New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1855-05-18

we send only 100, OOo, 900 letters annually, 'aa
our printed matter. Certain, their railway
mails must be heavier than ours. Al our re'son-
inc be correct and our conclusions ju,.' We snal'
then arrive at this financial result: Our ,''inr''
nal railways, denOminased frst-class, amoun' 10
l.CG7 miles, AMI cost us for mail transportation
the sum Of $685., O22, being 500 mile. Oar
second-class railroads, amounting to 10, H3 miles,
cost NJ in mail transportation S525,55S, being
$50 a mile The British hrst-clsss roads have
for mail service an average price OF s5So mile,
aud their second class roads Ssil mile. One
half Of these sums respectively for the two
classes of our mail service would give, instead
of what we nov pay, this result:
Mle. We nov psy We oash, % pay
str,t c., ..,.. sS5ss 25532j
Total -J9SH
This would show that we actually pay annually
for our mail transportation by railway-less than
ope.ffteenth part of our mail routes-tte sum of
Se9S, C63 more than we would pay if co1npensa-
ton and service were equitably adjusted.
Our particular estimate Of one-half what they
pay Is Great Britain is not supposed to be an ex-
act adjustment, but that proportion on the prin-
ciple Of compromising for work performed, Is
believed to be below a correct estimate. But
what do we see1 On oil our second class roads
we pay $50 mile, while in England they pay
Sal mile viii it be pretended that the rail-
WAYS between Syracuse and Oswego, and between
Troy and Saratoga Springs, are any more impor-
tant than those in England between Manchester.
Sheffield and Lincolnshire, and between Liver.
pool and Huh, or that the former probably carry
the most malls And yet the two American
roads getrespectivey 800 and 1925 mile, while
the two in England get respectively S44 and @57
a mile-about one half the sum The cities and
towns on The two English roads contain popu-
laton at least eight times as dense as on inc
two American roads. II our railways arc re-
onired 10 furnish the exclusive use Of q car
TWENTY-FIVE feet long, inside measurement, for
the use of the mail, or a car of any greater or
less dimensions then most certainly the railway
company should be paid for the expense attend
ing il at remunerating rate. The whole SUBJ
iect resolves itself into two questions: What
space is actually needed for the safe transport
of the mails and then What sunni an adequate
compensation for the service performed Rail
WAY companies may consider that the United
States is under obligation to pay them three
times as much as they get for ordinary traffic
but why the correspondence of the country
should be taxed inordinately to support railways
is more than can be seen clearly. We have
219 935 miles Of mail routes and of this the rail-
way portion on the Goth Of June last was IA, 4iO
miles, When our mail routes amount to double
that distance and one half Of that is railways.
will any one be good enough to tell us the cost
of our railway mail transportation as compared
TO our postal scheme, when the former increases
201 per cent annually and the latter but IA per
cent? Let our starting-point be the present
time, when the postal scheme falls short of the
expense nearly two millions year-and where
is the capital, where is the purse, TO hold to-
gether our National Post-Oilice, without an i'm
portant financial reform in the transportation of
mails by railway