190 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. (REDUCTION OF POSTAGE.) 



for the year at $42,670.456.27 instead of $50,- 

 670,456.27, as already estimated upon the basis 

 of existing rates. This estimate of $42,670,- 

 456.27 for the year 1884 on a 2- cent rate is 

 $3,393,594.89, or 7'3 per cent., less than the 

 estimated revenue for 1883, and it is $794, 046. 12 

 more than the actual revenue for 1882. 



" Unless the experience of past reductions 

 in this and other countries should be at fault 

 in this instance, the reduction now proposed 

 in the letter rate will be speedily followed by 

 a large augmentation of business, and it will 

 at no distant day prove to have been an eco- 

 nomic measure of the highest importance to 

 the postal service as well as to the country." 



The appropriation bill, containing the pro- 

 vision for the reduction of letter-postage, to 

 go into effect Jan. 15, 1884, was passed by the 

 House Dec. 20, 1882, and was taken up for dis- 

 cussion in the Senate Jan. 17, 1883. Among 

 the opponents of the proposed reduction was 

 Senator Platt, of Connecticut, who said : " I be- 

 lieve that this proposition to reduce postage 

 from 3 cents to 2 cents upon sealed letters is 

 premature, and I desire that Congress shall have 

 the opportunity for a second sober thought be- 

 fore the law goes into operation. I will en- 

 deavor in the briefest manner possible to give 

 my reasons why I think this proposed reduction 

 is premature. 



" In the first place, if postage is to be reduced 

 there are other directions in which the re- 

 duction is as imperatively demanded as in this 

 direction. The additional postage of 1 cent 

 upon drop-letters in cities having free delivery 

 is a real burden upon the business correspond- 

 dence of those cities. 'I think it should receive 

 first attention, as I will endeavor to show as I 

 proceed. It doubles the postage upon letters 

 as a penalty for having free delivery which the 

 Government ought not only to give without 

 additional pay but ought very largely to ex- 

 tend. 



" Then I think the postage on unsealed let- 

 ters, business correspondence in unsealed let- 

 ters, might be reduced to 2 cents quite as prop- 

 erly as this reduction; but I think that the 

 whole scheme of the reduction of postage at 

 this time is premature. I know that there 

 seems to be the opinion prevailing in Congress 

 and in certain newspapers that there is a very 

 general demand for this reduction in letter-post- 

 age. I confess I have not heard it out of Con- 

 gress and out of the newspapers. I have not 

 heard it among the people, and I do not believe 

 that the people esteem it to be any hardship 

 upon them to pay 3 cents postage upon a letter 

 sent to any part of this country. "Where one 

 person has spoken to me on that subject ten 

 persons have spoken to me on other matters 

 connected with the post-office system, and I 

 think the general desire among the people is 

 that there shall be no reduction of postage till 

 the revenues of the Post-Office Department 

 have been expended to develop and perfect the 

 post-office system and give the people greater 



conveniences than they now have, and make 

 that system more efficient. 



" I make no criticism upon the Post-Office 

 Department. The growth and development of 

 the post-office system has been great. Post- 

 masters-General have done all that they could 

 under the disposition in Congress not to make 

 large expenditures for the Post-Office Depart- 

 ment so long as there was a deficiency. Many 

 improvements which they would have desired 

 to introduce and have recommended to Congress 

 time and time again they have not been able to 

 carry out because Congress would not make 

 the necessary appropriations, and the reason 

 given in Congress for not making the necessary 

 appropriations always has been that the Post- 

 Office Department entailed a large deficiency. 

 Now, for the first time in twenty years, I think, 

 the Post-Office Department is self-sustaining, 

 and we have arrived just at that point where 

 we ought to improve this system, where we 

 ought to make it more efficient, where we 

 ought to study the convenience of the people 

 and see that the United States is not behind 

 the rest of the world in the conveniences which 

 it affords to the people through this postal sys- 

 tem. 



" Now, allow me to refer to some minor mat- 

 ters. The matter of office accommodations at 

 the third and fourth class offices is a matter in 

 which there may be very great improvement. 

 The convenience to the people can be wonder- 

 fully enhanced. I will not weary the Senate 

 by going into detail. It is within the personal 

 observation of every Senator who is familiar 

 with the post-offices in the smaller places, that 

 the conveniences might be increased 100 and 

 200 per cent, with very little additional expense. 

 I think it ought to be done. I think the ex- 

 penses necessary to make this increase should 

 be borne now when the department is self-sus- 

 taining. If it is not done now it never will be. 



u Another thing that I wish to speak of is 

 this: We should have more frequent mail?. 

 Take New England and the Middle States, and 

 Senators will be surprised to learn, I think, 

 that certainly one fifth of the mail routes in the 

 New England and Middle States are less than 

 daily. Is there any reason why in these 

 States, where a railroad reaches usually within 

 ten or fifteen miles of every town, every town 

 should not have a daily mail? I know towns 

 in my own State, within eight or ten miles of 

 a railroad, that have but a semi-weekly mail. 

 I have endeavored to have it increased to a 

 daily mail, but I have been met continually 

 with the statement that Congress would not 

 appropriate sufficient money for that purpose, 

 and the reason Congress would not do it was 

 because there was a deficiency in the Post- 

 Office Department. Take the towns and cities 

 that are situated upon railroads, the mails car- 

 ried upon railroads should be increased in fre- 

 quency. A town of three or five thousand 

 inhabitants, situated upon a railroad, should 

 never be dependent upon one daily mail. And 



