New-York tribune., 1908-06-24
THE STORY OF THE POST.

"Of all the wild and visionary schemes Of
(which ] have ever heard or read it is the most
"extraordinary.'' That was the official com
ment made by Lord Lchfield, Postmaster Gen
eral of England. on Rowland Hills proposal to
establish q uniform postal rate of a penny
throughout the United Kingdom. And that was
at n time within the memory of some men still
living only seventy-One years ago. Despite
Lord Ichtields condemnation of it. the scheme
within three years an established fact
And men who in their childhood might have
seen and read the first letters ever sent from
one part of England to another for a penny may
this year and read letters sent around the
globe and practically to every part of the Eng
Iish speaking world for the same small fee
The achievement will be not only q most i'm
pressive rebuke Of the short-sighted and timor
Gus administrator of two generations ago, but
also an equally impressive demonstration of the
constantly accelerating progress of civilization
1t has been remarked. without much eXag
geratiOn that from the days of Herodotus to the
latter part of the eighteenth century there
no development in the postal service. Prac
tically the same methods of carrying the mails
at any rate. were emplOyed-fOOt runners or
horsemen land and sailing craft on the sea.
The organization Of the first public post in Eng
land effected in 1886. but the work of trans
portation was done in the same old way, and
il was not until 1884 that Pitt began to utilize
stage coaches for the carriage of the mails. A
penny post established i'll London in the
reign of Charles ii, but, as have said, it was
not until 1910 that the system was extended
throughout the kingdom. The first foreign mail
service was organized in England as early as
1635 bur as late the end of the eighteenth
century il cost dollar TO send letter weigh
ing ounce from England to Canada and at
the very time when Rowland Hill was propos-
ing TO send letter from Lands End to John
o Groats for a penny it cost 10 shilngs, or
81 70, to send an ounce letter from England to
Italy-in view Of which some excuse may per
haps be made for Lord Lichfieds lack of faith
and of Imagination. 1t is still less than twenty
five years since the United States reduced its
single letter rate from three cents to two. uni
form with the English penny rate-the twenty
fifth anniversary will fttingly be marked with
the going into operation Of the twocent or penny
rate between England and America. In 1899
the extension of the penny post to the whole
British Empire was begun, and in the spring of
1905 it completed.
AT the present time a letter may he sent for
penny from any place within the British En-
pire to any other place within the same empire,
and similarly for two cents one may be sent
from any place under the American flag to any
other place in the same domain. And now Ii is
entente postaIe shall prevail between those
two gigantic systems, that for a penny a
shepherd in the Scottish Highlands or squat
ter In the Australian bush may send IA letter to
a farmer in Illinois and for two cents a trades
man in Chicago or New York may send Il letter
to merchant in Singapore Hong Kong
With such achievements already on record ,r
assured IN the immediate future, Il proposal for
Il universal penny post for the whole world
would not be regarded by even the most con-
servative with n tithe of the hisfavor which
Lord Lichtield applied to Rowland lIilI's
scheme. We may indeed expect that il will
come and will be profitable. for the testimony of
all governments accords with that of the British
Postnfficc that when we have made CORE
''spondence more easy and cheaper the number
"of letters has been thereby much increased
And We may confidently add the words which
Morse applied 10 his great invention that
.WhateYpr facilitates intercourse between the
different portions Of the human family will
"have the effect, under the guidance of sound