So Also Would The American Post-Office
Get Its Three Cents.
But the main objection in my eyes to the American post-office system
is this, that it is not brought nearer to the poorer classes.
Everybody writes or can write in America, and therefore the
correspondence of their millions should be, million for million, at
any rate equal to ours.
But it is not so; and this I think comes
from the fact that communication by post-office is not made easy to
the people generally. Such communication is not found to be easy by
a man who has to attend at a post-office window on the chance of
receiving a letter. When no arrangement more comfortable than that
is provided, the post-office will be used for the necessities of
letter writing, but will not be esteemed as a luxury. And thus not
only do the people lose a comfort which they might enjoy, but the
post-office also loses that revenue which it might make.
I have said that the correspondence circulating in the United States
is less than that of the United Kingdom. In making any comparison
between them, I am obliged to arrive at facts, or rather at the
probabilities of facts, in a somewhat circuitous mode, as the
Americans have kept no account of the number of letters which pass
through their post-offices in a year; we can, however, make an
estimate, which, if incorrect, shall not at any rate be incorrect
against them. The gross postal revenue of the United States for the
year ended June 30th, 1861, was in round figures 1,700,000l. This
was the amount actually cashed, exclusive of a sum of 140,000l. paid
to the post-office by the government for the carriage of what is
called in that country free mail matter; otherwise, books, letters,
and parcels franked by members of Congress. The gross postal
revenue of the United Kingdom was in the last year, in round
figures, 3,358,000l., exclusive of a sum of 179,000l. claimed as
earned for carrying official postage, and also exclusive of
127,866l., that being the amount of money order commissions, which
in this country is considered a part of the post-office revenue. In
the United States there is at present no money order office. In the
United Kingdom the sum of 3,358,000l. was earned by the conveyance
and delivery of 593,000,000 of letters, 73,000,000 of newspapers,
12,000,000 of books. What number of each was conveyed through the
post in the United States we have no means of knowing; but presuming
the average rate of postage on each letter in the States to be the
same as it is in England, and presuming also that letters,
newspapers, and books circulated in the same proportion there as
they do with us, the sum above named of 1,700,000l. will have been
earned by carrying about 300,000,000 of letters. But the average
rate of postage in the States is in fact higher than it is in
England. The ordinary single rate of postage there is three cents,
or three half-pence, whereas with us it is a penny; and if three
half-pence might be taken as the average rate in the United States,
the number of letters would be reduced from 300,000,000 to
200,000,000 a year. There is, however, a class of letters which in
the States are passed through the post-office at the rate of one
half-penny a letter, whereas there is no rate of postage with us
less than a penny. Taking these half-penny letters into
consideration, I am disposed to regard the average rate of American
postage at about five farthings, which would give the number of
letters at 250,000,000. We shall at any rate be safe in saying that
the number is considerably less than 300,000,000, and that it does
not amount to half the number circulated with us. But the
difference between our population and their population is not great.
The population of the States during the year in question was about
27,000,000, exclusive of slaves, and that of the British Isles was
about 29,000,000. No doubt in the year named the correspondence of
the States had been somewhat disturbed by the rebellion; but that
disturbance, up to the end of June, 1861, had been very trifling.
The division of the Southern from the Northern States, as far as the
post-office was concerned, did not take place till the end of May,
l861; and therefore but one month in the year was affected by the
actual secession of the South. The gross postal revenue of the
States which have seceded was, for the year prior to secession,
1,200,500 dollars, and for that one month of June it would therefore
have been a little over 100,000 dollars, or 20,000l. That sum may
therefore be presumed to have been abstracted by secession from the
gross annual revenue of the post-office. Trade, also, was no doubt
injured by the disturbance in the country, and the circulation of
letters was, as a matter of course, to some degree affected by this
injury; but it seems that the gross revenue of 1861 was less than
that of 1860 by only one thirty-sixth. I think, therefore, that we
may say, making all allowance that can be fairly made, that the
number of letters circulating in the United Kingdom is more than
double that which circulates, or ever has circulated, in the United
States.
That this is so, I attribute not to any difference in the people of
the two countries, not to an aptitude for letter writing among us
which is wanting with the Americans, but to the greater convenience
and wider accommodation of our own post-office. As I have before
stated, and will presently endeavor to show, this wider
accommodation is not altogether the result of better management on
our part.
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