The Nation: The Price of First-Class

Beginning this week, a letter sent by first-class mail in the U.S. will cost 8¢, a one-third increase over the previous rate, and more than double the old 3¢ standard familiar to more than a generation of Americans. Air mail will go from 10¢ to 11¢, and the rate for what was once the penny postcard will rise from 5¢ to 6¢. The higher costs are meant to restore some measure of solvency to the U.S. Post Office, which in July will complete its conversion from a Cabinet department to a Government corporation.

The private letter writer may take some small consolation, however, in considering the postal rates of 1792, when it cost an uninflated 22¢ to have a coachman carry a one-page folded message a distance of 450 miles. The once flourishing tradition of personal correspondence has faded in the U.S. For years, Americans have tended to favor the more direct communion of telephone wires. Given the condition of telephone service in some parts of the country, however, it may be safe to predict a small renaissance of letter writing in America, even at the higher prices. Of course, if the postal service does not improve either, there might be an instauration of drums, flashing mirrors in code, smoke signals, yodeling and great howls across the countryside.