Postal Riders and Raiders

odied in his remarks on February 25, 1911, the arguments presented by some of the publishers in reply to Mr. Hitchcock's statements. They point out in particular his pec

soon forced Mr. Hitchcock to unmask his guns. He was ready, it would seem, to do or concede almost anything provided, always and of course, he could give a fe

play parley and peace signals. "The country newspapers would not be affected"-they would still

He may remember it at the next Presidential election-just when we may be needing a few farmer votes. So, as one evidence of our kindly consideration for the farmer, we will not trench upon his special privilege. He shall still have delivered him-free-fif

1

al or scientific periodical. Some of these-not including the Sunday School leaflets, of course-circulate in vast editions ranging from 500 to 5,000 copies a month. They,

d mail rate, or so at least, Washington correspondents reported. Finally it is said, a statement generously borne out by the word

pe of a "periodical" switch through and along at the old rate, if he could only ham-string a few-a score or less-of mo

k's voluminous, likewise varied and variegated, utterances, both verbal and in print, to support his lur

lishers, however, I de

s of printing and distributing periodicals than Mr. Hitchcock has been able to learn

rest" junk, and tells you its price is so much and that you have to pay the price-well, at about that point in the[131] progress of our splendid civilization, I think it both the part of justice and of thrift to lay dignity on the parlor couch and walk out on your own trackage, making as you loiter along a few plain and easily understood remarks

dignity on that nail behind the kitchen door and sally forth

aster Generals undertake to deliver to them a cargo of cold-storage stuff that was "off color" before it left the farm, I will p

ator Owen that we reprint a few paragraphs from his forewor

ey appear to have been left under the impression that nothing would be done in regard to the matter; or, at all events, they seem to have been under this impression. When the matter came before the House of Representatives and the committee having the matter in charge, no discussion of this matter took place. No report on it was made. No opportunity to be heard was afforded. Neither was the matter discussed on the floor of the House. When the postoffice appropriation bill c

nternal administration I am st

1

e magazines are brought by express and distributed in Washington, D. C., over 250 miles from New York, at less than 1 cent a pound for cos

the mails at a reasonable rate, this distribution could be made at a cost approximately that which I

magazine publishing business-a subject which I treat elsewhere-the Senator presents their "Exhibit B," which counters the Postmas

nes on which advertising is printed would tax these magazines, the most powerful group, best able to meet such a shock, nearly the whole of their entire net income. This me

the new postage bills, what, theoretically, would be the increased revenue of the Postoffice Department, for the

s than 1 cent flat on the weight of the whole periodical. This is not the way the ambiguously worded amendment works out literally; but, accepting the Postmaster General's figures and applying them to the weights, given

d increase as 20.23 per cent for magazines, 6.4 per cent for educational publications, 5.91 per cent for religious periodicals, 4.94 per cent for trade journals, and 5 per cent for agricultural periodicals, making 42.97 per cent alt

conferring despotic power, certain to be disputed, the Postmaster General claims that this figures out only 1 cent increased revenue on 343,760,0

ld have to subtract the weight of all the periodicals exempted, and a

e of legitimate reading matter. There will be extra legal expenses for the disputes that arise between publishers and the Postoffice Department over matters in which the publishers may believe the department is using the despotic power given by this measure to confiscat

imed by Mr. Hitchcock, what revenue would remain to justify the wiping out of an industry bu

great force of clerks, this would amount to less than 1 per cent of its revenues for 1910. It would amount to less than one-eighth

mparatively small groups of periodicals left to be published, after the favored ones were exem

e than 100 per cent of all that he has-

vernment are based on the department's own s

tion, in the rates of other lines of distribution from which the government derives no revenue. They take no account of the loss in circulation volume, that is certain to f

ke no account of the certain destruction of publishing properties, and the consequent destru

the Administration and announced by Postmaster General Hitchcock that agricultural periodicals will be exempted from the increased postal rate. The owners and other representatives of agricultural periodicals gathered in Washington to o

the Administration has at last got down to the

ute 20.23 per cent of second-class matter, or only 162,000,00

uld only mean 1 cent a pound more on the whole periodical, he could only figure ou

have to deduct, of course, the exempted periodicals and al

ass rates to do away with the post

magazines are

stal rates on certain subclasses of second-class mail, leaving the larger s

arently decides from day to day and hour to hour as to[135] whether one

tutions of this country are to be so changed as to give this despotic censorship to one man, ought that

rs begin to talk back a little. In introducing

it is entirely just to increase the cost on advert

ht as 20 per cent of the whole second-class mail, and newspapers as 55.73 per cent. Why leave out the largest classification entirely and concentrate all the new tax on

stration concentrated its fire

he Administration-given hurriedly and wea

and magazines punished to

ing than newspapers; (b) they cost the Postoffice Departm

the advertising contents, respectively, of each of 36 daily newspapers and each of 54 periodicals-the chief advertising mediu

is easily susceptible of final disproof from the department's own figures-the most extreme fi

average lengths of haul, it costs 5 cents to transport a poun

e[136] correct. Let us see how the final cost of service for a pound of

cost, apportioned according to the number of pieces of mail-rural free delivery, railway-mail service, and postoffice

OST OF MAGAZINES

y weighing 60 different classes of newspapers, daily and Sunday, the postal committee of the Periodical Publis

second class mail-764,801,370-and the proportion of newspapers and ma

f magazines in the mails and 42

a pound for transporting magazines and 2 cents a pound for transporting newspapers,

NDLING

he number of pieces, in three classifications of expense-the railway mail service, rural free delivery, and postoffice servi

class mail handled was 3,695,594,448

23,803 pounds, furnished 1,740,000,000 pieces to handle (taking round millions, wh

3 ounces each, furnished 201,260,000 pieces to ha

ld be apportioned according to the number of pieces, and which it does so apportion, we have t

86, or $28,782,425.10, which, divided by the total of newspaper pou

ET RE

cost of hauling and handling magazines, 5 cents plus 1.4 cents, or 6.4 cents; the

ed with magazines, the department's own figures show that it is losing on the fundamental operations of hauling and handling 7.75 cents a pound

goes to the magazines, of scarcely one-third the weight of newspapers, and with not one-twentieth the financial ab

er advertising that produces the profitable revenue, as against the local announcements in the newspapers of the class of page

public affairs, than the modern magazine. Compare the "magazine sections" of the large newspapers (and most of the balance of their Sunday issues), with publications like the Review of Rev

ts a pound to carry and handle magazines. It is a known fact that both the newspapers and the magazines can be carried and handled by the government at a profit at $20.00 a ton-at the cent-a-pound rate. Mr. Hitchcock asserted in the official brochure to which the publishers are here making reply, I take it, t

and handling by[138] increasing their sale price. That is, let the five, ten or fifteen-cent weeklies ring up fi

amiliar resonance. "Make the rate (

d as a mission child in the Chinese or Hindoostanese "field

make the dear people pay

counts or stockings, and if they want a thing they will

bsistence, to the comforts and the pleasures of their lives. They have been buying some splendid monthly periodical

It's the peo

with th

certain "fixed" members of it, told us that we needed, in order to be entirely prosperous and happy, a tariff on "raw" wool, "

s gathered multiplied millions of unearned wealth and passed it into the hands of "innocent holders," most of whom, if ou

ordering a second serving-our patriotic friends in positions of legislative authority, and our commercial and business "friends"

erely to illustrate how easily and co

ping themselves by lifting the price on us is of a kind with all

thly-for fifteen cents today than we

torically, geographically, geologically, astronomically, psychically or similarly informative and instructive. They told us little or nothing of how we were misgoverned-of how misgovernment saps and loots and degenerate

o"? Well, then do

nt, just sit up and shake

ritten, independent periodicals-periodicals which tell the "raw" truth. It is dangerous. They will hurt themselves. We vested-interests people and "innocent holders" must set up some hurdles; must keep the dear, earning peo

me back and read what we hir

ollars for us will not "learn wi

g price of the magazines and others of the "few" periodicals that would be affected by his proposed "rider" leg

ter to do this by a f

egetables, etc.-or on a yard of textile fabric they must have to cover or shelter their

or shelter them will induce them to hesitate before purchasing-will often lead to an exercise of self-denial which refuses to make the

tion of periodicals was quite conclusively shown to Mr. Hitchcock

uld collect the additional cost imposed on t

hibit D" of the pu

the measure providing for a new postal rate of 4 cents a pound on all magazine sheets on which advert

assed on to advertisers o

S WOULD NOT TA

hat the rate charged per line is fair. Some advertisers go so far as to insist on contracts which provide that if the circulat

America are less than one-tenth of their total advertising income-it is clear that the publisher must be trying always to get as large a rate as p

s postal rate, which the Postmaster General says is unprofitable to his department. Most advertisers would simply find this market for their wares g

hope that the adverti

BER PAY THE INCRE

tely 50 per cent in subscription prices if the publisher is to recoup himself

y 50 per cent more

As the discriminatory rate was later withdrawn in certain cases, we have a complete cycle of record and proof. First, the Canadian subscription list before the increase; second, the Canadian subscription list after the i

CORD OF THE RE

postage on Canadian subscriptions, instead of 1 cent, and was forc

subscribers in July,

ff, and continued to do so steadily until in

pound, its subscription was reduced to the old figure of $3, and the Canadian list quickly "

can magazines were increased 50 per cent to the public. In this Canadian incident the price of

IEWS-CANADIAN

n to pay extra p

1907

1907

r, 1907

, 1907

, 1907

, 1907

, 1908

, 1908

1908

1908

908

1908

1908

st, 1908

r, 1908

, 1908

, 1908

, 1908

, 1909

, 1909

1909

1909

909

1909

1909

1909

r, 1909

, 1909

, 1909

, 1909

, 1910

y, 1910

1910

, 1911

nclusively "that it would be ruinous to them to raise the rates

the tax), or a reduction of the tariff or selling rate would be "ruinous," does not cut much kindling in his intellectual woodshed. It has been entirely a too common yodle either to interest or to instruct any intelligent man who has been watching the play and listening

ne rises with vocal noise enough to be heard in protest against paying 29 cents a pound for Belteschazzar's "nut-fed," "sugar-cured," "embalmed" hams and insists that they

uin" will be spread and splattered in printers' ink all[143] over the country. No, your Man on the Ladder does not have much respect for this "ruin" talk, as it is usually "stumped" and "space-written" for us commoners in the industrial walks of life and in its marts of trade. But when he hears that warning sounded by men engaged in a business indust

r-should listen to the publishers' arguments in proof that Mr. Hitchcock'

of its product would ruin almost any established business there is in this country, if such increase was forced in the limited time named in that "rider." A suddenly

ents in manufacturing cost for our fifteen cents in cash is certainly des

e been doing it for the past twelve to twenty years-no honest periodical rea

for presenting here the "E

was established for second-class matter. The question at the head of this exhibit is answered by the success

the second-class rate was lowered, in 1885, to the present rate of 1 cent a pound, and after second-class matter had increased beyond any figure hitherto dreamed of; that the decrease in percentage of deficit continued, coincidently with the increase in volume of second-class mail, until 1902, when large appropriations began for rural free delivery service. Then deficits began to grow as t

zine advertising, raise the strongest presumption that the larger the volume of second-class mail becomes the more fully the postoffice plant is worked to its capacit

a surplus of over $23,000,000 outside the specific loss on rural free delivery. A chief reason why the Postoffice Department has this $29,000,000 to lose on rural free delivery is that periodi

coincident increases in second-class mail, and that is, that the deficit can be reduced with an ever-incr

of postoffice deficits a

DEFICITS AND SEC

tmaster General are the autho

operations of the United States Postoffice

nd-class matter on a pound-payment basis. An i

the postoffice operations of on

lass matter 1 cent a pound, which still further increased

1

perations of the Postoffice

ond-class matter than any previous 10 years-from 174,

operations in the year 1900 wa

greater than the increase in second-class matter. These years brought the great forward movement in the production of low priced but well edited magazines, made possible by large advertising incomes, and also in the increa

the postoffice operations of on

was 2.4 per cent, the smallest percentage of defic

E DELIVER

y extended the service of the postoffice to farmers in isolated communities, regardless of the expense of so doing. The report of the Postmaster General for 1902 says: "It

e deficit of the postoffice has steadily declined, the rate of decrease being always coincident with the expansion of circulation and advertising of periodicals, until in

F OVER $74,000,0

erwise wastefully.) In the present year, 1910, the report of the Postmaster General shows a surplus of over $23,000,000 outside the loss on the rural free delivery service of $29,000,000. The

es by originating[146] profitable first-class postage can be

econd-class mail, of circulation pushing, and of advertising, has come in spite of an enormous expansion in governmental mail, carried f

with a three-ring circus, a menagerie and moving pictures as a "side." Candidly, I am of the opinion that it was this

t, read this "F" of the publishers. If such a misfortune ha

hy

r removing, the federal postoffice "deficit," the read

unless he is a fool, as some descriptive artist has appropriately put it, i

eping with the exalted position he holds and worthily fills. Your uncle on the ladder, however, is not, as you m

hat the advertising pages in periodicals (newspapers or other), are the pages whic

eral's voluminous, cushion-tired conversation and automatic comptometer figuring, the publisher

1

sered liars scattered in and along the various walks of life even at this late date. So, there appears to be no valid reason nor grounds to question the veracity of Solomon, or whoever the ancient witness was, when he testified, to the best of his knowledge and belief, that all men are prevaric

nly and frequently observed fact that in almost every recorded instance where

-bunches of men-in this our day who will tell us

ill kindly so consider it, to the end of c

truth tellers, likewise liars, in the w

dard and practice of veracity-among the periodical publishers of this c

of that statement. Especially will they not question it when they take into consideration