Morning journal and courier., 1883-01-12
Friday, Jan. 12, 1883
A NEEDED RMFOR1I.

NEEDED REFORM.
 | Mr. Henry l.. Goodwin, s'the gentleman
 from East Hartford, !" has found time during ] the intervals between his assaults upon the
 bookkeeping of the New York, New Haven
 and Hartford Railroad Company to prepare
 8 very interesting and important memorial to Congress advocating the gradual extension of
 the free delivery of letters to the whole country instead of limiting it to cities of 2O,- 900 inhabitants.
 The substance of Mir. Goodwin's memorial
 is as follows: The free delivery system was,
 on the Soth of June last, in operation in 112 cities of the United States, whose aggregate
 population is about ten millions There is
 absolutely no provision for the house deliv-
 cry of mail to the remaining forty millions of our people. It not even practicable to
 supplement this defect in the public service
 by private enterprise. If number of per-
 sons in city should club together and en-
 ploy private carrier to deliver their letters
 at their respective houses, the postofice au-
 thorities would be swift to detect in the plan
 probable diminution of box rents, and
 would be most zealous and ingenious in their
 efforts to defeat what they would claim to re-
 gard as violation of law. The unfortunate
 partnership HOW existing between the gov
 ernment and the postmaster in the use of
 letter boxes, so properly condemned by the
 Postmaster General in his last report. has
 made the postmasters of this country an
 army of opponents to every scheme, whether
 public or private, for the extension of the
 delivery system.
 The original idea of the postofice, both in
 this country and in England, embraced the
 system of delivery from house to house. The postofice letter box seems to have been an afterthought to suit the convenience of the few who might prefer that mode of service But the exact reverse is now the case The carrier serves the few; the many go to the postofice. The law, when it sent the post master to the boxes to look for his salary, sent the people to the boxes to look for their mail.
 In France, Prussia and Switzerland peri odical delivery at every house has been an established fact for years. As early as 1860. free delivery had been so far extended in Great Britain as to include ninety-three per cent. of the whole correspondence. The British Postmaster General, in his report for the year 1871, says: t"The number of let. | ters for which free delivery is not provid- | ed is now but small portion of the whole and hope the time is not distant when 1 free delivery, at least two or three times l week, will be provided for every house in | the country, however remote.'
 Universal free delivery has in its favor | marked and obvious convenience for the | great mass of the people and it has been ] successfully tried in European countries, | where it is regarded as an essential part of | the postal system. The only possible objec- | tion that can be urged against the immediate | extension of free delivery in this country is the claim that the expenses of the Postofice l department should not be increased, especial 1 ly if the rate of postage is to bereduced. The ! answer to this objection is threefold If the | people need an extension of free delivery | they should have it. no matter what the eff feet upon postal revenue may be. Experi once has made it quite clear that the addi ienal expense consequent upon the extension of the delivery system may be defraysd, in large part, at least, by the simple and just now in use of doubling the rate of local postage at all offices where free delivery may be established The increase of revenue thus obtained, though direct and patent would be as nothing in comparison with that Hue to the increase of correspondence which surely follows in the wake of every extension of postal facilities.
 MT. Goodwin makes out strong case. If 1e can succeed in impressing Congress and he country with the value of 8 gradual ex- ension of the free delivery system he will do . work much more important than his work IS objector at railroad meetings and will earn m enduring fame. We hope he will use his energy and persistence hereafter 0 further the reform which he SO ably advo- ,ates in his memorial