This rule, first enunciated by Rowland Hill, was substantially adopted by the Parliamentary Committee, when they say,—
“That it is the opinion of this Committee, that that part of the inland postage on letters which consists of tax ought to be the same on all; that, as the cost of conveyance per letter depends more on the number of letters carried than on the distance which they are conveyed, the cost being frequently greater for distances of a few miles than for distances of hundreds of miles, the charge, if varied in proportion to the cost, ought to increase in the inverse ratio of the number of letters conveyed; but as it would be difficult, if not impossible, to carry such a regulation into practice, and as the actual cost of conveyance (assuming the charged letters to bear the whole expense of the franked letters and of the newspapers) forms less than the half of the whole charge exclusive of tax, the remaining portion consisting chiefly in the charges attendant on their receipt at and delivery from the Post-Office, your Committee are of opinion that the nearest practicable approach to a fair system would be to charge a uniform rate of postage between one post-town and another, whatever might be their distance; and your Committee are further of opinion that such an arrangement is highly desirable, not only on account of its abstract fairness, but because it would tend in a great degree to simplify and economize the business of the Post-Office.”[101]
All this is plainly reasonable, whether in the United Kingdom or the United States.
The actual cost of each letter is inversely as the number of letters, irrespective of distance. The weight enters very little into the question. Take, for instance, a route of ten miles, at ten cents a mile, and another of one hundred miles at the same rate. If on the route of ten miles there is an average of only one letter, as is the case on some routes, this one letter would cost one dollar, while ten thousand letters on the route of one hundred miles would cost only one mill a letter. The Post-Office pays a fixed compensation for the daily transportation of its mails between certain places, and this compensation is not varied by any addition to the number of letters. Therefore on all productive or paying lines, as between Washington and New York, and then between New York and Buffalo, additional letters may be received for distant places, without adding to the cost, until the letters reach St. Louis or New Orleans, or any other place accessible by a self-supporting line, and the actual cost of a letter for the longest distance will be no more than for the shortest. It will be the same alike to New Orleans and to New York. Thus on the assumption of a continuous self-supporting line the question of distance does not enter into the cost, and thus again we see the injustice of compelling the correspondence on such a line to the contributions it is now obliged to make.
EXISTING RATE NOT OPPRESSIVE A FALLACY.
Here I encounter an old-fashioned objection common in England as well as in the United States, and which has shown itself at every proposed change in the postal service. It is said that the existing rate is not oppressive, and that there is no need of its reduction. Obviously it is not oppressive to Senators and Representatives, who send and receive unnumbered letters free; nor is it oppressive to their correspondents; nor again is it oppressive to the rich and thriving, for they contribute out of their abundance; but plainly and indubitably it is oppressive to the poor, and it is absurd to say that it is not. Plainly and indubitably it is oppressive to the widowed mother, whose best comfort is correspondence with her absent child; it is oppressive to the child corresponding with mother, sister, or brother; it is oppressive to all whose scanty means supply only the necessaries of life. All these are restrained in the gratification of those affections which contribute so much to human solace and strength.
Do not say that practically there is little difference between three cents and one cent,—that the difference is hardly appreciable. A great mistake. Is it not appreciable in the cost of tea, coffee, and sugar? The reduction of one cent a pound in the tariff on sugar, of two cents on coffee, or of a few cents on tea, is not treated as trivial.
There is the poor pensioner with eight dollars a month. She, too, has family and friends; but the postal tax interferes to arrest the congenial intercourse. Every letter adds to the burden she is obliged to bear. Her fingers forget the pen, and she finds herself alone. Nor is this hardship peculiar to the poor pensioner. An eminent citizen and valued friend, who has given much attention to this subject, states the case thus: “When one of my children is absent, I write a line every day. Suppose I were a poor widow, earning barely enough to make the two ends meet, and had children in the West, to each of whom I should want to write at least once a week, making in all several dollars a year; then the cost would be oppressive.” This simple illustration brings home the operation of the postal tax now imposed by law, and shows how it troubles those who most need the care and tenderness of the world. The tax on letters is like the tax on salt. If it must exist, it must be small, very small.
There are some who think that no existing institution is oppressive. According to them, Slavery was not oppressive. In the same mood, the law of 1845, with its two rates of five cents and ten cents, and then again the law of 1855, by which the rate of five cents was reduced to three cents, were pronounced unnecessary. The multifarious rates anterior to 1845 were not oppressive, and in 1855 there was no call for the reduction of the rate from five cents to three cents. Such was the argument then, precisely as now. So in the days of Slavery it was argued that the slaves did not desire freedom, and that their condition was not oppressive. The great reform of Rowland Hill encountered the same objection. Even Lord Ashburton, while favoring a change, was content with twopence or threepence, and, in his testimony, settled down upon threepence as satisfactory. He shrank from the penny rate.[102] This question was treated with excellent sense by Mr. Jones Loyd, whom I have already quoted, whose testimony bears strongly on this very objection. After saying “that the present rate of postage does in point of fact produce a prohibition of the use of the Post-Office to all classes that may be considered as below the higher classes,”[103] the attention of the witness was called by the Committee to the allegation “that the laboring classes do not feel the oppressive rate of postage.” He replied in words of wisdom worthy of memory now, and completely applicable to the very question now before the Senate:—