Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
The carrier system has been introduced into almost every city and town in Great Britain, and to the additional facilities thus afforded is greatly due the fact that the correspondence in Great Britain has continued to increase so much more rapidly than the population. In this country, wherever the carrier system has been adopted, the correspondence is much greater in proportion to population than in other parts of the country, and equal to that of Great Britain. The system was partially introduced into twelve cities in 1860, which then sent five per cent. of the whole number of letters. In 1873 the same cities sent fourteen per cent.; the correspondence of the whole country increased two hundred per cent., of these cities six hundred per cent. In 1868 the carrier system was in operation in fortyeight cities, which then sent twenty per cent. of the correspondence; in 1873 they sent thirty-three per cent.: and while the correspondence of the whole country had increased sixty-five per cent.? that of these cities had increased one hundred and twenty per cent. In 1868 the expense of this service in these cities was $996,000, the receipts from local postage $476,000. In 1873 the expense was $1,415,000, the receipts from local postage $1,112,000. The carrier system
would be more fully appreciated if brought into more general use. Under the old law it could be introduced into cities with a population of only twenty thousand, but the law of 1874 requires a population of thirty thousand. The railroad and coach convey the mails between offices. The letter-carrier begins and completes the service, transmits all the local correspondence, and is a virtual extension of the post-office and mail route to every house. The postage on local letters alone pays all the expenses in several of these cities, and the larger proportion in the remainder; and if the net profit from the increased correspondence were added to the local postage, it would show a handsome profit in every city in which the carrier system is in operation. In 1870 there were about four hundred towns and cities having a population of five thousand or over; in 1873 the carrier system had been introduced into only fifty of these cities. In a large proportion of the three hundred and fifty other towns and cities the important mails are received only twice a day; three or four collections and deliveries would be sufficient; it would require about one thousand seven hundred additional carriers to give to each of these three hundred and fifty cities a sufficient collection and delivery. The receipts from postage on local letters which would be created by the carriers, with the increase of general correspondence, would in a very few years defray the entire cost. A more frequent delivery and collection are needed in all our large cities, especially in the evening. The morning papers and letters from New York, with the Washington mail of the preceding evening, are delivered in Boston and the neighboring cities the same evening, while the morning mail from Boston to New York is not delivered until the next morning; letters leaving Boston in the evening or at eight o’clock the next morning are delivered in Washington at the same time. In some of the largest cities in the country no collection is made on Sunday, although such a collection is required for the general convenience of the public. Boston has more frequent mails than any other city excepting New York; more letter-boxes in proportion to population, the bust delivery and collection system, and fifteen per cent. larger correspondence in proportion to population, than any other city. The eighth city in population, its revenue from sales of postage stamps is exceeded only by that of New York. It has two collections every evening: at half past six for the evening mails; and at nine for the early morning mails, and the same on Sunday. In New York the collection is made at half past four for the evening mails, while on Sunday there is no collection. An evening delivery is universal in the large cities of Europe, and is as much required here.
Our mails are transported 130,000,000 miles a year, over 270,000 miles of mail routes; of these, 67,000 miles of route and 72,000,000 miles of transportation are by railroad, 180,000 miles of route and 53,000,000 miles of transportation by horse power. The latter routes are divided into four sectional divisions, and every year the Postmaster-General decides how many mails shall be carried over the routes, on one of these divisions, when they shall start, where stop, and when arrive at their destination; and then advertises for proposals for such service, and contracts with the lowest bidder for a term of four years. Formerly the successful competitor was required to take the property of his predecessor at an appraisal; but this requirement has been waived, as the equipment being movable it can be made available in other ways or other places for like use. Railroads require a large, fixed, and permanent investment, and as there is usually no competition between them, it was early found that some other plan must be adopted for the railroad service. The compensation for carrying the mail upon railroads was originally based upon the price fixed for similar service on stage routes, but the Postmaster – General might increase the amount twenty-five per cent. at his discretion. This was subsequently limited to $300 a year per mile. The act of 1845, which continued in force until 1873, divided the railroad routes into three classes, according to the size of the mail, the speed, and the importance of the service. The compensation was not to exceed $300 a mile for the first class, $100 for the second, or $50 for the third, with an additional sum for night service. The compensation was originally a very large remuneration for the service rendered, but by degrees, as the whole character of the service changed, it became in many cases very inequitable. Cheap postage and additional facilities have increased the number of parcels over a thousand fold, and the weight and bulk in the same proportion. The mails are now carried many times a day; railway post-offices, or postal cars with railway post-office clerks, route and local agents, mail messengers, and baggage masters in charge of registered packages are employed, imposing additional duties and heavier liabilities and expenses upon the railroad companies. For this additional service the railroad companies have demanded increased compensation.
In 1867 a careful classification of the routes and service, and a partial but very inadequate readjustment of the compensation, was made by order of the Postmaster-General; and in consequence of his representation and that of the railroad companies, an act was passed in 1873 modifying the law of 1845, and providing for a still further revision. For that purpose the Postmaster-General was required to weigh the mail at least once in every four years on all routes, and to adjust the compensation in proportion to the weight; where postal cars were furnished, an additional sum was to be paid. This has increased the compensation to a few roads over $1,500,000 a year. Some of the railroad companies performing the postal car service are not satisfied with this provision, and demand an advance of nearly one hundred per cent. upon the sums heretofore paid to them. The lines from Washington to Boston and from New York to Buffalo now receive $497,652 a year, and demand $979,979, an increase of $482,317, The PostmasterGeneral admits that an addition of fifty Per cent. should be made for the use of postal cars. Several of the principal railroads gave notice that after a certain date they should decline to carry the mail unless their terms were accepted, but before the day arrived their action was postponed in the hope that an amicable arrangement could be made with the department. The railroad companies can at any time decline to carry the mails, and in case of such refusal the Postmaster-General has no alternative but “to separate the letter mail from the residue of the mail, and to contract for conveying the letter mail over such route by horse express at the greatest speed that can reasonably be obtained, and for carrying the residue of the mail in wagons or otherwise at a slower rate of speed.” In 1845, when this provision was made, it was undoubtedly sufficient; for the lines of railroad were short and disconnected, and our mails were small and light; but in this day, when commerce and finance depend on railroad and telegraph facilities, the alternative of horse express is equivalent to a refusal to carry the mails. The Postmaster-General is powerless; it is illegal to send letters by express. The service cannot be secured by increasing the compensation with every new demand made by the railroad companies, for even the treasury of the United States would be insufficient to satisfy the ever-increasing demands. The first full payments under the law of 1873 will be made in the fiscal year ending June 30, 1876, and will increase the deficit of the Post-Office Department nearly to $8,000,000. It. is therefore necessary to consider what power Congress has over the transmission of the mails by railroad, and what remedy there is for the threatened evil.
By the eighth article of the constitution Congress is empowered to coin money, to declare war. to raise and support armies, to maintain a navy, to establish post-ofices and post-roads, to regulate commerce among the States, and to pass all laws necessary to enforce these powers. These are all attributes of sovereignty, and sovereignty, which in other countries is vested in the king or parliament, in this country was originally held by the people, and has been delegated either to the United States or to the Slates, or reserved by the people. Although Congress has only delegated powers, yet its sovereignty in the execution of them is unlimited, and as complete as that exercised by any other sovereign. In making war or peace, coining money, raising an army, or establishing post-offices and postroads, its power is exclusive and uncontrolled. For these purposes it has the right of eminent domain, as modified by the fifth amendment, which provides that private property cannot be taken without the payment of just compensation.
Post-offices are established for the reception and delivery of correspondence, post-roads for its transmission between post-offices. If it is necessary to construct a railroad to carry on a war or for the postal service, Congress has the power to take land, to build, equip, and run a road. This right was often exercised in the late war, and no one doubted its constitutionality; but if Congress has power to build or take a road to wage war, it has the same power in order to carry on the post-office, for both powers are granted in the same section and in the same words. As the greater includes the less, it can take a part or the whole, or the use of a part or the whole. It has been said that the general government has no more right than a private individual over corporations chartered by a State, and that if a railroad should refuse to transport the mails, the only remedy would be an appeal to the courts of law. If our correspondence must wait until the courts have decided when and how it shall be carried, long delays will be inevitable, and both public and private interests will suffer.
Congress has established all railroads as post-roads for the transport of the mails, and to secure their transmission Congress is authorized “ to make all laws necessary to carry thiss power into effect.” The counsel for the railroads, in his argument before the Senate committee on transportation, admitted that Congress could take private property on the payment of just compensation, but denied its power to prescribe the compensation. and claimed that this must be determined by tlie judiciary. The fifth amendment prescribes neither how nor by what tribunal the damages shall be assessed, but leaves the whole matter to the discretion of Congress. For over thirty years, or ever since the railroads began to run, Congress has determined the compensation, and though the railroads have frequently complained of its inadequacy, they have uniformly accepted it. But when it is proposed to give the Postmaster-General power to compel the transportation of the mails at such rates as Congress may determine, and at such times as the Postmaster-Genera] may designate, the power of Congress to decide upon the compensation is denied. Questions involving the same principle, namely, as to the damages to be paid for property taken in war or for public purposes, are generally decided by Congress, and no judgment of the Court of Claims even can be collected until Congress has passed an appropriation to pay it. Some say that Congress has only the right to adopt the existing roads as post-roads. Even if this is the correct interpretation, Congress can adopt and use an existing railroad that objects to such use only by the exercise of eminent domain. The New York morning papers, carried by express, are delivered in Washington at four o’clock, P. M., but the delivery of the mail is delayed until the next morning, because the railroads will neither carry it on the newspaper express to Philadelphia, nor on the limited express from New York to Washington. The use of th Southern express from New York at three o’clock, P. M., is refused to tlie department; if it were not, it would be of great advantage in forwarding tlie Southern mail. For the proper performance of the mail service the PostmasterGeneral must have the right to specify the time at which the mail shall start, where it shall stop, and when it shall arrive at its destination. This power he has always exercised on ordinary post-roads, and he needs it even more on railroads, as the mails they carry are much larger, and greater interests are at stake.
In 1837 the Post-Office Department of Great Britain adopted a plan for sending small sums of money by mail. These money orders, as they were called, originally limited to $25 and to places within tlie United Kingdom, have been extended, and now sums for $50 or less can be sent to many countries in Europe, America, Asia, and Africa, and to all tlie colonies of Great Britain. ‘1 lie fee is small, from two cents for sums under $2.50 to 25 cents for $50. These orders are very generally used, and increase at tlie rate of sixteen per cent, a year, letters at the rate of two and one half per cent. Last year fifteen and a half million of orders, transmitting $134,011,320, were issued; the average amount was $8.60, and the average fee six cents. Several Postmaster – Generals recommended to Congress the adoption of a similar system in this country, but it was not introduced until November, 1864. The number of orders has increased from 74,277 a year to 4,012,000. The growth is thirty percent, a year; the amounts of the orders have increased from $1,360,122 to $74,424,000. The orders average $18.55, or nearly twice as much as in Great Britain. The average fee is eleven cents ; cost eight cents. The number of orders in proportion to population in Great Britain is one to two, in the United States one to ten, thus showing great room for development. There are five different rates; these increase with the amount of the order, from .05 for sums under $10.00 to .25 for sums over $40.00, and yield a large profit.
In September, 1869, the first international exchange of money orders was made with Switzerland; the system has been extended to Great Britain and Germany. The business between the United States and Great Britain is much larger than between any other countries.
These transfers of money illustrate the tendency of capital towards the centres of trade, and from the West to the East. Smaller offices issue more orders than they pay, larger ones pay more than they issue. In 1873 California issued orders for $1,394,000 and paid orders for $857,956. Massachusetts issued orders for $2,176,000 and paid orders for $3,074,000. Iowa issued orders for $3,112,000 and paid orders for $2,318,000. The city post-office of New York issued orders for $723,042 and paid orders for $5,932,260.
America issued orders on Great Britain for $1,364,476 and paid orders for $215,087. The financial panic in the fall of 1873, which created distrust in all other kinds of business, greatly increased the number of money orders. The number issued in October, 1873, was forty-eight per cent. greater than in the corresponding month of 1872.
If the rates above ten cents were reduced to that sum it would simplify the accounts and facilitate and greatly increase the business, while the fees would still pay the expenses.
The amount paid to the department for orders issued has been every year in excess of payments by it, varying from $50,000 to $220,000; and a balance of over $1,000,000 now stands to the credit of the department, a large portion of which may never be called for.
America has always had a great interest in the interchange and development of correspondence with Europe. The crowds of emigrants who have flocked to our shores desire to keep up intercourse with friends and relations left behind, and by their letters give more correct information of our institutions, the habits and character of our people, and the inducements for immigration, than is imparted in any other way. High postage prevented extensive correspondence. In 1866, when the postage to England was twenty-four cents and to the Continent even higher, only six millions of letters were exchanged with Europe. Our post-office was the first to propose a reduction in oceanpostage, and its efforts have been successful in reducing the rates to England and to several of the Continental states to six cents, and now twenty millions of letters a year are exchanged.
Postmaster-General Creswell recommended to Congress two important extensions of the operation of the PostOffice Department: the union of the telegraph with the post-office, and the establishment of postal savings-banks. The telegraphic service comes directly within the functions of the Post-Office Department. It is of the greatest importance to the public, as all urgent private correspondence and all the most important press news, are transmitted solely by the telegraph. The post-office has adopted all other improved agencies but this, the latest and most valuable, for its rapid transmission. The propriety of the union of the two services has been carefully examined by several Postmaster – Generals of each of the political parties, and they have strongly favored it.
As early as 1844 and 1845, Postmaster-General Johnson, under Mr. Polk’s administration, in his reports for those years referred at length to the telegraph and recommended its adoption by the Post-Office Department as of vital importance to the interests of the country, and as an invention which ought not to be controlled by private parties. In 1869, under Mr. Johnson’s administration, Mr, Randall urged the importance of this measure, and Mr. Creswell three times recommended it to Congress. Three committees of the Senate and two of the House have carefully examined the question and made reports earnestly advocating this union. The Senate committee recommended a system in strict analogy with the system adopted for transmitting the mails by railroad. The bill which was reported establishes the rates of telegrams and authorizes the Postmaster – General to contract with parties for the construction and operation of the lilies of telegraph, and determines that the compensation to be paid to the contractors shall be the postages on telegrams, less five cents on each reserved by the department for its expenses. It requires no outlay by Congress, involves no expenditures beyond the receipts, and gives great additional facilities to the public at a very large reduction of rates. In Europe the state administers the telegraph. In England the telegraph and post-office were united in 1870; low and uniform rates were adopted, and the facilities largely increased; this was followed by a rapid development of the general telegraphic correspondence, but more especially in telegrams for the press. Eighteen million telegrams are sent in Great Britain at a cost of about $5,000,000. In this country thirteen million are sent at a cost of $9,000,000. The increase of letters in Great Britain in 1873 was two and one half per cent., the increase of telegrams was eighteen per cent., and of telegraphic reports to the press fifty per cent.; while in this country, the increase of letters was seventeen per cent., of telegrams sixteen per cent.
The business of the postal savingsbank is not analogous to that of the post-office; and though it would undoubtedly be a great convenience to the people, it may perhaps be doubted if the time has yet arrived for its adoption by the department.
In conclusion we will state the points we have endeavored to present: —
1. That our post-office was established for the purpose of conveying intelligence and letters throughout the country.
2. That to this end newspapers have always been transmitted either free or at a small postage entirely disproportioned to the expense, the revenue derived from newspapers amounting to only one tenth of the cost. That by a classification of the mail matter, forwarding letters and dailies by express, other papers and books by accommodation mail, a reduction of expense can be made equal to the postage from newspapers, and newspapers and magazines be carried free.
3. That our post-office has never been
regarded as a source of revenue: the postage on letters being fixed at rates that would barely cover the expenditures. That from the increase of letters the postages from them greatly exceed the expenditures on them, and that a uniform rate of two cents will yield a revenue equal to the letter expenditures.
4. That our post-office is managed more economically than the British postoffice, and as efficiently. That the average postage on letters and newspapers is lower in the United States. The postage on newspapers is so much lower that it decreases the revenue, while the additional miles of transportation and the greater number of offices increase our expenditures. That the more favorable financial results of the Post-Office Department of Great Britain are obtained at the expense of newspapers, the circulation of which is only one fourth as great there as here.
5. That express parcels are carried at rates very much less than cost; that our post-office was not established for carrying merchandise or express matter, and that their carriage at uniform rates, without regard to weight or distance of transmission, is opposed to the principles of cheap postage, and if continued will involve the department in an enormous expense beyond its revenue, and will hinder and delay the transmission of letters and papers.
6. That Congress has the right to compel all railroads established as postroads to carry the mail at a just compensation, to be fixed by Congress. That the growth of the mail business renders it indispensable for the prompt and efficient performance of the service, that the Postmaster-General shall have authority to prescribe when the mails shall depart and at what time they shall arrive.
7. That the same considerations which have required Congress to adopt every other improved means for the transmission of intelligence and correspondence require it to assume the telegraph, the common method of transmitting all press and urgent private correspondence.
Gardiner G. Hubbard.
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
References:
- Hubbard, Gardiner Greene. Our Post Office. United States, Riverside Press, 1875.
