Uniform postage

One topic in the November 2, 1905, issue was U.S. postage. Domestic mail cost two cents; international mail cost five cents. The editors received a great deal of foreign mail that had the wrong postage. At the time, everyone in the United States paid "twice the amount of the deficiency" to take possession of letters that had insufficient postage. The editors viewed standardizing domestic and international postage as a "lowering of barriers which prevent discourse between people of different nations," so they argued that domestic postage rates should go up. An increase in domestic postage or decrease in international postage would have saved the editors from paying fines, but we would not support a postage hike of any kind today.