Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1898-02-18
OFFICIAL PAPER BURLEIGH co.
FOLLY OF PRETENDED RE-
FORMS,

In connection With inc QlScusslOH VI
the Loud bill, whose provisions and
their effects were discussed in the TR1-
BuSE several days ago, when it was
shown the evil effect the passage OF such
a bill would have on weekly
there is a timely article by Orville Victor
in the February Forum. He says:
1t appears that the government pays
about $1,000 a year for each postal car
and it's transport. AS a car is worth
but S4,5O0 in twenty years-the average
length of life Of such Il car-the railway
receives 500, 900 for the use of one car.
The New York Central railway, we are
told, receives an annual payment or S3,-
OS9.O9 per mile for transporting mai
matter between New York city n
Buffalo, sun exceeding the amount
required to pay interest on the cost OF a
complete double track line from New
York city to Buffalo. * y The
Pennsylvania railroad receives annually
S3,SO1. SO per mile for its services be-
tween New York and Philadelphia: A
careful examination of the tables given
and of the charges imposed discloses the
signal fact that if the United States
owned and controlled all postal cars and
paid the railroads for TRACTION and sta
ton storage and stowage-lust as great
shippers, like Armour and company,
and all the express companies pay-the
saving would be fully Az per cent, as
compared with the cost per mile lndl-
Gated by the sums above particularized,
and the deficit that so siclIens the souls
OF "a long line of reformers and nostrum-
vendors would completely disappear.
Nay, more, here would be a big surplus
with which to further the scheme of
free city and rural delivery and to silence
the enemies Of cheap reading, who,
under the thin mask Of postal reform.
would seriously add to the cost of all
periodical publications. IS * ii
The considerable yearly increase in
the weight and bulk of second class
matter is due chiefly to the rapidly ad,
vancing circulation of the weekly and
monthly papers, and notably of the
monthly magazines and reviews. Then
we have a quite remarkable increase in
the quantity OF letterpress as we'll as OF
advertising pages. Also. this further
item visibly enters into the problem Of
the paper weight of the publications
the heavier paper required for the proper
printing of the almost countless llustra-
lions, which now have become a pro-
bounced feature of our popular perlodl-
cal literature.
When several of the magazines issue
each month from 100000 to 5OO,OCC
copies, each weighing from ten to fifteen
or more ounces, when a certain Phlla'
delphia monthly paper circulates-most,
" through the mails-725,O0 600 copies OF
its December number, when a Boston
weekly puts forth for the year 100000
copies each week, when fully a half
hundred other papers have mai lists
calling for from 100000 to 200,O 600 copies
weekly, il; takes but a novice to deter
mine the source of the steady growth OF
weight of second class matter in the
mails, and to see that this growth is q
grand confirmation of the wisdom and
propriety of the present postal laws.
lie must be a bold legislator who
seeks. in any way, to curb or restrict
this tremendous output of good litera.
ture and good art. To prohibit it the
freest use of the mails in it's distribu'
ton over our vast domain is sllnply a
crime against civilization. * i =
The p~ostoflice department., more than
all others, is nearest to the people; it is
at once their servant. their friend and
their b%enefactor. The cost of it all is
of infinitely less concern to the citizen
than that it's efficiency shall expand
with the years, becoming more and
more helpful as purveyor to the bust:
ness, intellectual and personal needs Of
every section in our country. No reac
tionary legislation is t~olerable,. ever
under the guise> of economy or in thu
presence of a deficit.
If such legislation be attempted, a.
now is probable, congress must see to it
first, that a full hearing be given to al
interests directly affected by, such pro
posed reforms and second, that NJ
plea for economy shall constrain tn
repeal of acts under whose liberal con
struction and benign operations tn
happiness, the intelligence and the we'll
being of the whole community hav'
been so conserved as to excite the env.
and the admiration of every civilized
nation.