New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1857-08-04
OUR NATIONAL POST-OFFICE.

To ne Editor Of The N. Y. Tribune.
SIR: In my last communication gave the figures
showing that Of our 13l, 900, 900 letters in yea.
us 0OO 900 circulated between Maine and the southern
boundary of Virginia and Tennessee and west ~ fsx
AZ Missouri and Iowa; that 81 900 letters or more
than half written in the nation, are written BY the
population Of New England, New.fork, New-Jersey
and Pennsylvania, and circulated at an average cost
for transportation and distribution Of cent eight
mills per letter while the 100000 letters written
south of Virginia and west of Teppessee aud Missouri
cost from five TO eighteen cents letter. Remember
also that all the letters ll5O00 600 annually, except
these It, 900 on the frontier cost for their entire
transportation and distribution an average OF two
cents four mills each and this forms the basis Of our
argument for the justice of low and uniform rate OF
postage to meet the wants Of the population whs
carry on the great bulk Of the correspondence We
must bear in mind that, comparatively speaking, It
will cost but little half much Ia proper
ton 10 tho number of letters wreHt0 distribute one
Thousand million letters in the present limits Of the
United States than does the present number OF is-
0C0 We must also recOlect that dense populations
and short distances produce far letters than thin
ly settled regions and long routes that the former
gives much greater profits, and can be stimulated TO
far greater extent by increased facilities and low
rates of postage Founding our postal establishments
about hundred years ago, with less than sixty Post
Offices when the country was almost wilderness, We
have never once mastered the idea that the CORES
tude, public importance and profit to the Departmsnt
of far mere consequence than all the correspondents
of country Districts and through long distances.
The great Napoleon told Murat and Ney that be
was DO orator. but that he could put down the most
eloquent speech Of two hours length made in bad
cause in just five minutes, and that the plain COM
N op sense principle that two and two make four
Now our position in arguing for two-cent uniform
rate Of postage is on as plain foundation Tie prin
cple of uniform postage correct for rates according
to distance VIGOROUSLY unequal it costs less to
transport letter a route thousand miles long
where there is large correspondence like the one
from Portland to st. Louis, than fifty or hun
bred miles in q region like Florids, Arkansas OK
Texas. If there were advantages in several rates,
we have already sacrificed them all by making each
letter-drOp letters excepted-pay the same rate for
distances up to three thousand miles; and yet we
have OF the advantages of uniformity for we still
keep up the irregular troublesome and expensive sys-
tenn of Ons three and ten cent rates. Now let us see
where letters from; let who carries on
the great bulk of the correspondence and contributes
the great share Of the postage money. Take every
person in the gross population throughout the United
States, and also in different sections and districts and
by close calculation, the average number of letters
per person sent by mail in year will be as repre-
sented in the following table, the figures being whole
numbers and decimals. h