Postal Riders and Raiders. W. H. Gantz
DEFICITS AFFECTED BY SECOND-CLASS TONNAGE.
In this connection I desire to show that deficits in the federal postal service are largely governed by the tonnage of second-class matter carried, the greater such tonnage the smaller the deficit. To do this I shall take the liberty to quote from the “Inland Printer,” probably the most widely read periodical among the printing crafts, as it certainly is one of the best informed and most carefully edited journals of any in matters relating to the publication and distribution of periodical literature. The article speaks of several points pertinent to our subject and is so instructively written that I know my readers will appreciate it in its entirety. If the publishers of the periodical will pardon my wholesale appropriation of their article, I am confident my readers will do the same. The article is of date March, 1911, and was written by Wilmer Atkinson, whose permission I should also ask for reprinting it in toto:
In 1860 the postal deficit was $10,652,543; in 1910 it was $5,848,566. The postage rate was four times greater in 1860 than now.
Coming down twelve years to 1872 the total weight of second-class matter was that year less than 65,000,000 pounds.
Now it is 817,428,141 pounds, more than twelve times greater.
Then the postage rate was four times what it is now.
Then the gross revenue was $21,915,426; now it is $224,128,657, more than ten times as much.
Then there was no rural free delivery; now that system costs $36,923,737.
Then there were no registered letters; now there are 42,053,574 a year.
Then there were issued $48,515,532 of domestic money orders; now there are issued $547,993,641.
Then postmasters were paid $5,121,665; now they are paid $27,514,362, and their clerks are paid $38,035,456.62.
Then city delivery cost but little; now it costs $31,805,485.28.
In 1872 there were issued of stamps, stamped envelopes and wrappers less than $18,000,000 (there were no postal cards); now are issued, including postal cards, $202,064,887.96, more than ten times as much.
Observe that the weight of second-class matter is 752,428,141 pounds greater than in 1872, costing therefore (according to some official mathematicians), more than 9 cents a pound for transportation, or a total of $67,718,532.69. The deficit for 1910 is almost identical with that of 1872.
1885–1910
As late as 1885 the government income from the issue of stamps, stamped envelopes and wrappers and postal cards was $35,924,137.70.
In 1910 it was $202,064,887.96, more than five times as much.
The number of registered letters issued in 1885 was 11,043,256; in 1910 it was 40,151,797.
The amount of money orders issued rose from $117,858,921 in 1885 to $498,699,637 in 1910.
The total postal receipts rose from $42,560,844 in 1885 to $224,128,657 in 1910, an increase of $181,567,813.
The postage rate on second-class matter in 1885 was double what it is now.
During the intervening period the weight of second-class matter had increased about 600,000,000 pounds.
Now we will get down a little closer in this business and see what has happened within the last five years.
1906–1911
In 1906 there was a gain in weight of second-class matter of 41,674,086 pounds; in that year the deficit was $10,516,999.
In 1907 there was a gain in weight of 52,616,336 pounds—11,000,000 pounds more than in 1906; the deficit was reduced to $6,653,283.
In 1908 there was a loss instead of gain in weight of second-class matter of 18,079,292 pounds; the deficit went up to $16,873,223, an increase over the year before of more than $10,000,000.
In 1909 there was only a slight gain in weight of 28,367,298 pounds; the deficit went up to $17,441,719.
In 1910 there was a gain in weight of 94,865,884 pounds, the largest ever known; and the deficit dropped to $5,848,566.88.
From 1906 to 1910 there were 198,863,387 pounds increase in the weight of second-class matter; the deficit was $4,668,432.12 less in 1910 than in 1906.
The impression is prevalent that the amount paid for railway transportation was cut down the past year, but the truth is that the railroads were paid $44,654,514.97, the railway mail service and the postoffice car service cost $24,065,218.88, a total of $68,719,733.85, which is more by a half million than was paid in 1909, and over $7,000,000 more than was paid in 1906.
It is claimed that there is no definite relation between deficits and second-class matter; very well, the foregoing are the official figures; let them speak for themselves.
In the whole history of the Postoffice Department, neither an increase of second-class matter nor a reduction of the postage rate has ever increased deficits, no matter what burdens have been piled upon the service in the way of an extension of city delivery, the establishment of rural free delivery, the multiplication in number and increase of pay of officials, increase of government free matter, increase of railroad and other transportation charges, nor an increase in the obstructive energies of postal officials directed against the publishing business. (See In Memoriam, page 49.)
It has come to be generally understood and conceded that second-class matter originates mail of the other classes. The Postal Commission testifies that “No sane man will deny that second-class matter is the immediate cause of great quantities of first-class matter.” Mr. Madden and Mr. Lawshe said the same thing. Meyer said that “It is known that second-class matter is instrumental in originating a large amount of other classes of mail matter.” To what extent this is so can not be determined with exactitude, but the official figures given throw a flood of light on the subject.
There are four classes of (paid) mail matter—first, second, third and fourth. The first comprises letters and postals, the second newspapers and periodicals, the third circulars, and the fourth merchandise.
How, of themselves, could the first, third and fourth classes develop faster than the growth of population? Does not their extension depend upon the business energy and the intellectual activity of the people, and in turn do not these depend very largely upon the circulation of the public press?
Will it, therefore, be deemed unreasonable to conclude that of the $202,064,887.96 of stamps sold for the first, third and fourth classes of mail matter last year, $150,000,000 of it originated immediately, remotely and cumulatively from the second class? How else than in some such way can we account for the prodigious development of the postal business, which has outrun population sixfold or more?
The late Senator Dolliver, at the American Periodical Association’s banquet, at the New Willard hotel, at Washington, a year ago, said: “I look upon every one of your little advertisements as a traveling salesman for the industries of the United States.”
The amazing development of the industries of the country is in a large measure due to second-class matter; the great increase of second-class matter is due to the low postage rate; and the wonderful expansion of the postal establishment is based chiefly upon the widespread distribution of newspapers and periodicals.
The foregoing figures are respectfully submitted; they are official; and their significance can be interpreted by any intelligent and thoughtful person. In the presence of these figures, is it too much to claim that the government has never lost a dollar in transporting second-class mail, that it is by far the most profitable of any, and that, were it withdrawn or greatly curtailed by an increase of rate, the postal establishment would collapse into bankruptcy?
In view, also, of the foregoing figures it is hoped