Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1908-01-08
POSTAL REFORM.

pOstOfdce department for recent
rulings affecting subscriptions and
sample copies. In regard to sub
scriptions the Sentinel quotes the
following ruling of the department:
A reasonable time will be allowed
publishers to secure renewals OF
subscriptions, but unless subscrip-
tiOns are expressly renewed after
the term for which they are paid
within the following periods
dailies within three months, tri-
weeklies within six months, semi
Weeklies within nine months,
weeklies within one year-they
shall not be counted in the legiti-
mate list of subscribers, and copies
mailed on account thereof shall not
be accepted for mailing at the
second class postage rate of 1 cent
a pound, but may be mailed at the
transient second class postage of
cent for each four ounces or frac-
ton thereof, prepaid by stamps af-
fixed. The right of publisher to
extend credit for subscriptions to
his publication is not denied or
questioned, but his compliance or
non compliance with this regulation
will be taken into consideration in
determining whether the publica-
ton is entitled to transmission at
the second class postage rates.
The Sentinel says the bulk of sub
scribers to papers outside of the
big cities do not pay subscriptions
in advance or renew them promptly
when they expire and contends
that to enfore such a regulation
would greatly cut down the sub
scription of the average paper Tin
Maine.)
1t appears to the Herald that the
Maine paper takes an exaggerated
view of the matter. There is no
reason why any subscriber should
take affrant at his newspaper or
wish to have his subscription dis
continued because IF this law. 1t
applies equally to EVERY PAPER
IN THE UNITED STATES and the
publisher is no more responsible
than the subscriber himself for the
law. He is simply obliged to COM
ply with It's provisions or be sub
ject to the heavy penalties imposed.
It costs a subscriber no more to pay
promptly than to let the account
run and pay several years at a
time. In the instances which at
times do occur-in the case of a
subscriber who does not intend to
pay-the law will prove help, and
in the end publisher ana subscriber
may both find that it is a good
thing. AS we have to observe it
anyway, we may as we'll hope that
such will be the case.
1t is doubtless true that too many
country papers now carry their sub
scrIbers for considerable length of
time after their subscriptions have
expired. The custom had its origin
in the period when business methods
were much more lax in newspaper
offices than they are today, and it
hard to break the habit. Whether
the new postal regulation will work
a real hardship to country papers is
another question.
The subscription price to news
paper in the majority of cases is a
very small amount. There are few
subscribers but could pay itregularly
when they know the law requires it,
The newspaper is usually a lenient
creditor and therefore comes last.
Another reason subscribers are
slow pay is that many of them are
inclined to look upon newspapers
as a luxury. A recent issue of a
religious paper quotes the following
letter:
Please discontinue my subscrip-
ton. AS everything is so tight as
TO money matters and as this is one
of the things I can do without,
thought | would begin to cut this
first.
This, says the paper, is from a
prosperous business man in a large
city. When it is considered that
the saving would amount to less
than cents a week, it would APP
pear the subscriber has yielded to
the habit of considering the paper a
luxury without exercising reason in
the mattar. Bills for luxuries are
usually put at the bottom of the list
for settlement.
There is one class of publications
that would suffer far more than the
country paper, and that is the mail
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