The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-04-24

Cheap Reading and Cheap Postage.
Remonstrances are being extensively
signed all over the country against an
amendment to the postal laws which
has already passed the House OF
Representatives and is now before the
Senate for consideration, and which,
if it be enacted, will go a long way to-
wards suppressing the library" or
'~'series" publications now so extern
sively circulated. We believe these
remonstrances are based on good solid
grounds. We believe it is unwise to
check the circulation of these cheap
editions of standard works which in
late years have been so popular. We
fail to see that the public revenue
would gain any advantage great
enough to balance the injury to gen.
eral educational interests from stop
ping the dissemination of high class
reading matter.
Anyone Of mature age a recall
how low the standard of popular
reading was fifteen years ago. The
cheapest and worst kind of story
papers pretty nearly controlled the
field, feeding the minds of the people
with vulgar. morbid and immoral
rubbish. One could not buy a novel
by Dickens or Thackeray, Reade or
Collins under a dollar or a dollar and
a halt. No book of science could be
obtained for less than a couple OF dol
lars. The daily newspaper and the
nenny dreadful constituted prac-
tically the whole range OF reading
open to people in poor or moderate
circumstances, and it is not too much
to say that the public taste was at a
very low grade indeed under the in
fuence of such a mental diet.
Today, all the best novels that the
world has produced, and which are
no longer covered by copyright, can
be procured for a few cents a piece by
the poorest working boy or girl. Many
valuable historical works are pub
lished at the same rates, and there is
a whole slibrary" devoted to the issue
of standard works of science. The re-
suit is that nowadays the average of
popular reading in this country is
higher than In any other country in
the world. Public taste has i'm
proved. The immoral and vulgar
stuff which used to be dished up to
boys and girls and men and women
is gradually disappearing. Public
Intelligence is developed, and pres
emily we shall find public morals visi-
bly, exalted. The country is under a
debt to the publishers of these cheap
libraries that no money can repre-
sent.
But the proposed change in the
postal laws is a direct attack upon
their business. We are in receipt of
a letter from one OF them, from which
We quote the following, as a fair
statement of their own views of the
proposed change
Encouraged and fosterei by the low rate OF
postage. the production of cheap literature Of
the better class in this country has been Of re-
niarkable proportions. And to appreciate the
bensficeDt results of existing postal laws in this
relation it is only necessary 10 compare the PRES
ent price of books with that OF any preceding
generation. The Door country boy may today In
duige bis thirst for knowlsdSe oy procuring. 10
cheap form, Tor ten cents, almost any important
work OF literature or of science, while such
books we're entirely out of the reach OF his
father or grandfather. III no other country"
-oI =. rphon1la LIZ lu a q
fure delivered In this city a few years ago,
s.have the masses ever before enjoyed such an
ines,imable intellectual privilege. and no money
expended by the Government III any OF It's null
tiform agencies has ever conferred sfich
enormous advantages" And yet it is now
proposed to crush the entire system by impos-
ing a rate of postage whicn is practically pro-
hibitive. so that the dissemination of the class
of literature referred 10 would heuceforth be
confined to the larger cities and towns through
the medium of express companies
1t may be an exaggeration to say
that the proposed change in the post
age laws would 'tcrush the entire
SYSTEM" but it certainly would re-
strict it seriously. As the law stands
now, books or reprints OF books pub.
lished complete or in parts under the
..library" or Series plan, are CON
veyed through the mails at the pound
rate. Consequently books sold at
from 3 cents to 20 cents each travel
to the readers at a mere nominal cost
to the publisher fraction of a cent
!. piece. The amendment which has
passed the House requires them to
pay rates as third class matter, that
is to say, one cent on every two ounces
or fraction thereof. Now, even on a
twenty cent book this is a serious i'm
post: on a three cent one, it is prac-
ticalIy prohibitive. Last year, THE
JERSEY CITY NEWS distributed in
this city by mail, through a New
Jersey publisher, nearly nifty
thousand high class works-of
fiction = novels by Scott. Haw-
thorne, Conan Doyle, Poe and
other noted writers at the
merely nominal price of BIB cents a
piece. At the proposed new rate his
distribution would have been impos-
sible, as each separate work would
have cost a cent for mailing. 1t only
needs q moments thought to realize
how much pleasure and instruction
the people would have lost while the
gain to the Government would.
.-L 49, -n1a