Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1905-04-05


collection of subscriptions. In part
he said;
1t may not be amiss to say at the
outset that no attempt at a polished
dissertation will be made. If there is
any one thing under the sun that is
not susceptible of a phllosophic or
scholastic analysis it is the thing
known as delinquent subscription.
Therefore its discussion must of ne
cessity be an unvarnishej narrative,
along practical lines. The necessity
for this semi-apology will disappear as
the plot unfolds itself, as the tale
have to tell is a simple shop talk, un-
adorned with we'll rounded phrases or
startling climaxes.
Every well ordered country news
paper Office is an institution made up
of three coordinate branches, namely,
subscriptions, advertising and job
printing. There is an occasional in
stance where the latter has been elm
mated, but the two first-subscripti
and advertising-are ever present.
And these three component parts
each an entity in itself-are as indie
pendent factors in the makeup of a
country printing Office as are the three
fundamental branches-evecutive, leg
islative, and judicial-in the construc-
ton of our government. And one can
not usurp the functions of either or
both of the others without resultant
mischiaf-although we may find high
warrant for such encroachment in
COVER nmental circles-in some states.
The subscription branch of this print
shop trinity is by far the most neg
lected by the average country publish
er. ! say country publisher" The
metropolitan publisher is not guilty.
1t is the ambition of every wide-awake
up to date publisher-and q laudible
one. TOTO swell his list of surscrib-
ers-get all he can, and it does not
much matter how. Particularly is this
true if competition is keen, and the
other fellow is a hustler. And
think it is true, as applied to the
average country publisher, that a sub
Scriber's name, once entered on his
hist is as eternally there as is the
Rock Gibraltar planted in the sea.
Lut. unlike Gibraltar, it needs occa-
sIonal looking after to establish its
stability as a profitable asset. 1t is
TOO true that with many of us the sub.
scriber who made his initial appear
ance two, three, four, or perhaps half
a dozen years ago, is with us yet, al
though he has never paid a dollar be-
yond his original investment. He has
not been asked for it, and as the first
and only payment was intended to COW
er but single year he is in some
doubt whether he would pay it if he
were.
The publisher reads again the well
thumbed clipping which he so careful
iy pIgeonholed when he discovered it
years ago, and which the most of us
know by heart, namely, that a subscrib-
er Is legally holden for the subscrip-
ton arrearages if he takes the paper
from the postoffice, etc, etc. | have
never known whether that is the law
or not. If it is the law, 1t is a bad law
and ought to be repealed. A news
paper subscriber should get what he
Lays for and contracts for--no more
no less WHAT would we think of
law that compelled us to pay a grocery
bill, for instance, hat we had not con-
tracted? The initial payment of a sub
scription to g newspaper involves on
the part of the publisher an obligation
or contract that expired when the per-
iod paid for is ended. 1t is not a CON
tract made for all the ages and a slice
of eternity. Few of us continue an
''ad." many insertions after the CON
tract with the willy advertising agent
has expired. If we dc not one of us
would even think of presenting a bill
for it. -
If customer orders a thousand
dodgers from the job department do
we print him 1000 and expect him to
pay for them? Why not apply the
same methods in our advertising and
Job printing departments that we do
in our subscription department? Your
milkman sells you a dollars worth of
tickets and gets his cash. (There are
exceptions to this-sometime the edi-
tor gets his first instalment as an off
set to the tickets he has printed)
When you and your babies have con.
sumed dollars worth of milk, the
dispenser hands your butler or your
second cook another little bundle and
observes smilingly "One dollar,
please" How many quarts of milk
would you or get if the money slum-
bared in our pockets instead of in the
milkman's? And most industriously
indeed. would our tactical friend have
10 cooperate with the pump if he per-
mitted such delinquencies with large
Percentage Of his customers. So. too
with the grocery man. the iceman, the
butcher, the baker and the candle
stick maker-every day these trades
men are handing out to us practical
lessons in right business methods. Do
we heed them? Year after year we
drop our newspapers into the homes
of the people. gratefully accepting the
few struggling dollars that come in as
a matter of course until, actually driv-
en- to it by computations of conscience
and a lean purse, we send out a few
hundred statements, possibly lodging
an insistent creditor or two in order to
meet the consequent, postage charge.
This soothing balm supplied. we slam
shut the subscription book and swell
up with the consciousness Of duty
nobly done