Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1873-06-04
Newspapers and the New Postal Act.

| Some hope has been expressed that the
Postmaster General would not insist upon
a rigid Interpretation Of the new postal
law; but that, taking into consideration
the fact that the object of the Amendments
adopted to the bill by the Senate, and
cOncurred in by the House, was not gener
ally understood, and that an attempt was
made to pass an explanatory bill continu-
ing the free transmission of certain news
papers, he would use his privilege of con
STRUNG doubtful acts, and suspend the &C
ton OF that particular clause affecting the
press until the plain intent of Congress
should be made manifest.
Much as we condemn the spirit which
prompted the adoption of this amend
ment, and lament the injustice thus done
to newspapers, especially those published
IN the country, we do not see how the
Postmaster-Generalc can avoid enforcing
the law. The power of that officer to in
! terpret laws does not extend to those
whose import is plain and unmistakable,
but only to clauses Of doubtful meaning
| There is no question about the intention
! OF this law; and the fact that many mem
bers did not know the scope of it until af-
ter its passage does not relieve the Post
master-General of the duty Of obeying it.
The provision is in plain terms "Pro
vided, That all laws permitting the trans
mission by mail Of any free matter, qohat-
eaer 1t be, are hereby repealed" This pro
vision cuts off the free transmission of
exchanges and Of papers in the county
of publication. These are it's worst fea-
lures, SO far as newspapers are concerned.
There are abundant reasons why county
papers and exchanges should be trans
mltted free. We give millions every year
10 support free schools, because we be-
leVe that general diffusion of intelli-
gence Will contribute to the general inter
ests OF society, But the press to-day is
tile greatest educator, and anything that
encourages and develOpes active and in
telligent journalism deserves the friendly
countenance OF the government. A gen
eral interchange of newspapers enables the
journal published in the remotest section
OF the country to spread before it's reader
a summary OF news in every part of the
land. 1t IS not supposed that the neces-
slty OF paying postage will do away with
this system OF exchange to any ruinous
extent; but it will impede intelligence
and embarrass in some degree the
publishers Of papers, especially those in
the country-Which is precisely what is
contrary to the interests of the people to
do There are now on the exchange list
of the Inter- Ocean nearly 1900 newspa
pers, coming from every quarter of the
United States and portions of Europe
| The postage on these papers will amount
to $500 or $400 per annum. Our country
exchanges have, probably, from % to 200
papers on their lists in asimilar way, the
postage on which, if continued will
amount to from $40 to $50 a year. The
hardship in this respect, therefore, is not
so great as would appear at first glance
| The greater misfortune will be the tax
levied in the way of postage on the coun
ty circulation of papers, the cost to sub
scribers being thereby increased, and the
! circulation Of these valuable mediums OF
local intelligence being, to some extent
| at least, retarded and decreased Neither
does an estimate Of the revenue to be de
rived from the new system promise to be
such as to warrant the imposition of such
| clog upon Journalism. There are in the
| United States, in round numbers, $500
newspapers and periodicals. Of this
number'574 are dailies, 1O7 tri-weeklies,
115 semi-weeklies, 1920 weeklies, 96 semi
monthlies, 622 monthlies, 10 bi-monthlies,
and 40 quarterlies.
| For convenience we take the two
| classes dailies and weeklies The circu-
lation of the weekly papers is stated at
10000, 900 copies annually; of the dailies,
100000. The postage on daily is thir-
ty-five cents per quarter, or $40 per year.
On weekly, twenty cents per year 1t is
probable that Of this number not over 1 :
100000 copies of the weeklies are exempt
ed from postage under the present regula-
tons, and the number of dailies so ex-
empt is very small. The whole revenue
| to be derived from this source at the most
liberal estimate will not amount to half a
million Of dollars, and probably will fall
below tWo-thirds of that sum- The levy
ing Of postage on exchanges and those
papers that had been before wisely en-
couraged by the freedom of the
mails within their own localities,
was rather petty business, and hardly
worth the energy displayed by certain
gentlemen in securing its passage. We
shall see, before the next meeting of Con-
gress, how the system works and whether
the returns justify the continuance of the
law. If our calculations are not very
erroneous, it will be found that sound pol
icy demands the repeal of this provision
and return to the old plan.-Chacag0 H.
| te,-Oce0a, Hay "a