The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1848-12-25
VERY IMPORTANT REPO r T
FROM THE
POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT..
Posr OFFICE DEPARTMENT.,
CosTRAcr OFFICE, December, 1S4s. :
l. CAVE JOHNSON


changes in the mode Of doing Post Office business,
which had expreeeed to you In several nversAtons
as the resui. OF my examinations abroad, ana my so-
to submit the following Yen have referred to my
opportunities of witnessing the operations Of the best
conducted Offices in Europe. As the information re-
spectng them other points than those above nam
ed may be interesting, and was obtained in pursu-
ance Of your Instructions whilst attending, under
your directions to the business Of postal arrange
ments, will embrace them IN this ommunicaton,
with such notice Of the history and extent Of our own
post establishment will show the gratifying COM
parison it holds with thofe Of other countries.
I--UNIroRM CHEAP PosrAGE.
When in London, In l847 met with Rowland HUI.
The explanations Of the principles and operations of
the penny postage reform, ON several interesting
to the of uniform rate and
the reduction of postage
The principle of uniform rate of postage in
England is sustain ned by the following argument =:
An average rate that will deray the cost of transpor
tston the short routes will in the aggregate defray
the whole cost of transportation for the whole service
consists their respective localities of short routes
The long routes made by the connection or COM
bination merely short That circumstance
additional EXPENSE consequently there is
looking to cost of transportation as the only
element Of postage for making any additional or fur
tances That Is rule Of easy application to Great Bril-
tain and which works out there its natural result
miles population of p coo 000 pretty equally dused
and pervaded by an active commercial and manufac
turing business 1t has unproductive routes, and
duces a large correspondence to sustain limited sys
tenn of mail conveyance. But the most important cir
cumsance is that in reducing their postage from high
rates to low and uniform one they changed its
ture from that Of tax, which it had been previously
Iyieding q net revenue to the nearly equal to
merely Of transportation, including delivery sc Now,
with U.S. the proportions are reversed Our population
arss within the Organized States Of
miles. We have, consequently, numerous upproduc-
tive routes, many of which yield revenue less than
the half of their cost. This rcunstsnce, and the
fact that the postage on newspapers fails TO psy the
cost Of their transportation by about onethird and
porting ranked matter through the mails, are
upon the postage assessed upon charged letters
gives to our postage the character tan Make such
relieve postage Of this character change its nature
they did in England to that Of freight reduce it to
the single element of may sue
eessfully emulate the example of England In postage
reform, relying the elastic energies of young
and growing people to make up for the disadvantages
of greater territory and less population. We have
counteractiug advantage in possessing much larger
family and friendly correspondence In proportion to
numbers; and growth and Development will rapidly
augment the amount Of business letters am well
satisfied from estimate, that the surplus cost
ing newspapers beyond what the postage upon them
defrsys and the amount that free matter would
TO- n charged with postage could not be less at the
The official correspondence of the departments of the
government, including Congress, is the publics
dependence. Why should not the public nav for it.
~ individual pays for his II is the duty of the
to the citizen to establish and maintain
routes under great variety of circumstances, not
Of that guardianship and protection that his allegiance
entities him to; and public policyequires tha tas DIFF
Of newspapers SO chespened as be placed within
the reach Of of all But is 1t just that this should be
done at the exclusive expense Of class Of citizens
who have interest in the matter than the rest
of the public!
Surprising Congress should provide some other way
for raising This $1,000 900 than by assessing
exclusively the postage payers Of private
pom dence-thsn what would be required would be
letter postage equal to the actual cost of the
m pOrt tad in
the following estimate Assume the expenditure Of
the department At the amount Of last year. put for
easier statement at round sum. am aware there Is
to be increase Of mail services but there special
items of expenditure for last year sufficient, with the
savings in the middle Sectiop to make the sun hare
Appropriation by Congress for the
Ns SS,fss s. peet.s: not quit: :au.
to that Of last year. a. something
Of a decline may be apprehended 10000
Then there remains for letter post
age to pred ace 2oo0,VO
Now the enquiry arises how low the rate of let
ter postage be reduced and furnish this annual amount
of $2650 600! The am we'll persuaded, is to
be found in the data which Experience In this
very matter fur nishes.
But it may be satisfactory to show what effect upon
the reduction of the rate OF postage has had
in Great Britain, we'll in the United States. In
Great Britain the former high rates averaged ID per
single letter. This produced an annual revenue in
the last year Of their operation,
The present rate is Id, uniform, and
the revenue it produced the first
year, lo4O, was l,ooV,oO4
Less of revenue ............. ,159 1l1s
Equal to $4e42,4lo ~.
Here is reduction in rate of SO per cent causing
decline In the aggregate of AZ 40 per cent After
lapse Of years, there still remains decline of
revenue of f3S6,735 16s 0adequal to $1S7l 1897 SO,
or 16 LIS per cent. The decline In net is much
greater than in their gross revenues and take this
of Great Britain as we'll the home as the foreign, is
charged to the Admiralty and not to the Post Office.
In the publications Of the day this large item of mail
expenditure is omitted consequently an exaggerated
net balance Is exhibited in their Post Office state
ments. The net revenue of ls47 was but fe7,4 5e
S. 3d. after deducting the cost of their steampacket
as we'll ss other mail transportation.
am gratifed in being able to state that our own
experiments furnish demonstrations in favor of low
postage Of q decidedly more encouraging chara ;ter
in respectt revenue Prior TO 1s45 letter postage in
the United States stood at various rates averaging in
the respective amounts they yielded IAN cents the
The revenue they produced-I speak Of
letter. postage revenue ony-the last
year Of their operation, 1916, $1,000 ISL 3S
Postage was reduced TO our present Ave
and ten cent rates the first years re-
venue of which, 1916, ......,.. 2,6s1, 697 ~
Loss in revenue. .......... 77s4s3 Ga
Now the reduction in rate that produced this de-
cline, was 66Is per cent, the present and 10 cent
rates being averaged at e cents per letter according
to calculation (made rather imperfect data to be
sure)of the several amounts yielded by those rates
the n seSuoto1 Of ss rss
England, by some or per cent. The next years
revenue 1877 realized advance upon that of 1916
of 10 per cent Five per cent represents the general
progressive growth Of the department, It does the
ratio of increase in the population Of the United
States and there was consequently, recovery from
the first years fall of the extent of So per
cent, But this ceased with the second year-fer the
increase Of the of 1Ss that of 1S47 Is
but in the ratio of the increase of the depart
ment about Eve per cent 1t Is still $309S77 % less
than the revenue of 1915. The foregoing statement
Is of letter postage exclusively.
We have teen that J6S per cent Of reduction of the
postage rate causes decline OF Il 1-5 per cent, in
the revenue uniform five cent rate 10 twenty-one
per cent less than the present rates averaged at 6
cents The reduction In revenue that II per cent
ducton in rates would produce would be- according to
the foregoing proportions 10 cent and this
portion, deducted from last years would leave
S3OS5630 08. This IL S435 $50 0S more revenue for
the next year than the preceding table calls for and
shows that the rate Is higher than what the principles
of low pestaca here require. IL Congress