The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1910-03-31
Another Iowa Paper in Trouble Will,
PoStoffice Department.

Two weeks ago The Reporter dis
continued mailing the paper to all
subscribers who were one year or
more in arrears, in order to comply
with the ruling of the postal depart
ment. Some of our readers were in
clined to think that this step was just
bluff on the part of the newspapers,
but it is cold fact. All over Iowa
newspapers are getting notice to show
| up their lists. We publish herewith
the following article which appeared
IN the last issue of the Bulletin, pub
lished at Denison, Iowa:
| The postal department at Wash
lington has now shown the extent of
It's authority over private business af-
fairs by citing The Bulletin to appear
there at o'clock on the afternoon
Iof April 9Th, 1910, to show cause
why the paper should not be refused
the privileges of the second-class rate
in the U. s. mails, alleging as an ex-
cuse for this order that there are two
hundred or more Bulletin readers
who owe for the paper more than one
fyear.
This order has brought us face to
face with "a condition and not a
theory" Either The bulletin will
| have to show clean sheet on April
9TH, or the department will un-
doubtedly order either the entire
paper excluded from the second-class
rate or that those who are owing for
more than year be excluded.
| We presume as legitimate Amer
lean enterprise engaged in manufac-
turing newspapers and printing job
work that the Office will still be per-
| mltted to operate in Denison and pos
slbly that exercising the right that
any private citizen enjoys we might
be able to send our paper through
the mails at one cent each. But that
would cut out the profit in issuing the
paper and would be asking The Bulle-
TIN to pay too much of the postal de-
ficit which is caused by over paying a
few thousand postmasters two or
three thousand dollars a year each
when they earn about two hundred.
We couldn't afford to do it.
The result will be a strict COM
pliance with the postal regulations
and the cutting off from our lists of
all who become more than a year in
arrears. We will not like to do that
any more than the readers will care
to have us do it.
The fact of the matter is that most
readers of newspapers who get more
than year behind in the pay for
their papers, do so because of neglect,
nothing more. Nearly all readers who
get behind fail to note how rapidly
time is passing, and they procrasti-
nate-they wait till tomorrow to do
tWsh at they ought to do today, and thus
time gets ahead of them before they
| realize it.
| AS we have stated before, The Bull
letin will abide by the orders of the
postal department because we are not
big enough to make winning fight
against the clerks and big-heads of
the department who can thus take
private business affairs into their own
hands and make such arbitrary or
ders. And we will guarantee that
all other papers in this locality will
DO the same. The Bulletin does not
propose to be singled out in matter
or such mportance-not if legal ma
chinery can compel fair deal.
| It is thus up to newspaper readers
IN Crawford county to get under cover
1or minions of Uncle Samuel are now
debating newspaper business Just
now, and the edict Is that you pay up
to within a year or off comes your
head.