The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-12-23

| We therefore cordially endorse THIS recoui
mendation of the Postmaster General. II
Mr.. Brown next states that the expenseso
transporting the mails on railroads is greatei
than that BY coaches, but he fails to recommend
a remedy.
2. Mr. Brown recommends 7" the impositidE
of rates Of postage approaching more nearly the
value or cost of transportation and delivery O
letters and printed matter" and says that 4
move in this direction was made at the last ses
sion of Congress, by the introduction of BIZ
in the Senate, having for its chief objects tbe
| raising of the three-cents rate upon letters
to five cents, and the abolition of the discount
now allowed by law for the payment of news
paper and pamphlet postage quarterly or years
in advance" This is only "move" in the
right directions" and we are left to the infer
ence that Mr.. Browns standard of the cost Of
transportation and delivery would be still
higher.
We have already adverted to the fact that the
free States, as a whole, pay their own postage,
within fraction while the South costs the
country millions in mail and travelling facili-
ties These facts show that there can be no
general and uniform rate of postage suited to
the necessities of the Post Office in different
localities The present rate of three cents IS
higher than necessary for New England, New
York, and Pennsylvania, which yield a surplus
of near seven hundred thousand dollars to the
Department; it is too low for the other free
States and it is greatly too low for the South,
The Northeastern States are now overraxed, IN
order TO extend mail facilities to the South and
West and yet there is a deficit of millions. Mr..
Brown insists upon taxing the North to nearly
double the present rate, in order to relieve his
Department from embarrassment We protest
against this policy, as unjust. fit is deemed
proper to keep up the mail facilities at their
present standard, let it be done at the expense
of the common treasury, and not by taxing one
section directly for the benefit of another. And
even on this plan, the Northeast, while paying
its own postage, would be taxed indirectly to
pay that of other sections but it would have
the advantage of taxing the sections benefited
themselves, at the same time. Mr.. Browns
plan is cool proposition to tax the North di-
rectly, and pay the money thus raised over to
the South. He proposes to raise three and a
half millions o. dollars by this most unjust
pedient, and there can be no doubt that three.
millions of it would come out of Northern peck
ets The extortion of these three millions of
taxes would depress commercial enterprise,
check the diffusion of intelligence, and be a
step backward - in civilization.
The Postmaster General admits the facts as
sumed by us in this reasoning, and, indeed, it
would be idle to deny facts which his own re-
ports and those of his predecessors substanti-
ate He says:
In compact and dense population, the
present rate might bear some reasonable pro-
portion to the actual cost of transportation but
in a widely extended country, like the United
States, now reaching from one ocean the
other, and in many portions of it thinly popu-
lated, three cents would seem to be altogether
insufficient to meet the actual expense incurred
by the Government in sending forward the let
ters.' g.
The older States of the North and East are
exactly in the condition of compactness and
density which Mr.. Brown admits to be compati-
bic with cheap rate of postage and we are
unable TO see how he reconciles the admission
with his recommendation of a higher rate. Three
cents is more than sufficient for revenue in that
section, but the people must be taxed, their bu-
siness, social and literary intercourse, must be
curtailed and injured, BY five or ten cent rate,
in order that the South may have mail facilities,
which she cannot afford at her own cost
3. We also concur in the general views ex.
pressed by the Postmaster General in regard to
transatlantic and other ocean postage. The
Post Office should be chargeable no further, in
keeping up lines of steamers TO foreign coun,
tries, than the amount of postage they yield. If
the interests of commerce require steam lines,
they should be chargeable to the Treasury De,
partment, and not to the Post Office Depart.
ment
But he thinks that the steam lines be-
tween our Southern ports, and those of Mexico
and Brazil, need extra aid from the Depart,
ment, and he is willing to see New Englands
New York, and Pennsylvania, pay five cents, or
even higher rate of letter postage, in order
that postal facilities may be extended to the
commerce of the South. He says:
"As regards line from some suitable port
in the United States to Brazil, and the extern
sion Of the California line from Panama To the
south Pacific coast, which, for commercial as
well as for mail purposes it is so desirable
should be established, and the line from New
Orleans to Vera Cruz, it is apparent that the
hostages to be derived thereform would defray
but trihing portion Of the expense Of the ser
vice. / regard it rs highly important that the
i'm 70 (Nr,,1 CHI he
the first of July to the first Of November of this
year, there was no mail upon this line, and TEN
porary service is now performed for the post
ages only, in the hope that Congress will i'm
mediatey authorize the making of contract
at reasonable compensation. j respectfully
recommend this, and that the same authority be
granted respecting lines to Brazil and the south
Pacific. The contract on the Charleston and
Havana line will expire on the Both of June
next; and this, Also it is apparent, will require
other aid than what could be derived from the
hostages to sustain it. The Vera Cruz and
Havana lines, well as the lines to California
should be classed as coastwise; and. whether
susceptible of being sustained from the post
ages or not, should not, in my Judgment, be
subject to that restriction"
1t would have been much fairer to call ,,non
the Federal Government for an appropriation
to defray the expense of the steam mail facili-
ties between people whose addiction to writing.
would not warrant any sanguine hopes of postal.
revenue. But the head of the Post Office De
partment is for raising the necessary amount
by tax upon the correspondence of the COM
mercial sections of the Union.
It's too late in the day to talk of raising the
rates of postage. 1t cannot be done, as we
have demonstrated, without gross injustice ts,