The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-02-06
THE ALLEGED POSTAL DEFICIT.

The investigation into the So-callcd
Postofiice deficit is being made not
only in Congress, but in newspapers all
over the United States. We have cop
led heretofore, n report of a Congress
sionnl investigating committee, which
concluded that second class mattcr is
in fact paying its own way, even un.
| der the present rates. that the csti-
mate OF cents "A pound as tho cost of
carrying this class of mail. made by
| President Taft, was altogether wild.
Tho fact of the matter is that no ab-
solntely correct figures can be given
with respect TO this cost. as no scgre.
cation is made with respect TO il in the
postoflico accounts. So that it is large
~ a matter of estimate: but the Con
gressional committee referred to had
before 1t all OF the experts of the post
Office department, and that is tho con
clusion arrived at--that this class of
mail pays its own way under the pres.
ent rates.
Besides that, however, the second
class matter adds materially to the
mail carried under other cl2ssitications.
1t has very large business Of its own,
but every newspaper, every magazine,
has besides its payments on second
class matter, large postal accounts for
other service. II sends out very large
number Of letters, circulars and other
classes of mail, paying full rates there
on. y case is given of publication
which paid $4,000 in direct postage on |
second-class matter. and at the same |
time this magazine showed that It's
business brought $4,000 OF revenue to
other classes of postal service in let
tcrs, circulars, money orders, registered
mail, and the like So that second
class matter, besides paying its way and
adding very largely in direct compen-
sation to postal revenues. increases
those revenues in other lines in the
case cited, ten fold, and there is no
reason to believe that that case was
Every publisher knows the
fact that the postage account on let.
.crs. circulars. money orders, registered {
mail, etc, received at and sent from his
office is many times greater than the
amount Of postage paid direct; that
n the large curtailment of the use OF
nails as proposed by President Taft in
econd-class matter, there would be Il
shrinkage of other classes
# the mail service.
We call attention to this as an i'm.
,ortant contribution to the discus )
ION Of this whole question. Whatever .
,ostal deficit there may be, that de-
cit would be tremendously enlarged,
il were not for the revenue made by I
he indirect carriage of the second-clas |
natter at the oneccut rate. /
In this connection il is well worth L
,hilc to note that speeches of the Pres.
dent and of Speaker Cannon are being
iailed free all over the country at a I,
ost of good many thousand dollars
o the service; that under the state !,
lcnt made few days ago in the Wash =
ngton dispatches, q member of Con
rcss was sending home six sacks of :.
,eds for distribution among his con-
tituents. The postage on these six
lcks would doubtless have amounted g
the regular rate TO forty or fifty
ollars, and as nearly four hundred
lembers in both houses Of Congress =
re sending out a huge quantity of =
ranked matter, from typewritlng ma. :
hines to sets of the Congressional Rec >
rd. weighing perhaps from fifty to {"
xty pounds, il is no wonder the post. !"
lice shows an apparent deficit,
1t is shown also that the rural de-
very is costing something like $2S,,
10000 year, and yet no one has pro
osed to add this sum 10 the bill of the ii
lrmers who receive their mail by this h
rvice. re
The reported deficit is some seven Il
en million dollars. That could be q
iped out at one stroke by the limita- NJ
ton to reasonable restrictions of the m
ankiug privilege exercised by mem a,
,rs of Congress and by the multitude ti
officials in the various departments d,
Wash ofn