To meet the exigency of the pending proposition I have introduced a bill, whose character may be seen in its title,—being “to simplify and reduce the rate of postage, to abolish the franking system, to limit the cost of carrying the mail, and to regulate the payment of postage.”[22] While abolishing the franking system, I try to provide a substitute, and at the same time, by associate provisions, to simplify and reduce the rate of postage. Taking advantage of the proposed change, I would revise the whole postal service, and bring it into harmony with the demands of republican civilization. Here the example of England is an important guide. The franking system there was an indulgence, or privilege, and little else. The “Quarterly Review,” while recognizing it as an abuse, likened it to “the concomitant and greater one which stands on the same ground,—exemption from arrest.”[23] It was not a system important in the relations between Government and people, and yet it was abolished only in conjunction with the establishment of a uniform letter-postage at one penny. But just in proportion as the franking system is important with us should its abolition be accompanied by a corresponding reduction in postage.
The copper unit of value in England is a penny, and this was adopted as the rate of postage there. With us the copper unit of value is a cent, and this I would adopt as the rate of postage here.
There are other provisions in the bill to which I call attention, especially the new facilities for newspapers and periodicals; also the requirement that all the business of the Post-Office shall be by stamps, so that no money shall be collected or received by any clerk in the office. By this process, at once simple, economical, and efficient, all postages will be collected, and there will be no necessity for accounts. The stamp office will be the universal money office, and the vendor of stamps will be the universal collector.
Do you ask for economy? I show you a way, simple and certain, by which receipts will be assured, while business is simplified. All dues will be collected at the minimum of cost, so that there will be no loss from frauds or supernumerary hands. There will be both security and economy, besides simplicity; but simplicity is economy as well as convenience, in the Post-Office as in mechanics.
FOREIGN EXAMPLES.
If we go to foreign countries for example, we shall be obliged to stop in England. There is nothing in any nation of the European continent which is not a warning. Everywhere on that continent, from time immemorial, postage has been exorbitant. The great Revolution which popularized the institutions of France did not popularize the Post-Office. Kings and nobles disappeared, while equal rights prevailed; but France, fruitful in ideas, did not conceive the idea of the Post-Office as a beneficent agent of civilization and the handmaid of social life. Nor at that time was England in advance of France. Everywhere postage was high and the mails were slow. In England the service had a burden in the circumstance that every peer of the Upper House and member of Parliament had a defined power of franking,—being the power to send ten letters daily and to receive fifteen.[24] As the letters sent and received by each privileged person were limited in number, the Post-Office was obliged each day to verify every frank and to count the letters thus sent and received. Here was what may be justly called “the franking privilege,” while the whole postal service was costly and cumbersome. Like that of the United States, it was the growth of accident, and it was administered with a particular eye to profits, as if this were the first object of a post-office. Economy there should be always, but profits never. In Great Britain the surplus of receipts above the cost of administration was carried to the general treasury. In the United States the surplus received on certain lines has been employed down to this day in extending mail facilities to the sparse settlers in other parts of the country, besides defraying the expense of the franking system; and the letters of the people have been subjected to this tax.
IN ENGLAND THE POST-OFFICE REGARDED ORIGINALLY AS A SOURCE OF REVENUE.
From a proposition submitted to the King in 1635, and still preserved in the State-Paper Office, it appears that the postal service was of the slenderest character: letters, it is said, “being now carried by carriers or foot-posts sixteen or eighteen miles a day, it is full two months before any answer can be received from Scotland or Ireland to London.”[25] But just so soon as it attracted attention the Post-Office was regarded as a source of revenue. In 1657 a voice in Parliament declared that it would “raise a revenue”; while a wise statesman replied, with little effect, “Nothing can more assist trade than this intercourse.”[26] It was often farmed out for hire. The posts, both inland and foreign, under the Commonwealth, were farmed for £10,000 a year.[27] In 1659 the Report on the Public Revenue contains the following item: “By postage of letters in farm, £14,000.”[28] Under Charles the Second the same system was continued, and his first Postmaster-General contracted to pay to the King a yearly rent of £21,500.[29] A little later we meet the statute of 15 Charles II. c. 14, with the suggestive title, “An Act for settling the profits of the Post-Office on his Royal Highness the Duke of York and the Heirs male of his body.” Under Queen Anne, what were called the “cross-posts” were farmed to Ralph Allen, who made great improvements in their management upon an agreement that the new profits so created should be his own during life. The bargain was so excellent for the contractor that during forty-two years he netted an average annual profit of nearly twelve thousand pounds,[30] which was enormous for those days. It is pleasant to think that the money thus obtained was well spent, as will be confessed when it is known that this contractor was the Allworthy of Fielding, and won from Pope that famous praise,—
“Let humble Allen, with an awkward shame,
Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame.”[31]