Evening capital., 1895-08-29


years mankind got along without any
postal system at all For thousands of
years ordinary letters were carried by
whomever chanced to be journeying IN
the direction they must be sent. Ex-
traordinary letters, those upon business
of the state and the truly great OF the
earth were sent by carriers. The first
Of these two methods was very uncertain
and the second altogether too expensive
for general adoption, and hence 1t fell
out that few, even of the classes, "
wrote often, while, among the masses,
he who had in his life written and dis
patched a half dozen letters was q
rare exception. But IS the enlighteD-
ment of the masses, infectionlike,
spread from land TO land, the worlds
postal system was developed. First,
letters were regularly borne from place
to place for hire by common carriersi
then, little by little, governments took
up letter transportation, and, by 1860,
each nation had complete postal sys-
tenn within its own borders.
Still there was no uniformity Of rates
between nations, and i'll 1862 John A.
Kasson, then in congress from Iowa,
suggested to Postmaster General Mont
gomery Blair that the complexities
and inconvenience of international
mail delivery might greatly be lessened
by the holding of worlds convention
of postal officials. This seemed well to
Mr.. Blair, and he, in turn, mentioned
the proposition to William A. Seward,
then secretary Of state. He communi-
Gated with the postal authorities Of va
rious nations and so many favorable re-
plies were received that on May IL,
1868, the first postal congress began its
sessions in Paris, delegates being pres
ent from 10 countries, chiefly European.
Though but little was accomplished
by the deliberations of that first con-
gress, the ice was broken, SO to speak,
and the way paved for more fruitful
sessions in the future. During the next
six years the United States authorities
did lot of postal reformatory work by
dint of pure American pluck, persuasion
and perseverance, trio that will often
win when well handled. By 1870 re-
ductions in postage between the United
States and some half hundred other ma
tions had been effected. The rate tc
Germany was cut down from 2S cents
to z, that to Great Britain from "a to
9, etc. In 1874 a second postal congress-
was held, this time at Bern, Switzer-
land, representatives of numerous gov
ernments being present, and organiza-
tions being effected under the title OF
the General Postal union. Very much
was accomplished at this gathering,
most important perhaps being the adop-
tion Of a uniform half ounce letter rate
of 5 cents or 20 centimes, and l cent or
8 eentimes for each two ounces or 60
grams of printed matter. In 1878 at the
third congress the name was changed to
the Universal Postal union, and pro-
vision for registration was made, and
at still subsequent congresses held in
London i'll 1885 and Vienna in 1891
other improvements were adopted. The
next congress is to be held in Washing
ton in May, 1896, and Edmund Hoehn,
the director of the international bureau
of the Universal Postal union, with
headquarters at Bern, Switzerland, has
recently visited the United States IN or
der to make preparations tor the coming
gathering.
The chief objects of the International
bureau of the nnion are to gather and
publish all s1rts Of information concern
ing postal matters, to arrange differ
ences between postal authorities of varl-
Gus countries, to disseminate informa-
tion regarding new rules--in short. to
act as q sos, Of clearing house for the
worlds postxl business. One OF the
things to bc considered at the coming
congress is The proposition 10 reduce
the international rate TO 2 cents q half
ounce, another the proposition for AN
international postage stamp and an0th-
er the adoption ofra written constitu-
ticn.