National Affairs: Postage Upping

Last week a citizen in Seattle could sit down, write and mail a letter to London, one-third around the world, for a 2¢ stamp. Next week the Seattle letter-writer will have to buy a 5¢ stamp to carry the same correspondence to the same destination. The U. S. Post Office Department has ordered several rate increases on foreign first class mail as of Sept. 1. To Britain and the Irish Free State letter postage has been upped 3¢ for the first ounce, in an attempt to reduce the postal deficit and bring first-class revenue closer to actual transportation costs. If the Seattlite thought he could beat this letter postage increase by using a postcard, he would find that on it too the rate had been jacked up from 2¢ to 3¢. If his London correspondent journeyed to Spain the man in Seattle could still reach him with a 2¢ U. S. stamp. But for everywhere else in the Eastern Hemisphere the standard letter rate is 5¢.

Spain is a member of the Pan-American Postal Union. Under that international convention U. S. letters carry only 2¢ postage to South and Central American countries. It costs no more to mail a letter from Duluth, Minn, to Punta Arenas. Chile, near Cape Horn than it does from Nogales, Ariz, across the street to Nogales, Mexico. Only South American exceptions to the 2¢ rate are Dutch and French Guiana, which, as non-members of -the Pan-American Postal Union, require 5¢ postage.

Because Canada increased its first class postal rate to the U. S. from 2¢ to 3¢ on July 1, the Post Office Department ordered U. S. letter mail to Canada to pay 3¢-instead of 2¢ after Sept.1.