The Wasteful Unpaid-Letter System
The New York “World” points out one of the inconsistencies of our present postal arrangements in the sending of letters. Thirty years ago, if a letter was mailed without postage it would be delivered, and two cents would be collected from the recipient. Now if a letter is mailed without postage in New Orleans, for instance, and directed to New York, a clerk in New Orleans forwards to the person addressed in New York a card notifying him that a letter without stamp awaits him in that office and will be forwarded to him if he will send two cents prepaid, and that if the two cents are in the form of a postage stamp it must not be attached to the paper. This involves the writing of a letter, with a loose two cent stamp inside, and of course postage of two cents on the envelope. At the cost of four cents, considerable labor, and a delay of days the letter finally reaches its destination. The paper does not use too harsh terms when it declares that such service is “at once wasteful, exorbitant, and inefficient.”