Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1883-05-21
Patent Outsides.

phOM late washington speclal II
appears that the PostOfice Depart
lnent has under consideration the adj
visibility Of excluding patent outside
and inside newspapers from the mails
as second class matter. This would
be a just and proper measure. The
patents are not newspapers in any
sense, and the LEDGER, coming to
this conclusion long since, cut of all
this class from its exchange list. The
auxiliary houses where the patents
are printed by wholesale are auxiliary
to paper manufacturers rather than to
the legitimate business of publishing
newspapers. They are agents for
manufacturers, and the country edi.
tors who take their goods and add
some printed matter on the other
side are merchants rather than editors,
buying papers by the ream and selling
by the single sheet. If excluded from
the mails as second class matter which
now goes. nearly.free from the Office of a
bona 6de printer or publisher, this
would require payment of one cent on
each of these papers, not many Of the
patent establishments could or would
stand this, for their weakness stands self
announced and advertised, 1t would
give better chance for the publish
ers Of country papers, who have the
enterprise as well as pride, to print
their papers at home and thus control
them in every department. The aux
iliary distributing houses make
profit on the raw paper, and fill up a
certain space with advertisements of
patent medicines, or whatever they
can obtain that will pay. They would,
no doubt, sell editorial opinions if
there was any market. The country
editor or dealer has to take what is
furnished ready made. If, by any ac-
cident, his bundle of ready printed
paper fails to come on time.
the issue of his sheet is delayed
correspondingly. Upon the same
principle any merchant who
has a price current printed and after
wards stamps the name Of his firm on
the corner, for the use of his custom
erS and the benefit Of his firm, might
claim to be the publisher Of a news
paper. The patent outsides are not
strictly newspapers, or entitled to the
mail facilities as such. They are a
species of merchandise. although
partly printed at home, and the post
office authorities will do the cause Of
journalism, which is the cause of the
public, a service by so ruling Wei
have ventilated issubject before with
some effect. A number of exchanges
that were dropped on account Of the
patent feature have discontinued this
style altogether, now do all their
printing at home and are welcomed
back to our list and editorial table. |
A country editor that cannot run his
own shop has mistaken his vocation
and the fOrbearanc, Of a credulous
public. 1t is a mistaken policy, unfair
to the great army Of typesetters to the
readers Of papers, and in the end Nm
profitable. to everybody exc pt paper
mills and auxiliary printing houses
thatsend the same printed matter out
to hundreds Of country Offices every
week, where the job Is afterwards
amended, addressed and sent out in
the guise Of a newspaper. Second-class
mail matter pays two cents a pound
but printed matter the weight of an
ordinary newspaper pays one cent to
each wrapper. Very few of the
patents" have a circulation of more
than three or four hundred, and the
revenue derived from this source
would not be very great, but it would
be something as long as it holds out.