Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
The report for 1848 says that “the postage on newspapers fails to pay their cost by one third of the postage, and is in the nature of a tax on letters for the benefit of the newspapers.” Postmaster General Creswell, in 1873, proposed that the postage should be prepaid and charged by weight at such rates as would make a large reduction in the nominal rates, but as it would be all collected would largely increase the revenue, and would also simplify and reduce the number of accounts and office expenses. Prepayment of postage would require the publishers of papers and magazines to pay a large annual sum as postage, heretofore theoretically paid by the subscribers, but generally uncollected. The publishers were willing to accede to the proposal if the postage was fixed at one cent a pound on newspapers, and two cents on magazines, which would yield an equivalent to the postage actually collected. They could afford to pay these rates without increasing the subscription price, as the profits from a larger circulation would probably cover the postage. If the rates were too high, they would be compelled to raise the subscription price, and this would diminish the circulation. The subject came up for action in Congress near the close of the session, when there was no opportunity for a full discussion of its merits, and the rates were fixed at two cents a pound on newspapers, and three cents a pound on magazines, to take effect on and after January 1, 1875; weekly papers to be sent free in the counties in which they were published. This change in the law will undoubtedly increase the postal revenues; but as the postage will be less than the cost, the expenditure will be increased in a more rapid ratio. The low postage on newspapers has accomplished the purpose for which the post-office was established. Five million newspapers are daily distributed, two a week for every man, woman, and child who can read, — a circulation four times as large in proportion to population as in any other country. Ten percent. of the dailies and sixty per cent, of the weeklies, or 581,000,000 a year, are sent by mail.
In 1873 the postage received from letters was $20,673,000; from papers, $1,214,000. The expenses of the department were $28,360,000; the average cost of each packet was two and four hundredths cents. At this rate the total cost of letters was $16,116,000; of papers, $11,872,000. But this statement does not exhibit the real disparity between the receipts and expenditures on letters and papers. The cost can be divided into two items: office and transportation expenses. The former are about the same on every parcel, but the transportation expenses are proportioned to the weight and bulk. For the purpose of obtaining reliable statistics of the weight of letters and papers, the mails were weighed in several large cities during the month of April last, and from these and other data it appears that letters weigh about one third of an ounce, or one sixth as much as papers. Newspapers and other parcels on the average weigh two ounces. The parcels originally mailed in the Boston post-office were all counted and weighed one day, and weighed for thirty days: 111,773 letters and postal cards weighed 1599 pounds; 102,168 regular newspapers and pamphlets weighed 12,771 pounds; 26,311 other parcels weighed 3288 pounds. To obtain a fair comparison of the relative cost of conveying letters and newspapers the office expenses should be divided equally among all the parcels, the transportation in proportion to weight; letters weighing half an ounce, papers two ounces. The total weight of the mail in 18 73 was 125,000,000 pounds. This estimate makes the cost of letters $11,943,000, of newspapers $16,415,000, showing a profit on letters of $8,706,000, and a loss on papers of $16,201,000. A two cent rate on letters could be substituted for the one, two, and three cent rates, and yield a revenue of $16,000,000, a sum sufficient to cover the cost. More than one half of the loss on newspapers is defrayed from the profit on letters; the balance from the public treasury. There is no propriety in thus taxing letter correspondence. If the postage on newspapers were raised sufficiently to meet this deficiency, it would greatly cripple their circulation. The same reasons which have led to the assessment of a part of the cost on the treasury, and to carrying papers free in the counties where they are published, will justify the payment of the whole expense from the treasury, a return to the policy of our fathers, and transmission of all papers free. Newspapers are in every family, and the knowledge and intelligence communicated in their columns is for the benefit of all.
Within a few years past the PostOffice Department has begun to carry express parcels; this is not a normal development of our postal service, but is borrowed from foreign governments.
In Europe the post has been the general carrier of passengers, express matter, and letters, with separate bureaus for each. It owns the horses and coaches, and where railroads have superseded stages, these in many cases have been constructed and operated by the state. On express parcels abroad, the charges vary with the weight, rapidity, and distance of transmission; but though the average distance which parcels are transmitted is very much greater with us, uniform rates are charged without regard to weight or distance. This is a fatal departure from the principle on which cheap postage is based, namely, that with minimum weights the distance is unessential, and can therefore be disregarded, but with parcels weighing three, or four pounds, the weight becomes an essential feature. The weight of parcels was at first limited to one pound, but by the law of 1874 mailable matter of the third class, which includes all articles “ which are not from either form or nature liable to destroy, deface, or otherwise injure the contents of the mail-bag, or the person of any one engaged in the postal service,” and not exceeding four pounds in weight, may be sent for one cent for every two ounces, or eight cents a pound Letters pay three cents for each halt ounce, or ninety-six cents a pound. Tea, coffee, feathers, scissors, thread, etc., pay eight cents a pound.
A pound of letters pays a profit of about forty cents; a pound of nails or sugar is carried at a loss of three and a half cents, four pounds of silk at a loss of eleven cents; a further increase of the weight of mailable parcels in the same proportion will cover all ordinary express matter. While it is for the public interest that the post-office should carry books and printed matter for less than the cost, and throw the burden on the public treasury, the reason fails when applied to merchandise. Express companies cannot carry letters, but the act of 1874 makes the post-office a great express company. The carriage of merchandise by mail is a perversion of the objects for which our post-office was established, and when merchandise is carried below cost, and the loss is thrown upon letter correspondence, is unjustifiable. On short distances the express companies might compete with the post; but as their charges are necessarily based on distance, the post would carry all parcels between distant places. A system more certain to break down our entire mail service, to increase the deficit by millions a year, could not easily be devised ; and the sooner attention is called to it, and a remedy applied, the better it will be for the public. What effect this system would have on the trade of country places cannot be foreseen, but it has already made a great change in the book trade, the buyers being now supplied from the large city dealers at lower rates than at the country store. A “Special Notice” from A. T. Stewart informs ladies that silk for a dress can be ordered by pattern and sent to any part of the country at “ a merely nominal expense ; ” one year old fruit trees are advertised to be sent in any quantities to the most distant part of the United States by mail.
As railroads increased new changes were required. “ lioute agents ” were appointed, letters for the different offices were deposited in separate “pouches,” to be delivered by the agent either at the offices of destination on the line of the road, or if for distant places to the connecting road or a distribution office. Then “express agents” were appointed at the termini of the main routes, to make out lists of the pouches forwarded, which were receipted for by the route agents, who took receipts at the end of the route to show fulfillment of their duties. On some routes the express agents were required to keep full accounts in book-form of all pouches so received and delivered, and of their disposition. Then it became necessary to provide for the exchange of letters between the various offices on the line of the road, and for this purpose railway post-office clerks were appointed : first a portion of a car, then a whole car, and finally a postal car constructed by the railroad was provided for their accommodation. These postal cars have now become the chief distributing offices; letters are not only received and delivered at each office on the line of the road, but in a few instances are assorted for delivery. In Boston the letter-carriers await the arrival of the great mails from the South and West at the railroad station, and there receive their letters for delivery, and many letters never enter a postoffice. Letters for places beyond the line are delivered to the connecting postal car or are made up into pouches to be forwarded in other mails; and sometimes, though unfrequently, go into distributing offices. There are now only twenty-nine distributing – offices where formerly there were several hundred. The system of postal cars and clerks is very expensive ; it requires a great amount of car room, and a large number of clerks, as two clerks can do little if any more work than one in a regular office. It cannot be adopted on all railroads, and is not equally well adapted for all sections of the country. In the Eastern States, on routes where there is a great interchange of correspondence and frequent trains run, a different system is required from that which is fitted for the Western and Southern States, where but one or two express trains and an accommodation train are daily run: on the former, it is probably practical to make up pouches in the main office, to be forwarded by route agents on every train directly to their destination; on the latter, postal cars afford the best means for distributing the mail. Notwithstanding the great expense of railway postal clerks and cars, the proportionate expense of transportation to office expenses is less since the mails were transported bv rail than formerly. Prior to 1851, sixty per cent. of all the expenses were on account of transportation, while now, exclusive of the railway post-office clerks, they are less than fifty per cent., and inclusive of them they are less than sixty per cent. The average cost per mile of railroad transportation in 1857 was 12.65 cents, in 1873 it was 12.67 cents per mile including expense of postal cars.
The introduction of postal cars upon the leading railroads is a natural outgrowth of the railroad service. In these “ traveling post-offices ” mails and letters are received, sorted, and delivered; by means of them the service on many routes is greatly expedited. The mails have increased so much in bulk that on some of the lines one car is insufficient to carry them, and the weight is so great that some of the railroad companies refue to attach a postal car to certain limited express trains, as it would cause delay. To overcome these objections, the department has proposed to run an express train of postal cars between New York and Chicago in twenty-four hours. In this exclusive mail train, which would have the right of way over all passenger trains, weeklies printed from two to seven days before their date, magazines printed two or three weeks before their date, and express parcels of wood, lead, iron, etc., must be carried. There can be no sufficient reason for burdening an exclusive mail train with this class of freight. The mail matter can he classified into letters, daily papers, other printed matter, and express parcels. Letters and daily papers constitute about one fifth in weight and bulk of the mails, and should be sent by express trains; on all the routes over which the large mails pass, express and accommodation trains run. For other printed and express parcels rapid transit is not essential, and these could he forwarded by accommodation trains. By such a classification and distribution, the public could be as well accommodated as at present, and a reduction of expenditure be made, equal in amount to the revenue now derived from newspapers. If this arrangement were adopted, newspapers and magazines could be carried free, without increasing the present annual deficiency. Postage on letters could be reduced to two cents the half ounce; on books and other printed matter to two cents an ounce. The weight of express parcels, if carried by mail, should be limited to one pound, or else charged with varying rates not less than the actual cost, according to the weight and distance. After a few years the PostOffice Department would become selfsupporting and afford additional facilities to the public.
The correspondence of a nation depends upon its intelligence, its habits, the rates of postage, and the facilities afforded. The largest correspondence in proportion to the population is in
Great Britain, where it is as twentynine to one; in Switzerland it is as twenty to one, in tlie United States as eighteen to one, in Germany as thirteen to one, in France ten to one, in Austria four to one. The postage in Great Britain and Switzerland is two cents, in the United States three cents, in Germany two and a half cents, in Franee four cents, on local letters in Paris two cents. The number of letters mailed in the different cities of our country differs greatly. In Boston the proportion of population to letters is as 1 to 135 ; in Chicago as 1 to 115 ; in New York as 1 to 114 ; in Philadelphia as 1 to 56; in Louisville as 1 to 51 ; in St. Louis as 1 to 47 ; in Baltimore as 1 to 38 : 105,000,000 of letters a year are sent from New York, 38,000,000 from Boston, 3 7,000,000 from Philadelphia, 34,000,000 from Chicago, and 15,000,000 from St. Louis. Our white population is about 41,000,000, mailing 905,000,000 of letters annually, an average of twenty-two to each person. The population of these seven cities is about 3,000,000; they mail 244,000,000 letters a rear, or more than one fourth of the whole. The average is eighty-six letters to each person. Although in Great Britain the proportion of letters to the population is much greater than in the United States, yet at the respective ratio of increase in the two countries, the correspondence of the United States will soon exceed that of Great Britain. In every instance where the postage has been reduced from a high to a low rate the correspondence has rapidly increased. We believe that if the rates were reduced from three cents to two cents, a like result would follow. Postal cards were introduced into Austria, England, Germany, and Switzerland in 1870; great numbers have been sold without reducing the normal growth of the letter correspondence. In this country they were introduced in April, 1873; in the first quarter 31,000,000 were sold, while the increase of letters was larger than in any other quarter of the year. The rates for occasional newspapers were reduced in 1872 from two cents to one cent, and this was followed by an increase in the number of newspapers mailed of seventy-two per cent. The post-offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts, were made sub-offices of the post-office in Boston, in January, 1874, the postage to Boston was reduced from three to two cents, and the mail facilities were increased. The union was followed by an increase in the correspondence in one of these offices from 73,000 in December, 1873, to 138,000 in July, 1874. Additional facilities are sometimes of greater benefit to the public than a reduction in rates. The secretary of the British post-office, in a recent report, said that it had been proved by actual trial that if the number of mails to any office, or the street boxes in any city, were doubled, the correspondence would increase in the same ratio.
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
References:
- Hubbard, Gardiner Greene. Our Post Office. United States, Riverside Press, 1875.
