e Early Posts in North America 391
(viii) The Clerks of the Road and the Transmission of Newspapers 403

APPENDIX C--
LIST OF AUTHORITIES 412

INDEX 425

INTRODUCTION

This book contains a collection of facts and an examination of
principles which will be of value to all students of the subject with
which it deals. It is more comprehensive than any book on rates of
postage yet published in the English language, or, I believe, in any
other. It is careful and unbiased, and although here and there some of
the author's conclusions may not meet with unanimous acceptance, they
cannot fail to stimulate useful discussion on a matter which is far more
important than is often realized.

The whole of our social organization has come to depend in large degree
upon the post. Commerce, in all its departments, relies upon it. All the
variety of associations which are, in their wide expansion, distinctive
of modern civilization and necessary to its life and energy--employers'
associations, trade unions, co-operative societies, friendly societies,
religious bodies, political and propagandist organizations of every
kind, local, national, and international--the whole nervous system of
the modern State, depends upon the quick transmission of information and
ideas; it would never have reached and could not maintain its present
development without cheap, reliable, and speedy means of communication.
The indirect effects of changes--even small changes--in the postal
system are often extensive and almost incalculable.

Where the State itself conducts an industry there is always a risk that
commercial considerations and fiscal considerations will not be
sufficiently distinguished. Charges may be fixed at a higher point than
is warranted by the cost of the services rendered. The surplus goes to
the national revenue. It is a tax, but a concealed tax, and in the case
of postal rates it is one of the worst kinds of tax, a tax on
communications. On the other hand, charges may be fixed at a lower
point than will cover the cost of the service. The deficit is a subsidy,
but a concealed subsidy. The halfpenny postage rate for bulky
newspapers, for example, or the extension of telegraph offices to rural
districts, may be socially useful, but they are unremunerative. The loss
that