Every reduction of postage in our country exhibits similar results. According to the ratio of reduction has been the ratio of increase in the number of letters. It may surprise Senators to know, that, while the estimated number in 1852 was 95,790,524,[94] it reached in 1868 to 488,000,000, in the estimate of the Post-Office.[95] But this is only according to the prevailing impulsion from a reduction in price. In England, where the rate was smaller, the number of letters was much larger, being in 1867, as estimated, no less than 774,831,000.[96] This becomes more remarkable, when it is considered that the estimated population of the United States at the time was more than forty millions, while that of the United Kingdom was thirty millions,—making twelve letters annually for each person in the United States, and twenty-six letters annually for each person in the United Kingdom.
ILLEGITIMATE BURDENS ON CORRESPONDENCE.
To understand the justice of the proposed reduction in our country, we must analyze and consider existing obligations of the postal service. I mention two, through which we may see the unjust operation of the present tax on correspondence: first, the well-known franking system, and, secondly, the millions of newspapers, by which an inconceivable amount of mail matter is made a burden on the Post-Office, tasking its transportation and its means of delivery. Although printed matter, unfranked, is charged with postage, it is not in proportion to its burden on the postal service; so that the letter not only pays for itself, but contributes to the other. The letter, so small in dimension and weight, but with its own unseen freight of business or friendship, is made to carry an additional load. Every letter is a dwarf shouldering a giant; or stating the case with absolute literalness, it is a sheet of paper compelled to bear free matter and printed matter measured by the ton. This little messenger, whose single function necessarily requires dispatch, is charged with this intolerable mass. No wonder that it staggers under the load heaped upon it. No wonder that the people are obliged to pay high postage; for, on receiving a letter, they not only pay the price of its transportation and delivery, but they contribute to the transportation and delivery of everything else carried by the mails.
But even this burden could be borne, if the whole service were not charged with the cost of transportation and postal facilities in distant parts of the country, where there is necessarily a disproportionate expense,—so that a letter in certain States, after paying for its own transportation and delivery, and contributing to the transportation and delivery of free matter and printed matter, contributes still further to those long lines of service by which the most remote places are supplied and the post-office follows close in the footsteps of the pioneer. This is beautiful, but it is not just; in other words, it is beautiful that these opportunities should be afforded, but it is not just that the correspondence of others should pay for them. Nor should these extraordinary expenses be charged on these remote places, or on the pioneer. They belong properly to the necessary outlay in opening the country, by which the nation, the great untaxed proprietor, finds a market for its land and new scope for its growing empire. Obviously this outlay should be charged to the Treasury, rather than saddled upon the postal service, as it is now.
EXPENSE OF OUTLYING ROUTES.
The last Report of the Postmaster-General shows the operation of the existing system in this respect. By the Statement of Receipts and Expenditures for 1868-9, it appears that in no less than sixteen States and Territories, including the District of Columbia, the Post-Office was more than self-supporting, there being an excess of receipts over expenditures of $3,571,315; while in the other States and Territories there was an excess of expenditures over receipts amounting to $4,727,175.[97] The self-supporting list, with each surplus, is as follows:—
| States and Territories. | Receipts. | Expenses. | Excess of receipts over expenditures. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maine | $309,244.35 | $293,667.27 | $15,577.08 |
| New Hampshire | 198,238.89 | 165,370.21 | 32,868.68 |
| Massachusetts | 1,389,731.76 | 740,121.42 | 649,610.34 |
| Rhode Island | 149,800.95 | 76,046.78 | 73,754.17 |
| Connecticut | 418,048.99 | 312,415.28 | 105,633.71 |
| New York | 3,818,667.45 | 2,186,196.21 | 1,632,471.24 |
| New Jersey | 343,192.64 | 297,402.18 | 45,790.46 |
| Pennsylvania | 1,734,987.75 | 1,135,969.06 | 599,018.69 |
| Delaware | 49,291.11 | 45,496.69 | 3,794.42 |
| Ohio | 1,185,718.44 | 1,166,145.19 | 19,573.25 |
| Michigan | 550,107.68 | 537,012.97 | 13,094.71 |
| Illinois | 1,442,300.26 | 1,125,034.22 | 317,266.04 |
| Iowa | 438,636.79 | 398,381.21 | 40,255.58 |
| District of Columbia | 123,422.70 | 111,746.40 | 11,676.30 |
| Alaska | 316.72 | 150.00 | 166.72 |
| Wyoming | 18,086.09 | 7,322.37 | 10,763.72 |
| Total | $12,169,792.57 | $8,598,477.46 | $3,571,315.11 |
Here I ask confidently, considering the nature of the Post-Office and the unquestionable importance of encouraging correspondence, if it is just that the letter-writers in one part of the country should be constrained to make the large contribution attested by this table, for the benefit especially of those at a distance, and also of the country at large. Rejecting again all idea of casting this expenditure upon the distant places and the pioneer, I insist that it should be borne by the Treasury rather than by remote letter-writers.
It is easy to exhibit the extent of this charge, and its palpable injustice. Begin with an illustration. Suppose a common carrier, with an interest beyond his business in an undeveloped part of the country at some distance from his daily line, makes a deviation to this outlying settlement at a daily loss, but looking to the growth of his interest there for ultimate remuneration. It would not be just for him to levy on all his customers along the main line for the expense of this deviation,—making them not only pay for their parcels, but contribute to the development of the outlying settlement. Nor would this enforced contribution commend itself, if urged in the name of charity or as a patriotic service to an infant community. The customers would insist that their parcels should pay only the legitimate cost of transportation and delivery; or they would soon find another carrier, who would charge them simply for their parcels, without adding the cost of opening new settlements. But the National Government is our common carrier, turning aside at great expense to develop and supply new places, to its great ultimate advantage in the sale of public lands, the growth of population, and increase of the revenue; but it is not justified in casting this large expense on the correspondence of the people.