Arizona republican., 1910-01-08
The Magazines and Postage.

The Magazines and Postage.
 It is understood to be the desire of the administration to have congress pass a bill increasing the postage to be paid on mail matter of the second class. There is a deficit of ST ,O0O. 900 in the finances of the postoffice de- partment, and the low rate paid for second-class matter is held chiefly re- office department officials. Second class matter consists of newspapers. magazines and other periodicals, and the government charges one cent a pound for transportation and delivery. To increase the rate materially would. of course, force the cheap magazines to go out of business, or raise their subscription and advertising rates.
 Some of the so-called undertaking
  move is one of revenge against them by the administration because of the critical attitude they have assumed since Mir Roosevelt went out of of flee This, of course, is childish non- sense on the part of the publishers who make the charge, and is obvious ly a piece of self advertising. MT. Taft is too big a man to indulge in such petty tactics as would be shown in any effort to punish" a hostile press.
 We believe. however that the ad- ministration will make a serious mis- passage of the proposed law. Cheap reading matter for the masses is de- sirable from every standpoint, and We have never been able to see any req son why it should be a life-and- death matter whether the postoffice depart ment is elf-sustaining or not. The country wants cheap postage. That was made clearly apparent in. the long campaign TOT 2-cent postage for letters. The people do not care a whoop whether the postal business pays a profit or shows a loss; they want the most efficient service, and will object to any move that means less satisfactory service.
 And even from the standpoint of profit and loss, it does not follow that the low rate for second-class matter is a bad investment for the govern ment
 A correspondent of the New York Sun asserts that half of the first class mail and two-thirds of the profit of the postoffice department result from advertising in the magazines and newspapers. Remarking that the most casual student of commerce knows this at a glance, the corre-
 
 A column advertisement in two pe- riodicals brought 15,600 first-class let ters. Each letter was answered by a first-class letter and ten other fol low up" letters.
 What profit did the government make on this transaction?"
 It is plain enough that second-class matter, which is handled at loss. immensely enlarges the volume of first-class matter, upon which there is a large profit. Thus the former may be regarded as the advance agent of the latter. even as the cost of mercantile advertising more than comes back in larger sales of goods,
 On the whole. it is undoubtedly good business policy for the postoffice department to encourage large cir culation of newspapers and magazines. It is certainly of advantage to busi- ness interests. The deficit could be largely cut down, perhaps wholly eliminated, by compelling each de- partment of the government to pay its own postal expenses. by curtailing the franking privilege, and by paying less exorbitant prices to the railroads for transporting mail matter