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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



maneuvers, and will know nothing 

 of log-rolling for appropriations. 

 When its labors are concluded the 

 result will be recognizable in rules 

 established, disputed questions set- 

 tled, methods of procedure im- 

 proved, distinct advantages gained 

 for the whole civilized world. It 

 will afford an example, as previous 

 congresses of similar nature have 

 already done, of what can be accom- 

 plished by the mutual counsel and 

 concerted efforts of a body of men 

 chosen expressly for their recog- 

 nized fitness to deal with the inter- 

 ests committed to their charge. If 

 it does not teach a lesson as to the 

 improvement which might be effect- 

 ed in legislative bodies could their 

 members also be chosen on grounds 

 of fitness and competency for the 

 work of legislation, it will not be 

 because the lesson is not sufficiently 

 on the surface. 



The congress referred to, as our 

 headline shows, is that of the Uni- 

 versal Postal Union. The formation 

 of the Postal Union may be regarded 

 as marking the transition from a 

 period of semibarbarism in postal 

 matters that is to say, from an inter- 

 national point of view to a period 

 of civilization. Prior to 1874 each 

 nation followed its own devices so 

 far as postal arrangements were con- 

 cerned. There was no attempt at 

 uniformity of postage rates or regu- 

 lations, and all international rela- 

 tions were complicated in the highest 

 degree. The postage charges to no 

 two countries were the same; or, if 

 they were the same, it was hy acci- 

 dent. There was no accident, how- 

 ever, about their being high. It had 

 not occurred to anybody as yet that 

 there could be such a thing as cheap 

 international postage. It seemed to 

 be an accepted axiom that, if corre- 

 spondence was carried on across a 

 frontier, it must be made an expen- 

 sive affair. 



A far-sighted German, however, 

 the late Herr von Stephan, of Berlin, 

 conceived the idea of introducing 

 order into this postal chaos. He did 

 not see why, if uniform rates could 

 obtain through the extensive terri- 

 tories of a single state, uniform rates 

 might not also be established over 

 the civilized globe. He saw no sense 

 in international frontiers in postal 

 matters. A letter, he held, should be 

 free to go whithersoever its sender 

 willed, at the lowest charge compati- 

 ble with reimbursement of the ex- 

 pense of conveyance. And as, in 

 the main, the correspondence which 

 each country would send to any oth- 

 er country would be about equal to 

 what it would receive therefrom, he 

 saw no necessity for international 

 accounts. The result of the commu- 

 nication of these ideas to a number of 

 the leading postal administrations of 

 the world was the summoning in the 

 year 1873 of the Berne Conference. 

 The result of the conference was 

 the establishment of the Postal 

 Treaty of Berne, to which the lead- 

 ing nations of the world were signa- 

 tories. That treaty established a uni- 

 form international rate of five cents 

 for a half -ounce (fifeen gramme) 

 letter, with a provisional permission 

 to levy a surcharge up to five cents 

 more on correspondence addressed 

 to very distant countries, and subject 

 therefore to specially heavy " tran- 

 sit" rates. International accounts 

 were in the main abolished. There 

 were still, however, complications, 

 arising from the fact that a great 

 many countries were yet outside the 

 Union, and that accounts had there- 

 fore to be maintained with these, and 

 certain debits and credits in connec- 

 tion with their correspondence to be 

 passed on to other countries. 



As time went on, however, things 

 simplified themselves gradually. 

 One by one the outlying countries 

 fell in ; and at the present time there 



