New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1857-07-17

For each ten thousand letters that are mailed in
the North East section Of the Union there is gross
expense of $780, while the same number of letters
in the South.We entails an expense of Sl,5A.
With the Government paying S25OO,OOo for
franked matter the Post Office just about supports
itself; showing that, with the small amount OF
correspondence in the country, three cents is
remuneratye. While that gives the average cost
throughout the country, the last column In Dir.
Miles's statistical table shows that the cost OF
single letter in each State varies from one cent five
mills in Massachusetts, one cent four mills In Rhode
Islsnd, and one cent six mills in New-York, to
over seven cents in Mississippi, eight cents IN
Texas and the Territories; eleven and half cents
in Florida, and over eighteen cents in Arkansas.
If postage were levied according to distance, we
should be no nearer an equitable solution of the
difficulty; for by these fgures-and we do not see
where there can be any mistake in the calculation
it evidently costs more to carry letter fifty
miles in Arkansas, or hundred miles in Misss-
sippi or Texas, than one thousand from Bangor to
St. Louis. we leave out of consideration all Of
the South West section of the country aud then add
to the expenses Of the North. East and middle
sections all that it costs to transport the great
Southern mail between the Virginia line and New
Orleans, and also between Memphis and New
Orleans, and add nothing for the receipts of those
letters that come from the South. West, the actual
cost of dstribution-al transportation and postal
eypeDses-will be only about a cents letter; the
number of letters will be 1l5,000,O0 while in the
South West the letters will number but l6 O0O, 900,
with an everage cost of nearly or quite cents
letter. The cost of Transporting and handling let
tiers is bot at all in proportion to the distance they
are carried, as We clearly see. 1t depends on
other circumstances; especially on tie consider
alton of a large or small amount of correspond
ence. Each hundred persons in Massachusetts,
send through the post LOOP letters in year;
each hundred in New.York, SAB letters; but in
North Carolina, only l59: and in Tennessee, lo9:
being less than two letters per person an average
in a year, while in New-York and New. England
there ale ficm eight to ten to each person
We do not complain that we who live in the
North, in the thicky settled States pay the largest
share Of The postal expenses of the whole country;
but We do complain that when postal improve
ments, and equalization and reduction Of rates. are
asked for by those sections Of the country that
write nearly all the letters and pay nearly all the
postal expenses the opposton to all these measures
comes from the far South and West. We tell you,
Me.srs Brown, Rusk, and others, that the doctrine
Of selfsustaining Post Office establishment in
this country is falacy; for when you make it
self sustaining, you rob Peter to pay Paul; you
tax The poor man, the active merchant, the absent
wife or husband, the girl or boy away at school,
in htse Northern States, to help carry on an enOr
NOUS amount Of Government franking and TO
carry the mails through the desolate regions
of tie far South, and into the woods, plains,
swamps and praries Of Arkansas Texas, New.
Mexico and Oregon. We want uniform two-cent
rate for our cities and delivery system, and then
we shall have vast increase Of local correspond.
ence, and about one half Of the postage money on
such local correspondence will be clear profit, that
can so toward carrying the mail service into the
interior, the West and the South. We care not
which eide you tske; it is either wrong to pay
mercy out of the National Treasury TO send stand
ing sru les and to build forts in the wilderness, to
erect lighthouses and employ revenue cutters 90
coast where there is little commerce,
it would be right to spend the nations treasure
to transport end distribute the mail in tracts Of
country made desOlate by deserts, ignorance,
Slavery, wild beasts and snowy mountains. We
ask for Uniform rate of postage, 80 low that it is
- r.