JUSTICE AND PRACTICABILITY OF ONE CENT POSTAGE.
After this exhibition of existing burdens, so prejudicial to the correspondence of the country, I return again to the main postulate of this argument, that a uniform rate of one cent for a letter of half an ounce is entirely reasonable, and in a short time, with proper relief in other directions, would render the Post-Office self-supporting. Here I introduce the testimony of a gentleman practically conversant with the operations of our Post-Office, who writes to me as follows:—
“Taking the weight of the letter mail-matter and the printed mail-matter, and charging the expense of transportation upon each proportioned to the weight, and one cent is all that would be relatively chargeable upon each half-ounce of letter mail. I speak from close daily observation in a large office, in a region that is a large revenue-paying one to the Department on all mail-matter.”
This testimony of an expert is only in harmony with my own conclusion.
This injustice becomes more apparent, when we consider the disproportion between the cost of other transportation and letter postage. Take, for instance, the fare of a passenger on a railway in comparison with that of a letter. The average weight of passengers with their baggage is supposed to be 230 pounds, which is the weight of 7,360 half-ounce letters, paying, at the present rate of three cents, $220.80, irrespective of distance. The following table, prepared some time ago, shows the cost of other transportation:—
| From Boston— | Passenger fare. | Mills per half oz. | Express freight. 230lbs. | Mills per half oz. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| To New York | $4 | .5 | $1.50 | .2 |
| ” Philadelphia | 7 | .9 | 3.50 | .5 |
| ” Baltimore | 10 | 1.3 | 5.50 | .7 |
| ” Cincinnati | 25 | 3.4 | 10.50 | 1.4 |
| ” St. Louis | 35 | 4.7 | 12.00 | 1.6 |
| ” New Orleans | 45 | 6.1 | 14.00 | 1.9 |
| ” Liverpool per Cunard steamers | 120 | 16.3 | 7.20 | .9 |
In other transportation there is a slight increase in proportion to the distance; but it is difficult to see on what principle a mail-bag between Washington and New York should pay more than a passenger; and the same difficulty occurs when we consider ocean postage, where the disproportion between postage and other transportation is, perhaps, more conspicuous. Elihu Burritt, who has enforced the importance of cheap rates on the ocean with admirable comprehension of their importance, has reminded us that the freight of a barrel of flour, weighing two hundred pounds, is about fifty cents, while the charge for the same weight in half-ounce letters, being sixty-four hundred in number, at the rate of twenty-four cents a letter, would be no less than $1,536, and at the rate of one cent would be sixty-four dollars. These instances show that letters have been always overcharged, or charged out of proportion to their weight.
To my mind it is unjust that the letter everywhere should contribute so largely to the transportation and delivery of other mail matter, while in some parts of the country it contributes besides to postal facilities elsewhere. I think I do not err, when I aver, that, even with the latter burden, the Post-Office, if it carried nothing but letters, and every letter paid one cent, would be self-supporting. I put the case in this way so as to exhibit the essential equity of the proposed reduction, and, I would add, its entire practicability. Although the Post-Office cannot be relieved of the other mail-matter, yet the letters can be relieved of the burdensome contribution to which they are now subjected. One cent postage would give new operation to the law according to which reduction of price tends to produce consumption, and there would be a new impulsion to correspondence, by which in a short time it would be doubled, tripled, quadrupled, quintupled, and sextupled,—nay, in our growing country it would be multiplied beyond calculation.
As to this increase, I have already shown something of its progress in Great Britain, beginning with one hundred and twenty-two per cent. the first year of penny postage.[106] Why may not the same take place with us? According to the official table now on our desks, the smaller population of the United Kingdom sends more letters than ours. It would be difficult to credit this result, if the figures did not tell the tale beyond correction. Here is the table:[107]—
| Proportion of Letters and Revenue to Population | United States, year ending June 30, 1868. | United Kingdom, year ending Dec. 31, 1867. |
|---|---|---|
| Population (estimated) | 40,092,356 | 30,305,284 |
| Number of letters delivered (estimated) | 488,000,000 | 774,831,000 |
| Number of letters to each person | 12 | 26 |
| Gross revenue | $16,232,148.16 | $23,341,070 |
| Amount of revenue to each person of aggregate population | 40 cents | 77 cents |
Testimony could not be stronger. The smaller population sends a larger sum-total of letters, making of course a larger number for each person, and yielding a larger gross revenue. It is humiliating to think that the people of this Monarchy send at the rate of twenty-six letters for each person, while the citizens of our Republic send only at the rate of twelve for each person. The inverse disproportion of letters becomes the more remarkable, when it is understood that the proportion of people who can read and write is greater among us than in the United Kingdom, so that, all other things being equal, the number of letters by each person should be greater among us; but we are obliged to confront the unquestionable fact that the number is less. How is this? Why is this? I know no way of accounting for it except in the discouraging cost of correspondence. Here I find unquestionable reason to conclude that we have not a proper rate of postage. Clearly something is wanting. It is not education; for the people among us excel the British people in this respect. It is not business, or family, or friendship; for are not all these active with us? I submit that we want nothing but cheap postage, so that the people, finding their means in harmony with the rates, shall be tempted to write letters. So it was in England; and so it may be among us.
Against the entire reasonableness of the proposed rate, it will not do to say that in the wages of English labor a penny is the equivalent of three cents among us. Even if it be so, there is a twofold answer to the allegation: first, that convenience and reason concur in favor of the lowest unit of coin, which with us is the cent, as in England it is the penny; and, secondly, that with us the general scale of salary and expenditure is less than in England, beginning with the President as compared with the Queen, and embracing the functionaries of Government in the two countries. The penny, which is a larger unit than the cent, typifies the larger scale of price; so that our postage will be brought to practical equality with that of England only by the adoption of the corresponding unit of our country. If this seems refined or technical, let me add that I adduce it only in answer to an objection, which forgets not only the beauty of that simplicity found in the lowest unit of coin, but also that fundamental difference between England and the United States found in their respective institutions.