Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1907-01-29
PRoPosEpP osrAL REFoRMs.

thorized by congress to investigate
and report its conclusions on the oper-
alton Of the existing law relative to
second-class mail matter and what
changes, If any, should be made, has
submitted it's report with a number of
recommendations that II adopted by the
congress, will cause at least a radical
revision of methods by many of the
publications and periodicals that now
enjoy the second-class mail privileges.
The abuse of this privilege has long
been little short OF a scandal in the
Postofice department, but the pres
sure brought to bear by publishers of
the offending class has thus far pre-
vented remedial action. The purpose
of the commission was to probe these
abuses and offer suggestions for leg
islation to correct them.
Some of the recommendations Of
the commission promise relief in this
respect, while others appear to be
rather far-fetched, or at least based
upon an Imperfect understanding of
the methods employed in the modern
daily newspaper, that furnishes the
bulk of second-class mail. The COM
missions recommendation that no
newspaper shall print any section or
part of it's issue on paper of different
weight than that used in the main
sheet would affect nearly every daily
paper of the nation. Nearly all news
papers, particularly those with Sun
day issues, use finer quality of paper
for their magazine and half-tone sec
lions than is used for the news sheets.
This is in response to a mechanical de-
mand, and the attempt to change 1t
would be as unsatisfactory to the
newspaper as to its readers. The
recommendation that all inserts of
postal cards, cut out pictures and
features not identifiable as a compo-
nent and necessary part of the paper
be prohibited will meet the general
approval of publishers who do not
need nor desire to resort to such clap
trap methods to secure circulation.
hC ho6oSlhCo dlC ClCdti at
in the recommendation of the commits
sion that no newspaper or other peri
odical shall carry advertisements that
occupy more than SO per cent of the
superficial area of any issue of. such
publication. The enactment of the
recommendation into law would bar
most of the magazines of the day, that
| carry two or three times as many
pages of advertising as of reading
matter, from participation in second
class mail privileges. 1t would also
reject from such privileges many
weekly and monthly publications that
now use the guise of a news publica-
ton to circulate advertising matter Of
certain class. In the main, the COM
mission has apparently aimed to re-
store the second-class mail privilege
to its original purpose, that of fur
nishing a means for disseminating in
formation at the lowest possible cost.
in order that the people of the coun-
! try, through the newspapers and other
publications, might be the best in
formed in the world. Apparently the
commission has no desire to restrict
| the operation of the law except in pre-
venting abuses that have grown up un-
der lax enforcement of it. The COM
mission has made a wise provision,
also, in recommending the creation of
postal appeals commission in the
Postof1ce department, one of whom
must be an experienced publisher and
one a lawyer. with final authority to
pass upon disputes between the pub
Usher and the Postoffice department.
Recommendations are also made for
a radical revision of the system of
weighing the mails and fixing the
compensation of railways for carrying
them. These contracts have been
source of trouble for years and re-
sponsible, in the opinion of many ex-
perts on the subject for the heavy de-
f1cits in the postal service. The recon-
mendations of the commission are, for
the most part, in accord with the best
opinion of publishers and those enti-
tied to the benefit of the second-class
mail privileges. Their enactment.
with certain notifications. into law
would, 1t is believed, result in large
increase in the postal revenues by the
rejection of publications that should,
by their very nature, be required to
pay a higher rate of postage.