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POSTAGE STAMPS


Chicago Daily Tribune, July 2, 1907, p. 5.

MARK TWAIN IN CRUSADE TO TRIM OCEAN POSTAGE.

American Humorist Wants Letters from the United States to England Carried for Two Cents.

[BY CABLE TO THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE.]

LONDON, July 1.--Mark Twain tomorrow will endeavor to prove that the Saturday Review's designation of him as "the real American ambassador to Great Britain "is founded on truth, for after luncheon in the house of commons he will accompany Mr. Henniker Heaton to the British postmaster general and urge the establishment of penny postage (2 cents) between the United States and Great Britain. Speaking of his project tonight, Mark said:

"The whole burden of postal cost comes upon the senders of letters. To my mind it is nothing but downright robbery to extort $1 a pound for letters. If the post office is in the robbery business let it be on a decent scale. If it is going to rob the public, let it do it for $10, instead of $1. A crime of magnitude may be forgiven, but petty larceny always is abhorrent.

"Speaking postally, my mind goes back to the days when it cost as much as a quarter to send letters to New Orleans. We did not have stamps in those days. My father used to give me the letters with the money to take them to the post office. This constituted my one source of income, as it did for most of the youths of Missouri. I pocketed the money and the letters went just the same, only the receiver had to pay.

"I believe this system did more to undermine the moral fiber of the boys of Missouri than anything I know. Fortunately, my moral character since has been rehabilitated.

"When England in 1848 invented stamps, my feelings were decidedly anti-English, as America took up the system and my income disappeared, as my father used to buy stamps, put them on the letters, and I had to trudge to the post office and mail them without any recompense.

"At that time when the proposition was advanced to reduce postage to 5 cents for short and 10 cents for long distances, the same cry was made which is now raised, that the reduction would ruin the post office, but the cry was false. The reduction increased the revenue. A reduction in postage between the United States and great Britain to a penny would have the same effect."


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