The evening times., 1899-05-05
THE AGITATION FOR
PENNY POSTAGE
Proposition Likely to Again
be Carried TO Congress.
Department Officials Not in Favor Of
the Scheme.
Reduced Revenue Would Cripple
the General Expansion Of the
Postal Service.


vening of Congress, the agitation for PEN
ny postage will be revived by those who
have for several years been agitating the
| reduction of mail rates.
The penny postage proposition finds
scant favor. however. with the present ad
ministration OF the Postoffice Department.
1t is quite likely that the matter will not
be officially referred to by the present
postal authorities unless Congress should
request information on the subject. The
information would. in all probability. be
adverse to any reduction in the rate OF
letter postage.
The attitude of the Postmaster General
is that the extension of postal service
shall be continued into the sparcely set
tied parts of the country where the routes
are not self-sustaining. rather than that
the revenues of the department shall be
cut down. 1t is maintained that the reduc-
tiOn to cent would operate most advanta-
geously 10 those large firms which sustain
great volumes OF correspondence.
1t is reasonably certain that within the
near future there will be revision of the
law as to second-class mail matter so as
to place the Postofice Department imme-
diateiy upon sslf-sustaining basis. There
will be an extension OF free delivery in
cities that already enjoy that service and
there will be a quickening OF railroad
transportation.
Postmasters General have repeatedly
called attention to certain abuses in con-
nection with second-class mail matter. The
| increase in the amount of secOnd-class
matter has been disproportionate with the
| general increase OF the postal business.
| 1t is said that this is due not to the
healthy growth of genuine newspapers and
periodicals. but to the enterprise of mer-
| chants. manufacturers. and others in Sc
curing the entry of publications not en-
| titled to the privilege into this favored
class of mail matter. There is conviction
among the heads of the Postofice Deo
| partment that the statutes and the Drece-
| dents upon which the business now rests
are defective; that they embody the cnly
really great abuse at present existing in the
| postal service.
Mr.. Wanamaker was one of the first
! Postmasters General to take this matter
| under serious consideration. He said that
! the rankest abuse to which the Postofice
| Department was exposed was the issue or
| papers and periodicals. nominally in the
| Interest of trade or science. but in reality
| in the interest of some business house.
/ These publications have come to be known
| in the postal service as house organs.
! and immense numbers OF alleged sample
! copies have been circulated through the
mails.
In treating of this sample copy abuse
! Mr. Wanamaker said that one phase OF the
scheme was the getting up of trade
| paper by someone not directly connected
with any particular business establishment,
the publication being almost wholly devot-
/ ed 10 advertisements in order to secure
! which. the publisher contracts to issue,
/ regardless of the extent OF his real sub
scripticn list, given number Of copies.
These guarantees to advertisers compre-
| hend issues running from 1000 to 100000
copies The effect is to give a mere col
lection of advertising circulars, put to-
gether in pamphlet form and connected by
a little. unimportant literary matter, the
/ benefit which the law intends to confer
| upon genuine newspapers and periodicals.
An illustration of this abuse is given by
a postoffice official: In 1888, firm not
engaged in the publication Of newspapers
or periodicals. on determining to issue a
! publication having some of the charac-
teristics OF second-class matter. made ap-
pIication in the usual way for admission
| 10 the mails. 1t was alleged that this
| publication was to be devoted to the in
| terest of trade and science and that 1t
was not designed for gratuitous distribu-
| tion or for advertising purposes. A year
| after il had been admitted to the mails.
| the Postoffice Department ascertained that
only l20 copies OF the paper we're sent to
pay subscribers. and that nearly 10000
| copies of each edition were given away.
The paper was excluded from the mails,
readmitted upon the promise Of the pro-
prietors to comply with the law and again
excluded. During the investigation 1t was
brought out that the proprietors were not
only conducting general advertising
agency. but that they were also interested
in the wares advertised in the paper, prin-
| cipally in patent medicines. Weekly edi-
/ tions Of fifty thousand copies were printed
and circulated through the medium Of the
| mails.
| 1t is thought at the Postoffice Depart
ment that the law forbidding the mailing
! as publication of the second class of any
periodical. designed primarily for adver-
| tising purposes or by reason of its not
having a list of legitimate subscribers,
| should be made more explicit. The ques-
| tion as to what constitutes a legitimate
| subscription list should not be left to tho
! officials of the department for determina-
tion, but should be settled by unambigu-