New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1843-12-30

Beyond our Growning skies
7rumansburs N. Y, Dec. 1873. LLEwELLYS.
The Postage Question.
The following article from the pen OF valued
friend we publish without endorsing It's senti-
ments, many of which are just, others mistaken.
We wish to have all sides of the question looked
at, but all things that plausible are not Prac
ticable, and among these we reckon the charging
one rate of Postage between the great Cities and
another in the thnly- settled districts of the West
and South. This would never be submitted to,
and should never be thought of-as, indeed, why
need it if low rate OF Postage erery uhere will
answer every purpose? as we hold demonstrable
if not demonstrated. Make every thing pay its
part, and nothing more than its part-that is the
true wisdom, and as sure as 1t IS simple. We
hold that charge Of three cents On advance
for all distances below 300 miles, cents thence
to l,OO0 and 10 cents foT over 1000 miles, with
Just and equitable charge by 1oeigM on all
printed matter-say eight cents per pound for
less than 500 miles and twelve cents for more
than that distance, carrying fifty miles or less for
quarter of a cent per sheet, in order to deal
Justly by the Country Prcss-doublng all these
Rates on whatever is not pre-paid-will produce
more Revenue than the present Rates. while con-
ferring ten times the benefit on the Public. Why
should not such Relorm-one that amounts to
somcthing-be tried?
There is one enormous wrong, however, that
must be corrected We allude to the require
ment that the Mail shall be carried in four
horse Post Coaches " over hundreds of thousands
of miles where it could be carried quicker dryer,
safer and at onc-fourth the pnce, in light car
riaqes. 1t is hard enough to make the People
of the more denscly settled sections pay for carry
mo the Mails on routes which will not dcfray
fourth of their cost, but to ask them to provide
the ways and means for carrying passengers also,
is quite too much.-But hear our correspondent
Post Office Reform.
To the Editor OF The Tiioune:
1t seems to me that all our dissatisfaction with
the present Rates of Postage has its origin in
causes not generally advertcd to, and that a
remedy is to be sought for IN the understanding
and removal of those causes. In most other
countries, and especially in that from which we
derived our earliest notions and plan of Post
Office Department. Revenue from the Post
Office, for the wants of Government, is the most
prominent feature of the system In our country
we do not want the revenue, and really do not IN
tend to manage the Post Office with view 10
revenue, and yet we adhere to the system while
we abandon the principles on which It has grown
up. In Eng and, poslagels notan equivalent for
services, but tax: with US 1t is not designed to
to be tax but an equivalent for services Taxes
are always, and may well be, arbitrary; but an
equivalent for services should be, as far as posi-
bic, Just.
The real and great difficulty with US is, that
our Postageis wholly arbitrary, and not arranged
with Just regard to the services rendered. This
difficulty did not exist when our system was
adopted nor until within the last twenty i've
years. Before that time the mail was carried all
over the Union in stage-coaches, and consequently
the cost Of transporting letters any given distance
was nearly the same every where. But since the
introduction of Steamboats, and Railroads, the
whole subject has assumed an entirely new as
pect. Between our great cities and upon our
great thoroughlares, letters can be- and are trans
ported, at cost merely nominal. Yet we have
not changed our System and adapted 1t to this
new state Of things. We still charge as much
for conveying letter from New York to Boston,
as we did when the heavy Mall-bagS were Drawn
at speed the whole distance by team Of four
well-ed, high-sprited horses.
This is the evil and an evil which must and
will be remcdied Every thing in this country
which relates to dollars and cents, is easily intel
ligible and must sooner or later be brought to the
test of common sense. may be answered that
although we do not wish to raise revenue for the
: support OF Government, yet we ought to make the
Post Office support itself In other words, those
who send letters on the great thoroughfares ought
to pay for sending the letters of other people
through the interior BY mail coaches That is,
those who live in our large cities, on railroad and
steamboat routes, should be taxed to run mail
coaches by which they send no etters-or, to re-
ducc the proposition to still narrower and more
, intellgble shape, a broker in New-York who has
: a branch of his house and numerous correspond
t ents in Boston, and sends and receives thence
daily an hundred letters and heavy packages,
, ough, to pay from twenty to thirty dollars day
to support mail coaches thousand miles of,
which never carry letter for him. Now, sir
why should the broker pay this The transpoTta-