The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1908-03-20

whenever g. mar refers to second class
matter every newspaper man in thls coun-
try practically without exception gets AZ
ter congress. and scares congress 10
death.
But now want TO tell you what the
plan u.s. and we haUo got Il hope. all OF ia.
that we can persuade the ~spape to
let us alone while we make a correction
that they wont scare congress; That the
Fort Worth papers here, and the Kansas
City papers and the 81. Louis papers and
the Cincinnati papers, and all the papers
in between, viii take It up ard say, I'VE
are with congress in 1his ding There
are certain things about second class mat
ter that Should be corrected. and We want
to sec them corrected, and / want to show
| you what the matter is. II is not with
the daily papers. The average haul OF the
Fort Worth papers is only $50 miles; IL you
will take all the papers that the Fort
Worth papers send cut from Fort Worth
md then make or average OF the distance
they are hauled. the result you will get
IS $50 miles. Dallas is iN.
Now, Iet'S take dear Augusta, Me.-and
by the way. less than 6 per cent. OF the
circulation of the Fort Worth ard l,allas
papers go through the rnaiis, and all OF
hem. as you know, are in bulky packages.
Now, go back to that outfit up there in
Augusta q hope there is no Maine man
here. There is mailed out of Augusta,
Me. every year 6,G3N, 600 pounds of mail.
On an average there are eight Straightforward.
perS to the pound. You can make the
multiplication yourself, that is dS.toO,01
pieces. And the average haul, which is
the Vital thing IN this question, and cost
10 the government. 1t not as the Fort
Worth papers. $50, or il miles, as 1t is III
Dallas; it is 1881 miles, the average haul
OF the Augusta. Me, papers. The average
haul from Philadelphia, which puts out
314.oo9,@ pounds of wall a year, Is $50
1niles-the average haul. New York city.
puts out in magazines 56.o0O,M0 pounds OF
mail a year, aud the average haul is
1.G3O miles. Now, tt is the Augusta, Me,
proposition; it is the PHILADELPHIA pub
licatiens; 1t is the New York publications
that arc burdenlng this mail. Every man
here who is a practical man In his car
knows the delay and worry that comes
from the handling of individual packages,
or. as newspaper men say, single wrap.
perS."
His Plan for Second Class.
There Is the first correction TO be made.
And my idea of correction Is this: to
charge about II of a cent for The lightest
sort of single wrappers. and with the in
crease of the next size wrapper to 20 to
X a cent. and then to q Of a cent, SO that
when you set>up 10 about ten ounces YOU
are making the single wrapper folks pay
about j cent, whereas now they pay l cent
Il pound. | do not know whether / make
that clear to you or not. 1t is complex,
bat i believe that you should make the
people of this country pay for the service
performed, and l know that fifty little
bitty slips, weighing one pound. cost more
to put through the mails than those fifty
little slips tied UP INTO one bundle. Do l
make myself clear? know that the
greatest incubus on the railway mail serv-
Ice today is the single wrapper PROPOSE
ton. 1t ought to be corrected. and II you
folks IN your various localities can GO up
to the average newspaper editor aud tell
him that congress does not intend to take
away from the country weekly It's free
county circulation; that it Goes not intend
to take away from the daily press a single
one of it's privileges. but that congress
does want to get after the publications
back east that are burdening this mail
with poorly directed and nonseusical stuff
called literature.
Correct the Augusta. Me-, proposition:
correct Philadelphia; see to 1t, with close
governmental supervision. that McClure's
and the Cosmopolitan and Everybody'a
shall not be three-fGurths advertising and
one-fourth reading matter. and YOU have
got no longer the deficit. no longer Il ball
ance OF expenditure and receipts, but YOU
have got what poor Old Barry had when
Mclean turned the thing over to him-a
means what? 1t means better pay for the
employees first of all; and it means new
conditions In various lines.