondence between Glasgow + and Paisley, was by carriers. There were 200 carriers came to + Glasgow daily. There was as regular a system of exchanging bags, + as in the post-office. There was not much attempt at concealment; + sometimes we got frightened, and sometimes we laughed at the + postmasters. Of his own letters, about one in twenty of those + sent, and one in twelve of those received, passed through the + post-office. The only way to put an end to the smuggling of + letters was to remove the inducement. He said he could send + letters to every town in Scotland. He could do it in more ways + than one. He declined to state in what ways he would do it, + because the disclosure would knock up some convenient modes he had + of ending his own letters, and those of others. He said he would + never use the post-office in an illegal manner, as by writing on + newspapers and the like, because that would be dishonestly + availing himself of the post-office, without paying for it. But he + considered _he had a right to send his letters as he pleased_. He + did not feel it his duty to acquiesce in a bad law, but thought + every good man should set himself against a bad law, in order to + get it repealed. Some of the methods of evading postage, practised + in Scotland, are amusing. One was through what he called "family + boxes." When a student from the country comes to Glasgow to attend + the college, he usually receives a box, once or twice a week, from + his family, who send him cheese, meal, butter, cakes, &c., which + come cheaper from the farm-house than he can purchase them in + town. Probably, also, his clean linen comes in this way. The + moment it was known that any family had a son at the university, + the neighbors made a post-office of that farm-house. + + +The committee, in their report, concur in the opinion expressed by almost +all the officers of the department, that it was not by stronger powers to +be conferred by the legislature, nor by rigor in the exercise of those +powers, that illicit conveyance could be suppressed. The post-office must +be enabled _to recommend itself to the public mind_. It must secure to +itself a virtual monopoly, by the greater security, expedition, +punctuality, _and cheapness_, with which it does its work, than can be +reached by any private enterprise. + +With this nearly all the witnesses also agree, although some of them +thought it possible that a less extreme reduction of the rate of postage +might have kept out the private mails, if it had taken place earlier, +before these illicit enterprises had obtained so firm a footing. + + + Lord Ashburton, who was examined before the committee, said that + had a uniform rate of 2_d_., or even 3_d_. been adopted + heretofore, most persons would sooner pay it than look out for the + means of evading it. + + + Mr. Cobden, of Manchester, said a 6_d_. rate between Manchester + and London would increase but slightly the number of letters, + since the sending of letters clandestinely has become a trade, + which would not be easily broken down. The railroads which are now + opening to all parts of the country will so increase the + facilities for smuggling, as _to counteract any reduction_ of from + twenty to fifty per cent. on the postage. No small reduction will + induce the people to write more. A reduction to one half of the + present rates would certainly be a relief to his trade, as far as + it went, that is, to all such as now pay the full rate; but he + thinks it would not induce the poorer classes to use the + post-office. It would occasion a loss to the revenue of fifty per + cent. + + + Mr. W. Brown, merchant of Liverpool, was sure a reduction to half + the present rates would give satisfaction to the public, but would + not meet the question, and would not prevent smuggling. + + + I. J. Brewin, of Cirencester, one of the Society of Friends, + considered the effect of a two penny rate would be, that the + post-office would get the long jobs, but not the short ones. + + + Lieutenant F. W. Ellis, auditor of district unions in Suffolk, + under the poor law commissioners, said that 2_d_. would not have + the effect of 1_d_. in bringing correspondence to the post-office, + because by carriers, and in other ways, letters are now conveyed + for 1_d_. + + +The evidence seems to have produced a universal and settled conviction, +that as far as the contraband conveyance of letters was an evil, either +financial or social, there was no remedy for it but an absolute reduction +of the postage to 1_d_. There were large portions of the country in which +the government could control the postage at a higher rate, 2_d_. or even +3_d_.; but in the densely populated districts, where the greatest amount +of correspondence arises, and where are also the greatest facilities for +evading postage, no rate higher than 1_d_. would secure the whole +correspondence to the mails. They therefore left the penal enactments just +as they were, because they might be of some convenience in some cases. Mr. +Hill declared his opinion that it would be perfectly safe to throw the +business open to competition, for that the command of capital, and other +advantages enjoyed by the post-office, would enable it to carry letters +more cheaply and punctually _than can be done_ by private individuals. And +the result shows that he was right; for the contraband carriage of letters +is put down. The Companion to the British Almanac, for 1842, says, "The +illicit transmission of letters, and the evasions practised under the old +system to avoid postage, _have entirely ceased_." + +All this experience, and all these sound conclusions, are doubtless +applicable in the United States, with the additional considerations, of +the great extent of country, the limited powers of the government, the +entire absence of an organized police, and the fact that the federal +government is to so great a degree regarded as a stranger in the States. +Shall a surveillance, which the British government has abandoned as +impracticable, be seriously undertaken at this day by the congress of the +United States? + +III. _The Postage Law of 1845._ + +The Postage Act, passed March 3, 1845, which went into operation on the +1st of July of that year, was called forth by a determination to destroy +the private mails; and this object gave character to the act as a whole. +The reports of the postmaster-general, and of the post-office committees +in both houses of congress, show that the end which was specially aimed at +was to overthrow these mails. The Report of the House Committee, presented +May 15, 1844, says: + + + "Events are in progress of fatal tendency to the post-office + department, and its decay has commenced. Unless arrested by + vigorous legislation, it must soon cease to exist as a + self-sustaining institution, and either be cast on the treasury + for support, or suffered to decline from year to year, till the + system has become impotent and useless. The last annual report of + the postmaster-general shows that, notwithstanding the heavy + retrenchments he had made, the expenditures of the department for + the year ending June 30, 1843, exceeded its income by the sum of + $78,788. The decline of its revenue during that year was $250,321; + and the investigations made into the operations of the current + year, indicate a further and an increasing decline, at the rate of + about $300,000 a year." + + + "This illicit business has been some time struggling through its + incipient stages; for it was not until the year commencing the 1st + July, 1840, that it appears to have made a serious impression upon + the revenues of the department. It has now assumed a bold and + determined front, and dropped its disguises; opened offices for + the reception of letters, and advertised the terms on which they + will be despatched out of the mail." + + + "The revenue for the year ending June 30, 1840, was $4,539,265; + for the last year it was $4,295,925; and indications show that for + the present year it will not be more than $3,995,925." + + + "The number of chargeable letters in circulation, exclusive of + dead letters, during the year ending June 30, 1840, may be assumed + at 27,535,554. The annual number now reported to be in + circulation, is 24,267,552. Thus, 3,268,000 letters a year and + $543,340 of annual revenue, are the spoils taken from the mails by + cupidity." + + +The Report of the Senate Committee has this remark: + + + "We have seen in the outset that something _must_ be done; that + the revenues of the department are rapidly falling off, and a + remedy must in some way be found for this alarming evil, or the + very consequences so much dreaded by some from the reduction + proposed, will inevitably ensue; namely, a great curtailment of + the service, or a heavy charge upon the national treasury for its + necessary expenses. It is believed that in consequence of the + disfavor with which the present rates and other regulations of + this department are viewed, and the open violations of the laws + before adverted to, that not more than, if as much as one half the + correspondence of the country passes through the mails; the + greater part being carried by private hands, or forwarded by means + of the recently established private expresses, who perform the + same service, at much less cost to the writers and recipients of + letters than the national post-office. It seems to the committee + to be impossible to believe that there are but twenty-four or + twenty-seven millions of letters per year, forwarded to distant + friends and correspondents in the United States, by a population + of twenty millions of souls; whilst, at the same time, there are + _two hundred and four millions_ and upwards of letters passing + annually through the mails of Great Britain and Ireland, with a + population of only about twenty-seven millions." + + +The Senate Report recommended the reduction of the rates of postage to +five and ten cents, an average of seven and a half cents, with a very +great restriction of the franking privilege, on which it was confidently +estimated that the revenues of the department, for the first year of the +new system, would be $4,890,500; and that the number of chargeable letters +would be sixty millions. The House Report recommended stringent measures +to suppress the private mails, with the abolition of franking, without any +reduction of postage, except to substitute federal coin for Spanish. It +estimated the increase of letters to be produced by reducing the rates to +five and ten cents, at only thirty per cent. in number, thus reducing the +postage receipts at once to two and a half millions of dollars. It will be +seen that each of these calculations has been proved to be erroneous. + +The great postage meeting in New York, held in December, 1843, had asked +for a uniform rate of five cents. After stating the advantages of the +English system, their committee still hung upon the length of the routes +in this country as a reason against the adoption of the low rate of +postage. They said, + + + "It is plain that a similar system may be introduced with equally + satisfactory results in the United States. On account, however, of + the vast distances to be traversed by the mail-carriers, and the + great difficulties of travel in the unsettled portions of our + country, our petition asks that the rate be reduced to five cents + for each letter not more than half an ounce in weight--which is + more than double the uniform postage in Great Britain. It is a + rate which would not only secure to the post-office the transport + of nearly all the letters which are now forwarded through private + channels, but it would largely increase correspondence, both of + business and affection. + + + "Above all, the _franking privilege_ should be abolished. Unless + this is done, nothing can be done. It will be impossible, without + drawing largely upon the legitimate sources of the national + revenue, to sustain the post-office by any rates whatsoever, if + this franking privilege shall continue to load the mails with + private letters which everybody writes, and public documents which + nobody reads." + + +The bill was passed, but the franking privilege was continued, and yet the +Postmaster-General has told us that the current income of the department +is equal to its expenses. The predictions to the contrary were very +confident. Some of the gloomy forebodings then uttered, are worthy of +being recalled at this time. + + + "The post-office department estimates that the deficiency in the + revenue of the department, under the new law, will be about + $1,500,000, this year."--_Boston Post._ + + + "An additional tax of $1,500,000, to be raised to meet the + deficiencies of the department, in a single year, must principally + come from the pockets of farmers, (who write few letters, and are + consequently less benefited by the reduction of postage,) in the + shape of additional tariff duties upon articles which they + consume."--_New Hampshire Patriot._ + + + "A CAUTION.--Some people may be deceived on the subject of cheap + postage, unless they take a 'sober second thought.' A part of + those who are so strenuous for cheap postage are not quite so + disinterested as would at first appear. They are seeking to pay + their postage bills out of other people's pockets. Look at this + matter. I am an industrious mechanic, for example, and I have + little time to write letters. My neighbor publishes school-books, + and he wishes to be sending off letters, recommendations, puffs, + &c., by the hundred and by the thousand. This is his way of making + money. Now, he wishes the expenses of the post-office department + to be paid out of the treasury, and then I shall have to help him + pay his postage, while he will only pay his national tax, + according to his means, as I do mine. If he is making his money by + sending letters, he should pay the whole cost of carrying those + letters. I ought not to pay any part of it, in the way of duties + on sugar, &c. Let every man pay his own postage. Is not this fair? + But this will not be the case if the post-office department does + not support itself. The cheap postage system may injure the poor + man, instead of helping him."--_Philad. North American._ + + + "As for the matter of post-office reform, and reduction of the + rates of postage, there are not _one thousand_ considerate and + reflecting people, in the Union, who desire or demand anything of + the kind. + + + "The commercial and mercantile classes have not desired 'reform;' + and the rural and agricultural classes, the planters of the South, + and the corn and wheat growers of the West, the mechanics and + laboring classes, are not disposed to be _taxed_ enormously to + support a post-office department to gratify the avarice and + cupidity of a body of sharpers and speculators."--_Madisonian._ + + + "THE NEW POSTAGE LAW.--The following statement has been furnished + us of the amount of postage chargeable on letters forwarded by the + New York and Albany steamboats: + + + The last thirteen days of June, $99.66 + First thirteen days of July, (same route,) 53.90 + Decrease, $45.76. + + + _Albany Argus._ + + + "I inquired at the post-office to-day for information. One of the + gentlemanly clerks of that establishment said to me, 'Well, Mr. + Smith, I can't give you all the information you desire, but I can + say thus much. I this morning made up a mail for Hudson; it + amounted to _seventy cents_; the same letters under the old law, + and in the same mail, would have paid _seven dollars_. Now you can + make your own deductions.' I then inquired of the same gentleman, + if the increase of letters had been kept up since the 1st of July. + He replied '_no_,' but added, 'the increase of numbers is somewhat + encouraging, but not sufficiently so to justify the belief that + the new law will realize the hopes of its advocates.' "--_N. Y. + Correspondent of Boston Post._ + + + "From the city post-office we learn that the number of letters, + papers, and packages, passing through their hands, unconnected + with the business of the government, has increased about 33 per + cent., when compared with the business of the month of June. The + gross amount of proceeds from postage on these has fallen off + nearly 66 per cent., while the postage charged to the government + for its letters, &c., received and sent, is enormous. For the + post-office department alone, it is said to reach near $40,000 for + the month just past."--_Washington Union, Aug. 2._ + + + "We observe in the Eastern papers some paragraphs about the + working of the new law, in which they suppose it will work well. + Unquestionably it will work well for those who have to pay the + postage; but as to the _revenue_, it will not yield even as much + as the opponents of the system supposed. We do not believe the + receipts will equal one half received under the old system. We are + told that the experience of the first week in Cincinnati does not + show more than _one quarter_ the receipts. + + + "Private correspondence is increased a little; but the falling off + in the mercantile increase is immense. It cannot be otherwise; for + many letters now pay 10 cents which formerly paid a dollar. Double + and treble letters pay no more than single letters. In large + cities three-fourths of the postage is paid by _business letters_. + These letters are nearly all double and treble. A double letter + from Cincinnati to New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore, or + New Orleans, before, paid 50 cents; now it pays 10 cents. The + largest portion of postage is reduced to _one-fifth_ part of the + former postage. + + + "We are well pleased, however, that it will turn out as it will. + The law will be too popular with the people to be repealed; and it + will oblige Mr. James K. Polk's administration to provide ways and + means out of the tariff to meet a deficiency of two millions in + the postage. This will work favorably to the tariff. + + + "All things will come right in the end. The lower the postage the + more economical the post-office department must be, and the more + money the government must raise from the tariff."--_Cleveland + Herald._ + + + "Mr. McDuffie is reported to have made the following correct and + just remarks, showing he understands well the operations of that + Department. If the bill shall become a law, our word for it, that + in less than six months one-fourth the offices in the Union will + be discontinued, because nobody will be found who will keep them. + But let the bill go into operation, and in less than twelve months + the very clamorers for low rates of postage will become so sick of + it, that they will be the first to unite in demanding its repeal. + If we supposed our advice would have any influence, we would + recommend to the Department and all Postmasters to hold on to the + old books, arrangements and fixtures, even if the bill does pass, + because in two weeks after Congress shall meet next year, it will + be repealed and the old order restored."--_Kentucky Yeoman._ + + + " 'Mr. McDuffie rose, evidently much excited, and after expressing + his regret that bodily infirmity disabled him to give the strength + of his convictions in regard to the evils which would flow from + the bill, he protested against its passage, as a measure more + radical and revolutionary than anything that had ever been done by + Congress. He denounced it as most unjust. It removes the burden + from those who ought to have it, the manufacturers and merchants + of the North, and throws it upon the farmers of the South and + West, who are already oppressed by the tariff, and who will have + to pay the expense by a tax on their necessaries. + + + " 'You will sacrifice the intelligence of the people to the + rapacity of the manufacturers. He could not imagine that the + agriculturist anywhere could feel postage as a burden; it is but a + moderate compensation for services rendered by the government. A + poor man pays $10 duty on his sugar, salt and iron, and now you + make him pay the postage. You will break up one half of the + smaller offices, you will in ten years make the post-office the + greatest organ of corruption the country has ever seen, and the + man who wields its patronage can command the sceptre. By throwing + it on the treasury, you destroy the responsibility of the head of + the department, and in ten years you will have it cost you ten + millions of dollars.' " + + + Instead of a revenue of nearly four millions, it is therefore + probable that the revenue of the first year of the experiment will + not much exceed a million and a half. It will be remembered that + Congress appropriated $750,000 to make up the expected deficiency; + but this will fall far below the necessities of the service; and + it is very probable that this sum will be consumed in the payments + of the contracts for the two first quarters. They are very busy at + the Department sending off letter balances, the postage of which + will of course constitute a charge on the Treasury; and as the + postage on each of these packets will amount to about three times + as much as the first cost of the balances, the Department will + make money out of this transaction.--_Charleston Mercury._ + + + "I voted against this act. It is probable that a reduction might + have been made in the rates of postage which would not have + diminished the amount of revenue; but the reduction made by this + act is too great, and will have the effect of throwing the + Post-Office Department as a heavy charge on the general treasury, + which has not been the case heretofore. The post-office tax was + the only one in which the North and the East bore their share + equally with the South and the West. We would all like to have + cheap postage; and if that were the only consideration involved, I + would have voted for the act; but there were others which + influenced me to oppose it. The reduction of postage will cause a + diminution in the post-office revenue, which must be supplied by + the _general treasury_. The treasury collects the revenue which + must supply this deficiency, by a duty levied on imports; so that + the tax taken off of the _mail correspondence_ will have to be + collected on _salt_, _iron_, _sugar_, _blankets_, and other + articles which we buy from the stores. The manufacturing States + profit by this, because it aids the _protective_ policy. I might + add other objections, but deem it unnecessary at present."--_Letter + of Hon. D. S. Reid, of ----, to his constituents._ + + +The Postmaster-General, in his report made Dec. 1, 1845, says: + + + "So far as calculations can be relied on, from the returns to the + department, of the operation of the new postage law, for the + quarter ending 30th September last, the deficiency for the current + year will exceed a million and a quarter of dollars; and there is + no reasonable ground to believe that, without some amendment of + that law, it will fall short of a million of dollars for the next + year." + + +The actual deficiency for the year ending June 30, 1846, was only +$589,837; and for the second year above alluded to, ending June 30, 1847, +it was but $33,677. And the Postmaster-General's report for December, +1847, estimates the resources of the department for the year ending June +30, 1848, at $4,313,157, and the expenditures at $4,099,206, giving an +actual surplus of $213,951. If this expectation should be realized, (and +there is hardly a possibility but that it should be exceeded), the income +will exceed the annual average receipts for the nine years before the +reduction of postage, $51,467. The Postmaster-General ascribes the +increase solely to "the reduction in the rates of postage," while nearly a +million of dollars are saved in the expenditures by the provision of the +law of 1845, directing the contracts to be let to the lowest bidder, +without reference to the transportation in coaches. So far, therefore, the +triumph of the law of 1845 has been complete. It has proved that the same +economic law exists here as in England, by which reduction of price leads +to increase of consumption. + +On the other point, however, of meeting the wants of the people, so as to +bring all the correspondence of the country into the mails, its success is +very far from being equally satisfactory. The five and ten cents' postage +does not have the effect of suppressing the private mails and illicit +transportation of letters. + +The report of the House Committee in 1844, showed beforehand that such a +reduction could not have the effect here, just as the parliamentary report +had shown in 1838, that nothing but an absolute reduction to 1_d._ could +suppress the private mails in England. "Individuals can prosecute on all +the large railroad and steamboat routes between the great towns, as now, a +profitable business in conveying letters at three and five cents, where +the government would ask the five and ten cents postages." Hill's New +Hampshire Patriot said, shortly after the act went into operation: + + + "Private expresses _have not_ been discontinued in this quarter. + Far from it. They are now doing as large a business as ever, + carrying letters at half the government rates. And, strange as it + may appear, they appear to be sustained by public opinion. The new + postage act did not abate what is called 'private enterprise,' and + the act itself, it is thought, will soon be found to be + insufficient." + + +The report of the Postmaster-General in 1845, speaks of a practice of +enveloping many letters, written on very thin paper, in one enclosure, +paying postage by the half-ounce, and thus reducing the postage on each to +a trifle. + + + "An incident recently occurred which will forcibly illustrate the + injurious effects of such a practice upon the revenues of the + department. A large bundle of letters was enveloped and sealed, + marked 'postage paid, $1.60.' By some accident in the + transportation, the envelope was so much injured as to enable the + postmaster to see that it contained one hundred letters to + different individuals, evidently designed for distribution by the + person to whom directed, and should have been charged ten dollars. + The continuance of this practice would, in a short time, deprive + the department of a large proportion of its legitimate income. The + department has no power to suppress it, further than to direct the + postages to be properly charged, whenever such practices are + detected. This has also introduced a species of thin, light paper, + by which five or six letters may be placed under one cover, and + still be under the half-ounce." + + +He adds: + + + "The practice of sending packages of letters through the mails to + agents, for distribution, has not entirely superseded the + transmission of letters, over post roads, out of the mails, by the + expresses. The character of this offence is such as to render + detection very uncertain, full proof almost impossible, conviction + rare. The penalties are seldom recovered after conviction, and the + department rarely secures enough to meet the expenses of + prosecution. If the officers of the department were authorized in + proper cases to have the persons engaged in these violations of + the law arrested, their packages, trunks, or boxes, seized and + examined before a proper judicial officer, and, when detected in + violating the law, retained for the examination of the court and + jury, it is believed that the practice could be at once + suppressed." + + +In his last report, December, 1847, he also says that, "Private expresses +still continue to be run between the principal cities, and seriously +affect the revenues of the department, from the want of adequate powers +for their suppression." The complaint is continually, of a want of +adequate powers to suppress the practice. The law of 1845 has gone as far +as could be desired in the severity of penalties and the extent of their +application, involving in heavy fines every person who shall send or +receive letters; and every stage-coach, railroad car, steamboat, or other +vehicle or vessel--its owners, conductors and agents, which may knowingly +be employed in the conveyance of letters, or in the conveyance of any +person employed in such conveyance, under penalty of $50 for each letter +transported. What the post-office department would deem "adequate powers" +for the suppression of illicit letter-carrying, may be seen in the +following extract of a bill, which was actually reported by the +post-office committee of the House of Representatives, and "printed by +order of the House:" + + + "And it shall be lawful for the agents of the post-office, or + other officers of the United States government, upon reasonable + cause shown, to arrest such person or persons, and seize his or + their boxes, bags, or trunks, supposed to contain such mailable + matter, and cause the same to be opened and examined before any + officer of the United States; and if found to contain such + mailable matter, transported in violation of the laws of the + United States, shall be held to bail in the sum of five thousand + dollars, to appear and answer said charge before the next United + States Court to be held in said State, or district of said State; + and upon conviction thereof, shall be fined as aforesaid, one + hundred dollars for each letter, newspaper, or printed sheet so + transported as aforesaid, and shall be held in the custody of the + marshal until the fine and costs are paid, or until otherwise + discharged by due course of law." + + +The report of 1845 thinks there is "no just reason why individuals engaged +in smuggling letters and robbing the department of its legitimate revenues +should not be punished, in the same way and to the same extent, as persons +guilty of smuggling goods; nor why the same means of detection should not +be given to the Post-office Department which are now given to the +Treasury." That is, the power of detention and search in all cases of +suspicion by the agent, that a person is carrying letters. What would be +the effect of carrying out this system, in breaking up the practice +complained of, or what would be the amount of inconvenience to travellers +and to business, of a thorough determination in the department to execute +such a law in the spirit of it, all can judge for themselves. The British +government, as we have seen, dared not entertain such a proposition. I +have no hesitation in saying, that such a system of coercion can never be +successfully executed here. It is better to meet the difficulty, as the +British government did, in a way to make the post-office at once the most +popular vehicle of transmission, and the greatest blessing which the +government can bestow upon the people. The New York Evening Post said, +years ago: + + + "Congress yields, and passes such a law. What then? Is Hydra dead? + By no means, its ninety-nine other heads still rear their crests, + and bid defiance to the secretary and his law. In Pearl street, + there will yet hang a bag for the deposit of the whole + neighborhood's letters,--at Astor House, and at Howard's, at the + American, and at the City Hotels, still every day will see the + usual accumulation of letters,--all to be taken by some 'private,' + trustworthy, obliging wayfarer, and by him be deposited in some + office at Boston, Philadelphia, Albany, Baltimore." + + +I have no doubt that the cheap transmission of letters, out of the mails, +is now becoming systematized and extended between our large cities, and an +immense amount of correspondence is also carried on between the large +cities and the towns around. The Boston Path-Finder contains a list of 240 +"Expresses," as they are called, that is, of common carriers, who go +regularly from Boston to other towns, distant from three miles to three +hundred. Most of these men carry "mailable matter" to a great extent, in +their pockets or hats, in the shape of orders, memorandums, receipts, or +notes, sometimes on slips of paper, sometimes in letters folded in brown +paper and tied with a string, and not unfrequently in the form of +regularly sealed letters. If we suppose each one to carry, on an average, +ten in a day, a very low estimate, there are 750,000 letters brought to +Boston in a year by this channel alone. Everything which calls public +attention to the subject of postage, every increase of business causing an +increase of correspondence between any two places, every newspaper +paragraph describing the wonderful increase of letters in England, will +awaken new desires for cheap postage; and these desires will gratify +themselves irregularly, unless the only sure remedy is seasonably applied. +In the division of labor and the multiplication of competitions, there are +many lines of business of which the whole profits are made up of extremely +minute savings. In these the cost of postage becomes material; and such +concerns will not pay five cents on their letters, when they can get them +taken, carried and delivered for two cents. The causes which created +illicit penny posts in England are largely at work here, with the growth +and systematization of manufactures and trade; and they are producing, and +will produce the same results, until, on the best routes, not one-sixth of +the letters will be carried in the mail, unless the true system shall be +seasonably established. The evils of such a state of things need not be +here set forth. One of the greatest, which would not strike every mind, is +the demoralization of the public mind, in abating the reverence for law, +and the sense of gratitude and honor to the government. + +In this respect, of bringing all the correspondence into the mails, in +furnishing all the facilities and encouragements to correspondence which +the duty of the government requires, in superseding the use of unlawful +conveyances, and in winning the patriotic regards of the people to the +post-office, as to every man's friend, the act of 1845 has entirely +failed. It has not only falsified the predictions of us all in regard to +its productiveness, on the one hand, but it has even convinced the highest +official authority that it has failed to prove itself to be _the_ CHEAP +POSTAGE, which the country needs and will support. In his last annual +report, the Postmaster-General says: + + + "The favorable operation of the act of 1845, upon the finances of + this department, leads to the conclusion that, by the adoption of + such modifications as have been suggested by this department for + the improvement of its revenues, and the suppression of abuses + practised under it, the present low rates of postage will not only + produce revenue enough to meet the expenditures, but will leave a + considerable surplus annually to be applied to the extension of + the mail service to the new and rapidly increasing sections of our + country, or would justify a still further reduction of the rates + of postage. In the opinion of the undersigned, with such + modifications of the act of 1845 as have been suggested, an + uniform less rate might, in a few years, be made to cover the + expenses of the department; but by its adoption the department + would be compelled to rely upon the treasury for a few years. At + this time, during the existence of a foreign war, imposing such + heavy burdens upon the treasury, it might not be wise or prudent + to increase them, or to do anything which would tend to impair the + public credit; and, ON THIS ACCOUNT alone, recommendation for such + a reduction is not made. + + + "Postage is a tax, not only on the business of the country, but + upon the intelligence, knowledge, and the exercise of the friendly + and social feelings; and in the opinion of the undersigned, should + be reduced to the lowest point which would enable the department + to sustain itself. That principle has been uniformly acted on in + the United States, as the true standard for the regulation of + postage, and the cheaper it can be made, consistently with that + rule, the better. + + + "As our country expands, and its circle of business and + correspondence enlarges, as civilization progresses, it becomes + more important to maintain between the different sections of our + country a speedy, safe, and cheap intercourse. By so doing, energy + is infused into the trade of the country, the business of the + people enlarged, and made more active, and an irresistible impulse + given to industry of every kind; by it wealth is created and + diffused in numberless ways throughout the community, and the most + noble and generous feelings of our nature between distant friends + are cherished and preserved, and the Union itself more closely + bound together." + + +Nothing can be more true than the position, that "postage is a tax," and +that it is the duty of the government to make this "tax" as light as +possible, consistent with its other and equally binding duties. Nothing +more sound than the doctrine that it is utterly wrong to charge postage +with _anything more_ than its own proper expenses. Nothing more just than +the estimate here given of the benefits of cheap postage. The blessings he +describes are so great, so real, so accordant with the tone and beneficent +design of civil government itself, and especially to the functions and +duties of a republican government, that I do not think even the existence +and embarrassments of a state of war, such as now exists, are any reason +at all for postponing the commencement of so glorious a measure. If it +could be brought about under the administration of an officer who has +expressed himself so cordially and intelligently in favor of cheap +postage, and whose ability and fidelity in the economical administration +of affairs are so well known, it would be but a fitting response to the +statesmanlike sentiments quoted above. + +I am now to show that, on the strictest principles of justice, on the +closest mathematical calculation, on the most enlarged and yet rigid +construction of the duty imposed on the federal government by our +constitution, two cents per half ounce is the most just and equal rate of +postage. + +IV. _What is the just Rule to be observed in settling the Rates of +Postage?_ + +The posting of letters may be looked at, either as a contract between the +government and the individuals who send and receive letters, or as a +simple exercise of governmental functions in discharging a governmental +duty. The proper measure of the charge to be imposed should be considered +in each of these aspects, for the government is bound to do that which is +right in both these relations. + +Viewed simply as a contract, or a service rendered for an equivalent, what +would be the rate to be charged? Not, surely, the amount it would cost the +individual to send his own particular letter. The saving effected by the +division and combination of labor is a public benefit, and not to be +appropriated as an exclusive right by one. In this view, the government +stands only in the relation of a party to the contract, just as a state or +a town would do, or an individual. No right or power of monopoly can enter +into the calculation. We can illustrate the question by supposing a case, +of a town some thirty miles from Boston, to which there has hitherto been +no common-carrier. The inhabitants resolve to establish an express, and +for this purpose enter into negotiations with one of their neighbors, in +which they agree to give him their business on his agreeing to establish a +reasonable tariff of prices for his service. If the number of patrons is +very small, they cannot make it an object for the man to run his wagon, +unless they will agree to pay a good price for parcels. And the more +numerous the parcels are, the lower will be the rate, within certain +limits, that is, until the man's wagon is fairly loaded, or he has as much +business as he can reasonably attend to. This is on the supposition that +all the business is to come from one place. But if there are intermediate +or contiguous places whose patronage can be obtained to swell the amount +of business, there should be an equitable apportionment of this advantage, +a part to go to the carrier for his additional trouble and fair profits, +and a part to go towards reducing the general rate of charge. If, however, +the carrier has an interest in a place five miles beyond, which he thinks +may be built up by having an express running into it from Boston, although +the present amount of business is too small to pay the cost, and if, for +considerations of his own advantage, he resolves to run his wagon to that +place at a constant loss for the present, looking to the rise of his +property for ultimate remuneration, it would not be just for him to +insist, that the people who intend to establish an express and support it +for themselves, shall yet pay an increased or exorbitant price for their +own parcels, in order to pay him for an appendage to the enterprise, for +which they have no occasion, and as such he himself undertakes for +personal considerations of is own. + +And if he should be obstinate on this point, they would just let him take +his own way, and charge prices to suit himself, while they proceeded to +make a new bargain with another carrier, who would agree to accommodate +them at reasonable prices adjusted on the basis of their patronage. And if +an appeal should be made to their sympathy or charity, to help the growing +hamlet, they would say, that it was better to give charity out of their +pockets than by paying a high price on their parcels; for then those would +give who were able and willing, and would know how much they gave. This +covers the whole case of arranging postage as a matter of equal contract. +The just measure of charge is, the lowest rate at which the work can be +afforded by individual enterprise on the best self-supporting routes. +Plainly, no other rate can be kept up by open competition on these routes. +And if these routes are lost by competition, you must charge +proportionably higher on the rest, which will throw the next class of +routes into other hands, and so on, until nothing is left for you but the +most costly and impracticable portions of the work. + +The only material exception to this rule would be, where there is an +extensive and complicated combination of interests, among which the +general convenience and even economy will be promoted by establishing a +uniformity of prices, without reference to an exact apportionment of +minute differences. + +It can be easily shown, that all these considerations would be harmonized +by no rate of postage on letters, higher than the English 1_d._, or with +us two cents for each half ounce. Considered as a business question, +unaffected by the assumed power of monopoly by the government, the +reasonings of the parliamentary reports and the results of the British +experiment abundantly establish this rate to be the fair average price for +the service rendered. A moderate business can live by it, if economically +conducted, and a large business will make it vastly profitable, as is seen +in the payment of four or five millions of dollars a year into the public +treasury of Great Britain, as the net profits of penny postage. + +If we look at the post-office in the more philosophical and elevated +aspect of a grand governmental measure, enjoined by the people for the +good of the people, we shall be brought to a similar conclusion. The +constitutional rule for the establishment of the post-office, is as +follows: + + + "Congress shall have power to-- + + + "Establish post-offices and post-roads." + + +This clause declares plainly the will of the people of the United States, +that the federal government should be charged with the responsibility of +furnishing the whole Union with convenient and proper mail +privileges--according to their reasonable wants, and the reasonable ability +of the government. This is one point of the "general welfare," for which +we are to look to congress, just as we look to congress to provide for the +general defence by means of the army and navy. It imposes no other +restrictions in the one case than the other, as to the extent to which +provision shall be made--the reasonable wants of the people, and the +reasonable ability of the government. It limits the resources for this +object to no particular branch of the revenue. It gives no sort of +sanction to the so oft-repeated rule, which many suppose to be a part of +the constitution, that the post-office must support itself. Still less, +does it authorize congress to throw all manner of burdens upon the mail, +and then refuse to increase its usefulness as a public convenience, +because it cannot carry all those loads. The people must have mails, and +congress must furnish them. To reason for or against any proposed change, +on the ground that the alternative may be the discontinuance of public +mails, the privation of this privilege to the people, and the winding up +of the post-office system, is clearly inadmissible. When the government +ceases to give the people the privileges of the mail, the government +itself will soon wind up, or rather, will be taken in hand and wound up by +the people, and set a-going again on better principles. The sole inquiry +for congress is, what is the best way to meet the reasonable wants of the +people, by means within the reasonable ability of the government? + +The objects of the post-office system, which regulate its administration, +are well set forth in the Report of the House Committee in 1844: "To +content the man, dwelling more remote from town, with his homely lot, by +giving him regular and frequent means of intercommunication; to assure the +emigrant, who plants his new home on the skirts of the distant wilderness +or prairie, that he is not forever severed from the kindred and society +that still share his interest and love; to prevent those whom the swelling +tide of population is constantly, pressing to the outer verge of +civilization from being surrendered to surrounding influences, and sinking +into the hunter or savage state; to render the citizen, how far soever +from the seat of his government, worthy, by proper knowledge and +intelligence, of his important privileges as a sovereign constituent of +the government; to diffuse, throughout all parts of the land, +enlightenment, social improvement, and national affinities, elevating our +people in the scale of civilization, and binding them together in +patriotic affection." + +These are the objects for which congress is bound to maintain the +post-office, and it is impossible that congress should ever seriously +consider whether they will not abandon them. The maintenance of convenient +mails for these objects is therefore to be regarded as a necessary +function of the government of the United States. In the infancy of that +government, while the government itself was an experiment, when the +country was deeply in debt for the cost of our independence, and when its +resources for public expenditure were untried and unknown, there was +doubtless a propriety in the adoption of the principle, that the +post-office department should support itself. But that state of things has +long gone by, and our government now has ample ability to execute any +plans of improvement whatever, for the advancement of knowledge, and for +binding the Union together, provided such plans come within the +acknowledged powers conferred by the constitution. + +The post-office being, then, like the army and navy, a necessary branch of +the government, it follows that the charge of postage for the conveyance +of letters and papers is of the nature of a tax, as has been well +expressed by the present Postmaster-General, in his last annual report, +quoted above. "_Postage is a tax_, not only on the business of the +country, but upon intelligence and knowledge, and the exercise of the +friendly and social affections." The question before us is, How heavy a +"tax" ought the government of a federal republic to impose on these +interests? Every friend of freedom and of human improvement answers +spontaneously, that nothing but a clear necessity can justify any tax at +all upon such subjects, and that the tax should be reduced, in all cases, +to the very lowest practicable rate. The experience of the British +government, the prodigious increase of correspondence produced by cheap +postage, and the immense revenue accruing therefrom, demonstrate that TWO +CENTS is not below the rate which the government can afford to receive. +Let the people understand that all beyond this is a mere "tax," not +required by any necessity, and they will soon demand that the government +look for its resources to some more suitable subjects of taxation than +these. + +Another rule of right in regard to this "tax" is well laid down in the +Report of the House Committee, for 1844: "As the post-office is made to +sustain itself solely by a tax on correspondence, it should derive aid and +support from everything which it conveys. No man's private correspondence +should go free, since the expense of so conveying it becomes a charge upon +the correspondence of others; and the special favor thus given, and which +is much abused by being extended to others not contemplated by law, is +unjust and odious. Neither should the public correspondence be carried +free of charge where such immunity operates as a burden upon the +correspondence of the citizen. There is no reason why the public should +not pay its postages as well as citizens--no sufficient reason why this +item of public expenses should not be borne, like all others, by the +general tax paid into the treasury." These remarks are made, indeed, with +reference to the franking privilege, which the committee properly proposed +to abolish on the grounds here set forth. But it is plain that the +principle is equally pertinent to the question of taxing the +correspondence of the thickly settled parts of the country for the purpose +of raising means to defray the expense of sending mails to the new and +distant parts of the country. There is no justice in it. The extension of +these mails is a duty of the government; and let the government, by the +same rule, pay the cost out of its own treasury. "Postage," says the same +report, "in the large towns and contiguous places, is, in part, a +_contribution_." It is a forced contribution, levied not upon the property +of the people, but upon their intelligence and affections. + +Our letters are taxed to pay the following expenses: + +1. For the franking of seven millions of free letters. + +2. For the distribution of an immense mass of congressional documents, +which few people read at all, and most of which might as well be sent in +some other way--would be seen the moment they should be actually subjected +to the payment of postage by those who send or receive them. + +3. For the extension of mails over numerous and long routes, in the new or +thinly settled parts of the country, which do not pay their own expenses. +I do not believe these routes are more extensive or numerous than the +government ought to establish; but then the government ought to support +them out of the general treasury. Many of them are necessary for the +convenience of the government itself. For many of them the treasury is +amply remunerated, and more, by the increased sale of the public lands, +the increase of population, and the consequent increase of the revenue +from the custom-house. And the rest are required by the great duty of +self-preservation and self-advancement, which is inherent in our +institutions. + +4. For the cost of about two millions of dead letters, and an equal number +of dead newspapers and pamphlets, the postage on which, at existing rates, +would amount to at least $175,000 a year, and the greater part of which +would be saved under the new postal system. + +Why should these burdens be thrown as a "tax upon correspondence," or made +an apology for the continuance of such a tax? It is unreasonable. All +these expenses should be borne, "like all others, by the general tax paid +into the treasury." This would leave letters chargeable only with such a +rate of postage as is needed for the prevention of abuses, and to secure +the orderly performance of the public duty. And a postage of two cents +would amply suffice for this. Some have suggested that _one cent_ is all +that ought to be required. + +There is another view of the matter, which shows still more strongly the +injustice of the present tax upon letters. "It is not matter of +inference," says Mr. Rowland Hill, "but matter of fact, that the expense +of the post-office is practically the same, whether a letter is going from +London to Burnet (11 miles), or from London to Edinburgh (397 miles); the +difference is not expressible in the smallest coin we have." The cost of +transit from London to Edinburgh he explained to be only one thirty-sixth +of a penny. And the average cost, per letter, of transportation in all the +mails of the kingdom, did not differ materially from this. Of course, it +was impossible to vary the rates of postage according to distance, when +the longest distance was but a little over one-tenth of a farthing. The +same reasoning is obviously applicable to all the _productive_ routes in +the United States. And we have seen the injustice of taxing the letters on +routes that are productive or self-supporting, to defray the expense of +the unproductive routes which the government is bound to create and pay +for. + +Another view of the case shows the futility of the attempt to make +distance the basis of charge. The actual cost of transit, to each letter, +does not vary with the distance, but is inversely as the number of +letters, irrespective of distance. The weight of letters hardly enters +into the account as a practical consideration. Ten thousand letters, each +composed of an ordinary sheet of letter paper, would weigh but one hundred +and fifty-six pounds, about the weight of a common sized man, who would be +carried from Boston to Albany or New York for five dollars. The average +cost of transportation of the mails in this country, is a little over six +cents per mile. For convenience of calculation, take a route of ten miles +long, which costs ten cents per mile, and another of one hundred miles +long at the same rate. There are many routes which do not carry more than +one letter on the average. The letter would cost the department one dollar +for carrying it ten miles. On the route of one hundred miles we will +suppose there are one thousand letters to be carried, which will cost the +government for transportation just one mill per letter. How then can we +make distance the basis of postage? + +The matter may be presented in still another view. The government +establishes a mail between two cities, say Boston and New York, which is +supported by the avails of postage on letters. Then it proceeds to +establish a mail between New York and Philadelphia, which is supported by +the postage between those places. Now, how much will it cost the +government to carry in addition, all the letters that go from Boston to +Philadelphia, and from Philadelphia to Boston? Nothing. The contracts will +not vary a dollar. In this manner, you may extend your mails from any +point, wherever you find a route which will support itself, until you +reach New Orleans or Little Rock, and it is as plain as the multiplication +table, that it will cost the government no more to take an individual +letter from Boston to Little Rock than it would to take the same letter +from Boston to New York. The government is quite indifferent to what place +you mail your letter, provided it be to a place which has a mail regularly +running to it. + +This brings us to the unproductive routes. An act was passed by the last +Congress to establish mail routes in Oregon territory. An agent is +appointed to superintend the business, at a salary of $1000 a year and his +travelling expenses; contracts are made or to be made, mails carried, +postmasters appointed and paid. This is doubtless a very proper and +necessary thing, one which the government could not have omitted without a +plain dereliction of duty. The honor and interest of the nation required +that as soon as the title to the country was settled, our citizens who +were resident there, and those who shall go to settle there, should enjoy +the benefits of the mail. And as it was the nation's business to establish +the mail, it was equally the nation's business to pay the expense. No man +can show how it is just or reasonable, that the letters passing between +Boston and New York should be taxed 150 per cent. to pay the expense of a +mail to Oregon, on the pretext that the post-office must support itself. + +A mail is run at regular periods to Eagle River, Wisconsin, for the +accommodation of the persons employed about the copper mines on Lake +Superior. Without questioning the certainty of the great things that are +to be done there hereafter, it is no presumption to express the belief +that the expenses of that mail are hardly paid by the postage on the +letters now carried to and from Lake Superior. Nor, after making all due +allowances for the liberal distribution of copper stock at the East, is it +rational to believe that all the people who write letters here, are so +directly interested as to make a tax upon letters the most equitable mode +of assessing the expense. + +During the debates in Congress on the act of 1844, an incident was related +by Senator Crittenden, of Kentucky, to this effect. He said he was +travelling in the mail stage somewhere in the State of Tennessee. At a +time of day when he was tired and hungry, the stage turned off from the +road a number of miles, to carry the mail to a certain post-office; it was +night when they reached the office, the postmaster was roused with +difficulty, who went through the formality of taking the mail pouch into +his hand, and returned it to the driver, saying there was not a letter in +it, and had not been for a month. I will not inquire whose letters ought +to be taxed to sustain that mail route, but only remark, that whatever +consideration caused its establishment, ought to carry the cost to the +public treasury, and not throw it as a burden upon our letters. + +The Postmaster-General, in his late report, says that "the weight and bulk +of the mails, which add so greatly to the cost of transportation, and +impede the progress of the mail, are attributable to the mass of printed +matter daily forwarded from the principal cities in the Union to every +part of the country;" and "justice requires that the expense of their +transportation should be paid by the postage." I would add to this the +qualifying phrase, "or by the government, out of the public treasury," and +then ask why the same principle of justice is not as applicable to long +mail routes as to heavy mail bags. There is and can be no ground of +apprehension, that mails will ever be overloaded or retarded by the weight +of paid letters they contain. It was found by the parliamentary committee, +that the number of letters, which was then nearly fifty per cent. greater +than in all our mails, might be increased twenty-four fold, without +overloading the mails, and without any material addition to the contracts +for carrying the mails. They also found that the whole cost of receiving, +transporting and delivering a letter was 76-100ths of a penny, of which +the transit cost but 19-100ths, and the receipt and delivery 57-100ths. +The cost of transit, per letter, is of course reduced by the increase of +correspondence. + +I have dwelt so long on this part of the subject, because I find that here +is the great difficulty in the application of the principles and results +of the British system to our own country--ours is such a "great country," +and we have so many "magnificent distances." But disposing as I have of +the unproductive mail routes, and showing as I have, the injustice of +taxing letters with the expense of any public burthens, this whole +difficulty is removed, and it is made to appear that two cents is the +highest proper rate of postage which the government can justly exact for +letters, on the score either of a just equivalent for the service +rendered, or of a tax imposed for the purposes of the government itself. + +This is the conclusion to which the parliamentary committee were most +intelligently and satisfactorily drawn--that "the principle of a uniform +postage is founded on the facts, that the cost of distributing letters in +the United Kingdom consists chiefly in the expenses incurred with +reference to their receipt at and delivery from the office, and that the +cost of transit along the mail roads is comparatively unimportant, and +determined rather by the number of letters carried than the distance;" +that "as the cost of conveyance per letter depends more on the number of +letters carried than on the distance which they are conveyed, (the cost +being frequently greater for distances of a few miles, than for distances +of hundreds of miles,) the charge, if varied in proportion to the cost, +ought to increase in the inverse ratio of the number of letters conveyed," +but it would be impossible to carry such a rule into practice, and +therefore the committee were of opinion, that "the easiest practicable +approach to a fair system, would be to charge a medium rate of postage +between one post-office and another, whatever may be their distance." And +the committee were further of opinion, "that such an arrangement is highly +desirable, not only on account of its abstract fairness, but because it +would tend in a great degree to simplify and economize the business of the +post-office." + +Waterston's Cyclopedia of Commerce says, "the fixing of _a low rate_ +flowed almost necessarily from the adoption of a _uniform_ rate. It was +besides essential to the stoppage of the private conveyance of letters. +The post-office was thus to be restored to its ancient footing of an +institution, whose primary object was public accommodation, not revenue." + +The adoption of this simple principle, of Uniform Cheap Postage, was a +revolution in postal affairs. It may almost be called a revolution in the +government, for it identified the policy of the government with the +happiness of the people, more perfectly than any one measure that was ever +adopted. It prepared the way for all other postal reforms, which are +chiefly impracticable until this one is carried. We also can have franking +abolished, as soon as cheap postage shall have given the franking +privilege alike to all. We can have label stamps, and free delivery, and +registry of letters, and reduced postage on newspapers, and whatever other +improvement our national ingenuity may contrive, to the fullest extent of +the people's wants, and the government's ability, just as soon as we can +prevail upon the people to ask, and congress to grant, this one boon of +Uniform Cheap Postage. + +V. _Franking._ + +The unanimity and readiness with which the franking privilege was +surrendered by the members of parliament--men of privilege in a land of +privilege--is proof of the strong pressure of necessity under which the +measure was carried. It is true, a few members seemed disposed to struggle +for the preservation of this much-cherished prerogative. One member +complained that the bill would be taxing him as much as L15 per annum. +Another defended the franking privilege on account of its benefits to the +poor. But the opposition melted away, like an unseasonable frost, as soon +as its arguments were placed in the light of cheap postage. And the whole +system of franking was swept away, and each department of the government +was required to pay its own postage, and report the same among its +expenditures. The debates in parliament show something of the reasons +which prevailed. + + + _July 22, 1848._ The postage bill came up on the second reading: + + + Sir Robert H. Inglis, among other things, objected to the + abolition of the franking privilege. He could not see why, because + a tax was to be taken off others, a tax was to be imposed on + members. It would be, to those who had much correspondence, at + least L15 a year, at the reduced rate of a penny a letter. To the + revenue the saving would be small, and he hoped the house would + not consent to rescind that privilege. + + + The Chancellor of the Exchequer said the sacrifice of the franking + privilege would be small in amount. But at the same time, be it + small or great, he thought there would be not one feature of the + new system which would be more palatable to the public, than this + practical evidence of the willingness of members of this house, to + sacrifice everything personal to themselves, for the advantage of + the public revenue. + + + Sir Robert Peel did not think it desirable that members of this + house should retain the franking privilege. He thought if this + were continued after this bill came into operation, there _would + be a degree of odium_ attached to it which would greatly diminish + its value. He agreed that it would be well to restrict in some way + the _right of sending by mail the heavy volumes of reports_. He + said there were many members who would shrink from the exercise of + such a privilege, to load the mail with books. He would also + require that each department should specially pay the postage + incurred for the public service in that department. If every + office be called upon to pay its own postage, we shall introduce a + useful principle into the public service. There is no habit + connected with a public service so inveterate, as the privilege of + official franking. + + +On a former day, July 5, the Chancellor of the Exchequer had said +concerning the abolition of the franking privilege: + + + Undoubtedly, we may lose the opportunity now and then, of obliging + a friend; but on other grounds, I believe there is no member of + the house who will not be ready to abandon the privilege. As to + any notion that honorable gentlemen should retain their privilege + under a penny postage, they must have a more intense appreciation + of the value of money, and a greater disregard for the value of + time, than I can conceive, if they insist on it. + + +All the peculiarities which distinguish British institutions from our own, +might naturally be expected to make public men in that country more +tenacious of privilege than our own statesmen. In a land of privilege, we +should expect mere privilege to be coveted, because it is privilege. This +practical and harmonious decision of British statesmen, of all parties, in +favor of abolishing the franking privilege, in order to give strength and +consistency to the system of cheap postage, shows in a striking light the +sense which they entertained of the greatness of the object of cheap +postage. The arguments which convinced them, we should naturally suppose +would have tenfold greater force here than there; while the arguments in +favor of the privilege would have tenfold greater influence there than +here. Can there be a doubt that, when the subject is fairly understood, +there will be found as much magnanimity among American as among British +legislators? + +The moral evils of the franking system are far more serious than the +pecuniary expense, although that is by no means undeserving of regard. It +is not only an ensnaring prerogative to those who enjoy it, and an anomaly +and incongruity in our republican institutions, but it is an oppressive +burden upon the post-office, which ought to be removed. + +The parliamentary committee ascertained, by three distinct calculations, +(of which all the results so nearly agreed as to strengthen each other,) +that, reckoning by numbers, one-ninth of the letters passing through the +post-office in a year, were franked. And, reckoning by weight, the +proportion was 30 per cent. of the whole. Of seven millions of franked +letters and documents, nearly five millions were by members of parliament. +If all the franks had been subject to postage, they would have yielded +upwards of a million sterling yearly. This was after the parliamentary +franks had been restricted to a certain number (ten) daily for each +member, and limited in weight to two ounces. The amount of postage on +parliamentary franks would be yearly L350,000, averaging about L310 to +each member. But there were a number of official persons, whose franks +were not limited, either in number or weight. These franks were obtained +and used, by those who could get them, without stint or scruple. + + + The celebrated Dr. Dionysius Lardner, who then occupied a + prominent place among men of letters in Great Britain, testified + before the parliamentary committee in 1838, that he was in the + practice of sending and receiving about five thousand letters a + year, of which he got four-fifths without postage--chiefly by + franks. While he lived in Ireland, his correspondence was so + heavy, not only as to the number of letters, but their bulk and + weight, that he was obliged to apply to the Postmaster-General of + Ireland, Lord Rosse, who allowed them to go under his franks. From + the year 1823, or soon after he quitted the university, until the + year 1828, his letters went and came under the frank of Lord + Rosse, who had the power of franking to any weight. Since he came + to England, his facilities of getting franks were very great. + Without such means, he would have found it very difficult indeed + to send his letters by post. His heavy correspondence was chiefly + sent through official persons, who had the power of franking to + any weight; and his correspondents knew that they could send their + letters under care to these friends; so that he received + communications from them in the same way. He endeavored to save as + much trouble as he could, by dividing the annoyance among them, + and by enclosing a bundle of letters for the same neighborhood + under one cover. He said that, to obtain these privileges a man + must be connected or known to the aristocratic classes, and that + it was certainly unfair, as it gave unfair advantages to those who + happened to have friends or connections having that power. His + foreign correspondence was carried on through the embassies; and + in this way the letters came free. He got his letters from the + United States free in that way. Any man who was a Fellow of the + Royal Society, or who lived among that class, could avail himself + of these means of obtaining scientific communications. + + +The number of franked letters posted, throughout the kingdom, in two weeks +in January, 1838, is stated in the following table. + +Week ending Country to London to Country to Total + London. country. country. +15 January, 41,196 43,345 36,361 122,902 +29 January, 46,371 51,046 37,894 135,311 + ------ ------ ------ ------ +Total, 87,567 96,391 74,255 258,213 +Proportion, .339 .373 .287 1. + +It was stated in the debates, that before the franking privilege was +limited, it had been worth, to some great commercial houses, who had a +seat in parliament, from L300 to L800 a year; and that after the +limitation it was worth to some houses as much as L300 a year. The +committee spoke of the use of franks for scientific and business +correspondence, as "an exemplification of the irregular means by which a +scale of postage, too high for the interests and proper management of the +affairs of the country, is forced to give way in particular instances. And +like all irregular means, it is of most unfair and partial application; +the relief depends, not on any general regulation, known to the public, +and according to which relief can be obtained, but upon favor and +opportunity; and the consequence is, that while the more pressing suitor +obtains the benefit he asks, those of a more forbearing disposition pay +the penalty of high postage." It also keeps out of view of the public, +"how much the cost of distribution is exceeded by the charge, and to what +extent therefore the postage of letters is taxed" to sustain this official +privilege. The committee therefore concluded in their report, that "taking +into the account the serious loss to the public revenue, which is caused +by the privilege of franking, and the inevitable abuse of that privilege +in numerous cases where no public business is concerned, it would be +politic in a financial point of view, and agreeable to the public sense of +justice, if, on effecting the proposed reduction of the postage rates, the +privilege of franking were to be abolished." Only the post-office +department now franks its own official correspondence; petitions to +parliament are sent free; and parliamentary documents are charged at +one-eighth the rate of letters. Letters _to_ the Queen also go free. + +In our own country, the congressional franking privilege has long been a +subject of complaint, both by the post-office authorities and the public +press. There are many discrepancies in the several returns from which the +extent of franking is to be gathered. + +From a return made by the Postmaster General to the Senate, Jan. 16, 1844, +the whole number of letters passing through the mails in a year is set at +27,073,144, of which the number franked is 2,815,692, which is a small +fraction over 10 per cent. + +The annual report of the Postmaster-General in 1837, estimates the whole +number of letters at 32,360,992, of which 2,100,000, or a little over 6 +per cent, were franked. + +In February, 1844, the Postmaster-General communicated to Congress a +statement of an account kept of the free letters and documents mailed at +Washington, during three weeks of the sitting of Congress in 1840, of +which the results appear in the following table. + +Week ending Letters. Public Doc. Weight of Doc. +May 2, 13,674 96,588 8,042 lbs. +June 2, 13,955 108,912 9,076 +July 7, 14,766 186,768 15,564 + ------ ------ ------ +Total, 42,395 392,268 32,689 +Average, 14,132 140,756 10,896 +Session 33 466,345 4,314,948 359,579 +weeks, + +Whole number of Letters and Documents in a session of thirty-three weeks, +4,781,293. + +Average weight of Public Documents, 1-{~VULGAR FRACTION ONE THIRD~} oz. + +Of the 42,375 free letters, 20,362 were congressional, and 22,032, or 52 +per cent. were from the Departments. + +In the month of October, 1843, an account was kept at all the offices in +the United States, of the number of letters franked and received in that +month by members of Congress. The number was 18,558, which would give +81,370 for 19 weeks of vacation. To these add 223,992 mailed in 33 weeks +of session, and four-fifths as many, 179,193, for letters received, and it +gives a total of 484,555 letters received and sent free of postage by +members of Congress in a year, besides the Public Documents. The postage +on the letters, at the old rates, would have been $100,000. + +From the same return of October, 1843, it appears that the number of +letters franked and received by national and state officers, was +1,024,068; and by postmasters, 1,568,928; total, 2,592,998, the postage on +which, at 14-1/2 cents, would amount to $376,073. + +These calculations would give the loss on free letters, at that time, +$476,073. This is besides the postage on the public documents, 359,578 +pounds, the postage on which, at 2-1/2 cents per ounce, would come to +$147,581. + +Total postage lost by franking, $623,654. + +Document No. 118, printed by the House of Representatives of +Massachusetts, 1848, gives $312,500 as the amount of postage on franked +letters, and $200,000 for franked documents, making a total of $512,500. + +The report of the Post-office Committee of the House of Representatives, +May 15, 1844, contains a return of the number of free letters mailed and +received at the Washington post-office, during the week ending February +20, 1844, with the corresponding annual number, and the amount of postage, +at the old rates--allowing the average length of a session of Congress to +be six months. From this I have constructed the following table. + +Departments Letters Letters Total No. Postage. + received sent Annually. +House of 1,882 1,505 +Representatives +Senate 7,510 10,271 + ---- ---- +Total of 9,392 11,776 550,368 $114,697 +Congress +President U. S. 304 174 24,856 4,895 +Post Office 6,041 3,615 502,112 102,474 +State 1,989 2,253 220,584 41,600 +Department +Treasury 6,800 2,405 478,660 100,949 +Department +War Department 2,592 2,626 271,336 61,475 +Navy Department 1,709 2,082 197,132 39,809 +Attorney-General 52 816 45,136 10,678 + ---- ---- ---- ---- +Total 2,290,184 $476,577 + +Whole number of letters franked at Washington: 2,290,184 +Add, franked by members at home: 111,348 +Franked by postmasters: 1,568,928 +Total of free letters: 3,970,450 +Add, franked documents: 4,314,948 +General total number: 8,285,398 +The postage on all which, at the old rates, would be at least: $1,000,000 + +The annual report of the Postmaster-General, December, 1847, estimates the +number of free letters at five millions, the postage on which, at present +rates, would be at least $375,000, to which the postage on the documents +should be added. + +The conclusion of the whole matter is, that the postage due on the free +letters and documents, if reckoned according to the old rates, would be at +least one million, and under the present rates above half a million of +dollars annually; equal to 12 per cent of the whole gross income of the +department. + +When our present postage law was under consideration, the committees of +both Houses recommended the abolition of the franking privilege, for +reasons of justice, as well as to satisfy the public mind. The report of +the House Committee has this passage: + + + "As the post-office is made to sustain itself solely by a tax on + correspondence, it should derive aid and support from everything + it conveys. No man's private correspondence should go free, since + the expense of so conveying it becomes a charge upon others; and + the special favor thus given, and which is much abused by being + extended to others not contemplated by law, is unjust and odious. + Neither should the _public_ correspondence be carried free of + charge, where such immunity operates as a burden upon the + correspondence of the citizen. There is no just reason why the + public should not pay its postages as well as citizens--no + sufficient reason why this item of public expenses should not be + borne, like all others, by the general tax paid into the public + treasury." + + +The report of the Senate Committee goes still more fully into the +argument, leading to the same conclusion. In explaining the reasons for +the dissatisfaction with the post-office, then so widely felt by the +people, and the consequent diminution of its revenues, it argues thus: + + + "The _immediate_ benefits of the post-office establishment + accruing to that portion of the people only who carry on + correspondence through it, and these enjoying those benefits in + very unequal degrees, according to their various pursuits, habits, + or inclinations, it has seemed to be required by the principles of + equal justice that the expenses of the establishment should be + defrayed by contributions collected equally from each person + served by it, in proportion to the amount of service rendered. The + obvious justice of this rule, admitting as it does of so near an + approximation to exact justice in its practical application to the + business of this department, has commended it to all: and, + accordingly, the department has always been _professedly_ governed + by it: but, unfortunately, so wide has been the departure from + this just and equitable rule in the actual practice, that it has + become a word of promise, kept only to the ear, and broken to the + sense. Far from exacting of all equal contributions towards + meeting the necessary expenses of this department in proportion to + the amount of service rendered to each, about one-eighth part + numerically, and probably not less than one sixth part in weight + and bulk of the whole correspondence, has been privileged to pass + free of all charge--to say nothing of the immense amount of public + documents conveyed under similar privilege, while the expense of + the whole has been borne by high charges upon the non-privileged + part of the correspondence. It may be said this privilege was + granted, and has been extended, from time to time, for the public + service, and in furtherance of the public interest. Admitted; but + is it not perceived that it still involves a palpable violation of + the principle of equal justice, before shown to be at the + foundation of all our institutions, and an adherence to which is + indispensable in the conduct of all our affairs? How can it be + made to comport with any just conceptions of right, for the + Government to levy so large a tax, for the common purposes of all, + upon a portion only of its citizens? As well might the post-office + be used as a source of general revenue, as to be taxed specially + with the expenses of this branch of the public service--a mode of + raising revenue for general purposes universally admitted to be so + unequal and unjust that it has never been resorted to in this + country but in a single instance of extreme necessity, and then + only for a very short time. It is true, the post-office may be, + and is in other countries, successfully resorted to as a means of + extorting money from the people; but this must be where the + principles of government are widely different from ours, and the + leading policy being not the promotion of the happiness and + welfare of the many, but the advancement of the few, justifies the + use of any means which may subserve that end. There force and + fear, not justice and mutual good will, are the controlling + influences. According to the nature of our government, it might + with much more propriety be asked, by those who use the + post-office establishment, that its whole expense be borne by the + general treasury, than that they should be required to defray the + expense of the public service performed in this or any other + department; because it may with truth be urged, that although the + advantages of this department accrue _immediately_ to them, yet + mediately at least they inure to the great benefit of the whole + country." + + +These objections are of great weight, even under the old or the present +postage. With cheap postage, they ought to be conclusive. In the language +of the English Chancellor of the Exchequer, men who would then wish to +retain the franking privilege "must have a more intense appreciation of +the value of money, and a greater disregard for the value of time, than I +can conceive, if they insist on it." The only other reason for retaining +the privilege would be, that honorable gentlemen, in the receipt of eight +dollars per day for attending to the business of the nation, would be +willing to spend their time in writing franks at two cents a-piece, for +the sake of having their names circulate through the post-office with the +letters M. C. attached to them. + +A serious objection to the franking system is, that it unavoidably tends +to constant strife and altercation between members of congress and the +department. The head of the department, naturally and properly careful of +the income of the post-office, sees with pain the vast encroachment upon +the revenue made by the franking system. He becomes rigid in the +construction of the law; he deems every frank that does not come within +its letter an abuse; he adopts the assumption that franks were only +designed for the personal accommodation of the individual, and not for his +family or friends. He watches to detect some unwarranted stretch, he finds +a plenty; he examines a franked letter, he stops it; complaint is made to +the member whose signature has been treated with disrespect, an explosion +follows, the public service is hindered, and the honor of law is lowered. +At this moment there is a bill pending in congress, to protect the franks +of members, in consequence of a franked letter having been stopped, on the +ground that the direction was not in the handwriting of him who gave the +frank. Any espionage upon men's letters, is plainly an intolerable +grievance in a republican government. The British government were +compelled to allow franks of members to cover all that was under them, and +they therefore restricted them in weight and number. The only available +method for us is to abolish the privilege itself. The experience under the +present postage law proves that it is impossible to abolish the privilege, +except by establishing cheap postage. The act of 1844 attempted greatly to +restrict the franking privilege, but in three years every material +restriction has been practically done away. There is no middle ground +between boundless franking and no franking. The bill above referred to has +passed the senate, in spite of the most earnest remonstrances of the +Postmaster-General, so that now the frank of a member of congress covers +all that is under it, within the prescribed limit of two ounces weight. +Those members who are so disposed can frank envelopes for their friends, +in any number, and send them in parcels of two ounces, to be used +anywhere, without any more meddling of the post-office clerks. The remedy +will be, to reduce the rate of postage so low, that it will be worth no +person's while to use the franking privilege, or to seek its benefits from +those who hold it; or so that, if it is retained, those who use it will at +least show that they "have a more intense appreciation of money, and a +greater disregard for the value of time," than ordinary persons can +conceive! + +It has been said that it will be impossible to secure the services of +postmasters, without giving them the franking privilege. But it will be +found that the cheap and uniform postage, always prepaid, will so greatly +diminish the labor of keeping the post-office, as to remove the objection +in most cases to taking the trouble. And for the rest, it is only for the +department to demand that, if the people of any neighborhood wish a +post-office they must furnish a postmaster, and this difficulty is +annihilated. + +With regard to the transmission of public documents, printed by order of +the two houses of congress, it is undeniable that very much of the +printing itself, and the circulation of them through the mail, is a sheer +abuse and wanton waste. And it is probable that a great check would be +given to these abuses, if there were an account required and a charge made +on the public treasury of all this circulation, at the same rate with +other pamphlet postage. The circulation, even if kept up at its present +rate, would in fact cost no more than it does now; but the burden would be +taken from the letter correspondence of the country, and placed where it +ought to be, on the general treasury. The statement of 1844, that four +millions of public documents are circulated in a single session, attracted +much attention of the public press at the time. One influential paper, the +New York Journal of Commerce, has the following remarks under the head of +"National Bribery:" + + + "It has just been stated in congress, that the two houses had + ordered _fifty-five thousand copies_ to be printed, of the Report + of the Commissioner of Patents: and that the cost to the country + would be $114,000. This Report is a huge document, printed in + large type, with a large margin, containing very little matter of + the least importance, and that little so buried in the rubbish, as + to be worth about as much as so many 'needles in a hay-mow.' Then, + this huge quantity of trash, created at this large expense, is to + be _franked_ for all parts of the country, by way of _currying + favor and getting votes next time_, lumbering the mails, and + creating another large expense. We have taken the trouble to weigh + the copy of this document, which was forwarded to us, and find its + ponderosity to be 2 lbs., 14 ozs., or, with the wrapper, about + _three pounds_! The aggregate weight of the 55,000 copies, is + therefore EIGHTY-TWO AND A HALF TONS! Eighty-two and a half tons + of paper spoiled; and the nation taxed $114,000 for spoiling it; + and then compelled to lug it to all parts of the Union through the + monopoly post-office and the _franking_ privilege! Poor patient + people! + + + "Such taxes, to be defrayed by high postage on letters and + newspapers, grow out of this _franking_ privilege; and the power + which congress reserve to themselves, of distributing free, as + many documents as they choose to print at the public expense! + These documents, it seems, are the grand means resorted to by many + members, of '_currying favor_' with the influential, and thus + '_getting votes next time!_' " + + +A late number of the Boston Courier contains the following humorous but +not untruthful description of this franking business, written by a +correspondent at Washington: + + + "The object of assembling the representatives of the people is + _discussion_, not business; or at least, no other business to + speak of. And this is labor enough for any man. Why, one gentleman + of the house informed me that he had 2700 names on his list of + persons to whom he must send documents, and he is _not_ a + candidate for re-election. + + + "Now, let us suppose that the average number of each member's + _document_ constituency is but 2500, and that each gets _four_ + favors only from his servant in congress. This would throw upon + the shoulders of each member the labor of procuring, and franking, + and directing _ten thousand_ speeches in the course of a session. + What more business than this should be expected of a man? + especially, when we consider that the representative must receive + and answer, at length, all sorts of letters, from all sorts of + people, upon all sorts of topics, from Aunt Peg's pension to Amy + Dardin's horse. If each member requires 10,000 speeches to his + constituents, somebody has got to make them. And as there are + something over 280 members of both branches there must be a supply + of about _three millions_ of this kind of 'fodder.' How can it be + otherwise than that the congressional talking-mill must be kept + constantly going? And what a famine would there be should it stop + grinding? Going into a Western member's room the other day, and + seeing him with his coat off in the middle of the apartment, up to + his middle in documents, and speeches, and letters, laboring + lustily with his pen, I alluded to his press of private business. + + + " 'Stranger,' said he, 'I never came to congress before, and I + never want to come again. I tell _you_ that this office of member + of congress is not what it is cracked up to be. I calculated to + have a good time here this winter, after racing all over my + district, and making more than five hundred stump speeches in + order to get elected. But the fact is you can see the way I enjoy + myself. It is what I call the enjoyments horribly. Why, sir, I + never began to work in this way before in all my life.' I asked, + 'How comes on the loan bill in your branch?' 'O, they are spouting + away, sir, and here I am franking the speeches. The Lord only + knows what is in them.' 'And the Ten Regiment Bill?' 'I know + nothing about it, and don't want to. Look at them thar letters,' + pointing to a two bushel basket of private correspondence--'not one + half of them answered; look at these speeches, not a quarter of + them franked. What attention can I give to loan bills and regiment + bills? Sir, I must attend to my _constituents_.' And we left him + to his labors. Our impression is, that it takes all day Saturday, + and Sunday too, to bring up the franking and letter writing + business of the week, for the members seldom get out to church." + + +VI. _Letter Postage Stamps, for Prepayment._ + +In England, as a part of the system devised by Mr. Rowland Hill, the +prepayment of letter-postage is greatly facilitated, and, of course, the +tendency to prepayment is increased, while the management of the +post-office itself, in all its departments, is simplified to the highest +degree, by the use of adhesive postage-stamps. The stamp is a small oblong +piece of paper, with a device upon it, (Queen's head) so skilfully +engraved and printed as almost to defy counterfeiting, against which +indeed the small value of each one, the danger of speedy detection, and +the high penalty for counterfeiting a royal signet, are equally effective +safeguards. The stamp is coated on the back with an adhesive gum, which +securely fastens the stamp to the letter, by being slightly wet and +pressed down with the finger. These are printed in sheets, and are sold at +all post-offices, at precisely their postal value; 1_d_., 2_d_., or 1_s_., +as the case may be. The postmasters purchase them for cash, of the general +post-office, and are allowed a deduction of one per cent for their +trouble. The small shop-keepers of all descriptions, who buy from the +post-offices without discount, generally keep postage-stamps to sell for +the accommodation of their customers and neighbors, just as they would +give small change for a larger piece of money with the same view. Such a +shop would lose favor by refusing to keep stamps to sell. + +Each individual buys stamps for his own use, in as great or small numbers +as he pleases, always at the same rate. You keep them on your +writing-desk, along with wafers and wax. You carry a few in your wallet, +ready for use at any place. You seal your letter, and direct it, and then +attach one of these stamps, drop it into the letter-box, or send it to the +post-office, and that wonderful machinery takes it up, passes it about, +finds the owner, and delivers it into his hand, without any additional +charge. Nothing can exceed the simplicity of the process but the +perfection of its working. + +As the current value of these stamps is the same in every part of the +country, and is precisely identical with that of the coin they represent, +they serve as a currency to be used in payment of small sums at a +distance. This is more useful in England than in the United States, +because there they have no bank notes of small denominations. But even in +this country, as soon as they are in general use, they will be found +vastly convenient in making small payments at a distance. + +Besides the label stamps, the English post-office manufactures and sells +stamped envelopes, which will at once enclose the letter and pay the +postage. The price of the envelope is half a farthing, in addition to the +1_d._ for postage; that is, eight stamped envelopes are sold for 9_d._, or +24 for 2_s._ 3_d._ + +Stamped half sheets of paper are also furnished by the post-office, a +farthing being charged for the paper, besides the 1_d._ for postage. These +are much used for printing circulars, for which they are very convenient. +They are also bought by the poor to write brief letters on. + +It is a common practice, in writing to another person on your own +business, to enclose a postage stamp to prepay the letter in reply. Some +persons, who have much correspondence, procure their own address printed +in script on the back of stamped envelopes, and then send these enclosed +to bring back the expected return. Persons doing a great deal of business +with each other, through the post-office, keep each other's envelopes on +hand. The child at school or the son in college, is furnished with his +father's envelopes, stamped and directed. + +The postage stamps are cancelled, by an obliterating stamp in the office +where they are received, so that no postage stamp can ever be used a +second time. Each post-office is furnished with a cancel stamp, and an +ineffaceable ink for this purpose. There are five different forms of +cancel stamps, one used for London letters, deliverable within the London +District, one for letters mailed in London for places elsewhere, one for +all other places in England and Wales, one for Scotland, and one for +Ireland. Thus it is seen at a glance, from what section a letter comes. +Sometimes the stamp denoting the place at which a letter is mailed, is not +sufficiently plain. To meet this, and to serve some other conveniences, +the cancel stamps have a blank in the centre, in which is inserted the +number belonging to that office. Thus the shape tells the district, and +the number the office from which each letter comes. The London stamp has a +circular blank for letters that are mailed within the London circle, and +deliverable also within it, and a diamond-shaped blank for letters going +out of London. + +The post-offices in each section are all numbered consecutively, and each +office is permanently known in all other offices by its number as well as +its name. Each office has its number engraved in the blank space of its +cancel stamp, as in the first and last above, so that the place from which +the letter comes is known at a glance. + +The total number of Label Stamps issued in the year ending + + 1_d_. Stamps. 2_d_. Stamps. +5th January, 1841, 74,856,960 7,587,960 +5th January, 1842, 110,878,344 3,391,800 +5th January, 1843, 121,648,080 2,866,080 + ------ ------ +First three years, 307,383,384 13,845,840 + +321,229,224 stamps, nominal value, L1,396,146 +Expense of manufacture and distribution, 42,763 +------ ------ +Net proceeds, L1,353,382 +Average yearly, 451,127 + +The present cost of Label Stamps is reported, July 16, 1846, thus: + +Paper for a million labels, L5 11_s_. +Printing and gumming, 25 -- +Salaries, proportion of, 46 10_s_. +Contingencies, poundage, &c. 46 10_s_. +---------- ------ +Cost per million, L79 -- + +The entire cost of the Stamped Envelopes is thus stated: + +Year Ending. Cost. Sold for. Profit. +5th January, 1841, L4,268 L4,292 +5th January, 1842, 5,530 5,470 +5th January, 1843, 5,290 5,415 +5th January, 1844, 6,190 6,540 +5th January, 1845, 6,948 7,261 +Total, five years, L28,229 L28,978 L749 + +The original cost of the machinery, L435, is divided and apportioned on +six years. +The whole number of envelopes issued is 83,694,240. +The present cost per million is L359; proceeds, L371; profits, L12. + +Whether it would be advisable for our own post-office to go into the +manufacture of envelopes, may be doubtful. Probably it will be judged that +the Label Stamps would afford all needed convenience, so far as the +government is concerned, and the rest would be left to private enterprise. +From the returns of the actual expense of manufacturing envelopes, L359 +per million--about a mill and three quarters apiece, it will be seen that +there is yet room for individual competition among us, to bring down the +current price to the rate of only a reasonable profit. + +The third assistant Postmaster-General remarks, in his late report, that +the demand for Label Stamps has not been as great as was anticipated, the +amount sold being but $28,330, which would only pay for about 500,000 +stamps. This is indeed a very great falling off from the number purchased +in England, which must be not less than two hundred millions of stamps in +the year. He says that "many important commercial towns have not applied +for them, and in others they are only used in trifling amounts. But it +should be borne in mind, that people are more likely to invest a dollar in +stamps, when they get fifty for their money, than when they only get ten +or twenty. And when purchased, they are likely to use them up a great deal +more freely, when they look at each one as only two cents. With so great a +convenience afforded at so cheap a rate, it is not possible but that the +demand must be immense, and the use abundantly satisfactory to the people +and to the department." + +These stamps would obviate the practical difficulty apprehended in the +administration of the cheap postage system, in those parts of the country +where the use of copper coin is not common; as it will always be easy to +purchase stamps with dimes. I do not believe any persons in this country +would be so fastidious on this point, as to be unwilling to send five +letters for the same money that it now costs to send one. + +VII. _New Arrangement of Newspaper Postage._ + +The principles of cheap postage have been recognized from the beginning of +our government, in reference to the postage on newspapers--the charge being +regulated, neither by weight nor distance, but, with a single exception, +by the rule of simple uniformity. The postage on newspapers is one cent +for each paper, within 100 miles, or within the state where printed, and a +cent and a half for greater distances. The act of 1844 allowed all +newspapers within 30 miles of the place where issued, to go free, but this +militated so directly against every principle of equity, that it has been +repealed. But cheap postage on newspapers, for the sake of the general +diffusion of knowledge of public affairs, has always been the policy of +our government. Even during the war of 1812, when it was attempted to +raise a revenue by letter postage, the postage on newspapers was not +raised. No proposition whatever, to increase the cost, or lessen the +facility of the circulation of newspapers by mail, would be sanctioned by +the people, under any conceivable exigency of the government. + +Yet it has never been stated, to my knowledge, by any administration, that +the postage of newspapers was any help to the department, or even that it +paid for itself. Many of the unproductive routes, which add so much to the +expense, and so little to the income of the department, are demanded +chiefly for the facility of getting the newspapers, rather than for +letters. We are a nation, of newspaper readers. It is possible, indeed, +that the prodigious increase in the number of newspapers circulated by +mail, which has taken place within twenty years, and especially within ten +years, may have reduced the average cost of each, so that now the +newspapers may be productive, or at least remunerative. The +Postmaster-General states the postage on newspapers and pamphlets, for the +year ending June 30, 1847, at $643,160, which is an increase of $81,018, +or 14-1/2 per cent. over the preceding year, and an increase over the annual +average of the nine preceding years, of $114,181, or 21 per cent. + +The newspapers passing through the mails annually, are estimated at +55,000,000. In 1843, they were estimated at 43,500,000, of which 7,000,000 +were free. If the calculation is made on the whole number, the increase is +20 per cent. in four years. But if, as is probable, the 55,000,000 in 1847 +are chargeable papers, the increase is 33-1/2 per cent. If anything can make +the newspaper postage pay for itself, it will be the multiplication of +newspapers, as it is well known that a great reduction of cost of +individual articles is produced by the great number required. What +fortunes are made by manufacturing cotton cloth, to be sold at six or +eight cents per yard; and by making pins and needles, which pass through +so many processes, and yet are sold at such a low rate. Each yard of +cloth, each needle, each pin, is subjected to all those several steps, and +yet the greatness of the demand creates a vast revenue from profits which +are so small upon each individual article as to be incapable of being +stated in money; the cheapness of production extending the sale, and the +extent of sale favoring the cheapness of production. An establishment like +the post-office requires a certain amount of expenditure and labor, to +keep the machinery in operation, though the work be but little, not half +equal to its capacity, and it can often enlarge its labors and its +productiveness, without requiring, by any means, a corresponding increase +of expense; and enlarged to a considerable extent, perhaps, without any +increase at all. Thus the cost of the British post-office, which was +L686,768 in 1839, when the number of letters was only 86,000,000, was +increased only to L702,310, but little more than 10 per cent. in the +following year, when the number of letters was increased to 170,000,000. +That is, the quantity of business was doubled, while the expense was only +increased one-tenth. And in 1846, when the letters were 322,000,000, or +nearly fourfold the former number, the expense was only L1,138,745, an +increase of but 65 per cent., and the greater part of this--almost the +whole--was for increased facilities given, and not owing to the increased +number of letters. Had the cost kept pace with the increase of business, +it would have been, in 1847, nearly L3,000,000 sterling. + +There is one difficulty, however, in the case of newspapers, arising from +their weight. The Postmaster-General says, in his last report: "The weight +and bulk of the mails, which add so greatly to the cost of transportation, +and impede the progress of the mail, are attributable to the mass of +printed matter daily forwarded from the principal cities of the Union to +every part of the country." Some of these newspapers, he says, weigh over +two and a half ounces each. For more than twenty years, the weight of +newspapers has been a cause of complaint in the department, for which no +remedy has yet been devised, neither has any man been bold enough to +propose to exclude them from the mails. At one time, rules were made, +allowing mail carriers to leave the newspaper bags, to be carried along at +another time. But this produced too serious a dissatisfaction to be +continued. The newspapers must go, and they must go with the letters, for +people are quite as sensitive at the delay of their newspapers as at the +delay of their letters. Seven or eight years ago, there was a clamor at +the weight of certain mammoth sheets, as the New World and the Brother +Jonathan, weighing each from a quarter to half a pound. But this +extravagant folly of publishers has in a great measure cured itself, and +the grievance has ceased. The law of 1845 undertook to make a +discrimination against papers of exorbitant size, by charging extra +postage on all that were larger than 1900 square inches. I cannot learn +that any papers are taxed at this extra rate, and I venture to predict +that, whenever the public convenience shall be found to require newspapers +of a larger size than 1900 inches, the postage rule will have to be +altered to meet the public demand. The people have so learned the benefits +of uniformity and cheapness of postage on newspapers, that they will never +relinquish it. + +In Great Britain no difference is made among papers on account of their +weight, although their paper is almost twice as heavy as ours. And even +when a supplementary sheet is issued, the whole goes as one newspaper, +covered by one stamp. I have a copy of the London Herald, with three +supplements, the whole weighing half a pound, which passed free in the +mail, with only the principal sheet stamped. And the whole comes by the +steamer's mail, the postage prepaid by a single 2_d_. stamp. In that +country, however, it is not compulsory to send newspapers or supplements +by mail, and a very large proportion are not sent in that way, but for +convenience by carriers. Their method of circulating newspapers, by sale +instead of yearly subscription, has led to a difference in this respect. I +believe there is no restriction upon the carriage of newspaper packages +out of the mail, by the same contractors, and the same carriages that +convey the mails. It is probable that the interests of the department +would be promoted, rather than injured, by such a rule, liberally +interpreted, in this country. + +Twenty years ago, when our mails were all carried in coaches drawn by +horses, there were some routes on which the weight of the newspaper mails +was a serious incumbrance. But at present, so great has been the extension +of steam power, that I question if there is a single route to which the +number of newspapers sent would be a burden, unless, perhaps, it may be +the route by the National Road, from Cumberland to Columbus. + +So great are the advantages of uniformity of rate, in facilitating the +administration of the post-office, that there would be a greater loss than +gain in attempting to introduce any rule of graduation in the postage of +newspapers. It is easily seen that the difference of distance is no ground +for such graduation, for the same reasons which are conclusive in regard +to letters. And as to the difference of weight, if you deduct from the one +cent postage what it costs to receive and mail and deliver each paper, and +to keep the accounts and make the returns, the difference in the actual +expense is too small to be made of any practical account, between a +newspaper weighing two ounces and one weighing half an ounce. The Journal +of Commerce and papers of that size weigh less than two ounces. And the +number of newspapers printed on a sheet weighing over two ounces, is too +small to be of any account. + +The only point respecting the postage on newspapers, on which the Cheap +Postage Association are inflexibly fixed, is that the postage shall be +uniform, irrespective of distance, and not exceed one cent per paper, +prepaid. If not prepaid, the postage is to be doubled. + +It is supposed that a practical rule will obtain, like that which now +prevails, of allowing regular subscribers to pay their postage quarterly +in advance, at the office where they receive their papers. Only, the rule +of prepayment will be enforced, because double postage is to be exacted in +all cases where there is not actual prepayment. + +It will follow that all occasional papers will pay two cents postage, that +is the same as a letter, unless the postage is prepaid by the sender, at +the office where the paper is mailed. + +In Great Britain, newspapers are required to be stamped at the Stamp +Office, for which they pay 1_d_. each sheet. And all such stamped papers +are carried in the mails postage free. Whatever be their date, or how many +times soever they may have been mailed, they always go free by virtue of +the stamp. Some attempts have been made by the post-office to limit the +time after date, in which stamped papers are transmissible free of +postage. But the restrictions have all been borne away by the public +convenience and the public will. The amount received for newspaper stamps, +in the year ending January 5, 1844, was L271,180. This goes to the +treasury, and not to the post-office, although the 1_d_. stamp duty was +retained solely with a view to the postage. This sum ought, therefore, in +strictness, to be added to the gross annual receipts of the post-office; +and indeed, to the net income of the post-office, for the whole expense of +mailing, transporting and delivering is included in the yearly +expenditures of the post-office, so that the amount of stamp duty is all +gain to the treasury, saving the trifling cost of stamping. + +The cost of stamping paper for the newspapers was stated before the +Parliamentary Committee, by John Wood, Esq., Chairman of the Board of +Stamps and Taxes. He says, "A great deal of time is employed in attaching +the stamp to each sheet of paper, because each has to be separated from +the quire or bundle, and the stamp separately applied to it. I calculate +that sheets of paper might be stamped and delivered in London, at an +expense not exceeding 1_s_. per thousand. In that I include what is called +the telling out and telling in, the counting the paper before it is +stamped, the stamping it, the counting it after it is stamped, and the +packing and delivery of it in London." As to the question of the liability +to forgery, he said that "the newspaper proprietors are all registered at +Somerset House, they are all under bond, and the use of the stamps is +confined to comparatively a small number of persons, so that they are very +much under our eye." This stamp duty is paid by the publisher, who of +course charges a price accordingly to his subscribers. There is no law +against sending newspapers through any other channel, and no rule +requiring them to be sent only by mail. + +It is thought that a practice something like this might be introduced in +this country. The plan proposed, is to allow any publisher of a newspaper +to have the paper stamped before printing, for his whole issue, by paying +therefor at the rate of half a cent per sheet. This would be but half the +rate paid by subscribers, at the office of delivery. But as an offset to +this, many sheets would be stamped which would never be carried by mail. +In Boston there are above thirty millions of newspapers printed yearly. +The stamps on all these, if paid in advance by the publisher, would come +to $150,000. I do not suppose the Post-office Department realizes from all +the Boston papers one hundred thousand dollars. The cost of stamping, even +in the British mode, would be less than a quarter of a mill per sheet. And +Yankee ingenuity would soon devise some labor-saving plan, to reduce the +cost of stamping to ten cents per thousand, or one-tenth of a mill per +sheet. + +This plan would secure the department against losses. It would greatly +increase the business of the post-office, and its income from newspapers. +It would lessen the number of dead newspapers with which our offices are +now lumbered. It would aid in inducing and helping the publishers of +newspapers to get into the cash system of publication; and thus assist in +training the whole community to the habit of prompt payment. All +newspapers, weekly or daily, that have or expect any thing like a wide +circulation by mail, would soon find it for their interest to fall in with +this plan. A weekly paper would pay 26 cents for each yearly subscriber. +In what way could he do so much with the same money to extend and +consolidate his subscription list? A daily paper would cost $1.55 a year +for postage. Most daily papers would find their advantage in paying this, +to have their papers go free, even though they might economize or retrench +in something else. It would greatly facilitate the circulation of +intelligence, the diffusion of knowledge, the settlement and harmonizing +of public opinion, and all in a manner to produce no burden in any quarter +which would be felt. + +It is demonstrable that the post-office, under its present regulations, +receives but a small part of the papers which are printed. The +Postmaster-general, in his last report, estimates the whole number of +newspapers mailed yearly at 55,000,000, and of pamphlets 2,000,000, total +57,000,000, yielding to the department only the sum of $653,160. I have +never seen any calculation of the cost of circulating newspapers, to +determine whether the business is profitable to the department or not. If +it pays to circulate newspapers at a cent apiece, surely two cents apiece +is enough to pay on letters, which do not weigh on the average a quarter +as much as newspapers. If it does not pay the cost to carry newspapers in +the mail, then the loss on newspapers ought to be a tax upon the treasury, +and not a tax upon correspondence. + +The following table of newspapers and periodicals issued annually from the +Boston press, is given in Shattuck's "Census of Boston," published by the +city in the year 1846. + +Class of Publications. Number. Square inches. Value. +Daily subscription 5,075,320 4,786,029,240 $106,076 +Daily penny 11,408,000 7,018,617,000 110,400 +Semi-weekly 1,460,448 1,442,010,336 58,748 +Weekly 11,610,040 8,738,546,856 334,895 +Semi-monthly 458,400 216,314,000 31,700 +Monthly 2,583,600 1,522,477,200 127,100 +Two months and quarterly 37,200 143,076,800 24,500 +Annual 255,500 265,045,300 31,565 + -------- -------- -------- +Total 32,890,508 24,132,117,132 $825,074 + +Here are 32,890,508 publications issued annually, averaging 109,098 daily, +and containing 3847 acres of printed sheets, or about twelve acres per +day. The newspapers alone, daily, semi-weekly and weekly, are 29,555,808, +producing $610,119 per annum. Add the semi-monthly issues, which are +mostly newspapers, and you have thirty millions of newspapers issued in +Boston alone, being nearly fifty-five per cent. of the whole number mailed +throughout the union. + +A newspaper of the common size, say 38 by 24 inches, or 912 square inches, +will weigh from 1-1/4 to 1-{~VULGAR FRACTION ONE THIRD~} oz. with the wrapper, in the damp state in +which it is usually mailed. The New York Journal of Commerce, 28 by 46 +inches, that is, 1288 square inches, weighs a little short of 2 oz. as +mailed. A lot of 100 papers received in exchange by a publisher, weighed +1.2 oz., that is less than an ounce and a quarter. The average weight of +all the newspapers published in the country is believed to be one ounce +and a half; which would give 1066 newspapers to every 100 lbs. weight. + +The number of newspapers sent by mail was estimated in 1837, by Postmaster +Kendall, as follows: + +Newspapers paying postage 25,000,000 +Free and dead papers 4,000,000 +-------- -------- +Total 29,000,000 + +The report in 1847, by Postmaster Johnson, estimates the paying newspapers +at fifty-five millions, dead papers two millions, and the pamphlets two +millions, being fifty-nine millions in all; paying postage to the amount +of $643,160, being an increase over the preceding year, of $81,018. The +increase of newspapers in seven years, from 1837 to 1844, by these +estimates, was eighty-nine per cent., or at the rate of about eight and +one half per cent. a year. The increase from 1844 to 1847 was about +twenty-four per cent. in three years, or eight per cent. a year. This may +be considered the natural rate of increase of newspapers, without any +increase of facilities. It may be reasonably calculated that the increased +facilities offered by this plan will make the increase of numbers much +more rapid. + +And this increase of numbers will by no means be attended with a +corresponding increase of expense to the department. In 1837, when the +number of papers was twenty-nine millions, there were 11,767 post-offices, +and mails were carried 36,228,962 miles. In 1844, the post-offices were +15,146, an increase of twenty-nine per cent., and the mail transportation +was 38,887,899 miles, an increase of seven per cent., while the increase +of newspapers was eighty-nine per cent.; and yet the expenditure was +$3,380,847 in 1837, and $3,979,570 in 1847; an increase of less than +eighteen per cent. Deducting the necessary additional expense of adding +twenty-nine per cent. to the number of post-offices, and seven per cent. +to the distance of transportation, and it will be fair to conclude that +doubling the number of newspapers would not add above ten per cent. to the +cost of transportation. Make any reasonable allowance, even fifty per +cent. for the labor in the post-offices, and you have still a net profit +of forty per cent. on all the newspaper postage that shall be added. And +this in addition to the benefits of the diffusion of knowledge, increasing +the mutual acquaintance of the people of this wide republic, and thus +increasing the stability of our government, the permanence of our union, +the happiness of the people, and the perfection of our free institutions. + +VIII. _Pamphlet and Magazine Postage_. + +The postage on pamphlets was regulated on the principles of cheap postage, +with a special discrimination in favor of those pamphlets which were +published periodically. This latter distinction was construed so +liberally, that it was allowed to include among periodicals all pamphlets +published annually, such as almanacs, college catalogues, reports of +societies, and the like. The law of 1845 abolishes the distinction between +periodical and occasional pamphlets, but makes a difference in favor of +large pamphlets, by charging two and a half cents on all pamphlets +weighing less than one ounce, and one cent for each additional ounce. + +I have a letter from the proprietor of a quarterly review, stating the +effect which this change in the mode of rating pamphlet postage had upon +its own circulation. Before the act of 1845, the post-office charged 14 +cents per number, or 56 cents a year. Now it is 10 cents per number, or 36 +cents a year. The consequence is, that where he formerly sent 100 copies +by mail, yielding $56 postage, he now sends 500 copies, paying $180, +increasing the income of the department $124. As there has been a material +reduction in the expenditure of the department, notwithstanding a great +extension of the mail routes, it is plain that the expense to the +department is not at all enhanced by this additional service. As the labor +of management is much diminished in the case of such large pamphlets, it +is possible that future experience may show the practicability of a still +greater reduction in the case of such periodicals--perhaps allowing +publishers' to _prepay_ at four cents for each half-pound. + +In Great Britain, there has hitherto been no separate rate of postage for +pamphlets, but they have been charged at the rate of letter postage, 1_d._ +per half-ounce. This is about double the present rate of pamphlet postage +in the United States. The delivery of parcels by stage-coaches, railroads, +and common carriers, is much more thoroughly systematized in that old +country, with its dense population and limited extent, than it can be with +us, on our vast territory, so new and so unfinished. Consequently, there +is less necessity there for sending pamphlets by mail, and the thing is +rarely done except in the case of small pamphlets, of an ounce or two +weight, or in cases where despatch in transmission is important. Within +the present year, however, a new rule has been introduced into the British +post-office, by which "any book or pamphlet, exceeding one sheet, and not +exceeding two feet in its longest dimensions, may be transmitted by post +between any two places in the United Kingdom, at the uniform rate of +sixpence, prepaid in stamps affixed, for each pound weight and fraction of +a pound. Except in the extreme length of two feet, and that, of course, no +envelope shall contain more than one copy, there is no restriction +whatsoever. Families residing in the remote parts of Scotland, Wales, and +Ireland, where perhaps there is no good bookseller within forty or fifty +miles, may henceforward procure for themselves, direct from London, +Edinburgh, or Dublin, within four or five days at furthest, any work they +may happen to require, from the largest sized Bible or Atlas, to the most +trifling pamphlet or school-book. A delay of twenty-four hours in the +despatch, after posting, is rendered indispensable by the possibility +there is of an overplus of such bulky packages on particular occasions." + +A rate of 6_d._ per pound, is at the rate of .75, or 3/4 of a cent per +ounce, being prepaid in all cases. The rate I have proposed for large +periodicals, prepaid, is one-fourth of a cent below this, or less by +one-third of the English rate. It is doubtful whether a lower rate would +be consistent with a due regard to the necessary speed of the mails, until +railroad conveyance shall be more generally extended than it now is. + +There is one class of pamphlets of extensive circulation, which come +within a liberal construction of a newspaper. But the Postmaster-General, +always vigilant to take care of the pecuniary interests of the department, +has ruled out most of them, to the inconvenience of the publishers, and +the lessening of the income of the post-office. At the time when there was +an attempt to compel the sending of all publications through the mail, a +statement was made in regard to one of these periodicals, the Missionary +Herald, that the postage on 2500 copies which are regularly sent to New +York, would be $1050 a year; while they are carried by Express for one +dollar a month. At this rate the difference on all the routes would be +more than $3000 a year. The rule was soon altered, and these periodicals +were allowed to be carried through private channels. I think, considering +the great numbers of these publications, and the many important interests +connected with them, there ought to be a rule allowing all periodical +pamphlets, published as often as once a month, and weighing not over three +ounces, to be mailed, if prepaid by the publisher, for one cent each. This +will include, I believe, that highly valuable publication, Littell's +Living Age, and I hope give it a circulation as wide as it deserves. +Almost all the religious denominations in the country have one or more +magazines, cherished by them with much interest, which will obtain greatly +increased circulation and influence in this way. I need not speak of the +desire which every patriot must feel, to secure for our federal +government, by whomsoever administered, the respect and affection of the +religious portion of the people. + +I do not know that any complaint is made against this rate of postage, as +regards pamphlets in general. But the fraction of a cent is an absurdity, +on account of the great additional labor it occasions in keeping accounts +and making returns, and settling balances. Few persons can realize the +labor and perplexity occasioned to clerks in the General Post-Office, by +having a column of fractions in every man's quarterly return which they +examine. The simplification of business would probably save to the +department all they would lose by striking out this paltry fraction, so +that the general pamphlet postage will stand at two cents for the first +ounce, and one cent for each additional ounce. At this rate, the +president's annual message, with the accompanying documents, weighing as +sent out about four pounds, would be 65 cents, and the 10,000 copies +circulated by congress would bring the department, if the postage was paid +as it ought to be, the pretty sum of $6500, for only one of the hundreds +of documents now sent from Washington by mail, as a tax upon the letter +correspondence of the country. The postage on the report of the +patent-office, in 1845, mentioned on page 36, would have yielded $27,500 +if the postage had been paid. This is to be added to the $114,000 which it +cost to print the document. + +IX. _Ocean Penny Postage._ + +For the word and the idea here set down, the world is indebted to Elihu +Burritt, the "LEARNED BLACKSMITH," and will be indebted to him for the +inexpressible benefits of the thing itself, whenever so great a boon shall +be obtained. Having visited our mother country, on an errand of peace, he +soon saw the value of the blessing of cheap postage, as it is enjoyed +there; and by contrast, through the object of his mission he say how great +is the influence of dear postage, in keeping cousins estranged from each +other, and in perpetuating their blind hatred, and thus hindering the +advent of the days of "Universal Brotherhood." By putting all these things +together, he wrought out the plan of "Ocean Penny Postage," by which all +ship letters are to pay 1_d._ sterling, instead of paying, as they now do +in England, 8_d._ when sent by a sailing vessel, and 1_s._ when sent by a +steam packet. + +He proposes that each letter shall pay its postage penny in advance for +the service it may receive inland, and a like sum, also in advance, for +its transmission by sea, until it shall arrive at its port of destination. +To this should be added, as fast as penny postage shall be propagated in +other countries, an international arrangement for prepaying the inland +postage of the country to which the letter is sent. Nothing can be more +simple in theory than such an arrangement, nothing easier or more +unerringly just in execution. It would make the postage stamps of the +cheap postage nations an international currency, better than gold and +silver, because convertible into that which gold and silver cannot buy, +the interchange of thought and affection among friends. + +In pressing his project first on the British nation, both because he +happened to be then commorant in England, and because that government and +not ours had already adopted cheap postage as the rule for its home +correspondence, he is not chargeable with any lack of a becoming respect +for his own country. I confess, however, that I feel strongly, what he has +not expressed, the desire that my own country should have both the honor +and the advantage of being the first to carry out this glorious idea. + +Mr. Burritt states the number of letters to and from places beyond sea in +1846, through six of the principal seaports of England, at + + 8,640,458 +Number of newspapers 2,698,376 +Gross revenue from letters and L301,640 +papers, +Letters sent to and from the 744,108 +United States, +Newspapers 317,468 +Postage on letters and papers, L46,548 +Whole expense of packet L761,900 +service, + +In addition, he has been so fortunate as to enlist the coeoperation of a +distinguished member of parliament, of whom he says: + + + "At my solicitation he readily moved for a return of all the + letters, newspapers, magazines, pamphlets, &c., transmitted from + the United States in 1846, and which have been refused on account + of the rates of postage, and are consequently lying dead in the + English post-office; also for a return of the amount of postage + charged upon this dead mail matter. I am pretty confident that + this return will startle the people and government with some + remarkable disclosures with regard to the amount of mail matter + conveyed across the ocean, for which John Bull does not get a + farthing, because he asks too much for the job." + + +By the arrangement of the British Post-office, the postage on letters by +the mail steamers to the United States is now 1_s._ per half ounce; and on +newspapers 2_d._ each paper. On all letters and papers sent from Great +Britain the postage must be prepaid. If not prepaid, they are not sent; +but in the case of letters, it is the practice of the post-office to +notify persons in this country to whom letters are addressed, that cannot +be forwarded for the want of prepayment, that they can have their letters +on procuring the prepayment of the required shilling. I have more than +once received a printed notice of this kind, designating the number by +which my letter could be called for. No additional charge is made for this +piece of attention. This fact is significant of the spirit of the cheap +postage system. No provision is made by which postage can be prepaid in +this country, and consequently, the whole expense of correspondence falls +upon the parties in England. + +Mr. Burritt enumerates some of the inconveniences of the present system, +in addition to the positive evil of a burdensome tax upon the letter +correspondence between the two countries--a tax which amounts to a +suppression of intercourse by letter, to a sad extent. + + + 1. The present shilling rate of postage, being exacted on the + English side, too, in all cases, and thus throwing the whole cost + of correspondence upon the English or European correspondents, + greatly diminishes the number of letters which would otherwise be + transmitted to and from America, through the English mail. + + + 2. In consequence of the present high rate of postage on letters, + newspapers, pamphlets, magazines, &c., a large amount of mail + matter conveyed across the ocean, lies _dead_ in the English + post-office--a dead loss to the department--the persons to whom it + is addressed, refusing to take it out on account of the postal + charges upon it. + + + 3. Under the present shilling rate, it is both legal and common + for passengers to carry a large number of _unsealed_ letters, + which are allowed as letters of introduction, and which, at the + end of the voyage, are sealed and mailed in England or America, to + persons who thus evade the ocean postage entirely. + + + 4. In consequence of the present shilling rate, it is common, as + it is legal, for persons to enclose several communications, + addressed to different parties, under one envelope, which, on + reaching America or England, are remailed to the persons + addressed, thus saving to them the whole charge of Ocean Postage. + Paper is manufactured purposely to _save postage_, and, for this + quality, is called "Foreign Post." + + +He also tells the people of England very plainly what will be the effect +if _they_ first adopt the Ocean Penny Postage. _Some_ of the same +considerations ought to have weight with American citizens and American +philanthropists, and especially with American statesmen, in producing the +conviction, that it is better for the United States to lose no time in +adopting this system. + + + 1. It would put it into the power of every person in America or + England to write to his or her relatives, friends, or other + correspondents, across the Atlantic, as often as business or + friendship would dictate, or leisure permit. + + + 2. It would probably secure to England the whole carrying-trade of + the Mail matter, not only between America and Great Britain, but + also between the New World and the Old, forever. + + + 3. It would break up entirely all clandestine or private + conveyance of Mail matter across the ocean, and virtually empty + into the English mail bags all the mailable communications, even + to invoices, bills of lading, &c.; which, under the old system, + have been carried in the pockets of passengers, the packs of + emigrants, and in the bales of merchants. + + + 4. It would prevent any letters, newspapers, magazines, or + pamphlets, from lying dead in the English post-office, on account + of the rates of postage charged upon them, and thus relieve the + department of the heavy loss which it must sustain, from that + cause, under the present system. + + + 5. It would enable American correspondents to prepay the postage + on their own letters, not only across the ocean, but also from + Liverpool or Southampton to any post town or village in the United + Kingdom; to prepay it also, to _England_, by putting two English + penny stamps upon every letter weighing under half an ounce. + + + 6. It would bring into the English mail all letters from America + directed to France, Germany, and the rest of the continent, and + _vice versa_. + + + 7. It would not only open the cheapest possible medium of + correspondence between the Old World and the New, but also one for + the transmission of specimens of cotton, woollen, and other + manufactures; of seeds, plants, flowers, grasses, woods; of + specimens illustrating even geology, entomology, and other + departments of useful science; thus creating a new branch of + commerce as well as correspondence, which might bring into the + English mail bags tons of matter, paying at the rate of 2_s._ + 8_d._ per lb. for carriage. + + + 8. It would make English penny postage stamps a kind of + international currency, at par on both sides of the Atlantic, and + which might be procured without the loss of a farthing by way of + exchange, and be transmitted from one country to the other, at + less cost for conveyance than the charge upon money orders in + England from one post-office to another, for equal sums. + + +One of the strongest recommendations of this measure, and a weighty reason +also in favor of the immediate adoption of the whole system of cheap +postage, is found in the present derangement of postal intercourse between +Great Britain and the United States. These two great nations, the +Anglo-Saxon Brotherhood, are at this moment "trying to see which can do +the other most harm," by a course of mutual retaliation, which may be +known in future history as the _war of posts_. It is the opinion of some +philosophers, that in wars in general, the party most to blame is the one +which gives the heaviest blows; but in this case there arises a new +problem, whether each particular blow does the most damage to the party +which receives or to the one that gives it. The principal points in the +contest I suppose to be these. The American government charges Great +Britain five cents postage on all letters in the British packet mails, +borne across our country at the expense of Great Britain, to and from the +province of Canada. Great Britain in return, charges the United States the +full rate of ship postage on all letters in the American packet mails, +which touch at a British port on their way to and from the continent of +Europe. Then the Postmaster-General of the United States suspends the +agreement by which a mutual postage account is kept between his department +and the post-office in Canada. And now a bill is before Congress, having +actually passed the House of Representatives in one day, by which our own +citizens are to pay 24 cents postage on every letter, and 4 cents on every +newspaper, brought by the British mail steamers, as a tax to our own +post-office, although the same postage has already been prepaid by the +sender in England. The tax thus imposed on our own people, in the +prosecution of this postal war, will amount to $178,586 a year, no small +burden upon a subject of taxation so sensitive as postage, and no trifling +obstruction to the intercourse between the two countries, and between the +emigrants who find a refuge on our shores and the friends they have left +behind. Such a stoppage is peculiarly to be regretted at this juncture, +when the number of emigrants is so rapidly increasing, and all the +interests of humanity seem to require the utmost freedom and facility of +intercourse between the United States and the European world. + +The proposed bill is intended as a retaliatory measure, and perhaps +nothing can be devised more severe in the way of retaliation. It is worthy +of inquiry, however, whether there may not be found "a more excellent +way," by means of cheap postage on the ocean as well as on the land. It +does not appear but that Great Britain can stand the impost of double +postage as easily and as long as we can. But let our government open its +mails to carry letters by steam packet between Europe and America for TWO +CENTS, and I do not see how Great Britain can stand that. She must +succumb. A man who thought he had been injured and was meditating plans of +revenge, happened to open his Bible and read the counsel of the wisest of +human rulers,--"If thine enemy hunger, feed him, and if he thirst, give him +drink, for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head." The man +mused a few minutes, and then rose and clapped his hands, and said, "I'll +burn him." Without touching the merits of the controversy as to which did +the first wrong, I must say that the course of the British government, in +exacting 1_s._ per letter on the mails of the American steamers bound to +Germany, for barely touching at the port of Southampton, is the most +_gouging_ affair of any governmental proceeding within my knowledge. It +seems to me that our own government would do itself honor by adopting +almost any expedient, rather than imitate so bad an example, in this age +of the world, as to lay a tax amounting to a prohibition, upon the +interchange of knowledge and the flow of the social affections among +mankind. It is submitted that the establishment of Ocean Penny Postage by +our mail steamers, with an offer of perfect reciprocity to all other +countries adopting the same policy, will be quite consistent with our +national honor. With the interest which this subject has already acquired +in the British nation, and the apparent disposition of that government to +yield to the well-expressed wishes of the people, there can be no doubt +that this would lead to an immediate adjustment of the pending +controversy. + +The only remaining question respecting Ocean Penny Postage is the +statesmanlike and proper one, _How is the expense to be paid?_ In the +first place, the government would not be required to pay any more money +for the transportation of its mails than they pay now. This great boon can +be given to the people without a dollar's additional cost. Our own +experience under the postage act of 1845, proves this. While the number of +letters is doubled, the whole expense of the post-office is +diminished--especially that part which might most naturally be expected to +increase, that is, the transportation of the mails. The freight of a +barrel of flour, weighing 200 pounds, is about fifty cents. Of course, the +equitable price of ten thousand letters added to any given mail, which +would not weigh so much as a barrel of flour, would make no assignable +difference in the cost upon a single letter. As both sailing ships and +steam packets are becoming multiplied, individual competition may now be +relied on to keep the price of transportation of mails from ever rising +above its present standard. The increase of the number of letters makes +but very little addition to the aggregate expense of the post-office. In +the first year of the penny postage in England, there were ninety-three +millions of letters added to the mails, and only L70,231 to the whole +expenditure of the department, including the cost of introducing the new +system, with all its apparatus. This amounts to 0.181_d._; less than +two-tenths of a penny each for the added letters. In 1844, there were +21,000,000 letters added to the circulation, and not a farthing added to +the cost. These letters yielded about L90,000 in postage, every penny of +which went as net gain into the treasury. I have no means of stating how +much of the L450,000 added to the yearly expenditure of the British +Post-office, is chargeable to the great increase of facilities and +accommodations, both of the public and of the department; but have +understood that by far the greater part of it arises from this, and not +properly from the mere increase of letters. It may be safely assumed that, +for any number of letters now added to the mails in Great Britain, the +additional expense will not exceed half a farthing each letter, and the +rest will be clear profit to the post-office. As the plan of Ocean Penny +Postage includes also the inland postage prepaid in each country, it +follows that each country would realize from three-quarters to +seven-eighths of a penny advantage on every letter added to the present +ocean mails. + +In addition to all this, there is just as much reason to expect Ocean +Postage to increase, as to expect land postage to increase. And as it is +proved that, on land, the reduction of price will increase the +consumption, so as to produce an equal income, there can be no doubt that, +in a little while, if the sea postage is reduced to the cheap standard, +the letters and papers sent will increase sufficiently to yield an equal +income. And if so, the consequent increase of inland postage and the +profits on the same will be clear gain. + +Add to the immense number of Europe-born people now living in the United +States, the children of such, who will retain for two or three +generations, their relationship to kindred remaining in the Old World: Add +to the half million of European emigrants, who by ordinary calculation +would be expected every year, the numbers whom passing events will drive +to seek an asylum from European revolutions under the peaceful and +permanent government of the American Union: Add to the increase of +transatlantic intercourse arising from the increase of commerce, the +growth also of advancing civilization and intelligence: Add to the +interest which emigration of neighbors and the growth of the country gives +to European residents in a correspondence with America, the eager desire +which the new times now begun must create to become more familiarly +conversant with the new world, whose path of freedom and equality the old +countries are all striving to follow: How long will any man say it would +take, with a rate of postage across the Atlantic not exceeding two cents +per half ounce, before there would be ten millions of letters yearly, +instead of three-quarters of a million, the number now carried by the +British packet mails? And these would yield more postage than can now be +collected at a shilling a letter, besides the profit they would yield on +the inland postage. With our own experience under the act, of 1844, and +the experience of Great Britain under the act of 1839, it would be +unphilosophical to set a longer time than five years as the period that +would be required to bring up the product of Ocean Postage to its present +amount. And the healthy spring which such a reform would give to commerce, +and to every source of national prosperity, and its consequent indirect +aid to the public revenues, would justify any government, on mere +pecuniary considerations alone, in assuming a heavy expenditure, not only +for five years, but permanently, to secure so great an object. I address +to my own country, as the nation whom it more appropriately belongs to +take so great a step towards universal brotherhood, the fervid appeal +which my friend Burritt has made to England: + + + "The irresistible genius and propagation of the English race are + fast _Anglicizing_ the world, and thus centering it around the + heart of civilization and commerce. Under the sceptre of England + alone, there live, it is said, one hundred and forty million of + human beings, embracing all races of men, dwelling between every + two degrees of latitude and longitude around the globe. And there + is the Anglo-American hemisphere of the English race, doubling its + population every twenty-five years, and propelling its propagation + through the Western World. And there is the English language, + colonized, not only by Christian missions, but by commerce, in + every port, on every shore, accessible to an English keel. The + heathen of China or Eastern Inde, whilst buying sandal wood for + incense to their deities from English or American merchantmen, or + trafficing for poisonous drugs; the sable savages that come out of + the depth of Africa, to barter on the seaboard their glittering + sand, their ivory, ostrich feathers or apes, for articles of + English manufacture; the Red Indians of North and South America, + as they come from their hunting grounds in the deep wilderness, to + sell their spoils to English or American fur companies; the + swarthy inhabitants of the ocean islands, as they run to the beach + to greet the American whale ship or the English East Indiaman, + bringing yams and curious ware to sell to the pale-faced + foreigners; all these carry back to their kind and kindred rude + lessons in the English language--the meaning of home and household + words of the strong, old Saxon tongue, each of which links its + possessor to the magnetic chain of English civilization. + + + "What then, should England do, to bring all nations of men within + the range of the vital functions of that heart-relation which she + sustains to the world? + + + "Answer--let her establish an _Ocean Penny Postage_." + + +X. _The Free Delivery of Letters and Papers in Large Towns_. + +The simple adoption of Uniform Cheap Postage would hardly fail of +securing, in the end, all other desirable postal reforms. An act of +congress, in five lines, enacting that "hereafter the postage on all +letters prepaid, not exceeding half an ounce in weight, shall be two +cents; and for each additional half ounce, two cents; and if not prepaid +the postage shall be doubled," would at no distant period, bring in all +the other desired improvements. The adoption of cheap postage in Great +Britain, greatly improved the system of local delivery of letters and +newspapers in the large towns. Formerly, an additional charge of 1_d._ was +made for the delivery of letters by carriers, in the case of letters that +had been mailed; and for "drop letters," or letters delivered in the same +town where they are posted, the price was 2_d._ Now all drop letters are +charged at the uniform rate of 1_d._ the same as mail letters; and the +mail letters are delivered by carriers without additional charge--the penny +postage paying all. The Postmaster-General prescribes what places shall +have the free delivery, and how far it shall extend around each +post-office. + +Beyond those limits, and in places where the free delivery is not judged +practicable, the local postmasters are at liberty, on their own +discretion, to employ penny-post carriers to deliver letters at the houses +of the people, charging 1_d._ each for delivery, which is a private +perquisite--the department taking neither profit nor responsibility in the +case. Persons who do not choose to pay the penny-post can refuse to +receive letters in that way, and obtain them by calling at the +post-office. + +To facilitate this local free-delivery, there are "receiving houses" +established at convenient distances in the town, where letters are +deposited for the mails, without a fee, and thence are taken to the +post-office in season for the daily mails, or for distribution through the +local delivery. These receiving houses are generally established in a drug +or stationery store, grocery, or some retail shop, where the nature of the +business requires some one to be always in attendance, and where the +increase of custom likely to arise from the resort of people with letters +is a sufficient consideration for the slight trouble of keeping the +office. The letters are taken to the post-office at stated hours, by +persons employed for that purpose; those which are to be mailed are +separated, and those which are for local delivery sorted and delivered to +the carriers to go out by the next delivery. I have not a list of the +number or size of the cities and towns within which the free delivery is +enjoyed. Its necessary effect in increasing the number of letters sent by +mail, and benefiting the country and the government by the aid it +furnishes to trade and general prosperity, would seem to be a guaranty +that the department would be likely to extend the free delivery as far as +it could possibly answer, within the reasonable ability of the government, +to meet the reasonable wants of the people. + +The London District Post was originally a penny post, and was created by +private enterprise. One William Dockwra, in the reign of Charles II., set +up a private post for the delivery of letters in the city of London, for +which the charge was 1_d_., payable invariably in advance. It was soon +taken possession of by the government, and the same rate of postage +retained until 1801, when, for the sake of revenue, the postage was +doubled, and so remained until the establishment of the general penny +postage. Its limits were gradually extended to include the city of +Westminster and the borough of Southwark, then all places within a circle +of three miles, and finally to twelve miles from the General Post-Office. + +Within the three miles circle there are 220 receiving houses, of which 180 +are within the town portions of the district. At these offices, letters +are despatched to the post-office, ten times daily, viz. at 8, 10, and 12, +in the morning, and 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 8, in the afternoon. Letters are +required to be left at the receiving house a quarter of an hour previous +to the hour. The letters so left may be expected to be delivered within +the three miles circle in about two hours from the hour at which they are +sent to the post-office; that is, the 8 o'clock letters are delivered by +10, and so on. + +There are now ten deliveries daily, within a circle of three miles from +the post-office; five deliveries in a circle of six miles, and three +deliveries to the circle of twelve miles distance. In the three miles +circle, the delivery is completed in one hour and a quarter from the time +the carrier leaves the office; in the six miles circle, in two hours, and +in the twelve miles circle, in three hours. + +In 1839, the estimated average of letters passing through the London +district post was about one million every four weeks, of which 800,000 or +four-fifths were unpaid. In 1842, the average was two millions in four +weeks, of which only 100,000, or one-twentieth, were unpaid--ninety-five +per cent. being prepaid. In 1847, the number was nearly three millions. +These do not include the "General Post;" that is the country and foreign +letters to London, but only those that originate as well as end within the +twelve miles circle. + +The General Post letters, however, are distributed on the same principle +of free delivery, without extra charge, and the utmost diligence is used +by the letter-carriers to find out the persons to whom letters are +directed. I was witness to this, in the case of a gentleman from Ohio, who +went to England in a merchant ship, without having taken the precaution to +give his family any instructions as to the direction of letters. His +voyage was somewhat long, and before he had been three days in London, the +carrier brought to his lodgings a letter from his wife, which had come in +the mail steamer, and the people at the post-office had sought him out, an +entire stranger among two millions of people! The General Post letters +passing through the London office, were estimated in 1839 at 1,622,147, +each four weeks, of which only one-sixth were prepaid. In 1847, they were +8,500,000, of which above ninety-four per cent. were prepaid. This makes +the whole number of letters mailed and delivered in London, equal to above +146,000,000 a year; of which it is reasonable to calculate that about +75,000,000 are distributed by the letter-carriers by Free Delivery. + +As nineteen-twentieths of the letters are prepaid, the delivery is +accomplished with great despatch. The greater proportion of them, of +course, go to those who are in the habit of receiving numbers of letters +daily, and with whom the carriers are well acquainted. A large proportion +are delivered at counting-rooms and shops, which are open. Most houses +where letters are received daily, have letter-boxes by the door, fitted +with an ingenious contrivance to guard against robbery, into which prepaid +letters can be dropped from the street, to be taken out by a door that is +locked on the inside. Thus the great bulk of the letters are delivered +with little more trouble or loss of time to the carrier, than it takes to +serve the daily newspaper. The cases are also much more numerous than with +newspapers, where many letters are deliverable at one place, which of +course lessens the amount of labor chargeable to each one. + +There are ninety-five bell-men, who call at every door in their several +districts once a day, and take letters to the post-office in time for the +evening mails. Each one carries a locked bag, with an aperture large +enough to drop in a letter, which can only be opened at the post-office. +Any person having letters to go by mail, may drop them into this bag, pay +the bell-man his fee of 1_d_., and be quite sure they will be despatched +the same evening. + +All these carriers are required to assist, at stated times, in the sorting +of letters, both for the free delivery and for the mails. They are paid by +a stipulated salary, and have a permanent business, with chances for +advancement in business and wages, according to length of service and +merit. + +A letter was addressed through the newspapers to the Postmaster-General of +the United States, by Barnabas Bates, Esq., of New York, one of the most +able and efficient advocates of postal reform, bearing date February 7, +1847, urging the adoption of a similar system for the city of New York, +and other cities--the postage to be in all cases prepaid. The advantages to +be anticipated are thus set forth by Mr. Bates: + + + "The adoption of this plan will ultimately be a source of revenue + to the post-office department. + + + "1. It will be the means of diminishing the number of dead letters + and newspapers, which is increasing every day to an incredible + amount. The carriers will not carry out letters or papers where + there is any doubt of getting their pay, consequently the number + of advertised letters is daily increasing, and as for dead + newspapers, they are sold by cart loads. Half a cent is not a + sufficient inducement to carry out newspapers, especially if there + be any doubt of getting the postage; hence the many complaints of + editors that their subscribers do not get their papers. + + + "2. It will reduce the list of advertised letters which has + increased within a few years more than three hundred per cent. The + Sun and Tribune of last Saturday, advertised 1700 letters, which + cost sixty-eight dollars; if this be the average weekly number, + the post-office department or the people must pay for advertising, + the sum of three thousand five hundred and thirty-six dollars per + annum! The list of advertised letters of the Boston post-office, + which is semi-monthly, averages from fourteen to sixteen columns + of the Boston Times. If efficient carriers were appointed to + deliver these letters to their address free of expense, this list + would be reduced more than one half; thus a saving would be made + in advertising, besides the collection of a large amount of + postage. I would further remark, that requiring _four cents_ to be + paid for advertising, in addition to the postage, frequently + deters poor people from taking out their letters, and thus the + cost of advertising, as well as the postage, are lost to the + General Post-office. An efficient free delivery would save the + department thousands of dollars every year. + + + "3. A free delivery of letters would increase the revenue by + causing the greater portion of the drop letters to be sent through + the post-office, instead of the private offices now established in + different parts of the city. The only reason why the City Despatch + Post failed was, that they charged more than the private penny + post offices. But if these letters were delivered free, charging + only two cents as drop letters, nearly all the city correspondence + would be conveyed through this medium. The increased income from + this source alone would in a short time be amply sufficient to pay + the salaries of all the carriers. + + + "4. The post-office would not only command all the drop letters, + but afford such easy, safe, and cheap facilities for the + conveyance of letters, that it would be the means of increasing + the city and country correspondence to an extent which can hardly + be estimated. Thousands and tens of thousands of letters which are + now sent by private hands, or through the private penny post, + would then be deposited in the United States sub post-offices, + both for city delivery and to be forwarded by the mails." + + +The extent to which such a system of Free Delivery could properly be +introduced in this country, can only be determined by experiment. That is, +to decide in how many and what towns there shall be a Free Delivery, and +how far from the post-office the Free Delivery shall be carried, +experience must be the guide. A city and its suburbs might all be included +in one arrangement, as New York with Brooklyn, Williamsburg, and Jersey +City; Boston with Charlestown, Cambridge, Chelsea and Roxbury; and as +population increases and intercourse extends, other places might be +included. + +Such a system would make a vast amount of business for itself, as people +learned the advantages of so easy a correspondence--especially in those +places which may admit of two or more deliveries a day. It would also tend +to facilitate and stimulate and increase the general business of the +place, and this would in turn increase the business of the post-office. +The establishment of Free Delivery in any city or large town, would tend +to increase the correspondence of the country with such town. Every +addition to the number of letters delivered, would lessen the average cost +of delivery of each letter, and thus increase the net profits of the +institution. In these ways the department would feel its way along, in the +extension of Free Delivery from one class of towns to another, until, at +no distant day, it would be found that its benefits were far more widely +diffusible than the most sanguine could now anticipate. + +On the subject of the cost of delivery, the parliamentary committee +obtained many valuable items of information. Mr. Reid, of London, said he +got a thousand circulars delivered lately, for a foreigner. The gentleman +had intended to send them through the post-office, paying the postage. Mr. +Reid told him he would get them delivered a great deal cheaper. He gave +them to a very trusty person, who delivered them all in the course of a +week, at the expense of L1 2_s_. 3_d_. They were certain he delivered +them; for nearly every time they sent him out, they took care to misdirect +two or three, taking an account of the false direction, and he invariably +brought back these letters, because he could not find the persons to whom +they were directed. The postage of these circulars, at 1_d_. would have +been L4 3_s_. 4_d_. Here was a saving of L3 1_s_. 1_d_. in one job. The +expense of delivery was 1-1/14 farthing per letter. Of course, regular +carriers, in their accustomed routes, could deliver prepaid letters at a +much cheaper rate than this. + +During the parliamentary investigations on the subject of cheap postage, a +plan was suggested, of establishing what were called secondary mails, to +reach every village and hamlet in the country. These secondary mails were +to run from each post-town to the surrounding places, and deliver letters +for an additional charge of 1_d_. But on consideration it was found +impracticable to clog the general system with this addition. Uniformity +was everything, to the system. And they could not establish any uniform +rate which would answer both for the post-towns and for the hamlets. The +rate which would pay for the towns, would not pay for mails to the +hamlets. And the rate which was necessary for the hamlets, was too high +for the towns, and _the contraband conveyance would still continue_. +Consequently, the post-office would have to distribute the letters to the +smaller places, where the distribution is attended with the greatest cost +and the smallest profits. In the end, the rule of uniformity was left +unbroken, and it was left to future experience or local arrangement to +meet the wants of the smaller places, not now reached by the mails. The +local postmasters are to make such arrangements as they deem proper in +their respective neighborhoods, as to the employment of penny-post +carriers to distribute the letters at the houses of the people. + +To show the working of multiplication and division in the increase of +profits, and the very low rate at which a service similar to that of free +delivery can be performed, let us look at the newspapers. The principal +daily papers in Boston are served to subscribers by carriers, at the +expense of the publishers. Deducting Sundays and holidays, there are 310 +papers in a year. These are served at the cost of 25 to 50 cents for each +subscriber. Taking the highest cost, and you pay 1.6 _mills_ for each +paper delivered--less than one-sixth of a cent. + +The penny papers are served to subscribers by carriers, who have regular +beats or districts; and who furnish their patrons for six cents per week. +These carriers purchase the papers of the publisher, at 62 to 75 cents per +100; so that their profits on each paper are from one-quarter to +three-eighths of a cent. For this they deliver the paper promptly every +morning, and collect the money on Saturday, running, of course, some risk +of losses by bad debts, &c. And yet this business is found to be so +profitable that some routes in New York have been sold, that is, the good +will transferred, for at least $500, just for the privilege of serving +that district. + +The two-cent papers from New York are regularly served to customers in +Boston. A person engaged in this business used to buy the New York +Express, Tribune, and Herald, for 11/4 to 11/2 cents each. He paid the cost of +bringing them by express from New York. To guard against failures, he +divided his bundles, and had a part sent by way of Norwich, and a part by +Stonington. He then served them to subscribers all over Boston for 12 +cents per week, making his collections on Saturday. This man made money, +so that in a few years he sold out his route and business in the New York +papers, and purchased an interest in a flourishing penny paper in Boston, +of which he is now one of the publishers. + +XI. _The Expense of Cheap Postage, and how it is to be paid._ + +It is quite important to have it understood, in all parts of the country, +that the friends of postal reform have no desire to curtail the public +accommodations now enjoyed, in the slightest degree--unless in cases of +manifest abuse. Neither do they consider that too much money is paid by +our government to furnish the people with the privileges of the mail. We +desire rather to see the benefits and conveniences of the post-office +greatly increased, as well as brought more within the reach of all the +population. The bill for establishing cheap postage should therefore +contain a distinct declaration that the mail facilities of the country +shall not be curtailed, but shall be liberally extended, with the spread +and increase of population, so as to give, as far as the ability of the +government will admit, the best practicable accommodations to every +citizen of the republic. + +It ought also to be provided that the Postmaster-General shall have it in +his power, according to his discretion, whenever justice may require, to +continue the compensation of all postmasters equal to their present rates, +in proportion to the amount of services rendered, or labor performed. It +is not easy, at present, to decide how much the labor of keeping the +post-office will be lessened, by the adoption of uniform rates, and +prepayment. Certainly, the reduction will be very considerable. And +experience will hereafter suggest a new scale of compensations adapted to +the new methods of doing the business. + +The falling off in the gross receipts of the British post-office, on the +first adoption of the new system, was upwards of a million sterling, being +nearly 43 per cent. on the whole amount. A corresponding reduction from +the income of our own post-office would amount to $1,696,734. But the +falling off would not be so great. The reduction of postage in that case +was from 7-1/2_d_. on an average, to 1_d_., while in ours it would barely +prove an average of 6-1/2 cents to 2 cents. On the other hand, it is +reasonable to expect a very rapid increase of letters, because the partial +reduction in 1845 has already given the people a taste of the advantages +of reduced rates of postage. The whole number of letters now sent by mail +is 52,000,000. The number would, without doubt, be doubled in one year, +which would give a revenue of above $2,000,000; $2,080,000 from letters. +There would also be a very considerable increase of income from papers and +pamphlets, and a great saving in the article of dead letters and +newspapers. It is safe to estimate the revenue of the post-office, under +the new system, at $3,000,000 for the first year, $3,500,000 for the +second, $4,000,000 for the third, and $4,500,000 for the fourth, which +will bring it up to what will then be the wants of the service, making the +most liberal allowance for improved facilities. + +As an illustration of the capability of retrenchment in expense, let it be +remembered that the present Postmaster-General has effected a reduction of +nearly _a million dollars per annum in the cost of transportation alone_. +He says in his Report: + + + "The direction to the Postmaster-General to contract with the + lowest bidder, without the allowance of any advantage to the + former contractor, as had been the case before its passage, had + the effect of enlarging the field of competition, and reducing the + price of transportation, except on railroads and in steamboats, to + the lowest amount for which the service can be performed; and will + reduce the cost of transportation, when the other section is let + to contract under it, but little less than a million of dollars + per annum from the former prices." + + +In other words, our letter postage is no longer taxed as it used to be, to +give the people of other sections of the country, stage coaches which they +do not support, as well as mails which they do not pay for. There will +doubtless be still further reductions in this branch, in proportion as the +knowledge becomes diffused among the people, of the profits of this +business and the freeness of the competition for it. As Mr. Dana suggested +in his valuable Report in 1844: + + + "The difference must arise from want of competition, and a + reluctance to engage in the business of transporting the mail. + When the attention of the North shall be called to the subject, + and the difference in price pointed out, we cannot doubt that + contracts will be made nearly as cheap for transportation at the + South as at the North. If southern men will not engage in the + business, let it be generally known that such increased pay can be + had, and an abundance of yankee enterprise will be ready to engage + in the business." + + +RAILROAD TRANSPORTATION. One of the most difficult points in the +administration of the post-office, has been the dealing with railroad +corporations. As these are bodies without souls, they can only be dealt +with on the footing of pecuniary interest. And as they are state +institutions, and local favorites, public opinion has been generally +predisposed to take sides with the railroad, and against the department. +And thus the railroads have been able to exact exorbitant allowances for +services which cost them next to nothing. Were the whole mails of the +country to be sent at once by a single railroad, what would be the amount? +The average number of letters mailed in a day is 142,857; which, at the +average weight of {~VULGAR FRACTION ONE THIRD~} ounce, would weigh 2976 pounds. The average number of +newspapers in a day is 150,685, which, at the average weight of 2 ounces, +would give 18,834 pounds. The whole together make 21,815 pounds, equal to +109 passengers, averaging, with their baggage, 200 pounds each. These +passengers would be carried by railroad 200 miles, from Boston to Albany +for $545. The daily cost of railroad service is $1637, which shows that it +is distance, not weight, that is chiefly regarded. Or, in other words, +that the weight of the mails is of very little account to railroads. It is +well known that the corporations regard the carriage of the mail as almost +clear profit. The whole daily mails of the United States could be carried +by the inland route from Boston to New Orleans, by the established +expresses, at their regular rates on parcels, for a little over $3000; +while the whole daily expense of mail transportation is $6,594. The +expresses will carry from Boston to New York, for $1.50, an amount of +parcels, which the post-office would charge $150 for carrying as letters, +or $18.40 as newspapers--and all go by the same train, of course involving +equal cost of transportation to the company. The inference is unavoidable, +that the government is charged exorbitantly by these companies, from the +entire absence of competition on almost every railroad route. While human +nature remains the same, it is to be expected that corporations will take +this advantage unless some counteracting interest can be brought to bear +upon them as a restraint against extortion. + +Now, let the post-office present itself to the people as a system of pure +and unmingled beneficence, studying not how it can get a little more money +for a little less service, but how it can render the greatest amount of +accommodation with the least expense to the public treasury, and it will +at once become the object of the public gratitude and warm affection; men +will study how to facilitate all its transactions, will be conscientiously +careful not to impose any needless trouble upon its servants, and will +generally watch for its interests as their own. Such is the benign effect +upon all the considerate portions of society in England. Then the +government will be fully sustained in insisting that all railroads shall +carry the mail for a compensation which will be just a fair equivalent for +the service performed, in reasonable proportion to other services. And if +the corporations are perverse in throwing obstacles in the way, the people +will expect that such coercive measures should be employed, as wisdom may +prescribe, to make these creatures of their power subservient to the +public good, and not to mere private aggrandisement. + +In January, 1845, a document was communicated to congress by the +Postmaster-General, containing replies by the British post-office to +certain queries which he had proposed to them. This document gives the +distance travelled daily by mail trains on railways at 1601 miles, at a +cost per mile of 1_s_. 1-18/32_d_. per mile. But this "distance" is the +number of miles between place and place. The total number of miles that +the mail travels by railroad daily is 5808, which would make the real cost +per mile of travel about 5-1/4_d_. The number of miles travelled by railroad +in this country is 4,170,403, at the cost of $597,475, which is about 12 +cents per mile. But the English trains are driven at much greater speed +than ours, the expense of running is much greater in all respects, the +cost of the roads is vastly higher, the weight of mails is much greater, +and therefore the price of transportation might be higher than with us. +But it is lower. The average weight of mails sent daily from London alone +is 27,384 pounds, which is 5569 pounds more than the whole daily mails of +the United States. By act of parliament, the Postmaster-General is +authorized and empowered "to require of every railway company that they +shall convey the mail at such times as he may deem proper; and the amount +paid for such services is settled by a subsequent arbitration." Railroad +service is performed in New Hampshire for a fraction over 4 cents per +mile. The average in New England is 10-1/2 cents per mile. The average price +of passenger fares, for short distances or long, is but 3 cents per mile. +There can be no doubt that it is within the constitutional and proper +prerogative of congress to take the use of a railroad for the public +service, leaving the just compensation to be awarded by arbitration. +Neither can it be doubted that enlightened arbitration would greatly +reduce the price from what is now paid. + +COMPARATIVE COST OF OTHER TRANSPORTATION WITH LETTER POSTAGE. The +following table shows the cost of passage from Boston to the places named, +and the cost of transportation of parcels of usual weight by Express, with +the price per half ounce at the same rates. + +The average weight of passengers with their baggage is set at 230 pounds. +This would be equal to the weight of 7360 letters, at half an ounce each, +the postage on which, at two cents, would be $147.20, irrespective of +distance. + +From Boston Passenger Per half oz. Express Per half oz. + Fare. Mills. Freight. Mills. + 230 pounds. +To New York, $4.00 5-10ths $1.50 2-10ths +To Philadelphia, 7.00 9-10ths 3.50 5-10ths +To Baltimore, 10.00 1 3-10ths 5.50 7-10ths +To Cincinnati, 25.00 3 2-10ths 10.50 1 4-10ths +To St. Louis, 35.00 4 7-10ths 12.00 1 6-10ths +To New Orleans, 45.00 6 1-10th 14.00 1 9-10ths +To Liverpool, 120.00 16 3-10ths 7.20 9-10ths +per Cunard Steamers + +Rowland Hill discovered that the cost of transporting a letter from London +to Edinburgh was 1-36th of a penny; and the Parliamentary Committee +ascertained by a different calculation, that this was the average cost per +letter of all the mails in England. + +PENNY PAPERS. The establishment of penny papers in this country is a very +striking illustration of the principles here involved. It is now just +fifteen years since the New York Sun was commenced by a couple of +journeymen printers, one of whom had just been in my employ. They were +intelligent and enterprising, and began by writing their editorials and +police reports, which they then set up in type, and worked from an old +Ramage press, with their own hands. They printed seven hundred papers, of +a very small size, which they sold to boys at 62-1/2 cents per hundred, and +the boys sold them in the streets at one cent each. Soon their editions +increased, and they enlarged their sheet, and hired it printed on a Napier +press which I owned. Again their business increased, so much that it +became necessary for them to have a press of their own, driven by steam +power. One of the partners then sold out his interest for $10,000, went to +the West, studied law, and has been twice a candidate for Congress, with +strong prospects of success. The concern has since passed into other +hands, and has continued to prosper. For many years it has been printed on +a sheet larger than could be bought for a cent, making a constant loss on +the paper alone; besides which, it has cost $25 a week to the editor for +the leading articles alone; and I know not how much for other editorial +labor, market and commercial reports, ship news, foreign news, lightning +expresses, correspondence, &c. And yet the amount received for advertising +has covered all these expenditures, and enabled the present proprietor to +realize, as is supposed, a splendid fortune. + +A man in Boston buys 200 copies of the New York Tribune and other papers +daily, for which he pays 1-1/4 cents each. The Express brings him the parcel +for 50 cents, which is one quarter of a cent for each paper. The +post-office would charge $3.00 for postage alone. For the half cent +remaining to him after expenses paid, the carrier delivers his papers to +subscribers all over the city, collects his pay once a month, and runs all +the risk of loss of bundles and bad debts. Each paper weighs about an +ounce and a half--equal to three single letters of full weight, the postage +on which would be fifteen cents, making $30 in all. It is impossible to +doubt the practicability of cheap postage. + +In Scotland, with but 2,628,957 inhabitants, and no great commercial +centre, no political metropolis, and but little foreign commerce, such is +the effect of cheap postage that 28,669,169 letters are sent in a year. +Even in _poor_ Ireland, where the people die of hunger by thousands, where +there are millions of people who never taste of bread, and where the +majority of the people are said to be unable to read or write, with a +population of 8,175,124, less than half the population of the United +States--there are 28,587,996 letters mailed under the influence of penny +postage. The population of Scotland and Ireland together is 10,804,081, +not half the present population of the United States; the number of +letters in a year is 57,257,165, being more than _all_ that are sent in +the United States, franks included. + +CONCLUDING REMARKS. I am brought to the close of this essay, with only a +brief space left to be filled, and with many subjects of remark +untouched--the Exclusive Right of the Post-office--the History of Postage in +this country--the Sectional Bearings of Cheap Postage--the Postage Bill now +before Congress--the Moral and Social Benefits of Cheap Postage. This +pamphlet has been wholly written since the vote of the Publishing +Committee, which must be my apology for some repetitions. The main +arguments cannot be overthrown, until men disprove arithmetic. + +Who can doubt that cheap postage would bring three times as many letters +as are now sent by mail in this country. And that would give a greater +revenue to the post-office than it now receives. It is impossible to doubt +the success of cheap postage, when once it is established. + +Now is the favorable time for its adoption. The astonishing success of +cheap postage in Great Britain is opening people's eyes. The rapid +progress which public opinion has made in the last six months in favor of +cheap postage, creates a confident expectation that congress will yield to +the first resolute motion that shall be made, and adopt a well-considered +system, of which two cents letter-postage shall be the basis, with a +general provision for prepayment. The details will be easily adjusted when +the principle is adopted. Let us have no evasions, no half-way measures, +to delude with false hopes, and to stand as obstacles in the way of the +only true system. + +Why should I enlarge upon the benefits of cheap postage? The only question +to be asked is--What shall every man do to obtain it? The answer is, You +must understand its merits; you must talk with your neighbors, and get +them interested in its favor; you must write, if you can, for the papers; +you must unite, without delay, in signing and forwarding the following +petition to congress: + +_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States, in +Congress assembled_: + +The undersigned, Citizens of: + +respectfully petition Congress to pass a Law to establish A UNIFORM RATE +OF POSTAGE, not to exceed ONE CENT ON NEWSPAPERS, and TWO CENTS on each +PRE-PAID LETTER of half an ounce, for all distances; and for other +corresponding reforms. + + + + + +APPENDIX. + + +I. TABLES FROM THE PARLIAMENTARY RETURNS. + +The parliamentary return, obligingly sent to Dr. Webb by Mr. Hume, M. P., +bears date the 11th of June, 1847, and was made in pursuance of an order +of the House, passed April 22, 1847. The tabular statements contained in +this important paper will be examined with great interest by those who are +accustomed to statistical inquiries, and are here presented for their use. +Taken in connection with Mr. Hume's table, on page 4, they will present +the most convincing evidence of the unparalleled success of cheap postage. + +A comparative statement of the NUMBER OF LETTERS delivered in the United +Kingdom, in one week of the month of November, 1839, and of each +subsequent year, taking a week in the month of April, 1847. (Condensed +from the parliamentary document.) + +Years. England and Ireland. Scotland. United + Wales. Kingdom. +1839(3) 1,252,977 179,931 153,065 1,585,973 +1840 2,685,181 385,672 385,262 3,456,115 +1841 3,029,453 403,421 413,248 3,846,122 +1842 3,282,021 474,031 446,494 4,202,546 +1843 3,401,595 478,941 468,677 4,349,213 +1844 3,744,011 527,630 511,663 4,783,304 +1845 4,467,619 597,425 601,715 5,666,759 +1846 4,629,324 649,324 621,850 5,890,704 +1847(4) 4,823,854 698,313 626,709 6,148,876 + +II. An account, showing the GROSS and NET POST OFFICE REVENUE, and the +COST OF MANAGEMENT, for the United Kingdom, for the year ending the 5th +day of January, 1839, and for each subsequent year. + +Year ending Gross Cost of Net Revenue. + Revenue.(5) Management.(6) +5 January, 1839 L2,346,278 L686,768 3_s_. L1,659,509 + --_s_. 91/2_d_. 63/4_d_. 17_s_. 23/4_d_. +5 January, 2,390,763 10 11/2 756,999 7 4 1,633,764 2 91/2 +1840(7) +5 January, 1841 1,359,466 9 2 858,677 --51/4 500,789 11 41/4 +5 January, 1842 1,499,418 10 938,168 19 71/2 561,249 11 41/4 + 113/4 +5 January, 1843 1,578,145 16 71/2 977,504 10 3 600,641 641/2 +5 January, 1844 1,620,867 11 10 980,650 7 53/4 640,217 4 41/4 +5 January, 1845 1,705,067 16 4 985,110 13 103/4 719,957 2 51/4 +5 January, 1846 1,901,580 10 23/4 1,125,594 5 -- 775,986 5 23/4 +5 January, 1847 1,978,293 11 1,138,745 2 41/4 839,548 9 6 + 101/4 + +III. Return of the PAYMENTS made by the POST OFFICE during each of the +years ending the 5th of January, 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842, 1843, 1844, 1845, +1846, 1847, for the CONVEYANCE of the _Mails_ by _Railway_ in Great +Britain. + +5th January, 1839, L12,380 5_s_. 7_d_. +5th January, 1840, 52,230 1 2 +5th January, 1841, 51,301 6 8 +5th January, 1842, 94,818 7 10 +5th January, 1843, 77,570 5 7 +5th January, 1844, 96,360 10 5 +5th January, 1845, 89,809 4 6 +5th January, 1846, 179,257 4 1 +5th January, 1847, 107,890 14 2 + +IV. An account of the Number and Amount of MONEY ORDERS issued (and paid) +in England and Wales (London included), from the 5th April, 1839, to 5th +April, 1847, inclusive. + +For the Quarters ended Number. Amount. +5 April, 1839 28,838 L49,496 5_s_. + 8_d_. +5 July, 1839 34,612 59,099 9 5 +5 October, 1839 38,510 64,056 7 8 +5 January, 1840 40,763 67,411 2 7 +5 April, 1840 76,145 119,932 12 1 +5 July, 1840 94,215 151,734 15 8 +5 October, 1840 122,420 196,507 14 3 +5 January, 1841 189,984 334,652 14 8 +5 April, 1841 275,870 567,518 12 3 +5 July, 1841 289,884 608,774 11 2 +5 October, 1841 334,071 661,099 9 -- +5 January, 1842 390,290 820,576 11 10 +5 April, 1842 419,530 890,575 17 1 +5 July, 1842 422,452 885,803 4 5 +5 October, 1842 432,205 901,549 5 5 +5 January, 1843 493,439 1,031,850 5 3 +5 April, 1843 512,798 1,080,249 2 2 +5 July, 1843 495,723 1,032,643 5 11 +5 October, 1843 515,458 1,060,023 8 7 +5 January, 1844 562,030 1,196,428 8 2 +5 April, 1844 582,056 1,212,094 4 9 +5 July, 1844 555,561 1,166,161 12 3 +5 October, 1844 574,250 1,184,178 -- 5 +5 January, 1845 621,826 1,296,451 17 4 +5 April, 1845 656,452 1,372,405 18 8 +5 July, 1845 613,539 1,279,050 2 4 +5 October, 1845 637,369 1,316,164 12 1 +5 January, 1846 719,813 1,495,832 17 6 +5 April, 1846 716,618 1,490,626 12 5 +5 July, 1846 679,236 1,399,789 17 2 +5 October, 1846 706,055 1,447,507 17 2 +5 January, 1847 779,790 1,588,549 7 2 +5 April, 1847 810,603 1,654,278 7 -- + +The Commission on Money Orders was, on and from the 20th November, 1840, +reduced as follows: + +For any sum not exceeding L2, from 6_d_. to 3_d_. +For any sum above L2, and not exceeding L5, from 1s. 6_d_. to _6_d. + +V. Return of the Number of CHARGEABLE LETTERS, which is passed through the +London General Post, inwards and outwards, in the first four weeks of each +year, beginning with 1839, distinguishing the Unpaid, Paid with Coin, +Stamped, and Total.(8) + +Years. Unpaid. Paid. Stamped. Total. +1839(9) 1,358,651 263,496 1,622,147 +1840(10) 787,139 2,217,127 3,004,266 +1841 370,080 2,204,419 2,108,074 4,683,073 +1842 351,134 2,166,960 2,760,757 5,278,851 +1843 312,839 2,431,231 2,972,828 5,716,898 +1844 433,270 2,524,270 3,079,418 6,037,526 +1845 504,519 2,613,648 3,681,026 6,800,293 +1846 551,461 2,899,306 4,435,966 7,886,733 +1847(11) 448,838 3,057,257 4,905,674 8,411,769 + +VI. Return of the Number of CHARGEABLE LETTERS which passed through the +London District Post, excluding all General Post Letters, in the first +four weeks of each year, beginning with 1839. + +Years. Unpaid. Paid. Stamped. Total. +1839 800,573 220,813 1,021,286 +1840 331,589 1,207,985 1,539,574 +1841 157,242 926,264 752,134 1,835,640 +1842 118,101 820,835 980,694 1,919,630 +1843 113,293 837,624 1,020,091 1,971,008 +1844 98,712 859,776 1,181,314 2,139,802 +1845 99,005 947,660 1,337,132 2,383,697 +1846 119,165 1,055,717 1,573,603 2,748,485 +1847 108,158 1,079,378 1,685,105 2,872,641 + +The Penny Rate took effect on this route Dec. 5, 1839. + +The increase of the total, since 1839, is 181 per cent.; showing that the +greatest increase is out of the London District. + +VII. Table by Mr. Hill, showing the loss of Revenue by the Post Office, +compared with the Increase of Population. + +Years. Population. Postage. Postage due Loss. Pr. ct. + by + Population. +1815 19,552,000 L1,557,291 L1,557,291 +1820 20,928,000 1,479,547 1,677,000 L194,553 11.6 +1825 22,362,000 1,670,209 1,789,000 118,781 6.6 +1830 23,961,000 1,517,952 1,917,000 399,048 20. +1835 25,605,000 1,540,300 2,048,000 507,700 24.8 + +VII. Table by Mr. Hill, showing the loss of Revenue by the Post Office, +compared with the Increase of the Stage-Coach Duty. + +Years. Stage Coach Postage. Post due by Loss. Pr. ct. + Duty Coach Duty. +1815 L217,671 L1,557,291 L1,557,291 +1820 273,477 1,479,547 1,946,000 L466,453 24. +1825 362,631 1,670,209 2,585,000 914,781 35. +1830 418,598 1,517,952 2,990,000 1,472,048 49. +1835 498,497 1,540,300 3,550,000 2,009,700 57. + +The revenue from the stage coach duty had increased 128 per cent. in +twenty years. There was no reason why the natural demand for the +conveyance of letters should not have increased at least as much as the +demand for the conveyance of persons. It was evident that the postage +revenue fell short by at least two millions which was lost by the high +rate of postage. + +NEWSPAPERS. + +[From Porter's Progress of the British Nation.] + +Owing to the great craving of the people for information upon political +subjects during the agitation that accompanied the introduction and +passing of the bill "to amend the representation of the people," commonly +known as "The Reform Bill," a great temptation was offered for the illegal +publication of newspapers upon unstamped paper, many of which were sold in +large numbers in defiance of all the preventive efforts made by the +officers of government. The stamp duty of fourpence per sheet was +therefore taken off in 1836, leaving a stamp of 1_d_., as an equivalent +for free postage. + +IX. Table showing the Number of Newspapers at different periods, and the +Revenue derived from the same. + +Years. Newspapers. Revenue. +1801 16,085,085 L185,806 +1811 24,421,713 298,547 +1821 24,862,186 335,753 +1826 27,004,802 451,676 +1830 30,158,741 505,439 +1831 35,198,160 483,153 +1835 33,191,820 453,130 +1836 35,576,056 359,826 +1837 53,496,207 218,042 +1838 53,347,231 221,164 +1839 55,891,003 238,394 +1840 60,922,151 244,416 +1841 59,936,897 +1842 61,495,503 +1843 +1844 + +X. Table showing the Increase of Expense in the British Post Office, +consequent upon the Increase of the Number of Letters under the new +System; the Rate per Letter of the Cost of additional Letters, and the +Profits realized from such Increase, expressed in decimals of a penny. + +Years. Increase of Increase of Additional Additional + Letters. Cost. Cost. Profit. +1840 93,000,000 L70,231 _d_. 0.181 _d_. 0.819 +1841 27,500,000 101,678 0.887 0.113 +1842 12,000,000 72,256 1.445 (12) +1843 12,000,000 35,826 0.716 0.284 +1844 21,500,000 (13) -- 1.004 +1845 29,500,000 6,870 0.055 0.945 +1846 28,000,000 140,576 1.205 (14) +1847 2,2500,000 23,879 0.257 0.746 + +N. B. The increase of letters since 1839 is 246 millions, and cost of the +increase is .347 of a penny; so that every letter now added to the +circulation yields a net profit to the government of .625_d_., or nearly +two thirds of the penny postage. + + + + + + +FOOTNOTES + + + 1 "The estimate for 1839 is founded on the ascertained number of + letters for one week in the month of November, and strictly + speaking, it is for the year ending Dec. 5th, at which time 4_d_. + was made the maximum rate. The estimate for each subsequent year is + founded on the ascertained number of letters for one week in each + calendar month." + + 2 "This is exclusive of about six and a half millions of franks." + + 3 The number of franks was ascertained for each of the weeks ending + January 11, January 21, and February 4, 1838; and the mean of these + three gives 126,212 as the estimated number for one week, which is 8 + per cent. of the whole, and leaves 1,459,761 as the number of + chargeable letters. + + 4 Week ending April 21, 1847. The whole number in the week ending + February was 6,569,696. The number 6,148,876, for one week, + multiplied by 52, gives 319,741,552, the total number for the year + 1847. + + 5 Namely, the gross receipts, after deducting the returns for refused + letters, &c. + + 6 Including all payments out of the revenue in its progress to the + Exchequer, except advances to the Money Order Office; of these sums + L10,307 10_s_. per annum is for pensions, and forms no part of the + disbursements on account of the service of the Post Office. + + 7 This year includes one month of the Fourpenny Rate. + + 8 By multiplying any of these numbers by 13, you get the number for 62 + weeks, which is, for all practical purposes, the number for a year; + as 20,087,971 in 1839, to 109,362,997 in 1847 + + 9 Estimated from an enumeration for four several weeks in that year. + + 10 The Penny Rate commenced Jan. 10, 1840; Stamps, May 6, 1840. + + 11 The increase of the total, since 1839, is 418 per cent.; of paid in + coin, since 1840, 39 per cent.; of unpaid, since 1841, 21 per cent.; + of stamps, since 1841, 183 per cent. + + 12 Cost diminished by L364, equal to _d_. 0.004 per letter. + + 13 Cost increased equal to _d_. 0.445 per letter. + + 14 Cost increased equal to _d_. 0.205 per letter. + + + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHEAP POSTAGE*** + + + +CREDITS + + +November 7, 2008 + + Project Gutenberg TEI edition 1 + Produced by Bryan Ness, David King, and the Online Distributed + Proofreading Team at <http://www.pgdp.net/>. 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