Postage rate

“ I confidently repeat, therefore, the recommendation of my last annual message that the single-rate postage upon drop letters be reduced to 1 cent wherever the payment of 2 cents is now required by law. The double rate is only exacted at offices where the carrier system is in operation, and it appears that at those offices the increase in the tax upon local letters defrays the cost not only of its own collection and delivery, but of the collection and delivery of all other mail matter. This is an inequality that ought no longer to exist. ”

“ The essential elements of such a plan are, first, a very low rate of postage, to neutralise the objections on the part of the public to its being demanded in advance; and, secondly, a uniform rate of postage, to simplify the mode of accounting for its receipt. With respect to the latter element, it has already been shown (p. 19) that in fairness the rates of postage for primary distribution ought to be uniform; the cost of transit along the mail-roads, even for the greatest distances, being so trifling, as not to be expressible by the smallest coin. ”

“ The postage rate is uniform at 12 cents a pound, or fraction of a pound. A parcel must not weigh more than eleven pounds, nor measure more than three feet and six inches in length, or six feet in length and girth combined.
Then why prattle about a “test” as to the desirability and practicability of a good, cheap parcels post service in this country; one that will serve our own people? ”

“ When a letter crossed the Atlantic to Canada or the United States an inland rate at each end of the transit was charged in addition to the heavy ocean postage. A packet of manuscript to either of those countries cost £5 under the old system. But at this “reduced” (!) rate only a 3-lb. packet could be sent. Did one weigh the merest fraction of a pound over the permitted three, it could not go except as a letter, the postage upon which would have been £22, 0s. 8d. [35] One can hardly expect the public of to-day to believe that rates such as these were ever in force. ”

“ Under the provision in the bill the postage rate on the advertising pages of magazines is increased from 1 cent to 4 cents a pound, but this increase does not apply to newspapers of any kind, nor does it affect periodical publications mailing less than 4,000 pounds each issue. ”

“ Neither the relatively small postage rate within a single state nor the moderate rate of the Postal Union, the establishment of which represented one of the most remarkable stages in the progress of civilization, would have been possible without these vehicles, as the always ready, cheap, and indefatigable bearers of our correspondence. ”

“ The publishers are the largest buyers of lists of names used for circulation. To circularize these lists many millions of 2-cent stamps are bought every year.
“Our entire mail order book business,” writes a Western firm, “has been built up through magazine advertising. Last year our postal bill amounted to $12,298.57. This was used on circular matter and letters. If the circulation of the magazines should be reduced, and it is our opinion that it would be if the postage rate should be increased, our postage bill would be reduced proportionately.” ”

“ In 1900, therefore, a special class of packets, named Geschäftspapiere, was introduced in the internal service of the German Imperial administration. Papers partly or wholly written, but not of the nature of private or personal communications, were admissible at a reduced rate of postage. [521] Except for local traffic the new rates were:—
Compared with the total postal traffic the number of packets passing at the reduced rate is quite small, but it is increasing, and is sufficiently large to indicate that the privilege affords a considerable advantage to the public. ”

“ To estimate the increase [298] in correspondence required for my purpose, it was obviously necessary to know the amount of loss per letter involved in the proposed reduction of postage; in other words, the difference between the proposed rate and the average of the rates actually paid, which average had therefore to be arrived at. This I placed at sixpence farthing, the Post Office authorities at a shilling. Actual knowledge, however, did not exist, and each party had resorted to calculation, dividing the gross revenue by the supposed number of letters. ”

“ The cost of transmission by sea of a foreign letter in the British service is on the average 1⁄4d. Foreign rates are not, however, fixed on a simple cost basis. The reduction to a penny of the letter rate between Great Britain and all parts of the British Empire; between Great Britain, Egypt, and the United States; and between the United States and Germany and France, has been made from considerations of general advantage, political or otherwise, rather than from considerations of immediate profit or loss on the postal service. ”

“ But perhaps the chief contentions of the publishers, which the Post Office was bound to some extent to admit, and would in any case find it difficult to meet, were the claim that newspapers create a vast quantity of first-class mail; and the claim that since the payment made to the railway companies in [Pg 162] respect of the transportation of the mail is based on a sliding scale, decreasing as the volume of traffic increases, the weight of second-class matter brings down appreciably the rate actually to be paid. ”

“ There should not in any case be a net revenue of any magnitude. The Commissioners themselves made an estimate of the rate which should fulfil the requirements they had detailed. In so doing they proceeded on much the same lines as Sir Rowland Hill in his pamphlet Post Office Reform: Its Importance and Practicability. They had no difficulty in answering the demand for penny postage in British North America, a demand based on its successful inauguration in England. ”

“ Experience warrants the expectation that as the community becomes accustomed to cheap postage correspondence will increase. It is believed that from this cause and from the rapid growth of the country in population and business the receipts of the Department must ultimately exceed its expenses, and that the country may safely rely upon the continuance of the present cheap rate of postage. ”

“ The method of calculating the distance of transmission for the purpose of determining the postage charge was also modified. The then existing arrangement in Prussia, based on the regulations of 1824, provided that the rate should in all cases be reckoned according to the actual distance between the post offices concerned. Under this method, when a new post office was established, a parcel rate for every other [Pg 214] post office must be calculated, causing much labour and wasting much time. ”

“ In England, Germany, and France the Post Office has, almost from the first, been a source of revenue to the State. What has happened has been that since the reform the Governments have been glad to take whatever net revenue a penny rate would yield, but, in general, they have not been prepared to raise that rate in order to obtain a greater revenue. [738] The only one of the five [Pg 359] countries which does not make, and on principle does not wish to make, a revenue out of the Post Office is the United States of America. ”

“ On the 1st January, 1899, also, the provisions of the Act which reimposed postage payment on newspapers and periodicals went into effect. This was An Act further to amend the Post Office Act (assented to 13th June, 1898) [158] which we have already quoted as being the Act authorizing the reduction in the domestic postage rate to 2 cents per ounce. The third section of this Act repealed section 26 of the Post Office Act and substituted the following therefor:—
26. ”

“ From the financial point of view, the uniform rate is, moreover, inapplicable to any class of traffic not secured to the Post Office by monopoly, since private undertakings will always step in and take away the profitable sections.
For heavy parcels a uniform rate cannot be justified. There are, however, certain considerations not purely economic which may be held to justify a uniform rate for small parcels, especially if it be held that the State may conduct such a business for the advantage of the public, and abandon to some extent ordinary commercial balancing of cost and revenue. ”

“ In cases where there are four or five such divisions of the packets, the separation is likewise made from considerations independent of the rates of postage, although it happens that, as a rule, a large proportion of the packets posted under a given rate fall into a certain group. Thus all postcards fall to be handled with the short letters; all newspapers fall to be handled with the heavier packets sent at the letter rate ”

“ Elle est très appreciée du commerce dont elle facilite les opérations. Si l'on entre dans la voie de la taxation au poids, comme pour les articles de messagerie, ce sera un recul."—M. Mazoyer, Documents du Congrès postal de Rome, 1906, Berne, 1906, vol. ii., p. 393.
[610] The analysis relates to the British inland service in 1913-14.
[611] The number of packets sent at the blind post rate is very small comparatively (some 300,000 a year) , and those packets are therefore not considered separately. ”

“ When sent together with a letter, samples might be enclosed in sealed covers; but in order to enable the administration to maintain a control over the use of the privilege, the postal officials were empowered at discretion to require the sender to open such packets. [512]
In 1860, when the Austro-German Postal Union was renewed, the limit of weight for samples was reduced to 1⁄2 pound (15 loth) . Following this reduction the Prussian rates for samples were reduced in 1861: for samples weighing more than 2 loth only the rate for a double letter (according to distance) was to be charged. ”

“ In essentials the case of international rates differs little from that of inland rates. The work in connection with a letter falls into three main divisions: (1) at the place of posting; (2) transmission from place of posting to place of delivery; and (3) at the place of delivery. In the case of inland letters, the first and third factors preponderate to such a degree that their cost alone need be taken into consideration in fixing the rate. The factor of transmission can be ignored. ”

“ A low uniform rate is, however, only made possible from the financial standpoint by the Post Office monopoly of the carriage of letters, although that monopoly is justified on other grounds. With a uniform rate, owing to the varying conditions under which the service is conducted in different districts, there is inevitably a variation in the amount of profit. ”

“ The international parcel post has always been regarded as primarily commercial, [657] and the service has been deliberately restricted to small parcels on the ground that the conduct of an ordinary transportation undertaking is not a postal function, and that the admission of heavy parcels would render impossible the maintenance of the postal principle of uniformity of rate. ”

“ In order that the public may be induced to employ them, it would be necessary that the minimum rate of postage, when collected in the ordinary manner, should at all times be rather greater than the price of stamps. Thus, the price of the stamp being one penny, the minimum postage should be twopence. This lower charge for stamped covers is not an artificial contrivance for forcing them into use, but is an equitable reduction, consequent on the simple and economical arrangements to which their employment would lead. ”

“ In 1869 the question was again raised in Parliament. A resolution was moved in favour of an inland rate of 1⁄2d. for 2 ounces on printed matter, and a postage of 1⁄2d. on newspapers. It was urged that the concession would be of special value in rural districts: it would indeed "be hard to say what the effect might be in time on the social condition of the people." [Pg 130] In several continental countries newspapers were already transmissible by post at very low rates. ”

“ By act of July 24, 1888, seeds, bulbs, roots, scions, and plants are also mailable at third-class rates. The rate of postage on third-class matter is one cent for each two ounces or fractional part thereof, to be fully prepaid by postage stamps affixed thereto. Fourth-class matter includes all not embraced in the first three classes which is not in its form or nature liable to destroy, deface, or otherwise damage the contents of the mail-bag or harm the person of any one engaged in the postal service and not above the weight prescribed by law. ”

“ The general Union rate of postage is fixed at 25 centimes for a single prepaid letter.
Nevertheless, as a measure of conversion, the option is reserved to each country, in order to suit its monetary or other requirements, of levying a rate higher or lower than this charge, provided that it does not exceed 32 centimes or go below 20 centimes.
Every letter which does not exceed 15 grammes in weight shall be considered a single letter. The charge upon letters exceeding that weight shall be a single rate for every 15 grammes or fraction of 15 grammes. ”

“ How long will any man say it would take, with a rate of postage across the Atlantic not exceeding two cents per half ounce, before there would be ten millions of letters yearly, instead of three-quarters of a million, the number now carried by the British packet mails? ”

“ There are many large concerns, like the mail-order houses for instance, promoters, jobbers, and dealers in special extensively advertised lines, whose actual letter postage amounts to many thousands of dollars a year. Such people naturally oppose any change in the postal service which might increase the postal deficit, even temporarily, because of their anxiety to have the letter rate reduced. ”