The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-12-01

expenditures. s23, 99S. S37; salaries of post
masters, s4.67S, 466. Thus, in thirty years.
the number of postofices has increased al
most 10 per cent; the miles of postal
routes. 40 per cent; the receipts Of the
service, 456 per cent, and expenditures,
SS1 per cent.
Since 1850 the rates Of postage a been
reduced between 40 and 80 per cent. In the
counties in which they are published news
papers pay no postage. While the rates of
postage have been constantly decreasing,
the frequency and efficiency of the service
has increased. In Indiana and many other
States there were many routes which had
a weekly service, and those of the smaller
towns that had a bi-weekly or tri-weekly
service from 1850 to 1850 were fortunate.
Now there are few localities in Indiana
which do not have a bi-weekly service.
With the Mckinley administration came
free rural delivery as an experiment in
which many people had little faith. The
first experiments were a surprise to the
most ~sanguine believers in the ultimate
success Of the enterprise. Now the people
all over the country are so generally de-
handing rural delivery that the depart
ment finds itself unable TO meet a large
part of the demands. The receipts Of the
rural delivery from the first have been
surprisingly large. They were so large
that many attributed the circumstance to
the novelty of using such a service, but
on most routes the receipts have increased
from the first to an extent that there are
those who predict that some Of them will
soon pay their own expenses.
In the early days Of the postofice serv-
ice it was in the nature of a luxury. IN
til 1916 the postage was s cents on a letter
for a carriage of forty miles, 10 cents for
over forty and under ninety miles, 12k
cents under $50 miles, II cents between
$50 and 800 miles, and 20 cents between 800
and 500 miles. In 1916 the rates were mod
flied so that the postage for thirty miles
was Ga cents, over thirty and under
eighty miles 10 cents, and so on. If the
letter weighed an ounce four times the
rates were charged. A letter, prior to
1916, frequently cost % cents for a carriage
~ 49," $4,000 40 avn ~
Everett proposed a reduction Of postage,
but it was not until 1916 that the rates were
reduced to 5 cents one-half ounce for a
distance not exceeding 800 miles and 10
cents for over 800 miles. Several efforts
were made to increase the postage upon
letters, but they were not successful. In
1852 the postage stamp was introduced,
and in 1885 the postage, which was rarely
paid in advance, was made 3 cents on an
ordinary letter when prepaid. but If not
prepaid it was 5 cents. In 1863 the postage
on all domestic letters was made 8 cents,
payable in advance. In 1868 Congress pro-
vided that papers be carried free in the
county where published. Not many years
ago the postage on papers sent to regular
subscribers was paid by them; now the
publishers prepay at the rate of 1 cent a
pound. About twenty years ago the letter
postage was reduced to 2 cents the half
ounce, and still more recently the 2-cent
stamp was made to cover the cost of car
rying a domestic letter weighing an ounce.
We connect miracles with the long ago
and -superhuman agency, while our minds
fail to grasp the most remarkable events
which are silently going on before our
eyes. The story of the growth Of our pos
tai system, If graphically told, would be
as wonderful as a fairy tale. For the fiscal
year which ended with the June after Ben
jamin Harrison was inaugurated the re-
ceipts of the Postofice Department were
S56, 175,611 for the fiscal year ending with
last June those receipts were Sill. 6S1, 1893, or
almost double those of twelve years ago.
Clothe this bare fact Of growth with an
imaginative description of what the doub-
ling of the postal revenues means, and
how far short of the miraculous would be
the recital? Give the imagination free rein
to dwell upon the fact that the expendi-
lures of the Postofice Department last
year were double the entire expenditure
of the government in 1S6O, and what wonder
in fiction can exceed that embraced in this
fact?