The morning times., 1896-12-28

to be allowed to travel into any neighbor
hood; it does not bother itself very much
about the cost. That is paid by the man
who reads it,
The thing to do is to refuse the use of
the mails to books Of this character andnot
beat The devil around the stump by allow
ing them to go through at an Increase dcost
aud III permitting this wrong iniure the
distribution of legitimate literature, and
thus hurt the cause Of education.
Under the present law a large business
has been built up 10y publishers who have
made it possible to secure at cost OF few
cents all OF the standard authors Shakes-
peare, Dickens, Sir Walter Scott, George
| Eliot, Charlotte Bronte, Mulock, and, in
fact, everything worth having of a literary
character on which there IS no copyright.
These books, well printed and securely
bound i'll paper, are furnished at from 2
to 10 cents each, and are thus affording the
poorest farmer an opportunity To have n
library in his house where his family
may have the same advantages afforded by
| the free Libraries to the poor of the cities
Certainly in this ge no such grotesaueI :
retrugrade movement would be taken by
Congress as To accept this feature of Mr..
| of cheap education for the people be inter
fered with the only beuficiaries would bc
the express companies and publishers OF
high priced books, while injury untold
and unmerited would be done thousands OF
publishers, printers, paper makers and hook
| binders, to say nothing of the vast army Of
| readers scattered over the United States
who are raising their standard of intellcc-
tuaiity every year by the use of these che NJ
although standard books.
The bill also does great damage to
another class OF people: il materially inter
ferrS with and retards the circulation Of
| the press The large and rich daily
papers sell most of their issues by carriers
| ana nrwshOys. They do not know what
| Il boon to the average weekly paper or
| periodical the privilege of sending cut
| sample copies is, and to take away this
| privilege Will iniurc not only the country
| press, but every paper in the United States
The Century Magazine and many uf tile
| great Sunday newspapers weigh a pound
and now cost one cent postage. Adopt
| Mr.. Lpud's bill and the cost Will De
eight cents, about % per cent of the sell
| Ing price Tiic condition of the sixteen
to thirty-lwo-page weekly paper is even
| worse. Say they average onc-half poun
| eacR. This woHld br :onr cents, or morc
than they sell their papers for.
If a person sees IN article in a newspaper
| that he desires To mail to friend he can
| now purchase one or more papers and have,
| them mailed at the office OF publication
| without extra cost. Under the eight-ccnU "a
pound rate from one to four cents tax VIII
| he put on every paper so sent
Ii is said the country paper is not to be
| hurt by tfis great reform of Mr.. Loud;
| that they only circulate in the county il
which they are published, and are charged
| no postage In the first place, many
| country papers circulate outside pf lheir
| county and pay large sum each year
! IL postage This. however, at all fourth
class offices, gocsto the local postmaster as
salary. and does not benefit the government
| at al. nor would it If the rate was eight
| ce nts.
/ Country editors would be stopped from
! sending sample copies Of their paper to
| advertisers or probable subscribers and
would be seriously inconvcnicnced and
made to suffer much loss if Mr.. Loud's
| bill passes. Again description of Il
! country ball, q country fair, political
]
caSionaIly enable the country press tomakc
an honest dollar, could not lac sent our rs
a matter of enterprise or business f Mr..
| Loud's measure should he adopted. except
at cents a pound. \ Congressman coultl
not ever. print his speeches Uran address TO
| his constituents iii his home paper and
| send ii out at less than an extra 5 cents
| a pound
| one Of the effects OF the proposed change,
| would be to prevent the publication Of a
complete or continued story in supple
ment form" This is certainly a serious
| interference with the rights OF a publisher
| While permitting the continued use of
the mails at seCond-ClasS rates to social
and fraternal society journals. not a word
| i said about educational societies colleges.
| etc They and the poor editor, who is
| struggling for the life oi his little paper
| in the interest of a frItcrnal or social or
! ganiyatiOu is left to struggle harder ard is
absolutely prevented from advert sing
! Gf you ChOoSe) the advantages of his
! lodge" to the world by being restricted
FROM sending out sample copies at the
| pound rate Of cent
| Finally this great measure OF reform
prohibits a publisher from using the mail
for anything except his whole paper. He
| cannot mail any given article or articles
or any part OF any particular number of a
| newspaper or periodical segregated from
the rest of the publication except at tn,
third-claSs rate OF Postage Why is thi:
right? II mailable at all and If the coSt
| is 1S cents u pound as Mr.. Loud says
| would it not he more economical to give
the editor a bonus to send out less weight
by sending out his editorials on Smal
sheet? Did it ever strike Mr.. Loud tha
in allowing the great 32-Shcet papers, bal
advertising, to go through at l cent ant
| charge the 4-page supplement : cents h,
| was creating great mathematical blundel
and one which aided the publisher TO dis
tribute ut government expense the ad
vertisements in his paper, thus putting
! premium on that crime of the age, the
| advertising sheet.
1t might not be improper for someone t
move, when the bill comes up. that II. r
No. 1866 he recommittcd with instruC
A hill to return to the Dark Ages
restrict education and muZZle the Ameri
can press After adopting the above tn,
House might proceed to the consideration
of some matters OF public Importance.
ALEX. j. WEDDERBURN.
BAD YEAR FOR BANKERS.
New York State superintendent Re