The age-herald., 1902-01-02
Washington Day By Day

Washington. January 1.-(Special)- Alabama editors of weekly newspapers are writing their representatives in Con gress to vigorously protest against a late ruling of the Postoffice Department that a subscription to any publication entered as second class matter, must be discontinued when the time for which 1t is paid in advance has expired
 'If this ruling should be enforced against weekly newspapers in Alabama" declares one successful editor, "It would kill most of them and cripple all. Few patrons pay their subscription in ad- vance,
 '1s 1t possible that we will be denied the privilege of sending local newspapers through the mails. unless the subscrip- tion has been paid in advance?" demands another prominent editor. "1f this is the case" he concludes, i've smaller men will have to retire from the field of jour nalism."
 These editors each transmit to their Congressm en a postal card from General c. H. Howard, president of the National Publishers Bureau, Chicago, on which is printed this emphatic and further start ling decalartion:
 This is such a radical ruling and directly opposite to all law and previous rulings, that it means complete change and revolution in the publishing business. This ruling will greatly reduce the cir culation of all papers This vitally effects. for it prohibits extending credit to your subscribers"
 Of course all members of Congress from all the states are receiving letters similar to those that come to Alabama members. and it is safe to say that the Postoffice Department will swarm with protesting congressman the first of the coming week. And the objectionable rul- ing cannot stand under the pressure that will be brought against 1t.
 While a few county newspapers have tried the pay-in-advance plan, the great majority of them, in Alabama at any rate. have adhered to the credit system and few of them could survive it's en- forced abolition.
 In former days when the subscription 
 were two to three times higher than the present rates. the owners of the papers found the credit system very profitable, and while there is no great profit in 1t now, 1t remains a necessity. Back in the '70's, when Colonel Willis Brewer was making the hayneville Examiner, which he established in 1S6S one of the baef and y1oast ,,raenaro,,o ood ,,,a,,o,,+foi newspapers In Alabama, he kept the subscription price at two dollars and a half and gave long credits with the re- suit that practically every white man in Lowndes county took the paper and paid for 1t when convenient. Many of the subscribers were allowed to fall in ar- rears for three or four years and oc- casionally, at intervals of some years, Colonel Brewer would leave Hayneville in his buggy and drive all over the county collecting his subscription dues. In many instances these dues would amount to eight or ten dollars from each subscriber It used to be related that Colonel Brewer collected on one of those trips over the county more than three eASDNAiio Noiioio III oupSCrIptfOHS that had run from one to five years. What do Alabama editors of today think of that for a newspaper published in a county which did not contain fifteen hum dred white men within it's borders?
 This interesting and very profitable ex- perience of Colonel Brewer with the Hayneville Examiner. which was the good beginning of his present ample for tune, is we'll remembered by me, though small boy then. The Examiner was the first newspaper this worker ever read, the first that ever printed anything of his writing, the first that ever printed his name-it frightened him very much!
 It Is difficult to imagine Postmaster General Smith sanctioning the new ruling which has aroused the editors The great est service to legitimate newspapers since Congress granted the pound rates, some- thing like a quarter of century ago, was done by Postmaster General Smith, himself a lifelong newspaper man. when he issued the order forbidding newspa- ><<%-<<<<<<->-<%->- BOOKER WAsHINoToN's ANSWER From the Chicago Inter-Ocean.
 Nearly 4000 students have gone out from Booker T. Washingtons Industrial