The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-12-07
SECOND CLASS MAIL MATTER
Suggested That Magazines and Pe-
 riodicals Pay More Postage.

The deficit every year in the post office department is largely caused by the low rate of postage. of 1 cent a pound charged on second class malr matter, which includes not only news papers, but magazines and miscella- neous periodicals The actual loss grow ing out of the transmission of this second class mail matter at 1 cent a pound amounts to about S63.000,000 a year. The average cost of the trans portatjon of this matter is more than 9 cents a pound.
 It appears that the average distance over which newspapers are delivered to their customers Is 291 miles, while the average haul of magazines is 1,049 and of miscellaneous periodicals 1,12S miles. Thus the average haul of the magazine Is three and one-half times and that of the miscellaneous periodical nearly four times the haul of the daily newspaper, yet all of them pay the same postage rate of 1 cent a pound. The statistics of 1907 show that second class mail matter constituted 63.91 per cent of the weight of all the mail and yielded only 5.19 per cent of the revenue.
 The figures given are startling and show the payment by the government of an enormous subsidy to the news papers, magazines and periodicals, and congress may we'll consider whether radical steps should not be taken to reduce the deficit in the postofiice de partment caused by this discrepancy between the actual cost of transporta- ton and the compensation exacted therefor.
 A great saving might be made, amounting to much more than half of the loss. by imposing upon magazines and periodicals a higher rate of post age. They are much heavier than newspapers and contain a much high CT proportion of adEertisinr to reading matter. and the average distance Of their transportation is three and 9 half times as great.
 The total deficit for the last fisca year. in the postottice departmeI amounted to sir 800, 900. The brancht of Its business which 1t did at los were the second class mail service. which the loss, as already said. VII S63 ,OOo. .oOO. and the free rural deliver.
  These losses were in part offset by tn profits of letter postage and othe sources of income. It would seen wise to reduce the loss upon secono class mail matter. at least to the ex tent of preventing deficit in the totai operations of the postoffice.
 I commend the whole subject to con gross, not unmindful of the spread of intelligence which a low charge for carrying newspapers and periodicals assists. I very much doubt, however. the wisdom of a policy which consti- tutes so large a subsidy and requires additional taxation to meet it.
 Postal Savings Banks.
 The second subject worthy of men, ton in the postoffice department is the real necessity and entire practica- bility of establishing postal savings banks. The successful party at the last election declared in favor of postal savings banks. and. although the prop osition finds opponents in many parts of the country. I am convinced that the people desire such banks and am sure that when the banks are fur nished they will be productive of the utmost good The postal savings banks are not constituted for the purpose of creating competition with other banks. The rate of interest upon deposits to which they would be limited would be so small as to prevent their drawing deposits away from other banks.
 believe them to be necessary in or der to offer a proper lnouOement to thrift and saving to a great many n now have banking facilities and to whom such a system would offer an opportunity for the accumulation of cap itaL They will furnish satisfactory substitute, based on sound principle and actual successful trial in nearly all the countries of the world, for the system of government guaranty of deposits now being adopted in several western states which. with deference to those who advocate it, seems to me to have in it the seeds of demoraliza- tion to conservative banking and cer- tain financial disaster.
 The question of how the money de- posited in postal savings banks shall be invested is not free from difficulty. but I believe that a satisfactory pro vision for this purpose was inserted as an amendment to the bill considered by the senate at is last session It has been proposed to delay the consid- eration of legislation establishing a postal savings bank until after the re- port of the monetary commission. This report Is likely to be delayed, and prop erly so, because of the necessity for careful deliberation and close inves- tigation. I do not see why the one should be tied up with the other. It is understood that the monetary com mission have looked into the systems of banking which now prevail abroad and have found that by a control there exercised in respect to reserves and the rates of exchange by some central authority panics are avoided. It is not apparent that n system of postal savings banks would in any way inter- fere with a change to such system here. Certainly in most of the coun- tries in Europe. where control is thus exercised by q central authority, postal a Al, wr,s C