New-York daily tribune., 1859-05-17


lettets being the same for letters that come the
longest distances And while the carriers are dc-
Gyering these local letters, they also denver,
free" of any charge but the original postage, all
letter. and mail ter that come from beyond the
town The compensation consists in the fact that
,uch free delivery-from four to twelve times
day, according TO the locahty-increases and ere
ates such an amount of local correspondence, as
TO give profit over and above the expense Of ear
rers delivery and sorting; and all for the consld
GRAFTON Of one penny sterling 1t is simply sys-
TEN Of letter transportation over very limited
district, with dense population, where according
TO oil principles of supply and demand, Of business
done, and expense attending it, the profits must
be larger than over long distances. But TO obtain
all the advantages Of a local letter delivery there
must be uniform postage, and rate that will not
repel, but invite the patronage of the public.
In only one movement during the last twelve
months have the British postal authorities made
blunder, and that las been by copying and
quoting as a precedent, an arrangement in our
own Post Office, namely, the system of compulsory
prepayment-a measure foisted on the country by
that ssgacious man James Campbell The British
nation will not have compulsory prepayment The
people rebelled and remOnstrat ID, Parliament took
it up, and the press came down on It, and Mr.. Hill
and Lord COlcht ster were forced to withdraw the
obnoxious measure. Though probably saving All
extra penny now and then to some who have a
large correspondence, the principle of seizng and
stopping correspondence because it is n0t--perhaps
from no fault of the sender-prepaid is unjust,
even if only one letter in hundred so stopped
should cause great loss in commerce, or distress.
The Post-Office is for the people, and not for the
postal authorities
We ask the priviege-perhaps we ought to beg
the pardon of our intelligent readers-of showing
and proving, over and again, that the only way
TO raise the revende of our POst-Office must be
found in stimulating correspondence in the
densely populated districts, particularly in cities
and towns and in the States that have an extensive
commerce and large amount Of social intercourse
One fact will demonstrate this clearly: In 1856,
the entire number Of letters written and sent
through the Post Office in the States Of New-York
and Massachusetts, was 4O.622 Ola, while in the
same year every State and Territory south Of
Pennsylvania and the Ohio River, and west of the
Mississippi, produced but 37,689,4l7. And yet
London alone, as shown in this British Report,
had last year ~ ,365 600 letters and of these,
So, ,404 600 were local letters-cOrrespODdenc
within the London District. And observe the
Postal expenses The expense Of the London
letter-carrers in IS54-as given in Mr..
Pliny Miles's Postal Reform" was SOL
$40; the gross postal expenses in
1s56-the year named above-in New
York and Massachusetts,, was 81, 423,305; while
the smaller number Of letters in all of our States
and Territories south Of the Ohio and west
of the Mississppi-the thirtyseven million
coat the sum Of $i,3lS,7sO The local letters
in London numbered in lS40, the first year
ofpenny postage 20 37 900, and in 1858 So i0i 900
The rate of increase last year over the year
previous, Of London local letters, was j. per
cent "n . the increase of correspondence through
out the Kingdom was but % per cent; and of the
letters written in London to go out of town, the In
crease was only 4pcr cent The increase of Lon
don local letters in 1857 1856 "a per cent;
of London letters sent out of town, only per cent;
and of the letters in the United Kingdom, 81 per
cent. The fact may be assumed as positive and III
variable, that with good postal facilities local cor
rcspondence in cities and densey populated places
is far more extensive than correspondence over
long distances and wide tracts Of country. Such
correspondence can be stimulated and increased to
Il far greater extent, and at higher rate than in
other cases, and the distribution of letters in cities
and densey populated localities is cheaper, easier
managed, and far the most profitable. The
facts give clearly prove all these positions 1t
has formerly been demonstrated in these columns,
and proved as clearly rs that two and two make
four that the actual cost of distributing the great
bulk of the letters written in our Nor r.hern and
Eastern States is actually less than the present rate
of postsge-3 cents letter-snd it was the consd-
GRAFTON of this fact, unquestionaby, that defeated
the late attempt To raise the rate of postage from
to cents le,tor-an act, had it been passed,
that would have levied special tax on the letter
of every poor man, or poor woman, and on all the
now compensatiDg commercial correspondence Of
the Northern and Eastern States, and as far West
as Illinois, to e1tepd the benefit Of mail among
the slavedrivers of the South and the pioneers Of
the wildemess-twO regions that never did have,
and never will have, paying postal CORE
spondenee, DO matter what the rate may be.
It 10 q significant fact that the votes for
this iDiquitous enactment came, almost to
man, from Ine Sham Democrsey-tae party
whose efforts are devoted to the retention of the
spoils of Office and 10 the extension of Human
Slavery. Let it be remembered that London alone,
with about 1850, 900 people, writes i27, ,365, 100
letters in year; that the expense of the freeetter