Chapter 9
The simple adoption of Uniform Cheap Postage would hardly fail of securing, in the end, all other desirable postal reforms. An act of congress, in five lines, enacting that “hereafter the postage on all letters prepaid, not exceeding half an ounce in weight, shall be two cents; and for each additional half ounce, two cents; and if not prepaid the postage shall be doubled,” would at no distant period, bring in all the other desired improvements. The adoption of cheap postage in Great Britain, greatly improved the system of local delivery of letters and newspapers in the large towns. Formerly, an additional charge of 1_d._ was made for the delivery of letters by carriers, in the case of letters that had been mailed; and for “drop letters,” or letters delivered in the same town where they are posted, the price was 2_d._ Now all drop letters are charged at the uniform rate of 1_d._ the same as mail letters; and the mail letters are delivered by carriers without additional charge—the penny postage paying all. The Postmaster-General prescribes what places shall have the free delivery, and how far it shall extend around each post-office.
Beyond those limits, and in places where the free delivery is not judged practicable, the local postmasters are at liberty, on their own discretion, to employ penny-post carriers to deliver letters at the houses of the people, charging 1_d._ each for delivery, which is a private perquisite—the department taking neither profit nor responsibility in the case. Persons who do not choose to pay the penny-post can refuse to receive letters in that way, and obtain them by calling at the post-office.
To facilitate this local free-delivery, there are “receiving houses” established at convenient distances in the town, where letters are deposited for the mails, without a fee, and thence are taken to the post-office in season for the daily mails, or for distribution through the local delivery. These receiving houses are generally established in a drug or stationery store, grocery, or some retail shop, where the nature of the business requires some one to be always in attendance, and where the increase of custom likely to arise from the resort of people with letters is a sufficient consideration for the slight trouble of keeping the office. The letters are taken to the post-office at stated hours, by persons employed for that purpose; those which are to be mailed are separated, and those which are for local delivery sorted and delivered to the carriers to go out by the next delivery. I have not a list of the number or size of the cities and towns within which the free delivery is enjoyed. Its necessary effect in increasing the number of letters sent by mail, and benefiting the country and the government by the aid it furnishes to trade and general prosperity, would seem to be a guaranty that the department would be likely to extend the free delivery as far as it could possibly answer, within the reasonable ability of the government, to meet the reasonable wants of the people.
The London District Post was originally a penny post, and was created by private enterprise. One William Dockwra, in the reign of Charles II., set up a private post for the delivery of letters in the city of London, for which the charge was 1_d_., payable invariably in advance. It was soon taken possession of by the government, and the same rate of postage retained until 1801, when, for the sake of revenue, the postage was doubled, and so remained until the establishment of the general penny postage. Its limits were gradually extended to include the city of Westminster and the borough of Southwark, then all places within a circle of three miles, and finally to twelve miles from the General Post-Office.
Within the three miles circle there are 220 receiving houses, of which 180 are within the town portions of the district. At these offices, letters are despatched to the post-office, ten times daily, viz. at 8, 10, and 12, in the morning, and 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 8, in the afternoon. Letters are required to be left at the receiving house a quarter of an hour previous to the hour. The letters so left may be expected to be delivered within the three miles circle in about two hours from the hour at which they are sent to the post-office; that is, the 8 o’clock letters are delivered by 10, and so on.
There are now ten deliveries daily, within a circle of three miles from the post-office; five deliveries in a circle of six miles, and three deliveries to the circle of twelve miles distance. In the three miles circle, the delivery is completed in one hour and a quarter from the time the carrier leaves the office; in the six miles circle, in two hours, and in the twelve miles circle, in three hours.
In 1839, the estimated average of letters passing through the London district post was about one million every four weeks, of which 800,000 or four-fifths were unpaid. In 1842, the average was two millions in four weeks, of which only 100,000, or one-twentieth, were unpaid—ninety-five per cent. being prepaid. In 1847, the number was nearly three millions. These do not include the “General Post;” that is the country and foreign letters to London, but only those that originate as well as end within the twelve miles circle.
The General Post letters, however, are distributed on the same principle of free delivery, without extra charge, and the utmost diligence is used by the letter-carriers to find out the persons to whom letters are directed. I was witness to this, in the case of a gentleman from Ohio, who went to England in a merchant ship, without having taken the precaution to give his family any instructions as to the direction of letters. His voyage was somewhat long, and before he had been three days in London, the carrier brought to his lodgings a letter from his wife, which had come in the mail steamer, and the people at the post-office had sought him out, an entire stranger among two millions of people! The General Post letters passing through the London office, were estimated in 1839 at 1,622,147, each four weeks, of which only one-sixth were prepaid. In 1847, they were 8,500,000, of which above ninety-four per cent. were prepaid. This makes the whole number of letters mailed and delivered in London, equal to above 146,000,000 a year; of which it is reasonable to calculate that about 75,000,000 are distributed by the letter-carriers by Free Delivery.
As nineteen-twentieths of the letters are prepaid, the delivery is accomplished with great despatch. The greater proportion of them, of course, go to those who are in the habit of receiving numbers of letters daily, and with whom the carriers are well acquainted. A large proportion are delivered at counting-rooms and shops, which are open. Most houses where letters are received daily, have letter-boxes by the door, fitted with an ingenious contrivance to guard against robbery, into which prepaid letters can be dropped from the street, to be taken out by a door that is locked on the inside. Thus the great bulk of the letters are delivered with little more trouble or loss of time to the carrier, than it takes to serve the daily newspaper. The cases are also much more numerous than with newspapers, where many letters are deliverable at one place, which of course lessens the amount of labor chargeable to each one.
There are ninety-five bell-men, who call at every door in their several districts once a day, and take letters to the post-office in time for the evening mails. Each one carries a locked bag, with an aperture large enough to drop in a letter, which can only be opened at the post-office. Any person having letters to go by mail, may drop them into this bag, pay the bell-man his fee of 1_d_., and be quite sure they will be despatched the same evening.
All these carriers are required to assist, at stated times, in the sorting of letters, both for the free delivery and for the mails. They are paid by a stipulated salary, and have a permanent business, with chances for advancement in business and wages, according to length of service and merit.
A letter was addressed through the newspapers to the Postmaster-General of the United States, by Barnabas Bates, Esq., of New York, one of the most able and efficient advocates of postal reform, bearing date February 7, 1847, urging the adoption of a similar system for the city of New York, and other cities—the postage to be in all cases prepaid. The advantages to be anticipated are thus set forth by Mr. Bates:
“The adoption of this plan will ultimately be a source of revenue to the post-office department.
“1. It will be the means of diminishing the number of dead letters and newspapers, which is increasing every day to an incredible amount. The carriers will not carry out letters or papers where there is any doubt of getting their pay, consequently the number of advertised letters is daily increasing, and as for dead newspapers, they are sold by cart loads. Half a cent is not a sufficient inducement to carry out newspapers, especially if there be any doubt of getting the postage; hence the many complaints of editors that their subscribers do not get their papers.
“2. It will reduce the list of advertised letters which has increased within a few years more than three hundred per cent. The Sun and Tribune of last Saturday, advertised 1700 letters, which cost sixty-eight dollars; if this be the average weekly number, the post-office department or the people must pay for advertising, the sum of three thousand five hundred and thirty-six dollars per annum! The list of advertised letters of the Boston post-office, which is semi-monthly, averages from fourteen to sixteen columns of the Boston Times. If efficient carriers were appointed to deliver these letters to their address free of expense, this list would be reduced more than one half; thus a saving would be made in advertising, besides the collection of a large amount of postage. I would further remark, that requiring _four cents_ to be paid for advertising, in addition to the postage, frequently deters poor people from taking out their letters, and thus the cost of advertising, as well as the postage, are lost to the General Post-office. An efficient free delivery would save the department thousands of dollars every year.
“3. A free delivery of letters would increase the revenue by causing the greater portion of the drop letters to be sent through the post-office, instead of the private offices now established in different parts of the city. The only reason why the City Despatch Post failed was, that they charged more than the private penny post offices. But if these letters were delivered free, charging only two cents as drop letters, nearly all the city correspondence would be conveyed through this medium. The increased income from this source alone would in a short time be amply sufficient to pay the salaries of all the carriers.
“4. The post-office would not only command all the drop letters, but afford such easy, safe, and cheap facilities for the conveyance of letters, that it would be the means of increasing the city and country correspondence to an extent which can hardly be estimated. Thousands and tens of thousands of letters which are now sent by private hands, or through the private penny post, would then be deposited in the United States sub post-offices, both for city delivery and to be forwarded by the mails.”
The extent to which such a system of Free Delivery could properly be introduced in this country, can only be determined by experiment. That is, to decide in how many and what towns there shall be a Free Delivery, and how far from the post-office the Free Delivery shall be carried, experience must be the guide. A city and its suburbs might all be included in one arrangement, as New York with Brooklyn, Williamsburg, and Jersey City; Boston with Charlestown, Cambridge, Chelsea and Roxbury; and as population increases and intercourse extends, other places might be included.
Such a system would make a vast amount of business for itself, as people learned the advantages of so easy a correspondence—especially in those places which may admit of two or more deliveries a day. It would also tend to facilitate and stimulate and increase the general business of the place, and this would in turn increase the business of the post-office. The establishment of Free Delivery in any city or large town, would tend to increase the correspondence of the country with such town. Every addition to the number of letters delivered, would lessen the average cost of delivery of each letter, and thus increase the net profits of the institution. In these ways the department would feel its way along, in the extension of Free Delivery from one class of towns to another, until, at no distant day, it would be found that its benefits were far more widely diffusible than the most sanguine could now anticipate.
On the subject of the cost of delivery, the parliamentary committee obtained many valuable items of information. Mr. Reid, of London, said he got a thousand circulars delivered lately, for a foreigner. The gentleman had intended to send them through the post-office, paying the postage. Mr. Reid told him he would get them delivered a great deal cheaper. He gave them to a very trusty person, who delivered them all in the course of a week, at the expense of £1 2_s_. 3_d_. They were certain he delivered them; for nearly every time they sent him out, they took care to misdirect two or three, taking an account of the false direction, and he invariably brought back these letters, because he could not find the persons to whom they were directed. The postage of these circulars, at 1_d_. would have been £4 3_s_. 4_d_. Here was a saving of £3 1_s_. 1_d_. in one job. The expense of delivery was 1-1/14 farthing per letter. Of course, regular carriers, in their accustomed routes, could deliver prepaid letters at a much cheaper rate than this.
During the parliamentary investigations on the subject of cheap postage, a plan was suggested, of establishing what were called secondary mails, to reach every village and hamlet in the country. These secondary mails were to run from each post-town to the surrounding places, and deliver letters for an additional charge of 1_d_. But on consideration it was found impracticable to clog the general system with this addition. Uniformity was everything, to the system. And they could not establish any uniform rate which would answer both for the post-towns and for the hamlets. The rate which would pay for the towns, would not pay for mails to the hamlets. And the rate which was necessary for the hamlets, was too high for the towns, and _the contraband conveyance would still continue_. Consequently, the post-office would have to distribute the letters to the smaller places, where the distribution is attended with the greatest cost and the smallest profits. In the end, the rule of uniformity was left unbroken, and it was left to future experience or local arrangement to meet the wants of the smaller places, not now reached by the mails. The local postmasters are to make such arrangements as they deem proper in their respective neighborhoods, as to the employment of penny-post carriers to distribute the letters at the houses of the people.
To show the working of multiplication and division in the increase of profits, and the very low rate at which a service similar to that of free delivery can be performed, let us look at the newspapers. The principal daily papers in Boston are served to subscribers by carriers, at the expense of the publishers. Deducting Sundays and holidays, there are 310 papers in a year. These are served at the cost of 25 to 50 cents for each subscriber. Taking the highest cost, and you pay 1.6 _mills_ for each paper delivered—less than one-sixth of a cent.
The penny papers are served to subscribers by carriers, who have regular beats or districts; and who furnish their patrons for six cents per week. These carriers purchase the papers of the publisher, at 62 to 75 cents per 100; so that their profits on each paper are from one-quarter to three-eighths of a cent. For this they deliver the paper promptly every morning, and collect the money on Saturday, running, of course, some risk of losses by bad debts, &c. And yet this business is found to be so profitable that some routes in New York have been sold, that is, the good will transferred, for at least $500, just for the privilege of serving that district.
The two-cent papers from New York are regularly served to customers in Boston. A person engaged in this business used to buy the New York Express, Tribune, and Herald, for 1¼ to 1½ cents each. He paid the cost of bringing them by express from New York. To guard against failures, he divided his bundles, and had a part sent by way of Norwich, and a part by Stonington. He then served them to subscribers all over Boston for 12 cents per week, making his collections on Saturday. This man made money, so that in a few years he sold out his route and business in the New York papers, and purchased an interest in a flourishing penny paper in Boston, of which he is now one of the publishers.
XI. _The Expense of Cheap Postage, and how it is to be paid._
It is quite important to have it understood, in all parts of the country, that the friends of postal reform have no desire to curtail the public accommodations now enjoyed, in the slightest degree—unless in cases of manifest abuse. Neither do they consider that too much money is paid by our government to furnish the people with the privileges of the mail. We desire rather to see the benefits and conveniences of the post-office greatly increased, as well as brought more within the reach of all the population. The bill for establishing cheap postage should therefore contain a distinct declaration that the mail facilities of the country shall not be curtailed, but shall be liberally extended, with the spread and increase of population, so as to give, as far as the ability of the government will admit, the best practicable accommodations to every citizen of the republic.
It ought also to be provided that the Postmaster-General shall have it in his power, according to his discretion, whenever justice may require, to continue the compensation of all postmasters equal to their present rates, in proportion to the amount of services rendered, or labor performed. It is not easy, at present, to decide how much the labor of keeping the post-office will be lessened, by the adoption of uniform rates, and prepayment. Certainly, the reduction will be very considerable. And experience will hereafter suggest a new scale of compensations adapted to the new methods of doing the business.
The falling off in the gross receipts of the British post-office, on the first adoption of the new system, was upwards of a million sterling, being nearly 43 per cent. on the whole amount. A corresponding reduction from the income of our own post-office would amount to $1,696,734. But the falling off would not be so great. The reduction of postage in that case was from 7-½_d_. on an average, to 1_d_., while in ours it would barely prove an average of 6-½ cents to 2 cents. On the other hand, it is reasonable to expect a very rapid increase of letters, because the partial reduction in 1845 has already given the people a taste of the advantages of reduced rates of postage. The whole number of letters now sent by mail is 52,000,000. The number would, without doubt, be doubled in one year, which would give a revenue of above $2,000,000; $2,080,000 from letters. There would also be a very considerable increase of income from papers and pamphlets, and a great saving in the article of dead letters and newspapers. It is safe to estimate the revenue of the post-office, under the new system, at $3,000,000 for the first year, $3,500,000 for the second, $4,000,000 for the third, and $4,500,000 for the fourth, which will bring it up to what will then be the wants of the service, making the most liberal allowance for improved facilities.
As an illustration of the capability of retrenchment in expense, let it be remembered that the present Postmaster-General has effected a reduction of nearly _a million dollars per annum in the cost of transportation alone_. He says in his Report:
“The direction to the Postmaster-General to contract with the lowest bidder, without the allowance of any advantage to the former contractor, as had been the case before its passage, had the effect of enlarging the field of competition, and reducing the price of transportation, except on railroads and in steamboats, to the lowest amount for which the service can be performed; and will reduce the cost of transportation, when the other section is let to contract under it, but little less than a million of dollars per annum from the former prices.”
In other words, our letter postage is no longer taxed as it used to be, to give the people of other sections of the country, stage coaches which they do not support, as well as mails which they do not pay for. There will doubtless be still further reductions in this branch, in proportion as the knowledge becomes diffused among the people, of the profits of this business and the freeness of the competition for it. As Mr. Dana suggested in his valuable Report in 1844:
“The difference must arise from want of competition, and a reluctance to engage in the business of transporting the mail. When the attention of the North shall be called to the subject, and the difference in price pointed out, we cannot doubt that contracts will be made nearly as cheap for transportation at the South as at the North. If southern men will not engage in the business, let it be generally known that such increased pay can be had, and an abundance of yankee enterprise will be ready to engage in the business.”