The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1883-10-04
Two-cent Postage.

cent stamp had been sold before thu
close Of office hours Saturday. The frs
instalment of the new twos, 100000 IN
number, were placed on sale Monday morn
ing and went off like hot cakes. Foul
thousand two hundred two-cent stamps
were sold. and eight thousand two-cen1
stamped envelopes in a single day.
In regard to the general effect OF thu
new law, it is said that the revenues
of the department will probably bt
reduced for year or two. The ex
perience of the past, however, does moi
i Justify this conclusion. Letter postage
pays very large proportion of the receipts
of the Department., and yet when the pos
tai card was introduced eleven years ago
/ thus making really greater reduction
than the present one will be, it did mol
diminish the receipts at all. !,
On the contrary, the receipts have in
creased more rapidly since that time thar
ever before. The act authorizing the pos
tai card was passed on June s, 1872. Pre-.
yious to that year the revenues of the De
partment never reached above twenty mil
lions in round numbers. That years re-
ceipts were of course not affected by the
act. They were $22 900, 900 the next year
when the penny postal card had full sway
with all the advantage of its novelty and
all other reasons to make itpopular, the re.
ceipts didsnot fall off at all. On the con
traythey continued toincrease, and the two
years. which followed the introduction saw
the receipts of the Department 60 W
nearly to $27 900, 900, or an increase of "a, j
500 900 in two years. And as the letter
postage is the life of the pos. office system.
so far as the receipts go, this tells the real
effect of the postal card. ae
Since that time the receipts have gone
steadily upward, increasing at the rate OF
Il million and sometimes much more pei
year, until they now reach over 100000
600 per annum, and The Department is
self sustaining The act of 1868, which
made the three cent rate of postage general
I'LL over the the country. did not lessen the
receipts of the Departmnt at all, on the
contrary they went steadily on increasing.
Even the greatest reductions that have
| ever been made in postal rates have only
reduced the receipts for a brief period.
The act of 1S45 reduced the letter rates
from 6, 10, 124 and 1Sa cents for carrying
letters distances under 30, so, $50, and 400
miles respectively, to cents for one-half
ounce for any distance under 800 miles.
| This was an enormous reduction, and yet
it only cut down the income of the Depart
ment s; 900, and this reduction was only
| temporary, the receipts of 1S4S exceeding
again those of the year in which the act
was passed.
The highest rates of postage ever paid
| by the people of this country were in 1915.
| The act of 17SS fixed the rates at cents
for distance under 40 miles, 10 cents
under 80 miles, 124 cents under $50 miles,
II cents under 800 miles, 20 cents under
500 miles and 25 cents over that distance.
The rate stood until 1924. when Congress
increased it so per cent. This policy was
soon found to be Improbable, and was
abandoned within less than two years. 1t
did not add at all to the receipts. nor was
it found at all profitable in any way.
! The highest rate of postage which the
Post-oflice Department now collects is on
letters to Patagonia and Salvador. To
these points the rates are twenty
cents. To China via the British mail the
rates are thirteen cents, by way of Hong
Kong they are tweety-three cents, and to
Morocco fifteen cents. To New South
Wales they are twelve cents, as they are
also to New Zealand. The Siamese Am
bassador, now Oh the way to this country,
will find the rates of postage to his home
ten cents in our own money if his letters
goyia San Francisco, as he came.
If it goes via the British mail he will
find the rates thirteen cents. To Hong
Kong the rate by the Universal Postal
Union is five cents, and in this manner
many of the interior points of China are
reached for the same figure-half way round
the world for nickle. 70 the British
colonies on the west coast of Africa the
Postal Union rates are five cents for let
ters and two cents for postal cards. To
| Bolivia the rate is seventeen cents, to Bur-
NAH, by the Postal Union, the rate is five
cents, as it is also to Chill, Cuba, Cy-
prus, Egypt and Ecuadore. For Cape
| Colony the rate is fifteen cents.
Congressman Robinson, of New Z FORK,
is in favor of one cent postage. He says
the country will not more than fairly get
| accustomed to the two cent rate before a
rate of one cent will be demanded. He
quotes the fact that the letters pay nine
per cent Of the receipts Of the Post office
Department now, and says that while he
thinks the newspapers and merchants
ought to be protected in their rights he
can see no good reason why pound of let
tiers should be charged ninety-six cents
while a pound of merchandise is carried
for sixteen cents and a pound of newspa-
pers for two cents. a.ta5E.4A
VICTORIA FURNACE, Goshen Va, on
Chesapeake and Ohio Ry., is working adj
mirably, increasing it's daily output, which
is over 100 tons, and making a pig that
gives great satisfaction to the puddlers and
others that are using it, as we know from
information directly from the consumers
of il. OF the tests of this pig iron, pub
lished in our last issue, the IRON Age, of
New York, says: THE figures given are
a. L q