The Postmaster General's Forgotten 'Postal Telegraph' Scheme

Mr. Wanamaker, the Postmaster General, has a theory that there is a large amount of business in the country that would be better handled by the Post Office than by the telegraph companies. His theory is that the government could provide a postal telegraph service. He proposes that in many cases, the telegraph companies would find it more effective to send their messages via the post to the nearest postal station, equipped with a cent stamp to be cleared on the next trip of the carrier serving that district. In many cases, the letter delivery would be no slower than the telegraph delivery; in many cases, it is likely to be more expeditious. Mr. Wanamaker's theory is that the letter carrier can do the messenger's work for him. If the public can have messages transmitted at three-fourths of a cent or a cent per word during the day and perhaps for half a cent per word at night, and can then have them delivered by Uncle Sam's letter carriers at a cost of two cents each, it will get something very closely approximating a postal telegraph. It is obvious that this plan would apply very well to night dispatches, a class of messages very largely used both in social and commercial correspondence. Mr. Wanamaker believes that with cheaper rates, telegraph business would be vastly increased, thereby adding to the revenues of the companies and the postal department.