THE POST-OFFICE.
Any Englishman or Frenchman residing in the American States
cannot fail to be struck with the inferiority of the Post-office
arrangements in that country to those by which they are accommodated
in their own country. I have not been a resident in the States, and
as a traveller might probably have passed the subject without special
remark, were it not that the service of the Post-office has been my
own profession for many years. I could therefore hardly fail to
observe things which to another man would have been of no material
moment. At first I was inclined to lean heavily in my judgment upon
the deficiencies of a department which must be of primary importance
to a commercial nation. It seemed that among a people so intelligent,
and so quick in all enterprises of trade, a well arranged Post-office
would have been held to be absolutely necessary, and that all
difficulties would have been made to succumb in their efforts to
put that establishment, if no other, upon a proper footing. But
as I looked into the matter, and in becoming acquainted with
the circumstances of the Post-office learned the extent of the
difficulties absolutely existing, I began to think that a very great
deal had been done, and that the fault, as to that which had been
left undone, rested, not with the Post-office officials, but was
attributable partly to political causes altogether outside the
Post-office, and partly,--perhaps chiefly,--to the nature of the
country itself.
It is, I think, undoubtedly true that the amount of accommodation
given by the Post-office of the States is small,--as compared with
that afforded in some other countries, and that that accommodation
is lessened by delays and uncertainty. The point which first struck
me was the inconvenient hours at which mails were brought in and
despatched. Here, in England, it is the object of our Post-office to
carry the bulk of our letters at night; to deliver them as early as
possible in the morning, and to collect them and take them away for
despatch as late as may be in the day;--so that the merchant may
receive his letters before the beginning of his day's business, and
despatch them after its close. The bulk of our letters is handled in
this manner, and the advantage of such an arrangement is manifest.
But it seemed that in the States no such practice prevailed. Letters
arrived at any hour in the day miscellaneously, and were despatched
at any hour, and I found that the postmaster at one town could never
tell me with certainty when letters would arrive at another. If the
towns were distant, I would be told that the conveyance might take
about two or three days; if they were near, that my letter would get
to hand "some time to-morrow." I ascertained, moreover, by painful
experience that the whole of a mail would not always go forward by
the first despatch. As regarded myself this had reference chiefly to
English letters and newspapers.--"Only a part of the mail has come,"
the clerk would tell me. With us the owners of that part which did
not "come," would consider themselves greatly aggrieved and make
loud complaint. But, in the States, complaints made against official
departments are held to be of little moment.
Letters also in the States are subject to great delays by
irregularities on railways. One train does not hit the town of its
destination before another train, to which it is nominally fitted,
has been started on its journey. The mail trains are not bound to
wait; and thus, in the large cities, far distant from New York,
great irregularity prevails. It is, I think, owing to this,--at any
rate partly to this,--that the system of telegraphing has become so
prevalent. It is natural that this should be so between towns which
are in the due course of post perhaps forty-eight hours asunder; but
the uncertainty of the post increases the habit, to the profit, of
course, of the companies which own the wires,--but to the manifest
loss of the Post-office.
But the deficiency which struck me most forcibly in the American
Post-office, was the absence of any recognized official delivery of
letters. The United States Post-office does not assume to itself
the duty of taking letters to the houses of those for whom they are
intended, but holds itself as having completed the work for which
the original postage has been paid, when it has brought them to the
window of the Post-office of the town to which they are addressed.
It is true that in most large towns,--though by no means in all,--a
separate arrangement is made by which a delivery is afforded to those
who are willing to pay a further sum for that further service; but
the recognized official mode of delivery is from the office window.
The merchants and persons in trade have boxes at the windows, for
which they pay. Other old-established inhabitants in towns, and
persons in receipt of a considerable correspondence, receive their
letters by the subsidiary carriers and pay for them separately. But
the poorer classes of the community, those persons among which it
is of such paramount importance to increase the blessing of letter
writing, obtain their letters from the Post-office windows.
In each of these cases the practice acts to the prejudice of the
department. In order to escape the tax on delivery, which varies
from two cents to one cent a letter, all men in trade, and many who
are not in trade, hold office boxes; consequently immense space is
required. The space given at Chicago, both to the public without and
to the officials within, for such delivery, is more than four times
that required at Liverpool for the same purpose. But Liverpool is
three times the size of Chicago. The corps of clerks required for the
window delivery is very great, and the whole affair is cumbrous in
the extreme. The letters at most offices are given out through little
windows, to which the inquirer is obliged to stoop. There he finds
himself opposite to a pane of glass with a little hole; and when the
clerk within shakes his head at him, he rarely believes but what his
letters are there if he could only reach them. But in the second
case, the tax on the delivery, which is intended simply to pay the
wages of the men who take them out, is paid with a bad grace; it robs
the letter of its charm, and forces it to present itself in the
guise of a burden. It makes that disagreeable which for its own sake
the Post-office should strive in every way to make agreeable. This
practice, moreover, operates as a direct prevention to a class of
correspondence, which furnishes in England a large proportion of the
revenue of the Post-office. Mercantile houses in our large cities
send out thousands of trade circulars, paying postage on them; but
such circulars would not be received, either in England or elsewhere,
if a demand for postage were made on their delivery. Who does not
receive these circulars in our country by the dozen, consigning them
generally to the waste-paper basket, after a most cursory inspection?
As regards the sender, the transaction seems to us often to be very
vain; but the Post-office gets its penny. So also would the American
Post-office get its three cents.
But the main objection in my eyes to the American Post-office system
is this,--that it is not brought nearer to the poorer classes.
Everybody writes or can write in America, and therefore the
correspondence of their millions should be, million for million, at
any rate equal to ours. But it is not so: and this, I think, comes
from the fact that communication by Post-office is not made easy to
the people generally. Such communication is not found to be easy by
a man who has to attend at a Post-office window on the chance of
receiving a letter. When no arrangement more comfortable than that
is provided, the Post-office will be used for the necessities of
letter-writing, but will not be esteemed as a luxury. And thus not
only do the people lose a comfort which they might enjoy, but the
Post-office also loses that revenue which it might make.
I have said that the correspondence circulating in the United States
is less than that of the United Kingdom. In making any comparison
between them I am obliged to arrive at facts, or rather at the
probabilities of facts, in a somewhat circuitous mode, as the
Americans have kept no account of the number of letters which pass
through their post-offices in a year. We can, however, make an
estimate which, if incorrect, shall not at any rate be incorrect
against them. The gross postal revenue of the United States, for the
year ended 30th June, 1861, was in round figures £1,700,000. This was
the amount actually earned, exclusive of a sum of £140,000 paid to
the Post-office by the government for the carriage of what is called
in that country free mail matter; otherwise, books, letters, and
parcels franked by members of Congress. The gross postal revenue
of the United Kingdom was in the last year, in round figures,
£3,358,000, exclusive of a sum of £179,000 claimed as earned for
carrying official postage, and also exclusive of £127,866, that
being the amount of money order commission which in this country is
considered a part of the Post-office revenue. In the United States
there is at present no money order office. In the United Kingdom
the sum of £3,358,000 was earned by the conveyance and delivery of
593 millions of letters,
73 millions of newspapers,
12 millions of books.
What number of each was conveyed through the post in the United
States we have no means of knowing; but presuming the average rate
of postage on each letter in the States to be the same as it is in
England, and presuming also that letters, newspapers, and books
circulated in the same proportion there as they do with us, the sum
above named of £1,700,000 will have been earned by carrying about 300
millions of letters. But the average rate of postage in the States
is, in fact, higher than it is in England. The ordinary single rate
of postage there is three cents or three half-pence, whereas with us
it is a penny; and if three half-pence might be taken as the average
rate in the United States, the number of letters would be reduced
from 300 to 200 millions a year. There is however a class of letters
which in the States are passed through the Post-office at the rate of
one halfpenny a letter, whereas there is no rate of postage with us
less than a penny. Taking these halfpenny letters into consideration,
I am disposed to regard the average rate of American postage at
about five farthings, which would give the number of letters at 250
millions. We shall at any rate be safe in saying that the number is
considerably less than 300 millions, and that it does not amount to
half the number circulated with us. But the difference between our
population and their population is not great. The population of the
States during the year in question was about 27 millions, exclusive
of slaves, and that of the British isles was about 29 millions. No
doubt, in the year named, the correspondence of the States had been
somewhat disturbed by the rebellion; but that disturbance, up to
the end of June, 1861, had been very trifling. The division of
the southern from the northern States, as far as the Post-office
was concerned, did not take place till the end of May, 1861; and
therefore but one month in the year was affected by the actual
secession of the South. The gross postal revenue of the States which
have seceded was, for the year prior to secession, twelve hundred
thousand five hundred dollars, and for that one month of June
it would therefore have been a little over one hundred thousand
dollars, or £20,000. That sum may therefore be presumed to have
been abstracted by secession from the gross annual revenue of the
Post-office. Trade, also, was no doubt injured by the disturbance
in the country, and the circulation of letters was, as a matter
of course, to some degree affected by this injury; but it seems
that the gross revenue of 1861 was less than that of 1860 by only
one thirty-sixth. I think, therefore, that we may say, making all
allowance that can be fairly made, that the number of letters
circulating in the United Kingdom is more than double that which
circulates, or ever has circulated, in the United States.
That this is so, I attribute not to any difference in the people
of the two countries,--not to an aptitude for letter writing
among us which is wanting with the Americans,--but to the greater
convenience and wider accommodation of our own Post-office. As I
have before stated, and will presently endeavour to show, this wider
accommodation is not altogether the result of better management on
our part. Our circumstances as regards the Post-office have had in
them less of difficulties than theirs. But it has arisen in great
part from better management; and in nothing is their deficiency so
conspicuous as in the absence of a free delivery for their letters.
In order that the advantages of the Post-office should reach all
persons, the delivery of letters should extend not only to towns,
but to the country also. In France all letters are delivered free.
However remote may be the position of a house or cottage, it is not
too remote for the postman. With us all letters are not delivered;
but the exceptions refer to distant solitary houses and to localities
which are almost without correspondence. But in the United States
there is no free delivery, and there is no delivery at all except in
the large cities. In small towns, in villages, even in the suburbs
of the largest cities, no such accommodation is given. Whatever may
be the distance, people expecting letters must send for them to the
Post-office;--and they who do not expect them, leave their letters
uncalled for. Brother Jonathan goes out to fish in these especial
waters with a very large net. The little fish, which are profitable,
slip through; but the big fish, which are by no means profitable, are
caught,--often at an expense greater than their value.
There are other smaller sins upon which I could put my finger,--and
would do so were I writing an official report upon the subject of
the American Post-office. In lieu of doing so, I will endeavour
to explain how much the States' office has done in this matter of
affording Post-office accommodation,--and how great have been the
difficulties in the way of Post-office reformers in that country.
In the first place, when we compare ourselves to them, we must
remember that we live in a tea-cup, and they in a washing-tub. As
compared with them we inhabit towns which are close to each other.
Our distances, as compared with theirs, are nothing. From London to
Liverpool the line of railway traverses about two hundred miles, but
the mail train which conveys the bags for Liverpool, carries the
correspondence of probably four or five millions of persons. The
mail train from New York to Buffalo passes over about four hundred
miles, and on its route serves not one million. A comparison of this
kind might be made with the same effect between any of our great
internal mail routes and any of theirs. Consequently, the expense of
conveyance to them is, per letter, very much greater than with us,
and the American Post-office is as a matter of necessity driven to
an economy in the use of railways for the Post-office service, which
we are not called on to practise. From New York to Chicago is nearly
1000 miles. From New York to St. Louis is over 1600. I need not say
that in England we know nothing of such distances, and that therefore
our task has been comparatively easy. Nevertheless the States have
followed in our track, and have taken advantage of Sir Rowland Hill's
wise audacity in the reduction of postage with greater quickness than
any other nation but our own. Through all the States letters pass for
three cents over a distance less than 3000 miles. For distances above
3000 miles the rate is ten cents or five-pence. This increased rate
has special reference to the mails for California, which are carried
daily across the whole continent at a cost to the States Government
of two hundred thousand pounds a year.
With us the chief mail trains are legally under the management of the
Postmaster-General. He fixes the hours at which they shall start and
arrive, being of course bound by certain stipulations as to pace. He
can demand trains to run over any line at any hour, and can in this
way secure the punctuality of mail transportation. Of course such
interference on the part of a government official in the working of
a railway is attended with a very heavy expense to the Government.
Though the British Post-office can demand the use of trains at any
hour, and as regards those trains can make the despatch of mails
paramount to all other matters, the British Post-office cannot
fix the price to be paid for such work. This is generally done by
arbitration, and of course for such services the payment is very
high. No such practice prevails in the States. The Government has no
power of using the mail lines as they are used by our Post-office,
nor could the expense of such a practice be borne or nearly borne by
the proceeds of letters in the States. Consequently the Post-office
is put on a par with ordinary customers, and such trains are used
for mail matter as the directors of each line may see fit to use for
other matter. Hence it occurs that no offence against the Post-office
is committed when the connection between different mail trains
is broken. The Post-office takes the best it can get, paying as
other customers pay, and grumbling as other customers grumble when
the service rendered falls short of that which has been promised.
It may, I think, easily be seen that any system such as ours,
carried across so large a country, would go on increasing in cost
at an enormous ratio. The greater the distance, the greater is the
difficulty in securing the proper fitting of fast-running trains.
And moreover, it must be remembered that the American lines have
been got up on a very different footing from ours, at an expense per
mile of probably less than a fifth of that laid out on our railways.
Single lines of rail are common, even between great towns with large
traffic. At the present moment--May, 1862--the only railway running
into Washington, that namely from Baltimore, is a single line over
the greater distance. The whole thing is necessarily worked at a
cheaper rate than with us; not because the people are poorer, but
because the distances are greater. As this is the case throughout
the whole railway system of the country, it cannot be expected that
such despatch and punctuality should be achieved in America as are
achieved here, in England, or in France. As population and wealth
increase, it will come. In the mean time that which has been already
done over the extent of the vast North American continent is
very wonderful. I think, therefore, that complaint should not
be made against the Washington Post-office, either on account
of the inconvenience of the hours, or on the head of occasional
irregularity. So much has been done in reducing the rate to three
cents, and in giving a daily mail throughout the States, that the
department should be praised for energy, and not blamed for apathy.
In the year ended 30th June, 1861, the gross revenue of the
Post-office of the States was, as I have stated, £1,700,000. In
the same year its expenditure was in round figures £2,720,000.
Consequently there was an actual loss, to be made up out of general
taxation, amounting to £1,020,000. In the accounts of the American
officers this is lessened by £140,000, that sum having been
arbitrarily fixed by the Government as the amount earned by the
Post-office in carrying free mail matter. We have a similar system in
computing the value of the service rendered by our Post-office to the
Government in carrying government despatches; but with us the amount
named as the compensation depends on the actual weight carried. If
the matter so carried be carried solely on the Government service,
as is I believe the case with us, any such claim on behalf of the
Post-office is apparently unnecessary. The Crown works for the Crown,
as the right hand works for the left. The Post-office pays no rates
or taxes, contributes nothing to the poor, runs its mails on turnpike
roads free of toll, and gives receipts on unstamped paper. With us
no payment is in truth made, though the Post-office in its accounts
presumes itself to have received the money. But in the States the
sum named is handed over by the State Treasury to the Post-office
Treasury. Any such statement of credit does not in effect alter the
real fact, that over a million sterling is required as a subsidy by
the American Post-office, in order that it may be enabled to pay its
way. In estimating the expenditure of the office the department at
Washington debits itself with the sums paid for the ocean transit of
its mails, amounting to something over £150,000. We also now do the
same, with the much greater sum paid by us for such service, which
now amounts to £949,228, or nearly a million sterling. Till lately
this was not paid out of the Post-office moneys, and the Post-office
revenue was not debited with the amount.
Our gross Post-office revenue is, as I have said, £3,358,250. As
before explained, this is exclusive of the amount earned by the
money order department, which, though managed by the authorities of
the Post-office, cannot be called a part of the Post-office; and
exclusive also of the official postage, which is, in fact, never
received. The expenditure of our British Post-office, inclusive of
the sum paid for the ocean mail service, is £3,064,527. We therefore
make a net profit of £293,723 out of the Post-office, as compared
with a loss of £1,020,000, on the part of the United States.
But perhaps the greatest difficulty with which the American
Post-office is burdened, is that "free mail matter" to which I have
alluded, for carrying which, the Post-office claims to earn £140,000,
and for the carriage of which, it might as fairly claim to earn
£1,350,000, or half the amount of its total expenditure, for I was
informed by a gentleman whose knowledge on the subject could not be
doubted, that the free mail matter so carried, equalled in bulk and
weight all that other matter which was not carried free. To such an
extent has the privilege of franking been carried in the States! All
members of both Houses frank what they please,--for in effect the
privilege is stretched to that extent. All Presidents of the Union,
past and present, can frank, as, also, all Vice-Presidents, past and
present; and there is a special act, enabling the widow of President
Polk to frank! Why it is that widows of other Presidents do not
agitate on the matter, I cannot understand. And all the Secretaries
of State can frank; and ever so many other public officers. There is
no limit in number to the letters so franked, and the nuisance has
extended itself to so huge a size, that members of Congress in giving
franks, cannot write the franks themselves. It is illegal for them
to depute to others the privilege of signing their names for this
purpose, but it is known at the Post-office that it is done. But even
this is not the worst of it. Members of the House of Representatives
have the power of sending through the post all those huge books
which, with them as with us, grow out of Parliamentary debates and
workings of Committees. This, under certain stipulations, is the
case also in England; but in England, luckily, no one values them.
In America, however, it is not so. A voter considers himself to be
noticed if he gets a book. He likes to have the book bound, and the
bigger the book may be, the more the compliment is relished. Hence it
comes to pass that an enormous quantity of useless matter is printed
and bound, only that it may be sent down to constituents and make a
show on the parlour shelves of constituents' wives. The Post-office
groans and becomes insolvent, and the country pays for the paper, the
printing, and the binding. While the public expenses of the nation
were very small, there was, perhaps, no reason why voters should not
thus be indulged; but now the matter is different, and it would be
well that the conveyance by post of these Congressional libraries
should be brought to an end. I was also assured that members very
frequently obtain permission for the printing of a speech which has
never been delivered,--and which never will be delivered,--in order
that copies may be circulated among their constituents. There is in
such an arrangement an ingenuity which is peculiarly American in its
nature. Everybody concerned is no doubt cheated by the system. The
constituents are cheated; the public, which pays, is cheated; and the
Post-office is cheated. But the House is spared the hearing of the
speech, and the result on the whole is perhaps beneficial.
We also, within the memory of many of us, had a franking privilege,
which was peculiarly objectionable inasmuch as it operated towards
giving a free transmission of their letters by post to the rich,
while no such privilege was within reach of the poor. But with us it
never stretched itself to such an extent as it has now achieved in
the States. The number of letters for members was limited. The whole
address was written by the franking member himself, and not much
was sent in this way that was bulky. I am disposed to think that
all government and Congressional jobs in the States bear the same
proportion to government and Parliamentary jobs which have been
in vogue among us. There has been an unblushing audacity in the
public dishonesty,--what I may perhaps call the State dishonesty,--at
Washington, which I think was hardly ever equalled in London.
Bribery, I know, was disgracefully current in the days of Walpole, of
Newcastle, and even of Castlereagh;--so current, that no Englishman
has a right to hold up his own past government as a model of purity.
But the corruption with us did blush and endeavour to hide itself.
It was disgraceful to be bribed, if not so to offer bribes. But at
Washington corruption has been so common that I can hardly understand
how any honest man can have held up his head in the vicinity of the
Capitol, or of the State office.
But the country has, I think, become tired of this. Hitherto it
has been too busy about its more important concerns, in extending
commerce, in making railways, in providing education for its youth,
to think very much of what was being done at Washington. While the
taxes were light and property was secure, while increasing population
gave daily increasing strength to the nation, the people as a body
were content with that theory of being governed by their little men.
They gave a bad name to politicians, and allowed politics, as they
say, "to slide." But all this will be altered now. The tremendous
expenditure of the last twelve months has allowed dishonesty of so
vast a grasp to make its ravages in the public pockets, that the evil
will work its own cure. Taxes will be very high, and the people will
recognize the necessity of having honest men to look after them. The
nation can no longer afford to be indifferent about its Government,
and will require to know where its money goes, and why it goes. This
franking privilege is already doomed, if not already dead. When I was
in Washington a Bill was passed through the Lower House by which it
would be abolished altogether. When I left America its fate in the
Senate was still doubtful, and I was told by many that that Bill
would not be allowed to become law without sundry alterations. But,
nevertheless, I regard the franking privilege as doomed, and offer to
the Washington Post-office officials my best congratulations on their
coming deliverance.
The Post-office in the States is also burdened by another terrible
political evil, which in itself is so heavy, that one would at first
sight declare it to be enough to prevent anything like efficiency.
The whole of its staff is removeable every fourth year,--that is
to say, on the election of every new President. And a very large
proportion of its staff is thus removed periodically to make way
for those for whom a new President is bound to provide, by reason
of their services in sending him to the White House. They have
served him and he thus repays them by this use of his patronage in
their favour. At four hundred and thirty-four Post-offices in the
States,--those being the offices to which the highest salaries are
attached,--the President has this power, and exercises it as a
matter of course. He has the same power with reference, I believe,
to all the appointments held in the Post-office at Washington.
This practice applies by no means to the Post-office only. All the
government clerks,--clerks employed by the central government at
Washington,--are subject to the same rule. And the rule has also been
adopted in the various States with reference to State offices.
To a stranger this practice seems so manifestly absurd, that he can
hardly conceive it possible that a government service should be
conducted on such terms. He cannot, in the first place, believe that
men of sufficient standing before the world could be found to accept
office under such circumstances; and is led to surmise that men of
insufficient standing must be employed, and that there are other
allurements to the office beyond the very moderate salaries which
are allowed. He cannot, moreover, understand how the duties can
be conducted, seeing that men must be called on to resign their
places as soon as they have learned to make themselves useful. And,
finally, he is lost in amazement as he contemplates this barefaced
prostitution of the public employ to the vilest purposes of political
manoeuvring. With us also patronage has been used for political
purposes, and to some small extent is still so used. We have not yet
sufficiently recognized the fact, that in selecting a public servant
nothing should be regarded but the advantage of the service in which
he is to be employed. But we never, in the lowest times of our
political corruption, ventured to throw over the question of service
altogether, and to declare publicly, that the one and only result to
be obtained by Government employment was political support. In the
States political corruption has become so much a matter of course,
that no American seems to be struck with the fact that the whole
system is a system of robbery.
From sheer necessity some of the old hands are kept on when these
changes are made. Were this not done the work would come absolutely
to a dead lock. But it may be imagined how difficult it must be for
men to carry through any improvements in a great department, when
they have entered an office under such a system, and are liable to
be expelled under the same. It is greatly to the praise of those who
have been allowed to grow old in the service that so much has been
done. No men, however, are more apt at such work than Americans,
or more able to exert themselves at their posts. They are not
idle. Independently of any question of remuneration, they are not
indifferent to the well-being of the work they have in hand. They are
good public servants, unless corruption come in their way.
While speaking on the subject of patronage, I cannot but allude
to two appointments which had been made by political interest,
and with the circumstances of which I became acquainted. In both
instances a good place had been given to a gentleman by the incoming
President,--not in return for political support, but from motives of
private friendship,--either his own friendship or that of some mutual
friend. In both instances I heard the selection spoken of with the
warmest praise, as though a noble act had been done in the nomination
of a private friend instead of a political partisan. And yet in each
case a man was appointed who knew nothing of his work; who, from
age and circumstances, was not likely to become acquainted with
his work; who, by his appointment, kept out of the place those who
did understand the work, and had earned a right to promotion by
so understanding it. Two worthy gentlemen,--for they were both
worthy,--were pensioned on the government for a term of years under
a false pretence. That this should have been done is not perhaps
remarkable; but it did seem remarkable to me that everybody regarded
such appointments as a good deed--as a deed so exceptionably good as
to be worthy of great praise. I do not allude to these selections on
account of the political vice shown by the Presidents in making them,
but on account of the political virtue;--in order that the nature
of political virtue in the States may be understood. It had never
occurred to any one to whom I spoke on the subject, that a President
in bestowing such places was bound to look for efficient work in
return for the public money which was to be paid.
Before I end this chapter I must insert a few details respecting the
Post-office of the States, which, though they may not be specially
interesting to the general reader, will give some idea of the extent
of the department. The total number of post-offices in the States on
30th June, 1861, was 28,586. With us the number in England, Scotland,
and Ireland, at the same period was about 11,400. The population
served may be regarded as nearly the same. Our lowest salary is £3
per annum. In the States the remuneration is often much lower. It
consists of a commission on the letters, and is sometimes less than
ten shillings a year. The difficulty of obtaining persons to hold
these offices, and the amount of work which must thereby be thrown on
what is called the "appointment branch," may be judged by the fact
that 9235 of these offices were filled up by new nominations during
the last year. When the patronage is of such a nature it is difficult
to say which give most trouble, the places which nobody wishes to
have, or those which everybody wishes to have.
The total amount of postage on European letters, _i.e._, letters
passing between the States and Europe, in the last year as to which
accounts were kept between Washington and the European post-offices,
was £275,000. Of this over £150,000 was on letters for the United
Kingdom; and £130,000 was on letters carried by the Cunard packets.
According to the accounts kept by the Washington office, the letters
passing from the States to Europe and from Europe to the States are
very nearly equal in number, about 101 going to Europe for every 100
received from Europe. But the number of newspapers sent from the
States is more than double the number received in the States from
Europe.
On 30th June, 1861, mails were carried through the then loyal States
of the Union over 140,400 miles daily. Up to 31st May preceding, at
which time the Government mails were running all through the United
States, 96,000 miles were covered in those States which had then
virtually seceded, and which in the following month were taken out
from the Post-office accounts,--making a total of 236,400 miles
daily. Of this mileage something less than one third is effected by
railways, at an average cost of about sixpence a mile. Our total
mileage per day is 151,000 miles, of which 43,823 are done by
railway, at a cost of about sevenpence-halfpenny per mile.
As far as I could learn the servants of the Post-office are less
liberally paid in the States than with us,--excepting as regards two
classes. The first of these is that class which is paid by weekly
wages,--such as letter-carriers and porters. Their remuneration is
of course ruled by the rate of ordinary wages in the country; and
as ordinary wages are higher in the States than with us, such men
are paid accordingly. The other class is that of postmasters at
second-rate towns. They receive the same compensation as those at the
largest towns;--unless indeed there be other compensation than those
written in the books at Washington. A postmaster is paid a certain
commission on letters, till it amounts to £400 per annum: all above
that going back to the Government. So also out of the fees paid for
boxes at the window he receives any amount forthcoming, not exceeding
£400 a year; making in all a maximum of £800. The postmaster of New
York can get no more. But any moderately large town will give as
much, and in this way an amount of patronage is provided which in a
political view is really valuable.
But with all this the people have made their way, because they have
been intelligent, industrious, and in earnest. And as the people have
made their way, so has the Post-office. The number of its offices,
the mileage it covers, its extraordinary cheapness, the rapidity with
which it has been developed, are all proofs of great things done;
and it is by no means standing still even in these evil days of war.
Improvements are even now on foot, copied in a great measure from
ourselves. Hitherto the American office has not taken upon itself
the task of returning to their writers undelivered and undeliverable
letters. This it is now going to do. It is, as I have said, shaking
off from itself that terrible incubus the franking privilege. And
the expediency of introducing a money-order office into the States,
connected with the Post-office as it is with us, is even now under
consideration. Such an accommodation is much needed in the country;
but I doubt whether the present moment, looking at the fiscal state
of the country, is well adapted for establishing it.
I was much struck by the great extravagance in small things
manifested by the Post-office through the States, and have reason
to believe that the same remark would be equally true with regard
to other public establishments. They use needless forms without
end,--making millions of entries which no one is ever expected to
regard. Their expenditure in stationery might, I think, be reduced
by one half, and the labour might be saved which is now wasted in
the abuse of that useless stationery. Their mail-bags are made
in a costly manner, and are often large beyond all proportion or
necessity. I could greatly lengthen this list if I were addressing
myself solely to Post-office people; but as I am not doing so, I will
close these semi-official remarks with an assurance to my colleagues
in Post-office work on the other side of the water that I greatly
respect what they have done, and trust that before long they may have
renewed opportunities for the prosecution of their good work.