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 7-½_d_. on an average, to 1_d_., while in ours it would barely
prove an average of 6-½ 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 ⅓ 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 5-¼_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 10-½ 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 62-½ 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 1-¼ 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.