New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1856-03-07
A. Reduction Of Postage.

4. Reduction o. Postage.
6. Unpaid letters 20 be forwarded, bat at higher
charge.
Let me enlarge little on each Of these points:
!. Free Delirery A letter delveredis apt 10 pro-
woke an answer but 50 long il remains in the Post
Office il lies dead and unfruitfu II all the letters
received by the next mail steamship from Liver
pool were promptly placed in the hands Of those TO
whom they shall be severslly addressed, at least
one thousand more letters written in response TO
these) would go Gut in the next steamer 70 LIVER
pool; and these would add $3.50 70 the postage
thence sccruing. If citizen living IN fortleth
street Of our city could drop half dozen letters
into box or hollow pillar On the next block, Wild
moral certainty that the one directed 10
Wall or Pearl street would be received WITH
in two hour, and that an answer might
confidently be expected within FIVE, while those
addressed TO Brooklyn, Harlem, jersey City, Quar-
antine and Newark respectively would be answered
by way Of the pOstnan at iurihest before noon OF
the next day the etter-deliyery of our City Post
Office would at least be doubled within two years
ard quadrupled within ten But it takes longer
in the average, TO obtain answer to letter Dis
patched to Brooklyn than it does to get one from
Albany or Hartford; while letter dispatched by
post 10 a friend three squares of will hardly BE-
answered by post short Of two days. OF course
correspondence through the City Post is almost
precuded BY such unreasonable delays; and he
who this evening wishes to inform his friend who
lives half mile off that be will or will not be able
to dine with him, as invited, on the day after to-
morrow, may better pay boy quarter to carry
the note than trust to the celebrity Of the PostOfce
In country villages, it may seem q tax to deliver
Mail matter, but experience would soon change
this aspect Whenever a mail Is received and
assorted let boy take the contents in pOst-bag,
duly arranged for prompt delivery, and proceed to
put every letter in the hands Of its proper owner.
Of course, this would be practicable over limited
radius-that Of the village proper, or compact set
tlement-but within this radius it would be less
trouble TO send letters and papers at once to their
destination than to wait for them to be straggngly,
cspriciously called for, and have to look the lot
over whenever another is called for. How
many more replies would be elected by this system
of prompt delivery, and how greatly the business
and receipts Of the Post-Office would thus be aug
mented, / have already indicated.
2. No Frdnking. After all that has been said,
the Country has no adequate idea of the enormity
and iniquty of the Franking nuisance. 1t costs
the Government not less than 5000, 900 per annum
to print documents that would not be printed at
all (for public distributiOn) if there were no
Franking privilege. There not five thousand
persons in existence who would desire copy of the
Presidents Message and the accompanying Docu-
ments as printed by order Of Congress, il required
to pay fair rate of postage thereon; but let the
Treasury pay for printing while the Members
frank and direct them, and now everybody wants
one as it will make gun-waddng, or serve some
other purpose if never read Thus Franking, be-
side subecting the Members to the receipt of thou
sands of frivolous and mpertnent letters, calling
on them to do this or that or run hither and
thther, for the benefit of the writers Of
such epistles, absOrbs more than half
the time they ought to devote to the study
of the documents they can barely find opportunity
to direct and send away. 1t is wrong to the
Press that Government should not only give away
tens of thousands volumes OF printed matter
nusly, but pay for Transporting it to the recipients
or rather, compel the mailerS of letters to pay it,
The true rule is to let everything pay its own way
Il will not enlarge on the other points to-day
The abolition of the Franking privilege is the pivot
of the whole movement. With that, we can re-
form everything without it, nothing. H.