SPEECH 
 
 MR. POTTER,.OF OHIO 
 
 ON THE 
 
 ♦ 
 
 # 
 
 V ' . ' ■' 0 / 
 
 REDUCTION OF POSTAGE. 
 
 DELIVERED 
 
 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, JANUARY 13, 1951 
 
 WASHINGTON: 
 
 PRINTED AT THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE OFFICE. 
 
 1851 . 
 
REDUCTION. OP POSTAGE. 
 
 The House having resolved itself into Committee y 
 of the Whole on the bill to reduce and modify i 
 the rates of postage, 
 
 Mr. POTTER rose and said : 
 
 Mr. Chairman: In answer to the various ob¬ 
 jections which have been made by various mem¬ 
 bers at different times to this bill, it becomes me 
 to investigate the subject by facts and figures, in 
 order to obviate them. It is for this reason, and 
 that I may be prepared to maintain every position 
 which I have assumed, to fortify every point which 
 has been attacked, that much of what I shall have 
 to say will be from written memorandums. And 
 for their correctness and truth I am responsible. 
 
 I will take occasion at the commencement to 
 say, that those gentlemen upon this floor who are 
 most decidedly opposed to this bill, and who rep¬ 
 resent States, whose receipts for postage does not 
 equal the expenditure for mail service in them, 
 have exhibited a modesty truly becoming to them; 
 for whilst, with one or two exceptions, they have 
 remained silent during this whole discussion, their 
 allies from States where there is a surplus have 
 maintained the controversy. But I fear that when 
 we come to vote upon the bill, they will make 
 themselves felt, if they have not been heard. 
 
 The receipts from postage in Maine exceed the 
 
 cost of transportation.$50,000 
 
 New Hampshire, over. 20,000 
 
 Vermont, “ 18,000 
 
 Massachusetts, “ .180,000 
 
 Rhode Island, “ . 20,000 
 
 Connecticut, “ . 40,000 
 
 New York, “ .460,000 
 
 Pennsylvania, “ ..200,000 
 
 Ohio, “ 80,000 
 
 Wisconsin, * 25,000 
 
 Iowa, “ 2,000 
 
 It is from these States that we naturally look 
 for support to this bill; and from the immense 
 number of petitions which have been received 
 here from those States, without one single remon¬ 
 strance from any quarter, we feel assured that the 
 people are in favor of the change proposed. We 
 who live in the paying States, do not complain that 
 this large amount of surplus is drawn from us for 
 the support of the mail service in the less favored 
 portions of the Union. We do not desire that it 
 
 should be otherwise, but we do insist that the 
 rates of postage should be reduced to a revenue 
 standard, so long as we contribute so large a share 
 of the means to support this department of the 
 Government. 
 
 I am not a little surprised to see gentlemen upon 
 this floor, who represent States yielding a surplus 
 to the Post Office Department, even some of my 
 colleagues from the State of Ohio, which pays 
 more than $80,000 over her cost of transportation, 
 into the Treasury, opposing this bill. They must 
 certainly have become very benevolent all at once, 
 to be willing to tax themselves and their constitu¬ 
 ents, to afford postal facilities to their neighbors. 
 
 Mr. CARTTER asked if the gentleman inclu¬ 
 ded him in the number of his colleagues who op¬ 
 posed a reduction of postage ? 
 
 Mr. POTTER said he did mean to include him 
 [Mr. Cartter] in the number. 
 
 Mr. CARTTER. Will the gentleman allowme 
 to say that he has mistaken my intentions? I 
 am in favor of a reduction of the rate of postage 
 from ten cents to a uniform rate of five cents. 
 
 Mr. POTTER. I was aware of that. The 
 gentleman’s amendment will speak for itself; it 
 provides for a uniform rate of five cents for all dis¬ 
 tances. Sir, it is the result of the gentleman’s 
 proposition that I wish to avoid. Adopt it, and 
 instead of a reduction of postage, it would operate 
 only as a reduction of revenue. Four fifths of the 
 letters now carried in the mail pay only five cents; 
 it is only those letters carried over three hundred 
 miles that pay ten cents. My object is, so to re¬ 
 duce the postage upon all mailable matter as to 
 compete with the private expresses upon the short 
 routes. The gentleman’s amendment will not 
 effect that object. It affords encouragement to the 
 increase of letters upon the short routes, or those 
 less than three hundred miles, from which nearly 
 all our revenue is derived. Private expresses’ do 
 not enter into competition with the Post Office De¬ 
 partment upon the long routes, and upon these the 
 gentleman’s plan would certainly operate injuri¬ 
 ously to the revenue, whilst it would produce no 
 change in the receipts upon the short routes. 
 
 Mr. CARTTER. I dislike exceedingly to in¬ 
 terrupt my friend, but if he will allow me, I wish 
 to submit to him and to the House, whether, after 
 
4 
 
 the amendment I offered, and after the remarks I 
 submitted on a former day in reference to this bill, 
 the gentleman is authorized in coming to the con¬ 
 clusion that I am opposed to reducing the rates of 
 postage down to a revenue standard? I stated ex¬ 
 pressly in my remarks, that I was in favor of re¬ 
 ducing the rates of postage to a revenue standard. 
 I thi^k my colleague does me injustice in coming 
 to the conclusion he does in this matter. 
 
 Mr. POTTER. Mr. Chairman, I will do my 
 colleague no injustice; for whilst I must be allowed 
 to comment upon his proposition, I will certainly 
 Ktate it fairly. He says a uniform rate of five 
 cents is a revenue rate. I was only endeavoring 
 to show that the proposition, if adopted, would 
 only tend to diminish the revenue without accom¬ 
 plishing the great end in view, the cheap circula¬ 
 tion of valuable information in every part of the 
 country. 
 
 I repeat, that the great object in reducing the 
 postage upon short routes, is to bring into the mail 
 the matter notv carried by private expresses, as 
 well as to encourage the more general use of the 
 mails, where they are now avoided on account of 
 the high rate upon letters. 
 
 Mr. CARTTER. Is my colleague informed of 
 the existence of any private expresses in the 
 vicinity of any of the cities in the State of Ohio, or 
 in any western city ? 
 
 Mr. POTTER. I am not. I will ask my col¬ 
 league, whether he is informed of the existence of 
 such expresses in the eastern cities ? 
 
 Mr. CARTTER. I am aware that private ex¬ 
 presses exist in those cities. 
 
 Air. POTTER. It is with these that we wish 
 to compete, by putting the rates, not as low as 
 they carry letters, for I believe they only charge 
 two cents, but at such rates as will tend to dis¬ 
 courage their use. 
 
 But to resume the subject. It is objected also, 
 that the Postmaster General will not grant mail 
 facilities, or service upon routes on which there is 
 not revenue derived sufficient to pay the expenses. 
 Can this be true? By the adoption of this rule, 
 
 Maryland would have to be curtailed over $30,000 
 
 Virginia, over. 60,000 
 
 North Carolina, over. 110,000 
 
 South Carolina, over. 40,000 
 
 Georgia, over. 60,000 
 
 Florida, over. 15,000 
 
 Illinois, over. 40,000 
 
 Tennessee, over. 10,000 
 
 Alabama, over. 8C>’000 
 
 Mississippi, over. 25,000 
 
 Arkansas, over. 30’000 
 
 Texas, over. 30,000 
 
 for each of these States fall short the above sums, 
 of revenue sufficient to pay barely the costs of 
 transportation of their mails, to say nothing about 
 the commissions paid to their postmasters. 
 
 . Mr. HAMMOND asked, whether in this esti¬ 
 mate the transportation of the mail through Mary¬ 
 land, &c., upon the great southern route to New 
 Orleans, was embraced ? 
 
 Mr. POTTER. I will do these States justice 
 in this respect, if the gentleman will only have 
 patience. But we do not ask to have this rule ap¬ 
 plied to these States. We protest against it, and 
 it is unfair to charge that such a rule has been 
 adopted by the Department. It is true, that it is 
 a strong argument against putting increased service 
 
 upon a route, but I deny that it is any part or par^ 
 cel of the regulations of the Department. 
 
 Mr. SWEETSER desired to know of his col¬ 
 league whether there were not post roads in Ohio 
 upon which no service had been ordered by the 
 Department ? 
 
 Mr. POTTER. There may be, particularly 
 upon the routes established last September; and 
 perhaps some others where there had been no 
 competition in the bids for the service, and those 
 that were made were so exorbitantly high that it 
 would be unreasonable to ask for service at such 
 rates. But I regard the Post Office Department as 
 a branch of the National Government, necessarily 
 so for the connection and continuance of routes: 
 as one of the conditions in the bond of our Union, 
 strengthening its ties by a common interest, and 
 should be managed as a whole, regardless of local 
 divisions, any further than they may be necessary 
 for the promotion of the general welfare of the 
 people of the whole country. 
 
 But, sir, I have been treating this subject as if 
 the awful forebodings of the timid and wavering 
 upon this floor, of broken-down stage coaches, 
 lean horses, hungry drivers, deserted towns and 
 villages, grass-grown streets, lean and starved 
 postmasters, and worst of all, a bankrupt Treas¬ 
 ury, were about to be realized. 
 
 I have a word of comfort for that class of our 
 friends. Aly colleague who first addressed the 
 committee upon this subject, [Mr. Cartter,] de¬ 
 clared that the effect of a reduction of postage 
 would be “to reduce the Post Office Department 
 to a state of bankruptcy. ” Aly friend says that 
 he has come to this conclusion “from the little 
 examination he has been able to give this sub¬ 
 ject.” I am sorry, for the sake of the measure, 
 that that gentleman has not brought his usual in¬ 
 dustry and acumen to the task of this examina¬ 
 tion, for I feel quite sure that had he done so we 
 should find in him one of the strongest advocates 
 of this bill. 
 
 Another of my colleagues [Air. Sweetser] 
 says that, this measure will ultimately charge the 
 Post Office Department upon the Treasury; but 
 he gives no reasons for it. He says, also, that 
 allusion has been made to the English system, but 
 he does not intend to discuss that, and dismisses 
 the subject by saying, “ 1 will state, in general 
 terms, that we cannot assimilate ours to theirs, 
 and no legitimate argument can be drawn from 
 it.” I might say of him, as I have already done 
 of my other colleague, that I am sorry, for the 
 fate of this bill, that he had not looked at the re¬ 
 ports of the British Post Office Department. 
 
 Mr. SWEETSER. In my argument the other 
 day, I gave as a reason why the rate proposed in 
 this bill was below the revenue standard, that the 
 bill itself asked for a million and a half- 
 
 Mr. POTTER. I do # not want the gentleman 
 to make his speech over again; I cannot spare the 
 time allotted me by the rules of the House; he 
 can read it in the Globe. He spoke at length, and 
 was complimented by the very general attention 
 of the committee. This should satisfy my friend 
 without my now giving him an opportunity to re¬ 
 peat it. I am sorry, however, that he has given 
 this subject so little attention. Had he devoted a 
 little more time to it I do not doubt that instead of 
 his opposition, this measure would to-day have 
 his warmest support. 
 
 My colleague [Mr. Sweetser] challenges me 
 to bring forward my facts and figures to show that 
 
5 
 
 the reduction of postage will not bankrupt the De¬ 
 partment. . 
 
 I propose now to do it. I regret the necessity |j 
 that I am under to vindicate the measure here upon 
 this floor, and to spend the time of the committee 
 upon it; but what I say is said for the ear of mem¬ 
 bers, with the hope that those who are not preju¬ 
 diced against the bill, but are anxious to adopt, as 
 they say, “ a revenue point,” will listen, if they 
 have not examined the subject themselves, to the 
 facts that I intend to lay before the committee. 
 
 This subject has been so fully elaborated by the j 
 gentleman from Missouri, [Mr. Phelps,] that I 
 will not trouble the committee with the details of 
 our own or the British Post Office, but will state 
 the general results: 
 
 Statistics of the .American Post Office for ten years. 
 
 Y ears. 
 
 Post 
 
 otiic’s 
 
 Post 
 
 roads. 
 
 Receipts. 
 
 Expenses. 
 
 Letters. 
 
 1839 . 
 
 1840 . 
 
 '1841. 
 
 ! 1842. 
 
 {1843. 
 
 iI84#. 
 
 1845. 
 
 j1846. 
 
 1847. 
 
 |1848. 
 
 11849. 
 
 12,680 
 
 13,468 
 
 13,682 
 
 13,733 
 
 13.814 
 
 14'103 
 
 14,183 
 
 14,601 
 
 15,146 
 
 16,159 
 
 16,747 
 
 Miles. 
 
 133,999 
 
 155,639 
 
 155.026 
 
 149,732 
 
 142,295 
 
 144,687 
 
 143,844 
 
 147,679 
 
 153,818 
 
 163,208 
 
 167,703 
 
 $4,477,619 
 4,530,265 
 4,379,317 
 4,546,246 
 4,295,925 
 4,237,285 
 4,289,841 
 3,487,199 
 3^945.893 
 4,37li077 
 4,705', 176 
 
 $4,654,718 
 
 4,759,110 
 
 4,567,228 
 
 4,627,716 
 
 4,374,713 
 
 4.320.731 
 
 4.320.731 
 4,084,296 
 3,971,310 
 4,326,850 
 4,479,049 
 
 27,535,554 
 
 24,267,552 
 
 52,173,480 
 
 58.069,075 
 
 62,000,000 
 
 From 1839 to 1849 inclusive, it. is seen by this 
 table that under the old high rates of postage in 
 .1840, the number of letters sent through the 
 United States post office was 27,535,554—receipts 
 <14,530,265; and there was a constant diminution 
 of letters and receipts from postages, down to 
 1S43, when the number of letters had run down 
 to 24,267,552—revenue, $4,295,225; leaving, in 
 1843, an actual deficit in the department of $78,788; 
 and even then, as now, we found the gentleman 
 from Indiana [Mr. Brown] opposed to any change; 
 using the same argument then as now, that the 
 Department would be bankrupted by the proposed 
 reduction. The gentleman says he lias been dis¬ 
 appointed in the result. 1 am sure, if he lives, 
 and the present proposed reduction takes place, 
 he will be again disappointed. I was a member 
 of this House in 1845, when the reduction was 
 made, and voted for it. That gentleman voted 
 against it. We have both been disappointed. 
 The effect upon the revenue has been more salu¬ 
 tary than any of us anticipated. 
 
 Before this reduction in 1845, the old rates were 
 twenty-five cents on the single letter for the longest 
 distance and six and a quarter cents for the short¬ 
 est. We changed it to ten and five; and under 
 the operation of the reduction the number of let¬ 
 ters increased from 24,267,552 in 1843, so that in 
 1849 there were transported over 62,000,000, and 
 the revenue in the same period had increased 
 from $4,295,925 to $4,705,176, and in 1850 to 
 $5,552,971. 
 
 The Department during this period has not only 
 sustained itself, but it has carried light, truth and 
 happiness to millions of our people, who under our 
 former system would never have been reached. 
 
 Under our old system, the Department was only 
 known to the people by the exorbitance of its 
 charges, amounting almost to oppression. Under 
 the reduced system it has become the people’s 
 friend, and is respected and fostered by them. 
 JNoWj instead of efforts to defraud the Department 
 
 of its legitimate revenue, you find an interest 
 everywhere felt in its maintenance. This is really 
 the only branch of the General Government whose 
 benefits are brought to the door of every citizen 
 of the Union every day of his life. 
 
 The gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Dunham] 
 says that “any argument drawn from the opera¬ 
 tion of the British Post Office, in support of a re¬ 
 duction in this country, is fallacious.” 
 
 Let us look a moment into it and see whether 
 he is right, first showing the results of the reduc¬ 
 tion. The postage upon all half ounce letters in 
 the United Kingdom of Great Britain, for any 
 distance, is one penny, equal to about two cents of 
 our money. In 1839, the last year of their high 
 or old rates, the letters transported in the mail 
 amounted to 76,000,000. In 1848, under the re¬ 
 duction, 347,000,000. 
 
 In 1848, the gross revenue of the Department, 
 
 including everything, was.<£2,181,016 
 
 Cost of management.<£1,196,520 
 
 Cost of steam and packet 
 
 service added.701,580 
 
 - 1,898,100 
 
 192,916 
 
 Deduct fees for registering money let¬ 
 ters, (not embraced in our system).... 56,000 
 
 • ■ ■ - 
 
 And there is still a surplus of.<£216,916 
 
 Over one million of dollars in the Treasury; and 
 the beauty of the system is, that the revenue is in 
 creasing every year in a greater ratio than the 
 expenses. It has been claimed by the opponents 
 of this bill that the money order office in Great 
 Britain was a source of revenue; but the returns 
 show that, the commissions in 1848 on money 
 orders were £67,376, whilst the expenses of that 
 office were <£77,976, being an actual loss to the 
 revenue of <£10,600. 
 
 It is said their country is more compact than 
 ours, and the cost of transportation and manage¬ 
 ment are less. How is the fact? 
 
 We have just seen that the cost of management 
 in Great Britain, in 1848, was <£1,196,500—equal to 
 about $5,982,600; whilst in this country, in 1850, 
 the expenditures were $5,212,953—theirs costing 
 more by $779,627 than ours. These are some of 
 the facts and figures that my colleague [Mr. 
 Sweetser] desired me to produce to prove rny 
 position, and the arguments which the gentleman 
 from Indiana [Mr. Duniiam] declares to be so 
 fallacious. 
 
 Another gentleman from Indiana, [Mr. Brown,] 
 who was a member of Congress in 1845, and 
 voted against the reduction, objects to any com¬ 
 parison of a cheap system of postage in this coun¬ 
 try to that of Great Britain, because, he says, 
 their sources of revenue are more numerous than 
 ours, and instances the registration of money let¬ 
 ters. He says, too, that their packet service is 
 not charged to the Post Office Department. He 
 very carefully forgot to add, that whilst we receive 
 $919,000 for postage on newspapers and pam¬ 
 phlets, Great Britain receives nothing, the post¬ 
 age being embraced in stamp duties, and going 
 into the general instead of the Post Office revenue. 
 But I have shown from the official reports of the 
 British Post Office, that after adding the cost of the 
 
 S icket service to the expenses of the Post Office 
 epartment, and after deducting from the general 
 revenue the amount which he says arises from 
 
6 
 
 money orders and the registration of letters, there 
 is still a surplus left to the credit of the Depart¬ 
 ment of over $1,000,000. 
 
 But I have said before, and I still insist, that the 
 reduction in this country will enhance the revenue 
 in a greater degree than the same reduction would 
 in England. Our people are educated, are migra¬ 
 tory, are commercial. We have a vast extent of 
 territory constantly filling up with emigrants from 
 the old States; and the associations of our father- 
 land always inspire us with the gift and the desire 
 to write. And when the tax upon our communi¬ 
 cations is reduced to a mere nominal sum, every¬ 
 body that can write, will write. 
 
 The gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Brown] is mis¬ 
 taken in his views in regard to the increase of clerk 
 hire, on account of the great increase of the number 
 of letters to be mailed and delivered. Every post¬ 
 master knows that it will be a great deal less labor 
 to make out and enter his post bills with one rate, 
 to enter hisn.ccount of mails received, and to make 
 out and add up his quarterly returns, than where 
 there are two rates. And in the large offices, 
 where the very best and highest salaried clerks are 
 employed to assort the letters for mailing, where 
 there are two rates, under the uniform system, 
 their services will be dispensed with, and in their 
 places any common laborer who cannot even read 
 or write, will stamp and prepare all letters for 
 mailing with the utmost ease. This simplifying 
 of the accounts will dispense with much of the 
 force now employed in the different post offices, by 
 which I have no doubt a great saving will result 
 to the Department. 
 
 Much has been said about the free circulation of 
 newspapers in the counties where they are pub¬ 
 lished. But, as 1 have said before, I am satisfied 
 that where the postmaster receives no compensa¬ 
 tion for receiving and delivering the newspaper, he 
 will be very likely to discourage its circulation, at 
 any rate through the mail; but where he. receives 
 fifty per cent , as his commission, he will take 
 some pains to encourage the formation of clubs, 
 for the mere compensation derived from commis¬ 
 sions. I propose that papers circulated and de¬ 
 livered in the State where printed, shall pay one 
 half cent for each number not weighing over two 
 ounces, and out of the State, one cent. There is 
 some propriety in this distinction, from the fact 
 that in most of the States the laws are printed by 
 authority in the newspapers, and their dissemina- 
 
 tion in the State should be afforded as cheaply as 
 possible. 
 
 I do not wish to embarrass the country press in 
 its cix-culatipn, for I have seventeen country papers 
 in my district, and desire to see them all prosper; 
 and my opinion is, that a free circulation in the 
 counties in which they are published will not tend 
 to increase their circulation; for I do not know of 
 a man in my district who would decline taking a 
 newspaper any the sooner because he had to pay 
 twenty-six cents a year for it. And then, again, 
 the newspapers in my country are very strongly 
 inclined to free trade, and a free-trade article would 
 not look very well along side of an article advoca¬ 
 ting a patent to monopolize, bylaw of Congress, 
 the right to furnish news to any particular portion 
 of the people. It would look a little like legislation 
 for one class of citizens to the injury of others. 
 They now receive all their papers free, and should 
 be, and I have no doubt will be, satisfied, without 
 being authorized to send theirs free to their subscri¬ 
 bers. My constituents are not paupers, and are not 
 so insensible to the principles of justice as to desire 
 this Government, or any body else, to work for them 
 for nothing. They know that the Post Office De¬ 
 partment must be sustained, and they are willing 
 to contribute to its support. However, thi^ is a 
 question that 1 am not strenuous about, if the com¬ 
 mittee see fit to adopt such an amendment to the 
 bill. One of my colleagues is a little surprised, he 
 says, that I should have been wrought upon by 
 these outside influences, and against the interests 
 of the people I represent, to advocate the reduction 
 of postage. I have always been the advocate of 
 low postage. It is no new thing with me. I be¬ 
 lieve my constituents are also, and if that gentle¬ 
 man’s are not, I mistake their sentiments very 
 much. There are some gentlemen upon this floor 
 who are afraid of innovation, of reform, or change. 
 They are in favor of ancient usages and customs. 
 The gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Dunham] is 
 opposed, to copying after the English or any of the 
 old hereditary kingdoms of Europe. The gentle¬ 
 man, I suppose, distrusts his own ability to dis¬ 
 tinguish the good from the bad, and would there¬ 
 fore exclude all. The remark of Voltaire may be 
 well applied to that class: “Our Wretched species 
 is such that those who walk the beaten path, are 
 always throwing stones at those who are recom¬ 
 mending new ones.” 
 
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