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398 METHODS OF SOCIAL REFORM.
ment, after the introduction of the Penny Postage.” It
reminds one, too, of the remark of Adam Smith, that the
Post Office was the only kind of business that Government
had always managed with success.
Thu explanetion of this difference, I believe, is that which
I g~ve in my paper, published by the Xanchester Statistical
Society, on tho halogy between the Post Office, Telegraph,
and other means of Communication, namely, that the Post
Office stands in an entirely uniquo position as regards the
great iucrcnse in tra-f€ic which can be carried on with a small
increase of cost. Sir Rowhud Uill‘s reform mas sound and
successful, bccauso he really did show that an immensely
increased businer?s could bc done at 8 uniform charge of one
penny. A postman, to put the principle as briefly as possible,
can carry u hundred letters us easily as one, and a ton of mailbags
can be transmitted by railway almost as easily as a
single bug. But it is totalIy the reverse with the telegraphs,
in which cach messago hns to be individually received by a
clerk, transmittcd, ret,ransn~itted, written out, and finally
delivered by a special messenger. In this case every increase
of t.raffic involves an increase of expense in nearly the same
ratio ns regard3 many items.
Frwl the fnllacy of i~nt~giniug tllut we can do wit11 tho
tolegraphs or railway:, just what we have done with the Post
OEcc has arisen all this miscdculation. JVhatever we may
thiuk of the bargains which tllc postal authorities made with
tho telegraph coupanies, or of the xnmlner in which they
expended the Stiviugs Bank nloner without authority, they
doubtless believed that all would be justified when they could
show a large net revenue. Mr. Scudamore stated his opiniou
to the Select Committee that (Q. 2252) “the estimated net
revenue will cover any capital that, can possibly be wanted.’
I can well remember, too, that the newspaper press generally
urged him on to n vigorous and fearless policy, on the ground
that the telegraphs mould be sure to pay if they were only
brought to every man’s door, end the charges made low
enough.
It is curious to reflect what mould have been the cxm-