Bisbee daily review., 1908-11-11

NEW YORK, Nov. I0.--After nearis three centuries of earnest effort on eas part of many of the brightest minds Of tso continents. penny post age has been esta0il sbed between the United States and Great Britian. At midnight on September 3e men con tended with one another in the Nes, York 2osto<1ce for the prestige of mailing the first letter to cross the Atlantic under the new law. which went into effect October I.
 ThUUgh the efforts of rAe Post masters General of the two countries. George son l.. Meyer, in the Unitea States. and the Right Honorable Syd. ney Barton of England the matter was accomplished. It seemed easy enough waen they went about the matter fz a business-like fashion. hst 1t required hundreds of years to bring about cond tions in which the thing was possible.
 Now 1t costs no more to send a let. ter to aDy point In Great Britian than It does to send one across the Brook iyn bridge and the important question ita many is, When will we have pen ny postage to all parts of the world?' That uniform cheap postage the world over uould mean universal peace has been the opinion advanced for many years. and now that the two great English speaking countries have been brought into closer relations, 1t is pre- dicted by some that the movement wik progress rapidly and that fin the near future the whole civilized world will enjoy the penny postage privi- lege.
 One hundred years ago writing to a friend in England was weIlnigh as expensive as cabling Is today. By an act of congress in 1851 the rates were greatly reduced. but even then it cost 40 cents to send 8. letter across-ano now it costs but 2 cents.
 In England the fight for cheaper postal rates began as far back as 1859. when private ~undertalersH began an agitation for a limited postal service at penny rate For more than g cen tury this agitation was carried on, al ways with strong opposition, and aftel two centuries of hard work on the other side it was taken up by E1Tnn Burritt on tais side of the ocean. who deveted large part of his active life to the reform which has just been 
 so quiet a manner that propably no, one person out of a hundred in the United States realizes that penny post age between the two countries is at last reality.
 In small volume prepared by Freq J. Melville, president of the Philatelic Society of London and recently pub lished by Warren H. Colsoa- of Bos- ton. a most interesting story of penny postage is told. The l;rtfe book Is en- titled "A Penny All the Way" and traces the history of agitation Ter cheaper postage lroa Is inception 10 the present day.
 To John Hill, wh) began the strIig- gle fo- cheaper postage in England more than 200 years ago, Is given mlch crelit for bringing se gre1t 'e- fora into existence. F'vo cenSuiies after that period Ruwi; | d Hill took up the fight with the postal and treas ury departments of Great Britain and gave the greater part of his life to the work.
 For one year tais fight for cheaper postal service was continued and then "the Council of Oliver, late Lord Pro tector," stepped in and let the con tract to one John Manley. who had neither spent money nor taken pains" The "undertakers" were driv en sst of the field by force of arm: and they were compelled to "fesisl from their lawful employment for tht ease and benefit of tke nations"
 Tins the strugg;.. went on, and tl though many times rebuffed and de feated. John Hill continued the fgh for and improved and cheaper posta facilities to the end of his days Il 1859 he published a pamphlet unde the caption, "A Penny Post; or, z Vindicatinn of tae Liberty and Birth right of Every Englishman in Carry ing Merchants and Other Mems Le' ters Against Any Restraint Of Farm CTS or Such Employments-
 That pamphlet contains about al that is known of the early history Q the pexny postage crusade. And It ial .ha foundation for tae campaign n after years. In his argument for re duoed postage Hill sad: "N hinder a man to be as civil as otherwise h would. or might be. in having oc rt turniug an accompt to. or from ni fciand many A man in taese time heine ferced to set a greater value c six pence or three pence than ot Cnse times as much in former times. 1ne money was more plentiful and certail iy aay mas bs,t farmer sah coa.es !; to be a strange imsoaaos tnat man caznot have sz accsaxf o tA ccrditiom o< ais wife or family. Ett. oat paying twice as zzcA as he aees and If eaaazs zs unreasonable for
 man te be forced ts paS bhree peso for whak nay be doae for 6 penny, | reiatiou to letters. as for 8 zss ts oou,peiied to pay thrice as mncA fo meat or any other comE.osfty ss ta riice czrrent
 In 1880 Robert Murray and Niltaz noc{rura established the Loedon Pee