Читать книгу The Development of Rates of Postage: An Historical and Analytical Study - A. D. Smith - Страница 4

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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 they involve to the Exchequer may be justifiable, but if so it should be deliberately incurred. It should not be hidden in the profit that is made on the letter post. Without a scientific examination into the actual cost of each part of the postal and telegraphic service, and into the precise relation of revenue to cost, the charges may include, haphazard, an excess which is nothing but pure taxation, the expenditure may include an addition which is nothing but pure subsidy, and neither the administrator nor the taxpayer may be aware of the fact.

It is therefore one of the essential duties of the Post Office to make such examinations, and of students or critics of postal affairs to check or to supplement them. Mr. A. D. Smith has made a useful contribution to the application, in this sphere, of the methods of science to the conduct of industry; and since the postal service is the most international of all forms of social activity, it may be expected that his contribution will be of value, and will have its influence, far beyond the limits of our own country.

HERBERT SAMUEL.