Cheap Postage Part 9

A man in Boston buys 200 copies of the New York Tribune and other papers daily, for which he pays 1- 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 s.p.a.ce 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 Publis.h.i.+ng Committee, which must be my apology for some repet.i.tions. 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 astonis.h.i.+ng 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 pet.i.tion to congress:

_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States, in Congress a.s.sembled_:

The undersigned, Citizens of:

respectfully pet.i.tion Congress to pa.s.s 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.