Cheap Postage Part 2

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 compet.i.tion, 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, pa.s.sed 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 inst.i.tution, 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 a.s.sumed 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 a.s.sumed 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 pa.s.ses 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 pa.s.sing 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 subst.i.tute 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 pet.i.tion 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 doc.u.ments which n.o.body reads."

The bill was pa.s.sed, 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 princ.i.p.ally 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 Hamps.h.i.+re 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 cla.s.ses have not desired 'reform;'

and the rural and agricultural cla.s.ses, the planters of the South, and the corn and wheat growers of the West, the mechanics and laboring cla.s.ses, 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, pa.s.sing 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."-_Was.h.i.+ngton 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._