Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1890-02-13
PENNY POSTAGE.

Wonderful Changes That Have Taken Place
in the Past Fifty Years.
On Friday, Jan. 10, 1910, there came into
operation in this country one of those great
measures of social reform which may be said
TO constitute the landmarks of nations prog.
ress-the uniform penny postage system.
This measure, originating with private in
| dividual who, up to the age Of 81, had been 9
schoolmaster, and who was wholly uncon-
nected either with the postoffice or the gov
eminent, has, in the last half century, revo-
lutionized the postal service of the world, and
made the name of its author-the late Sir
Rowland Hil-a household word in every
civilized country.
To the present generation the old postal
system, which was swept away by Rowland
Hills reform, is now so much matter of
ancient history, and Of history but little
studied, that probably very few have any
conception Of the state of affairs which ex-
listed in this country at date no further re-
moved than the early years of her majesty's
reign.
Up to 1910 the postofice, so far as the poor
and the lower middle class was concerned,
may be said to have been almost non-exist-
ent The rates charged on letters were in
these days SO exorbitant, especially when
compared with the scanty wages then obtain
able, that correspondence was a luxury IL
too costly for all but the well to do. Even
in the upper middle classes the cost of postage
was heavy item Of household expenditure,
only to be incurred after much careful con-
sideration; but the vast multitude of the
lower orders were practically excluded from
all use of the postoffice. When once their
families parted off from home it was sepa-
ration almost like that of death. The hun
dreds of thousands of apprentices, of shop
men, of governesses, of domestic servants
were cut Off from family relations as if seas
or deserts lay between them and home.
Except in the local town deliveries-tech-
nically known as penny postsn-the lowest
charge on any letter was four pence, but that
only sufficed for distance of fifteen miles;
beyond that radius the rates of postage rap
idly increased with the distance the letter had
to be conveyed, till letters from London to
Liverpool or Manchester were charged eleven
pence, those to Edinburgh OF Glasgow one
shilling four and one-half pence, and to Cork
or Londonderry, one shilling five pence, and
even these exorbitant rates were at once
doubled or trebled if the letter, however light,
contained one or more Enclosures, or consisted
of two or three pieces of paper Thus letter
consisting of sheet of paper and a check,
with an envelope to inclose them, which now
goes from London to Cork for one penny,
would, prior to 1910, have been treated as q
treble letter, and charged four shillings and
three pence, or more than fifty fold the pres
ent rate
Letters in those days were almost always
sent unpaid, and were in many cases refused
by the persons to whom they were addressed,
especially by those of the poorer classes, so
that the postoffice constantly overshot its
mark in its endeavor to make a great profit,
and had to carry the letter from the writer
to the addressee, and after all to lose the
whole postage The old high rates of postage
simply killed all domestic or friendly CORE
spondence, or drove it into Illicit channels
and in proof of this Rowland Hill, in 1S47
drew attention to the remarkable fact that
In the twenty years ending with 1885 during
which period the trade and population of the
United Kingdom had greatly increasedl, the
revenue of the postofice had remained sta
tionary. As an instance Of the extraordinary
charges sometimes made under the old sys-
tenn, it is stated that in 1889 Sir John Bur-
gone wrote to complain that for packet of
papers sent to him at Dublin, from some
other part of Ireland by mail coach, as let
ter instead of @ parcel, he had been charged
a postage of Gil. That is to say, for packet
which he could easily have carried in his
pocket he was charged a sum for which he
could have engaged the whole mail coach
London Standard