The Florida star., 1908-10-16
FIGHT E0R PENMPOSI.
Slogan Sounded Nearly Two Hun
dred and Fifty Years AGO.
HOW CLIMAX WAS REACHED

~ Hecant establishment cf Two Cent
Rate Between Great Britain and
United stateS--Po Possibilities Of the
chanoe--lneidsnts Of Struggle For
Reduced Rates.
It Il almost exactly ESQ years since
the slogan "a penny post was first
sounded. The penny post became a
fact throughout the United Kingdom
only sixty eight years ago. In the Unit
cd States the people obtained that rate
on a letter only twenty-five years ago.
AS that event occurred on Oct. /, 1888,
the establishment on Thursday, Oct. /,
1908, In very quiet manner OF a pen
ny post between Great Britain and the
United States was In reality not only a
most fitting but an epoch making cele-
bration of the reduction Of internal let
ter postage to 2 cents. 1t Is believed
that only few years will elapse be-
fore this rate VIII be adopted between
many countries.
Reductions and improvements I'm
postal rates have been obtained only
by constant battling. 1t has required
broad minded men willing to sacrifice
money and time to obtain the inestima-
bic boon Of inexpensive communication
In writing. says the New York Tribune.
There are a number OF little known
facts connected with the fight Of the
true philanthropists who have won so
much for the development of the
So .Nx ak~ An.
the transfer Of a letter or message at a
cost Of a penny English or cents
American began In the days Of the
English commonwealth. Charles l., the
impecunious monarch, several years
before his execution established the
''letter once Of England" This was
farmed out to Thomas Witherings for
life, be receiving a monopoly Of the
carrying OF letters. The charge was
aixpence a letter. This was such a
high price that many persons made use
OF other means OF getting their letters
30 their destination. Private under
takers" undertook to perform the serv-
ice at cut rates, and parliament, at odds
with the king, refused to support his
...letter carrier In the latter's efforts to
punish the ''undertakers" by imprison-
nent. Ten years later the ''undertak-
Ors" were still thorn In the flesh, ami
tha official letter carrier and another
''did In a ryotous manner. with swords
and other weapons, by force break into
the house, where the goods and letters
Of the undeFtakers were, and thrust
their servants out Of doores, and after
threat'ning speeches and many more
outrageS restraygned these undertak-
ers from receiving letters"
Although persecution seemed to fol-
low the "undertakers," and they are
said to have lost approximately $500,
there was such promise Of service and
profit that In 1859, seven years after
this ''ryotOus" attempt at suppression,
they undertook TO carry In all the
usual roads" or England a letter for
a penny. One OF the persons who as
sisted In these efforts to obtain for
the people q low letter rate. curiously
enough, was a man named Hill-John
Hin. Men Of this name have had
great deal to do In obtaining a penny
post. John Hill, with others, under
took the business Of carrying letters
Mt the penny rate. Like Sir Rowland
HUI. his namesake OF nearly two CEN
tuFies later, he was a pamphleteer on
postal reform. In 1859 he published a
pamphlet entitled "a Penny Post; or.
A Vindication Of the Liberty and Birth
right Of Every Englishman In Carrying
Merchants and Other Mems Letters,
Against Any Restraint Of Farmers OF
Such Employments."
He thought Il a strange imposition
that man cannot have an accompt OF
condition OF his wife or family with
out paying thrice as much as he need,
and Il seems as unreasonable for
man TO be forc'd to pay Sd. for
what may be done for penny Qn re-
lation to letters) as for a man to be
compelled TO pay thrice as much for
meat or any other commodity as the
prtce current" He urged that IF for
reasons Of state posts must be erected
certainly he is not the fittest man that
will give the most money for 1t, but
rather he that will undertake the serv-
ice at the cheapest rate which must be
the best advantage to the common
wealth"
The penny post system was first es-
tablished In cities. In 1850 Robert
Murray and William Dockwra set up
the London penny post. The system
which they organized lasted more than
a century. The skeleton OF the sys-
tenn was the forerunner Of that used
in cities of the United States today.
There were seven sorting stations and
between 400 and 500 receiving stations
which correspond to branch stations