The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1908-12-12
LONGEST Tw0-CENT JOURNEY IN THE
WORLD.

has the world ever seen a cheaper
fare? Under the new postal rates
between the United States and Great
Britain, letter can now make that
journey under two-cent stamp.
1t can start from Manilla-or any
point in the Philippines-voyage
across the broad Pacific to San Fran
cisco, speed over the continent to the
eastern seaboard and then wing its
way over Atlantic pillows to Great
Britain, where its destination may be
the most northerly postofice in Scot !.
land. And all for two cents
Suppose you were in Manila-or
any other city of the Philippine islands
land wanted to send a letter to a
friend in the north of Scotland. You
could send the letter under a domes-
tictwo-cent stampif it passes through
the United States.
That means that your letter, under
the simple guarantee of a two-cent
American stamp, would travel some
thing like ID, 900 miles.
If a letter leaves the Philippines for
Europe by any other route than
through the United States the stamp
rate is FIVE cents. But journeying by
way of the United States, the rate is
now only two cents.
This is due to the recent arrange
ment between America and England,
by which the postal charges per letter
between the two countries were re-
duced to two cents, or the domestic
charge in America.
A letter going from Manila to Lon
don, or to the most northerly postof-
fee in Scotland, would have to travel
more than halfway around the globe.
The distance from Manila to San
Francisco, by the usual route of mail
steamers, Is 6o43 miles. From San
Francisco to London is 66oo miles.
Yet the letter may continue several
hundred miles further into the north
of Great Britain.
Under the new arrangement let
ter can be sent from any point in the
Philippines to the north of Scotland
as cheaply as one can mail letter to
the mayor of his city. 1t is the cheap
est long journey the world has ever
known.
There is great deal of labor about
the transportation of a letter from the
Philippines to Great Britain by way
of the United States. The postal rate
on letters between the Philippines and
Great Britain by any route than
through the Uuited States remaining
at five cents, great part of the mail
isexpected topass through this coun-
try in the future.
Out of the letter box in Manila the
postman takes the letter and carries
ittothe postof6ce. There it is separated
from the local mail and turned over
to the foreign department. Clerks
tie the letters together in bundles,
put them in heavy mail bags, and
they are sent aboard ship.
AS steamship lines are run as much
for the purpose of carrying mails as
conveying passengers and freight,
the letter that is journeying across
the Pacific under a simple two-cent
stamp must have charged up to it its
proportion of the cost of the trip.
There are the wages of every per-
son on board except the passengers.
There is the cost of fuel and other
things all of which help swell the
enormous expense of running a big
steamship.
Arriving at San Francisco the mail
is placed on fast mail train and be-
gins promptly its long rush across
the continent. 1t is 325o miles from
San Francisco to New York, and the
average time of mail train is los
hours, or four days and nine hours.
From the train in New York the
mail is transferred to the postofice,
and later on outgoing steamships for
another ocean voyage.
The postal authorities give the dis
tance between New York and London
as 374o miles, and allow between
seven and eight days for letter to
get from one point to the other.
On an average, 10000 letters ad-
dressed to places in Great Britain and
Ireland pass through the New York
postofice daily. This represents the
mail from all parts of the country,
with the exception of that collected
in Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston, St.
Louis and Cincinnati, which cities
make up their own foreign mail.
A letter requires thirty-three days
to make the journey from Manila to
New York and forty-one days from
Manila to London by way of New
York.
NOT ON THE PROGRAMME.
Two stout old Germans were en-