| From the Southern Watchman (Athens,
Ga.) |
| |
| March 25, 1863 |
| |
| Post Office Department |
| Richmond, March 4, 1863 |
| |
| Campbell Wallace, Esq. |
| President E. T. & Ga R. R. Co. |
| Knoxville, Ten. |
| |
| Dear Sir, |
| Your letter of the 10th of
February ulto., was received by due course of mail, and I have been
prevented from answering it sooner by a pressure of business. I can
but thank you for the generous and patriotic expression of your views
recommending a reduction of the mail pay to railroads to a uniform
rate of fifty dollars per mile, during the war, as a means of enabling
the Post office Department to keep up the mail service. At a
Convention of the officers and representatives of the railroad
companies, which was held at Montgomery soon after the organization of
our government, they cheerfully and patriotically met the views of the
Department by consenting to a reduction of the rates of mail pay. |
| But this consent was coupled
with a resolution which requires a considerable increase of
expenditure by the Department for the payment of messenger service,
which had before that time been paid by the railroad companies. And,
on the whole the reduction of the cost of railroad service has not
been as much as was at the time expected. |
| As bearing on your
proposition, I would mention that at the railroad convention recently
held at Augusta, the proceedings of which I have not yet seen, I have
been informed a resolution was adopted for the appointment of a
Committee to urge upon Congress the propriety of increasing the rates
of mail pay to railroad companies. If I am correctly informed as to
this it would indicate that they would not probably consent to the
reduction you so patriotically propose. |
| I have for some time past been
endeavoring to accommodate the views of the officers many lines of
railroad, I may say of nearly all, by agreeing with the arrangement of
schedules at a rate of speed of about fifteen miles per hour, instead
of the present schedules. This, they represent to me, is made
necessary on account of the difficulty of keeping up the motive power
and rolling stock of the several roads as from the difficulty of
getting iron to repair the roads. If this slower rate of speed shall
be adopted, I am advised it will be beneficial to the roads b y
facilitating transportation. And for this and the decreased speed in
the transmission of the mails, which is the special advantage derived
from conveying them by railroad, they may possibly consent to some
reduction of present rates of pay. If our railroads would consent to
the rates of mail pay received by those of other countries, it would
greatly relieve the Department, and would possibly enable it to pay
its won expenses without a reduction of the mail facilities of the
country. And when the current amount of transportation gives them full
employment, as at present, and especially if slow schedules should be
agreed on, so as to favor transportation, and while the messenger
service is paid for by the Department, I can see no good reason why
they might not agree to a reduction of mail pay. |
| A reduction of the railroad
pay for transportation of the mails to a maximum of rate of one
hundred dollars per mile would produce a saving to the Department of
one hundred and seventy-five thousand three hundred and ten dollars
(175,310). And a reduction to a maximum of fifty dollars per mile
would produce a savings of four hundred and eighteen thousand four
hundred and ninety-five dollars ($418,495). A reduction of the
expenses of the Department by an amount equal so this latter sum, if
it can be made, would enable the Department to meet its future
liabilities, it is believed, without further additional aid from the
Treasury and without the necessity of further reductions of the
service. |
| While I do not regard it as
probable that the railroads would consent to this latter reduction, I
should have hopes that they might consent to deductions to a maximum
of seven-five dollars per mile with the twenty-five per cent.
allowance for night service when performed, upon the arrangement of
such slower schedules as will accommodate their freight and travel. I
will call the attention of the Committees on Post Offices and
Post-roads, of the two houses of Congress to your recommendation, that
they may give it such consideration as its importance requires. |
| In answer to that portion of
your letter in which you suggest that I withdraw my recommendation for
an increase of the postage on newspapers, and for the repeal of the
law authoring the sending of newspaper exchanges through the mail free
of postage, I would say without any feeling of hostility to
newspapers, or on account of a want of appreciation of their general
usefulness, or the special and great service they have rendered our
country in the struggle through which we are passing, I agree with you
in the belief that the history of the does not furnish evidence that
the press has ever before been more free as a general thing, from
personality or licentiousness, in times of either peace or war that it
has been in the Confederate States for the last two years, and that no
Government was ever more nobly and patriotically sustained by the
press than ours. But the same just need of praise may with equal
propriety be bestowed on those who compose our gallant and faithful
armies, and those who, unable to go to the tented field, both men and
women, have voluntarily contributed so much, and to the amount untold
thousands freely and without price, to sustain them; yet it it not
proposed to give these any special immunities, or to foster their
industry at the expense of other pursuits. And these recommendations
were made because their adoption would add to the revenues of the
Department, and so far aid in securing postal facilities to the
country, without inflicting a wrong on any, and because it is contrary
to the principles of our Government and the genius of our institutions
to foster or promote any part of it, or any of its citizens at the
expense of others. He who eats must pay for his food; he who wears
must pay for his raiment; and he who reads ought to pay for his books
and papers. The State Governments may, if they think proper, make
provision for the education of the people, but the Confederate
Government has no such power. |
| But independently of the
question of policy and power so far as the publishers of papers are
concerned, they are not at all agreed as to the propriety or justice
of authorizing transmission of exchanges through the mails free of
postage. Soon after the organization of our Government, and
preparatory to my first recommendations of the subject, from personal
interviews and from correspondence, I ascertained that in the main
costly daily papers were opposed to it, while the smaller papers, less
frequently issued, generally favored it. |
| This, as it was explained to
me arose from the fact that the publishers of dailies, when applied to
for an exchange with less costly papers, found it to be rather
injudicious to refuse such exchanges, while to make them was to submit
to a tax equal the difference in the value of the papers in each case.
And while there is no compulsion to make free exchanges the above is
an illustration of the practical operation of the law in the class of
cases referred to. |
| You no doubt observed to that,
even at the increased rate of postage on newspapers which I recommend,
one newspaper weighing three ounces would be sent from Richmond to
Knoxville for one cent, while correspondents would have to pay sixty
cents for three ounces weight of single letters between the same
points. I only recommended such an increase of postage on newspapers
as I hoped Congress would adopt, and not what my own convictions of
justice and propriety induced me to think would be really right and
proper. So that, while appreciating the high motives which prompted
your views, I am led to a different conclusion from yours on this
subject. |
| With much respect, your ob't
servant, |
| John H. Reagan |
| Post Master General |
| {the above includes
many errors probably made by the printer} |
|