Cheap Postage

by Joshua Leavitt

VIII. Pamphlet and Magazine Postage.

The postage on pamphlets was regulated on the principles of cheap postage, with a special discrimination in favor of those pamphlets which were published periodically. This latter distinction was construed so liberally, that it was allowed to include among periodicals all pamphlets published annually, such as almanacs, college catalogues, reports of societies, and the like. The law of 1845 abolishes the distinction between periodical and occasional pamphlets, but makes a difference in favor of large pamphlets, by charging two and a half cents on all pamphlets weighing less than one ounce, and one cent for each additional ounce.

I have a letter from the proprietor of a quarterly review, stating the effect which this change in the mode of rating pamphlet postage had upon its own circulation. Before the act of 1845, the post-office charged 14 cents per number, or 56 cents a year. Now it is 10 cents per number, or 36 cents a year. The consequence is, [pg 047] that where he formerly sent 100 copies by mail, yielding $56 postage, he now sends 500 copies, paying $180, increasing the income of the department $124. As there has been a material reduction in the expenditure of the department, notwithstanding a great extension of the mail routes, it is plain that the expense to the department is not at all enhanced by this additional service. As the labor of management is much diminished in the case of such large pamphlets, it is possible that future experience may show the practicability of a still greater reduction in the case of such periodicals—perhaps allowing publishers' to prepay at four cents for each half-pound.

In Great Britain, there has hitherto been no separate rate of postage for pamphlets, but they have been charged at the rate of letter postage, 1d. per half-ounce. This is about double the present rate of pamphlet postage in the United States. The delivery of parcels by stage-coaches, railroads, and common carriers, is much more thoroughly systematized in that old country, with its dense population and limited extent, than it can be with us, on our vast territory, so new and so unfinished. Consequently, there is less necessity there for sending pamphlets by mail, and the thing is rarely done except in the case of small pamphlets, of an ounce or two weight, or in cases where despatch in transmission is important. Within the present year, however, a new rule has been introduced into the British post-office, by which “any book or pamphlet, exceeding one sheet, and not exceeding two feet in its longest dimensions, may be transmitted by post between any two places in the United Kingdom, at the uniform rate of sixpence, prepaid in stamps affixed, for each pound weight and fraction of a pound. Except in the extreme length of two feet, and that, of course, no envelope shall contain more than one copy, there is no restriction whatsoever. Families residing in the remote parts of Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, where perhaps there is no good bookseller within forty or fifty miles, may henceforward procure for themselves, direct from London, Edinburgh, or Dublin, within four or five days at furthest, any work they may happen to require, from the largest sized Bible or Atlas, to the most trifling pamphlet or school-book. A delay of twenty-four hours in the despatch, after posting, is rendered indispensable by the possibility there is of an overplus of such bulky packages on particular occasions.”

A rate of 6d. per pound, is at the rate of .75, or ¾ of a cent per ounce, being prepaid in all cases. The rate I have proposed for large periodicals, prepaid, is one-fourth of a cent below this, or less by one-third of the English rate. It is doubtful whether a lower rate would be consistent with a due regard to the necessary speed of the mails, until railroad conveyance shall be more generally extended than it now is.

There is one class of pamphlets of extensive circulation, which come within a liberal construction of a newspaper. But the Postmaster-General, always vigilant to take care of the pecuniary interests of the department, has ruled out most of them, to the inconvenience of the publishers, and the lessening of the income of the post-office. At the time when there was an attempt to compel the sending of all publications through the mail, a statement was made in regard to one of [pg 048] these periodicals, the Missionary Herald, that the postage on 2500 copies which are regularly sent to New York, would be $1050 a year; while they are carried by Express for one dollar a month. At this rate the difference on all the routes would be more than $3000 a year. The rule was soon altered, and these periodicals were allowed to be carried through private channels. I think, considering the great numbers of these publications, and the many important interests connected with them, there ought to be a rule allowing all periodical pamphlets, published as often as once a month, and weighing not over three ounces, to be mailed, if prepaid by the publisher, for one cent each. This will include, I believe, that highly valuable publication, Littell's Living Age, and I hope give it a circulation as wide as it deserves. Almost all the religious denominations in the country have one or more magazines, cherished by them with much interest, which will obtain greatly increased circulation and influence in this way. I need not speak of the desire which every patriot must feel, to secure for our federal government, by whomsoever administered, the respect and affection of the religious portion of the people.

I do not know that any complaint is made against this rate of postage, as regards pamphlets in general. But the fraction of a cent is an absurdity, on account of the great additional labor it occasions in keeping accounts and making returns, and settling balances. Few persons can realize the labor and perplexity occasioned to clerks in the General Post-Office, by having a column of fractions in every man's quarterly return which they examine. The simplification of business would probably save to the department all they would lose by striking out this paltry fraction, so that the general pamphlet postage will stand at two cents for the first ounce, and one cent for each additional ounce. At this rate, the president's annual message, with the accompanying documents, weighing as sent out about four pounds, would be 65 cents, and the 10,000 copies circulated by congress would bring the department, if the postage was paid as it ought to be, the pretty sum of $6500, for only one of the hundreds of documents now sent from Washington by mail, as a tax upon the letter correspondence of the country. The postage on the report of the patent-office, in 1845, mentioned on page 36, would have yielded $27,500 if the postage had been paid. This is to be added to the $114,000 which it cost to print the document.

IX. Ocean Penny Postage.

For the word and the idea here set down, the world is indebted to Elihu Burritt, the “Learned Blacksmith,” and will be indebted to him for the inexpressible benefits of the thing itself, whenever so great a boon shall be obtained. Having visited our mother country, on an errand of peace, he soon saw the value of the blessing of cheap postage, as it is enjoyed there; and by contrast, through the object of his mission he say how great is the influence of dear postage, in keeping cousins estranged from each other, and in perpetuating their blind hatred, and thus hindering the advent of the days of [pg 049] “Universal Brotherhood.” By putting all these things together, he wrought out the plan of “Ocean Penny Postage,” by which all ship letters are to pay 1d. sterling, instead of paying, as they now do in England, 8d. when sent by a sailing vessel, and 1s. when sent by a steam packet.

He proposes that each letter shall pay its postage penny in advance for the service it may receive inland, and a like sum, also in advance, for its transmission by sea, until it shall arrive at its port of destination. To this should be added, as fast as penny postage shall be propagated in other countries, an international arrangement for prepaying the inland postage of the country to which the letter is sent. Nothing can be more simple in theory than such an arrangement, nothing easier or more unerringly just in execution. It would make the postage stamps of the cheap postage nations an international currency, better than gold and silver, because convertible into that which gold and silver cannot buy, the interchange of thought and affection among friends.