Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1907-07-02
Humorist Starts Agitation For
2,Ccnt Postage Between States
and Great Britain
Says if Government Wants to Rob the
People 1t Should Be Done on Large
Scale - Twain Says America Apes
EneIand-His Income as Boy-Gen-
eraI News.

| London July 2.-Mark Twain today
will endeavor to prove that the Sat
urday Reviews designation of him as
the real American ambassador to
Great Britain" Is founded on truth, for
after luncheon in the house of COM
mons he will accompany Mr.. Henni-
ker Heaton to the British postmaster
general and urge the establishment OF
| penny postage e. cents) between the
United States and Great Britain.
Speaking Of his project, Mark said:
Il have gone into this subject thor
oughly with Mr.. Heaton / am con-
WINGED that the present postal ar
engagements are absurd Why should
parcels and printed matter be carried
between the two countries for mere
nothing, while letters are charged for
at the rate of Il dollar a pound?
The whole burden of postal cost
/ comes upon the senders of letters To
my mind 1t is nothing but downright
robbery to extort 81 a pound for let
| tiers. Ii the postiffce is in the robbery
business let it be on a decent scale. If
1t is going to rob the public. let it do
it for $40, instead of ST. A crime of
| magnitude may be forgiven. but petty
larceny always is abhorrent.
One of the stock arguments en-
played against cheap postage is that
reduction in rates would decrease the
revenues, but curiously, in postal af
fairs. this never has been found to be
true. In fact, every reduction in
rates increases the revenues.
Speaking postally,S my mind goes
back to the days when 1t cost as much
as a quarter to send letters to New
Orleans. We did not have stamps In
those days. My father used to give
me the letters with the money to take
them to the postoffce This consti-
tuted my one source of income, as 1t
did for most of the youths of Mis-
souri, pocketed the money and the
letters went just the same, only the re-
ceiver had to pay.
II believe this system did more to
undermine the moral fiber of the boys
of Missouri than anything I know.
Fortunately my moral character since
has been rehabilitated.
when England in 1S4s invented
stamps my feelings were decidedly
anti English. as America took up the
system and my income disappeared. as
my father used to buy stamps, put
them on the letters. and I had to
trudge to the postoffice and mail them
without any recompense.
"At that time when the proposition
was advanced to reduce postage to
cents for short and 10 cents for long
fdistances. the same cry was made
which is now raised. that the reduction
wound ruin the postoffice. but the cry
was false. The reduction increased the
revenue A reduction in postage be-
tween the United States and Great
Britain to penny would have the
same effect.
II am taking up this matter on this
side because it Is curious commen-
tary on our government that once Eng
land introduces new system, it is
easy to get the United States to follow
suit. The mere fact that England has
done this or that acts with wonderful
effect ON congress. If we glance back
along the line of our governmental re-
forms and ideas we find that America
only adopted them after England had
tried and found them desirable
Clemens is full of his Oxford expert
ence. He relates one amusing mistak-
en- impression WHICH he obtained on
the evening of his arrival at Oxford.
His host said Come to Jesus?" Mark
said:
II thought I was in for revival
meeting or something of that sort. but
being polite made no objections. New
ertheless. it was a great relief to find
my host meant Jesus college, where 1
had IL mighty good time"
Tonight Clemens will dine at the
Savoy hotel. when Lord Curzon is like
ly to be present. This will be practi-
cally the first social engagement of
Lord Curzon since the death of his
wife