The Republican journal., 1905-12-28
AGAINST THE COUNTRY NEWSPAPER

~ every SESSION Ol congress some
one pops up with bill to saddle the pos
tai deficit upon the country newspapers,
and which if enacted would simply
legislate them cut of business. This
time it is Congressman Overstreet of
Indiana, chairman of the House Com
mittee Oh postotfices. 1T appears that
there was deficit of about S15, 900
in the revenues of the postof1ice depart
ment for the last fiscal year, and to
meet this he proposes to increase the
rates on second-class matter about five
times. The Springfield, H., State Jour
nal says:
This would mean that the newspapers
of this country would be compelled to
pay five times as much as at present
for the transmission of their editions
through the mails and that they would
be compelled to charge their subscrib-
ers for this additional expense. Every
subscriber to a weekly or daily news
paper would of necessity be taxed to
make up the deficit in the revenues of
the postotfice department should this
suggestion be adopted by Congress. be-
cause the newspapers could not afford
TO distribute their papers at the present
rates should this additional tax be i'm
posed upon them. In fact, large pro-
portion of the country Weeklies prob
ably would be wiped out of existence
should this unjust burden be imposed
upon them,
Fhe state Journal also takes excep-
n hy1 ,f,.I,. - @
claim that the deficit in the revenues
of the postotfice department is due to
tie arg expenditures for the extern
Siou and maintenance of the rural free
delivery system, and says: las a mat
ter OF fact, there are serious abuses of
the postal service that account fully
Tor tie existing deficit and which, if
eradlcated. would wipe out the deficit
and provide for the additional expense
OF the rural free delivery service" One
OF these abuses is the franking
privilege which members of Congress
have voted to themselves at the ex-
pense of the general public. With the
1NS !N-Li4t Az ttoC VI tIiIS PllNlCSC uO
fault could be found, but it is notori-
Gus fact that it is outrageously abused
by many members of congress and that
as result the government is COMPEL
ed to pay for the transmission OF
thousands and thousands of tons of
mail matter" that would not be &C
cepted from private citizen even if
prepaid at the highest rate. Then, the
State journal says.
An enormous saving in the present
expenses of the post office department
could be effected by cutting off the i'm
mense sums now being paid to the
railroads for running the early morn
ing newspaper trains for the sole bene-
lit OF newspapers in the big cities.
These trains are maintained at the eX-
pense of the government under the
f1imsy pretense of expediting the de-
livery Of the mails, but in fact are not
OF amy substantial benefit to the bust
ness world or the general public, and
the only effect of their maintenance is
to aid the metropolitan dalies in kill
ing off the competition of the dailies in
the smaller cities and the country
WeekIleS. ms enormous expenditure
for the benefit of few publishers is an
injustice to every other publisher and
to the tax payers who are bearing the
burden
In conclusion the State Journal says
Until the existing abuses in the postal
service are corrected, it would be the
height of injustice to compel the farm
ers of the nation to make up the exist
ing deficit by paying higher prices for
the papers to which they subscribe"