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HE TECHNICAL WORLD MAGAZINE

VOL. X V

APRIL, 1911

NO. 2

TO MUZZLE THE FREE PRESS

In the closing hours of the session the "rider" increasing magazine postage was withdrawn and provision was made for the appointment of a committee to investigate the whole subject of second-class mail matter and its cost.

T

HE TECHNICAL WORLD MAGAZINE-like every other established standard magazinerepresents an investment of several hundred thousand dollars. On this large investment the present net return is very modest-less than could be safely secured in other lines of business.

The increase in postal rates from one to four cents a pound on all magazine advertising pages, which the administration attempted to force through Congress, would probably wipe out the profit entirely and might leave a deficit.

It is admitted, then, in the first place that this magazine opposes the postal increase for purely selfish reasons. But if there was nothing more involved than a financial loss to its publishers they would make up the deficit-or go out of business-and not attempt to bother the reading public with a statement of the

case.

But, with no desire to make rash charges, with every wish to be generous and fair in its judgments of public men, this magazine is forced to the conclusion that there are involved in the postal increase consequences of the gravest import to all the people of the United States.

By way of clearing the way, let it be

said that the TECHNICAL WORLD MAGAZINE does not ask-nor will it knowingly accept-anything in the shape of a subsidy from Congress. President Taft and his advisers may urge the granting of ship subsidies; they may approve in the highest terms the passage of a tariff bill which gives vast subsidies to wool trusts, steel trusts and other dropsical infant industries. This magazine prefers to stand or fall on its own merits. It is not only ready. but anxious to pay a fair price for postal service.

But it submits to the fair-minded public that in determining what is a fair price for postal service and in putting any change into force, the following principles, among others, should be followed:

1. The fair price should be—can be— determined only after a full and careful investigation, such as would satisfy any reasonable business man.

Postmaster General Hitchcock declares that the present postal deficit of $6,000,000 is due to the fact that it costs many millions more to carry second class matter than is paid for the service.

Mr. Hitchcock is an ambitious politician who has been Postmaster General for about two years. His statement is questioned by Senator Boies Penrose of Pennsylvania, the chairman of the great

Post Office committee of the United States, who, speaking in the Senate within a year, said:

"It is idle to take up such questions as apportioning the cost for carrying second class mail matter or the proper compensation of railroads for transporting the mails until we shall have established business methods in postoffice affairs by a reorganization of the whole postal system."

Senator Carter of Montana, also speaking in the senate, said in March, 1910:

"I deeply sympathize with the earnest desire of the department officials to get rid of the deficiency they are fated to encounter every year, but I submit that the first real movement toward that end begin with the substitution of a modern, up-todate business organization for the existing antiquated system."

must

Senator Carter is also an old member of the Post Office committee and is thoroughly acquainted with its problems.

The total gross receipts of the post office department for the last fiscal year were $224,000,000. The total deficit for the same year was 2.6 per cent. To the man on the street, who knows something of the

impossible to make such an investigation as to fairly apportion the cost of transporting and handling any class of mail

matter.

Since, however, Postmaster General Hitchcock insists on blaming the magazines, it is to be noted that in 1870, before second class mail matter was put on the pound basis, at all, the deficit was more than twenty-one per cent of the gross receipts of the department. In 1880 the first year after the pound rate went into effectwhen there was a sudden jump in the amount of second class matter-the deficit was less than ten per cent of the gross receipts.

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POSTMASTER GENERAL FRANK H.
HITCHCOCK, WHO ADVOCATES
INCREASED POSTAGE RATES
ON MAGAZINES

way politics has entered into the administration of the post office department, it will appear perfectly reasonable to believe that a saving of less than three per cent of the gross receipts of such an enormous and complicated business may easily be made by the adoption of approved business methods.

In the meantime it is safe to take the word of Senators Penrose and Carter -both experts in postal matters-that until the post office is put on a nonpolitical and business basis it will be

Five years later-in 1885-the law was passed which reduced. the postal rate on second class matter to one cent a pound. And between. 1880 and 1890 the total weight of second class matter had been multiplied by three. Yet in 1890 the postal deficitstaggering as it should have been under this awful burden- dropped to less than nine per cent.

After 1900 the increase in the weight of second class matter was stupendous. And with each year's increase the postal deficit decreased, until in 1902 it amounted to only 2.4 per cent of the gross receipts. Deficits since then have been due to the appropriation of millions for free rural delivery in which the TECHNICAL WORLD MAGAZINE fully believes. The loss on free rural delivery in 1910 was nearly $30,000,000-the total deficit of the department was less than $6,000,000.

It would appear hard indeed to show any connection between magazine advertising and deficits in the postal department.

2. The same rate of postage should apply on all varieties of mail matter

falling under the same class, without, at least, unfair discrimination among them.

The gross weight of newspapers mailed yearly in the United States is several times greater than the gross weight of magazines. Both come under the head of second class matter. Yet Postmaster General Hitchcock says that the increased cost of postage shall apply only to magazines and that newspapers shall be carried at the old rate of one cent per pound. His reason for this discrimination is that the magazines are on the average carried through the mails for a longer distance than the newspapers. Therefore they should pay more for the service. It costs, says Hitchcock, five cents to transport a pound of magazines and two cents to transport a pound of newspapers.

But the handling and distribution of mail matter costs much more than its mere railroad transportation. The average magazine weighs a pound. It takes

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four or five average newspapers to weigh a pound. Therefore there is four or five times more work to be done in handling and distributing a pound of newspapers than a pound of magazines.

Mr. Hitchcock's own figures-which we think inaccurate and misleadingmake his argument ridiculous. To haul and handle a pound of magazines, as derived from the figures of the department-costs 6.4 cents; to haul and handle a pound of newspapers costs 8.75 cents. And the magazines make up—again_according to Mr. Hitchcock-only about one-third of the total weight of the second class mail.

In other words the department's own figures show a loss in hauling and handling newspapers of more than $33,000,000, against a similar loss of $8,400,000 in hauling and handling magazines.

Why should this discrimination be shown in favor of the newspapers? A cynic, knowing the tremendous political

POSTAL DEFICIT

$10,500,000

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IS THE POSTAL DEFICIT DUE TO SECOND CLASS MAIL? THESE FIGURES SEEM TO

DISPROVE THAT CONTENTION.

Note that, with one exception-1909-an increase in the quantity of second class mail produced a decrease in the deficit:

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WHY RAISE THE RATE ON MAGAZINES AND LET NEWSPAPERS GO AT THE OLD FIGURE?

power of the newspaper press, might suggest an answer.

Again it may be stated, in passing, that under the present law all newspapers and other periodicals which are mailed for distribution to actual subscribers in the county of their publication are carried absolutely free, provided only that they are not mailed at a letter-carrier office. The object of this exemption is, of course, to provide for the circulation of the small country newspapers, chiefly weeklies. And this magazine, for one, thinks it a perfectly proper provision of the law.

Another reason which Mr. Hitchcock gives for putting the whole burden of the increased cost of postage on the magazines, is the alleged fact that they carry a greater percentage of advertising than the newspapers. This statement is not accurate. A comparison of the volume of advertising in newspapers and magazines is obviously hard to make. But, by careful measurements, it appears that the newspapers contain about four per cent more advertising than the magazines, in proportion to the amount of reading matter.

TOTAL CASH

RECEIPTS OF POSTOFFICE DEPARTMENT

IN

1910

$224,000,000

But,

So far as the present business organization of the department is concerned, it is a matter of common knowledge that a large percentage of the postmasters appointed by every successive president are really nothing but the political agents of Congressmen and of other officehold

ers.

In many cases-every man will be able to recall them in his own experience

these political postmasters practically turn over the management and operation of the postoffices to subordinates and devote almost all their own time and attention to their individual business or to political work. Certainly if every postmaster were compelled to give his individual attention to the postoffice, a considerable saving in clerk-hire and other expenses could be made.

Postmaster General Hitchcock and President Taft apparently recognize the fact that this great opportunity for saving exists, for they have recommended that first class postmasters be put under the protection of the civil service law. This will remove them from politics and insure to competent and honest public servants, permanent positions in the postoffice service.

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THE PRESENT DEFICIT IS LESS THAN THREE PER CENT OF GROSS INCOME. Could not a non-political post office department, organized and run on a business basis, save that per cent in the

Once this great reform is put into effect it is believed that the present deficit will promptly disappear—unless, indeed, the department decides to make rural free delivery universal or institutes. some other public convenience which cannot, and should not be expected to, pay its own way.

3. Any change in postal rates should be made by Congress on its own merits, with plenty of time for discussion and consideration.

The law increasing the postal rate on advertising pages of magazines was hitched onto the postal appropriation bill as a “rider” in the Senate Committee on Post Office, under the lash of the administration and after the bill had passed the house. This method of forcing legislation through a reluctant Congress by attaching it to an absolutely necessary appropriation bill is recognized as so unfair that in some of the states of the Union it is absolutely prohibited.

It is the method frequently adopted by shrewd and determined men, who desire to secure the passage of bills which would have no show if they stood by themselves.

So introduced in the closing days of a crowded and tumultuous session, it was made impossible for the magazines to get a fair statement of their case before Congress or before the public.

To attempt in this indirect and underground way to take "snap judgment" on the magazines is not worthy of a dignified and sincere statesman.

It suggests, rather, the peevish and spiteful determination of an angry politician to punish and, possibly silence, certain of his critics.

It is to be noted that the movement to increase the postal rate on magazines did not originate in Congress. It is the It is the pet project of Postmaster General Hitchcock and has been endorsed by President

Taft. And it is exceedingly unfortunate that the bill is so worded as to apply almost exclusively to those magazines of large circulation and influence which have taken a leading part in the discussion of public affairs and in criticism of certain policies of the administration.

One of the worst features connected with the increased rate on magazine advertising pages is the tremendous power which it puts in the hands of the Postmaster General. The increase applies only to magazines and not to newspapers. Now what is the difference between a magazine and a newspaper? Is Collier's Weekly, devoted almost entirely to the discussion, illustration and description of current events, a newspaper? Are the magazine sections of the great Sunday newspapers, printed in close imitation of recognized magazines, newspapers or are they magazines? These questionsand a thousand like them-only the Postmaster General is authorized to answer.

No one wishes for a moment to suggest that Postmaster General Hitchcock would be guilty of using such a tremendous power for any ulterior purpose. But suppose a case where a Postmaster General is an unscrupulous politician, devoting most of his attention to political manipulation and wire-pulling?

Suppose he is desirous of stopping adverse criticism of the administration with

which he is connected or of recognizing the flattery of some complacent periodical? By a nod of the head, he might reward his political friends and punish his political enemies.

Are we ready in this country for the appointment of a press censor, with a lash and muzzle in one hand and a fat

piece of meat in the other-to say nothing whatever of the absolutely crushing power of the post office department behind him?

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