o secure
the orderly performance of the public duty. And a postage of two cents
would amply suffice for this. Some have suggested that _one cent_ is all
that ought to be required.

There is another view of the matter, which shows still more strongly the
injustice of the present tax upon letters. "It is not matter of
inference," says Mr. Rowland Hill, "but matter of fact, that the expense
of the post-office is practically the same, whether a letter is going from
London to Burnet (11 miles), or from London to Edinburgh (397 miles); the
difference is not expressible in the smallest coin we have." The cost of
transit from London to Edinburgh he explained to be only one thirty-sixth
of a penny. And the average cost, per letter, of transportation in all the
mails of the kingdom, did not differ materially from this. Of course, it
was impossible to vary the rates of postage according to distance, when
the longest distance was but a little over one-tenth of a farthing. The
same reasoning is obviously applicable to all the _productive_ routes in
the United States. And we have seen the injustice of taxing the letters on
routes that are productive or self-supporting, to defray the expense of
the unproductive routes which the government is bound to create and pay
for.

Another view of the case shows the futility of the attempt to make
distance the basis of charge. The actual cost of transit, to each letter,
does not vary with the distance, but is inversely as the number of
letters, irrespective of distance. The weight of letters hardly enters
into the account as a practical consideration. Ten thousand letters, each
composed of an ordinary sheet of letter paper, would weigh but one hundred
and fifty-six pounds, about the weight of a common sized man, who would be
carried from Boston to Albany or New York for five dollars. The average
cost of transportation of the mails in this country, is a little over six
cents per mile. For convenience of calculation, take a route of ten miles
long, which costs ten cents per mile, and another of one hundred miles
long at the same rate. There are many routes which do not carry more than
one letter on the average. The letter would cost the department one dollar
for carrying it ten miles. On the route of one hundred miles we will
suppose there are one thousand letters to be carried, which will cost the
government for transportation just one mill per letter. How then can we
make distance the basis of