Postal Riders and Raiders

tant on the mat taking the count. He is certainly a "phenom"-or his Third Assistant, Mr. Britt, or other aid, is the "phenom." At any rate the figures Mr. Hitchcock and

ornfield arithmetic was all acquired in Illinois. So, instead of permitting myself to become e

in that little school house at the cross roads in District 6, Town. 17, R. 3 E. The schoolmaster used to divide his time between "'rithmetic" an

wise legitimate, grounds for excusing me if I dodge, or try to dodge,

e matter of figuring things out, should be frittering away their time on a loafing job with the government. They ought to be holding

g to quote-am going to let someone else

te of two Republican party campaign committees. I'd be perfectly willing to take chances against Harvard in any game of figuring, but when it comes to sitting into the game with a graduate in two courses of party cam

lage and handling, and then I will quote the publishers whose figures Senator Owen so pertinently p

learned something from the publishers who came with the open, frank-yes, certified-information as to their business. Likewise,

eeting Senator Owen or his strong, clean minded, cl

h

floor of the Senate and fi

nd handling of second-class mail matter than Mr. Hitchcock could possibly have gathered in two years as head of the Postoffice Department. The commission was composed of

scussing the subject. It would, at any rate, have prudently curbed or restrained what appears in Mr. Hitchcock to be a native or acquired tendence to volume or tonnage in talk when he is speaking of second-class mail matters or of the publication and distribution of periodical literature. I do not concur in a number of the conclusions of this commission as presented in its report, but no fair-minded

ght be interested, directly or indirectly, in the subject matter to be investigated. It invited them to present their views, complaints, objections and suggestions in writing and also to send representatives to present their views and their grievances, if any, to the commission in person. The notice and invitation of the

e "defects of the existing statute as developed in actual operation." Also, the then Postmaster General, Mr. George B. Cortelyou, his Second A

ration. In[94] view of my previous statement, to the effect that I do not agree with some of the conclusions of this "Penrose-Overstreet Commission" some reader may wonder why I make referen

of this commission were broa

who is fairly well informed as to our federal postal service, as sound and sensible, however wi

ng would, almost necessarily, think the information it presents insufficient, both in subject matter and in detail, to be as helpful to the Postmaster General as, on a previous page, I have asserted the work

s inquiry, investigations and work provided Postmaster General Hitchcock, had he but taken the time to consult

s mail commission and to spending $50,000 more of the people's money to investigate a matter already thoroughly and comprehensively investigated and to collect

time as well of the commission as of[95] those appearing before it, a great volume of evidence was presented u

.

eard, boards of trade, and the like, and other data collected by the commission in the course of its investigations, tog

port of this 1906-7 commission. It says some pertinent things and says them hard. Before quoting, however, I desire to amplify a little

far as I have been able to learn, have appeared in the rogues' gallery. We may therefore presume that they are n

reports show, ever had the advantages and opportunities of acquiring that peculiar and specialized knowledge of federal

have come near to such unusual opportunities as just mentioned for acquiring exper

nd elsewhere, I find nothing to indicate that any of them ever tried to rob a smokehouse nor have any of them ever tried to put over any piece of "frame-up" legislation of the nature of Mr.

1906-7 was possessed of an ability, character and qualification to have commanded Mr. Hitchcock's careful consideration of the

a careful study of

which graduates of Harvard are presumed to have acquired, must have lapsed in the shuffle of the

cial report signed by five of the commissioners (Representative Gardner being ill at the time the report was submitted)-I cannot, I say, think it possible for any man of Mr. Hitchcock's admitted intelligence to rea

must be made by any fair-minded man that most of the facts it did dig out appear to be the very facts which Postmaster General H

nally or by representatives, or who presented their views in writing on the various phases of the questions under consideration. The quotations made, the reader must u

9

ces in these quotations, my purpose being, of course, to bring t

would remain after deducting all expenses of installation and general management involved in the maintenance of a complete postal service for government and letter mail. This method of computation should be applied not only in respect of the expenses of administration and handling, but especially in respect of the expense of railway mail transportation, in which, by reason of the sliding scale of payment,

ond-class matter is merely that part of total cost which

it gives a summary of another set of reasons presented by the publishers in their argume

e of mailing and of delivery, is in fact the least expensive class of matter. With respect to the proportion so routed and separated, it was variously estimated by the publishers as from 70 to 93 per cent of the to

s low as two-thirds of 1 per cent; that the radius of circulation was not more than 150 miles; that their mailings averaged 49 pounds per sack, and that 93 per cent of all second-class matter going out of New York city, for example, w

9

ed out as long ago as 1898-that second-class mail matter is a large producer of the revenues received by the government from mail

unt of first-class mail arising, first, from the direct correspondence between a publisher and the readers, and secondly, from correspondence, between the readers and the advertisers, resulting from the insertion of the advertisements. In the instances chosen, the first-class matter thus stimulated appeared to be very considerable. Upon this basis it was argued that any reduction in the volume of second-class matter woul

member that this is not all that the publishers said on the points touched upon. It is, however, no doubt a fair epitome or summary of what they said or wrote to the commission. The reader

e called for, at rates actually lower than the second-class postage rate. Inasmuch as the average haul of second-class matter was reported by the Wolcott commission (p. 319), to be but 438 miles, it is i

igence among the people. Next to the great public school systems maintained by the states, the newspaper and periodical are the chief agency of social progress and enlightenment. So far from this being a subsidy to the publisher the advantage of the low postage rate had been passed on to the subscriber in the form

ervice, including allowance for government mail, meets the cost of the whole service, it is immaterial whether each class of t

siness has been built up on the present second-class rates, and that a change from 1 cent a pound to 4 cents, as suggested by the Third Assistant Postmaster General, would cripple, if not destroy, every ex

ion said on its own account or quotes some one in whose

ill quote a few paragraphs from it which I believe highly commendable. There are many suggestions and recommendations that I believe would be of great value did the department but act upon them, and the vast amount of data the commission collected and made a digest of would, had he but looked into it carefully, most certainly have p

adder has heard varied opinions-some of them decidedly variegated, too-anent the probability of those three gentlemen coming back. Personally I am not sufficiently acquainted with their official service careers to justify the expression of an opinion of them. If, while in office, they directed their efforts and acti

olitician is the w

my vision from the ladder top appear to be devoting their

tive, and I have run the lines on a good many of them. Most of them when in positions of official power and opportunity act as if their consciences had been handed down in original packages dir

one theft,

ple. They pose and talk as courageous patriots and large thinkers. Under close scrutiny, howeve

-7 commission are politically dead or taking only a temporarily enforced rest, the situation is one which suggests the propr

1

ns made by the 1906-7 commission and of some of the ar

order to curb the circulation growth and keep down the piece or copy-weight of periodicals. To The Man on the Ladder such an idea is not only faulty to the point of foolishness but it violates long established and successfully applied business practices in the transportation and h

st a cent in rail or other haulage and handling of second-class mail matter, such loss has been wholly the result of excessive payments to railroads, Star Route and ocean carriers

from the Star Route lootings exposed some years previous. In the Star Route case, the waste-a more fitting word is thievery-the stealing was largely effecte

B. Cortelyou, deserve great praise for having eliminated much of it, and Mr. Hitchcock's active, continued efforts to further clean out that

1

ute with his patriarchal team I do not know. The villager, however, picked up a little on the side by hauling over his drive local parcels, some merchandise and an occasional passenger. I watched his

was presumed to serve was on a regular rural route and received fully 95% of its mai

e in both the circulation and the copy-weight of periodicals. Of course if the government really sustains a loss on the carriage and handling of second-class matter, the loss would be greater on

s. He was, seemingly at least, so occupied in his efforts to "get" a few periodicals through the means of that unconstitutional "rider" of his that he had littl

ldly, is presented to support the recommended scale, or system, of weight penalizatio

ter cent per copy not to exceed 4 ounces, and one-half[103] cent for each additional 4 ounces or fract

eding-

nces

nces

nces

nces

nces

nces

nces

nces

.,

about 1? cents per pound. For heavier periodicals the rate would average 1? cents per pound for those weighing 2 pounds, and increasing by an infinitesi

er's right at all times to send it by bulk at a cent a pound, would be so small as not to upset

ce. (2) Increase of revenue as the periodical grows heavier, due to the fact that

rement of weight is common to the postal systems of the entire world with the exceptions of Canada and the Unite

eighing less than 2 ounces finds ample justification in the obvious fact that the expense of handling second class matter is not to be measured simply by gross weight. On the contrary, as was pointed out by the representatives of the publishers in comparing the cost of handling second-class with that of first-class mail, such expense is to be measured by the number o

1

l periodical weighing less than 2 ounces, the country

, and a statement to the effect that all countries, other than the United States and Canada, increase the piece, or copy, postage rat

ions to some points in the above quo

ed to individual addresses. For copies mailed in bulk, in packages weighing not less than ten pounds, to some agent of the publisher or othe

argument for penalizing weight, because a

ch, necessarily, have weight-published in this cou

o Postmaster General Hitchcock-would class as "periodicals" publi

istake made after thirty years of study of the conditions controlling in my country-in yo

hich transport their mails. In some of them, rail transportation of mails-also of government officials, th

tenment, have gone through the mill-their[105] peoples have been ground fine in mills of s

making their mail service a s

the government's postal service than they expect it from the War,

not revenues, from any fe

ose independent periodicals are through with the recent sand-bagging attempt to censor or control their published thought-you will learn, I mean to say, that peop

t quotation-at some of the p

ide the county of publication free-and fraternal papers, Sunday School sheets and similar pub

The rate would average 1? cents per pou

es is given as 3? cents. A periodical weighing two pounds, or 32 ounces, would be charge

table, also in last paragraph

school and fraternal sheets that weigh two ounces or less "normal" periodicals? Are the dailies of our large cities, weighing from

1

als in the following de

, likewise hurried, reach. I tried to get them as near concurrent dates as I could. The tabulation will show th

no account was taken of the "write-up" or "promotion" advertising printed as reading matter. Some newspapers, at certain times, carr

ns.[2] Reading Matter, Pages or Columns.[3] Advertising

92 Cols. 171? Cols.

126 " 77? "

448 " 286?

0 pp. 14 pp

26 Cols. 77? Cols.

490 " 212?

pp. 22? pp.

68 Cols. 86? Cols.

316 " 242?

84 " 59?

126 " 65

210 " 87 "

112 " 63?

8-11 84 " 64?

720 " 399 "

pp. 20? pp.

128 Cols. 102? Col

392 " 221? "

728 " 373 "

114 " 73?

576 " 339? "

128 " 65?

504 " 358? "

pp. 15? pp.

84 Cols. 56 Cols

512 " 292 "

112 " 71 "

112 " 66?

.

112 " 91?

400 " 261?

112 " 67?

112 " 61?

11 126 " 86?

0 Cols. 586? Cols.

pp. 24? pp.

IODICALS.

316 " 146

" 140 "

266 " 144? "

" 146? "

244 " 113? "

224 " 132? "

206 " 143 "

11 68 " 32?

" 33? "

-11 84 " 52?

-11 72 " 37?

176 " 68?

11 136 " 62?

1 268 " 129

11 250 " 134

284 " 164 "

286 " 226 "

246 " 194 "

228 " 194

1 200 " 192

cal weighing less than one ounce" must "of necessity" pay th

rate of two cents per pound, whereas an initial rate of one-quarter cent per copy would make four-page sh

ade by the publishers-that it cost less to handle a pound of mail made up of but one to four pieces than it cost

increase of two cents a pound (one-half cent for each four ounces

r the carriage and piece handling of the heavier periodicals should scale downwards and not continue a flat rate, espe

il the expansion of second-class mail matter, not only by curbing the enlargement of periodicals in size by increasing the second-class rate and by penalizing added weight, but by putting restrictions upon the periodical publisher

eu of certain phrasings now in the statutes and which, the commission asserts, have proved quite inadequate in restraining periodicals from expanding their circulation beyond a po

1

ds become a law, the following are the means by which circul

e main agencies of inflation. The legitimate periodical employin

emiums, whether of print

ith a magazine, or requiring that in all cases a price shall be set upon both eleme

, not only its regular subscription price, but any reduced pric

returned with a postage-due stamp for an amount equal to double the third-class rate. In other words, charge the publisher th

), reads much like one of two things-either the inconsidered or ill-considered prattle of persons who want to say something, or the argument of ulterior motive-of a covert purpose to restrict, to cr

the mechanical inventions, for any of the multitude of betterments in the housing, clothing and subsisting of our people, had not that "public demand" been created? No one wants anything, however excellent it may be, until his attention is called to it and he believes it will aid him or her, as the case may be, that it will lighten the stress of labor or increase i

of the nations of earth for progress in the various fields of mechanical improvement, from kitchen utensils to laundry equipment, from the plow to the electric crane. What is true of the progress of our people through the adoption of labor-saving mechanical devices, implements and machinery is correspondingly true in var

and unbusinesslike both in theory and service practice, but it is also a stealthy attempt to garrote the facts

tional subscribers if he be denied

ple copies to the extent of ten per cent of his subscribed issue. Mr. Hitchcock, ho

urb the growth and development of periodical literature in this country in every way possible-ways that scruple not at biased rulings and gro

1

ample copies at the cent-a-pound rate, legislation

(23 Stat., 387), as relates to publications of

by the publishers thereof and from the known offices of publication, or when sent from news agents to subscribers thereto or to other news agents for the pur

r. Britt, to be found on pages 331 and 332 of the 1910 report-which suggestions, advice, etc., is based largely on "estimates"-"estimates" which any student or careful

e-Overstreet Commission, no doubt approved by Mr. Hitchcock, the mailing privilege on sample copies was cut down, January 1, 1908, to 10 per cent of the subscribed issue. Now comes Mr. H

's attention again to a point in Mr. Hitchcock's recommended legislation as quoted above-a point whic

recommendation he would grant a continuance of the cent-a-pound postage rate on periodicals "sent to subscribers," but to such only. No sample copies ar

r-are piece or single-copy mailings, which are admittedly the mo

d rate shall continue to be extended to such sing

ndeed he gave the subject any personal thought at all-of curbing the circulation growth of periodicals a

n second and more careful reading, however, its purpose becomes clear. If the cent-a-pound rate is to be allowed only to regularly subscr

e the 1911-12 postoffice appropriation bill, and from the foregoing as well as some others of his suggestions to Congress. But the point to which I more especially desire to cal

esired a law that would bar all sample copies from the mails at the present second-class rate. It also appears that Mr. Hitchcock at t

ommendation-we hear Mr. Hitchcock assertively declaring, and contentiously arguing, that

1

ar in so short a time to induc

han was received for the service. Being an "expert" figurer Mr. Britt found no difficulty in arriving at that absurd 9.23 cents a pound as the actual cost to the government of carrying and handling second-class mail. On pages 7 and 8 of the report, Mr. Hitchcock himself gives publicity to a conviction th

crease of rate" on periodicals of the magazine class, for carrying and handling their "advertising pages"-in face of these statements, how did his mental gear so slip, or "

Assistant or, in his anxiety to curb the circulation growth

the a

rs that Mr. Hitchcock in his 1910 report has written, figured and "recommended" hims

commission, I will mention a few mor

advertising matter (Section 3 of recommended bill, page 50 of report). Thus,[115] in pressing an ill-conceived purpose to restrain the growth of circulation and increase of weight of m

convince the veriest tyro in knowledge of federal postoffice affairs and the sources of its revenues that the stat

s, etc., is largely general in character. The advertisements published by the former are chiefly those of local merchants and manufacturers and of local, commercial, financial and other interests. On the other hand the advertisements carried by the class of monthly and weekly periodicals indicated represent persons, companies and interests wid

assign two chief reasons for its recommendation to curtail the space whic

ate as the "mail order" publications, devoted largely to advertising the wares carried in stock by one or, at m

handise[116] of those who pay for publishing them. I believe, however, that there are fewer of such fake periodicals enjoying the mail service at second-class rates today than there were ten or f

injustice to punish-to penalize by harsh restrictions and increased mailing rates-the thousands of legitimate and highly serviceable pe

If it cannot do so it appears to The Man on the Ladder that it would not require a very large amount of industrious, strenuous thinking

now largely governing) enacted in 1879 and 1885, therefore so antiquated in their wording in several particulars a

, among other things, that a periodical must be "originated and published for the dissemination of i

iated at considerable length in its report, against the inadequacy, lack of definiteness, etc., of the definition as given. The

he report the c

1

h. He wished to prohibit the misuse of the privileges for commercial ends

is also possible that they did not know the mind of that lawbuilder any better. While the '79 statute does not, in many particulars, meet present conditions as

semination of information of a public character, devoted t

ntile and others, including the science of business management, and the term "special industry" and the broad field covered by it-when one considers the broad application of those words, it is a fairly

cs, history, the lives and deeds of men, forests and forestry, mills, mines, factory, farm and a vast array of other features, phases and conditions-why, I ask, should our periodicals not give aid by giving space

directly interested-be aided and served in every legitimate way by our periodicals? Will some politically living member

1

he instruments which have contributed to build up the great commerce of the nation,

ion and usefulness by prattle about a postal "deficit" as reason for restrictive departmental rulings and laws when, should such res

s are not full of ulterior motives and post

nd-class matter, it appears that the commissioners, in an apparent anxious anxiety to prove their charge against the author of the act for careless, ambiguous wording, qu

the Postmaster General's counsel in Houghton vs. Payne,

ng upon the kind and character of matter which might be published in periodical form and mailed at second-class rates, and (2) that, by reason of such loose an

ounsel in support of that argument. I shall here reprint that quotation as evidence that the publisher of "the universally recognized, commonly acc

es and[119] clauses as it appears in the report. I have

e a word of strong color and tinges all the rest. It indicates a dynamic process, an agency at work carrying out a purpose for which it was originated and set in motion. But strong as the word dissemination is, it is fortified by the use of the word information. An agency for the dissemination of knowledge for example, might better consist with the idea of a library of books. But the word i

al industry. Devoted to literature. Mark you, not that the publication shall be literature or contain literature, but that it shall be devoted to literature. What is meant by devoted? The Century Dictionary puts it thus: To direct or apply chiefly or wholly to some purpose, work, or use; to give or surrender completely, as to some p

devoted to literature; it is literature, and it would be an absurdity to speak of it a

conceive of the review or magazine as one definite recognizable entity-a continuing whole, originated for a given purpose, and made up

here is but one concept consistent with them all. We confidently submit that an attentive reading of the statute will leave no doubt that what Congress constantly had in min

d was not the goodness or badness of the information disseminated, but the instrumentalities by which that dissemination might be accomplished. It was not thinking of all the accumulated stores of sound and pure literature in the vast libraries o

e which The Man on the Ladder strongly opposes, is that a periodica

in the sixth paragraph of Section 2 of the bill t

t commission, it seems to me, to some "wronghouse" for a long rest. Their conclusion, their lex recommendation and their "argument" in support, taken collectively, are as thrilling, likewise amusing, as

at 1906-7 commission, I shall here quote a few of the paragraphs it presents as basis for its recommendation. The reader will oblige by car

which to interlard and disguise the advertising matter, for the sake of which the publication is really issued. This they[121] could not do if the advertisement carrying text was required to be news matter or critical matter of a current nature. (3) Deprive the mail-order journals of the right to cloak their advertising with fiction and require them to publish some

l (5) is precisely the distinction between a periodical fulfilling the purposes of the act and

onfusion of the newspaper and magazine types and the unhealthy exaggerat

nue and the (6) true mission of the newspaper. The miscellaneous matter contained in the Sunday issue of

smallest possible cost of timely information among the people, is perverted when the right to that quick and inexpensive diffusion is extended to the form of fiction. But the periodical form devoted to fiction, or in which fiction constitutes the predominant feature, is the

oregoing in the order that its i

of The Cosmopolitan? of The American? of McClure's? of The Saturday Evening Post? of The Inland Printer? of The Progressive Printer? or of scores of other monthly and wee

ied Financ

l's exposures of S

the shake-up of the "Big Three" life insurance companies fiction? Were the hundreds of other trenchant write-ups and exp

ns affirmatively needs to have his brain dusted up-that is, of co

hese independents which greatly increased their circula

of our standard periodicals to merchants, manufacturers, etc., is, as previously shown, not only just and due to t

without ruinously restricting and obstructing the vast legitimate periodical interests of the country, that sextet ought to do one of two things, either send their thought equipment to a vacuum cleaner to get the dust

dicate that the Penrose-Overstreet Commission, as it appears to me, worked the "mail o

reminiscences, now (May, 1911), running in one of the magazines; as in the series of articles on the civil war now running in one of the Chicago newspapers, or as would be a series of articles on "the Panama Canal," on the

als of large general circulation presents far more of truth than do the stories, reminiscences and "historical narratives about the

to censor the periodical press of the people by legislative restrictions and departmental rulings which not only contrav

ostmaster General the power and authority to decide the kind and character of printed matter which shall have the right

mission advised (see recommended bill, page 49 of repo

shall be made to appear by evidence, satisfactory to the Postmaster General or h

veral of which I have already sh

as the commission tries to make it appear at (7), that "the diffusion in the quickest possible way at the smallest possible cost of timely information[124] among the people"-that is, the act does not so purpose if the word "timely," as here used, is intended to mean "news" or "currence of matter," etc., as the commission elsewhere in its report argues for. In fact, the commission's statement

o, does its position on several points it seeks to bolster in its report contravene the real purpose of that act, as I have previously shown,

s commission took against the admissibility to the second clas

c opinions, attorney's briefs, and to "booster" stuff for parties and candidates published in our newspapers. Certainly they could not have read much of the periodical fiction p

eading periodicals during current and recent years,

r standard periodicals (even in those printing only fiction as "bo

aking" in it. Some of the most informative matter ever printed bearing upon natural history, the geography, topography and hydrography of this earth, has reached us through the periodical fiction of the past ten or twelve years. Not only that, but such fiction has gone to the farm and into the laboratory, into the mine, the factory, the mill, and

sted, turned or misconstrued, to exclude "fiction"-peri

ommission's report. It recommends the appoi

and operating. Next to a bureaucracy, government by commissions is the worst. Can the reader think of a "Commission"-a Government, a State, County or City Commission-that ever discharged, promptly and satisfactorily, the duties assigned to it? One

erviceable work for the people-did it until an aroused

g instrument it has largely been a subversive instrument. It always spends its appropriation. It always puts as many of its uncles, brothers and nephews on t

it do what he and the rest of us depended on it to do? Well, not to any noticeable extent. It spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of our money while it

e, getting down to business-getting down to the work John Sher

nt? Why is it now trying to do-and trying, even yet, to do

the independent periodicals of the country-that they have been governmentally treated as fools-that they have

been learning rapidly. It is the people who have learned who have vi

r division of it, by a "Commission of Postal Appeals" or by any other commission, however dignified its title may be. Any suggestion or recom

mber of employes carried on its payrolls or with its expenditures, and that the creation of a commission-any postal commi

en some "hunches" from while it also appears he gave very little or no study or consideration to the vast amount of informa

or by representative. Some of that testimony, so newspapers reported during the hearings in both New York and Washington, is supported or re-enforced by the jurats of the publishers testifying. Some of those publishers stated in their testimony that t

of the fact that (1) the advertising pages of their publications were as generally read, if not more read, than were the body pages, and (2) that the sales of stamps by the government

he que

st of them went to publishers and associations of publishers. At an

elieve the publisher

did it in

over their[128] written statements, did the com

liars for the information of Mr. Cortelyou, the then Postmaster General, Mr. Meyer and M

them, that the publishers were or are liars, why may not, or should not, those

TNO

cluded in the tot

r periodicals carrying cover with no ad

f cover are count

newspapers (when mentioned as supplements in list),

ype="