Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-05-15
GILDED MISREPRESENTATION.
Eighty Dollars of Promise for Invent
Dnllars Of a ILL. -, -. Il, -

st'S VI nigh arm Cneap heailIy.
The premium business is greatly over
done. 1t is by many reduced to form of
gambling. 1t is often an attempt to get
something for nothing. There are pre-
MUM offers that are genuine and benef
cial, and the very best of these are the club
rates, and the union of subscriptions as
where two papers or more are furnished
Tor less price, in the aggregate than the
sum OF their separate subscription prices.
ms Is simply putting into the subscribers
hands the value of the percentage given
usually to solicitors and agents. To all
these methods of increasing circulation
there can be 10 reasonable exception.
But there is that which is next door to
the fraudulent when newspaper premium
ofler IS made the means of enhancing the
sale OF a particular article of manufacture
OF low value, announced as of high value
And we say this mindful of all it means.
For instance, an Eastern journal proposes
to give every subscriber to that paper at So
tlts usual price,, sets of spoons, alleged TO
be worth So One of three things is
true The publishers of the paper are con-
WINGED that their journal is utterly value
less, or else they wholly falsify the value of
the table service offered. or they put so
small value on the journal that the
spoons outrank 1t. In either case they
perpetrate deliberate fraud
1t is, however, different, when, for a
large number of subscribers in a Job lot, a
journal offers the discount it would make
to agents to those who get up clubs, in the
form of books or other goods of true value,
which they could not buy at retail for less,
but which the newspaper publisher can get
! in quantities at reduced rates In such
cases he is unquestionably justified in stat
ing the retail price to be the value, and he
does not belitJle his journal nor part with
it at less than the rate to the middleman,
in whose place he practically puts the sub
scriber.
But there are other methods not de-
feasible. Here in some of the California
journals are statements that they will, for a
certain sum of money, send to the sub
scriber "a high-a arm sewing-machine,"
warranted to give satisfaction, and that
the machines are such as are
sold in stores at from $40 to $50.
Here, then, we have $50 machines" Of
fered for SD, less the price of the paper,
which, if it is 81, or 81 30, or So, should be
deducted from the 50. Say it is 81 This
gives the machine to the subscriber at $50.
When the publisher receives the SO and
| takes out the price of his paper, he has $50
left. With this he pays the manufacturer.
And what does he pay him? Surely not
more than SIS, and probably not to exceed
SIT, as they are offered to agents in this
city for less than that amount. Thus the
newspaper man actually makes his full
subscription, saves agents commission,
pays for the cheap sewing machine
and pockets s. clear proiiI-as a commits
sion for misrepresentation He also makes
his newspaper the means of peddling a
| cheap sewing machine on which he clears
| 10 per cent. profit, while at the same time
| he practically gets s. subscription for a 81
paper plus agents commission saved. In
! the meantime the subscriber pays SD for
| the machine and paper, and s. to So freight,
when by referring to reputable sewing ma
| chine agents he will find that he can pur-
chase these cheap machines at the same
| figure paid by the publisher, sub
scribe for the journal and save the 50 the
publisher pockets. In proof of this, we
| quote the advertisement of A. J. Pommer,
of Sacramento, a reliable agent for sewing
machines. He says:
Ladies desiring so-called " first-class'' high
| arm sewing machine, with all latest improve
| ments and attachments, fully guaranteed by the
Eastern factory for five years, can buy the same
of me, without subscribing for a newspaper, for
| SIS, freight to be paid by customer. / will or
| der the same shipped direct to you from the
=" factory East. This machine l guarantee to
| be equal to newspaper premium machines
each has two drawers on each side, side leaf and
cover, and looks as pretty as any OF the cheap
| machines now offered to the public.
Another class of machines is offered as
newspaper premiums at SIS. These Mr.
Pommer says he will furnish for $l5, the
purchaser paying the freight The same
kind of machine the publishers assure
their subscribers is worth 500, though a
Singer imitation and " a little out of date .
| If so, the abominable profit of $50 is made
/ OH each machine, since they can be and
| are bought for $13 go and they are not
really worth more, with freight added.
Now let it be understood that this is not
| case of rivalry, nor of desire to iniure
others. When the announcement was
made in the business columns of this paper
| by highly reputable citizen, an agent OF
sewing machines, that the machines adver-
| tised by certain journals as worth from SIC
to $50, and offered by said journals as a
| premium to subscribers for SD, would be
sold by the agent for SIS, curiosity was
| aroused and an investigation was instituted
| to ascertain the bottom facts In making
| this investigation the representative of the
RECORD [ MON was shown by Mr.. Pommel
letters from the office of the manufacturer
Secretary, which not only quoted these
machines to him as low as SIS, but at 6
rate sufficiently lower than those figures tC
afford the agent his profit when sold at that
| price.
These facts having been thus ascertained
| and the real character of the machines
| thus fixed, ii is a matter of duty. as a pub
| lie journal, to make them known to ouI
readers, to the end that the public may not
be deceived by alluring representations
| From the facts here shown, we undertake
to say that these cheap machines, made in
a cheap manner, are not worth so OF
$50" nor any such figure, and that when
otherwise reputable publishers of contem-
| poraries state that they have these values
they misrepresent and mislead They are
| possibly themselves misled. We prefer TO
SO believe. But it remains that these CHEAP
premiums are to be classed with Cheap
john products generally, and the public
should be made aware of their actual value,
and not be deceived.