The Washington herald., 1910-12-09
PRESS COMMENT
ON THE ESSAGE

Hartford Times: This ChnaD con
servatve utterance is exactly what
everybody who is trying to build up any
kind Of decent business or TO make dol
lar in any legitimate way wishes TO find
in the Presidents message.
Springfield Republican: Yet IL is the
most conservative message We have had
from the White House in az least six
years. The business world in its pres
eat state Of fright should find it on the
whole decidedly reassuring document
New York Press: Those who do not
feel that this is a very valuable mes
I sage must take into account the unusual
circumstances which now face the Taft
administration-circu which his
/ party has not before experienced since
the defeat Of Bryan in 1896.
/ Brooklyn Eagle: To the classified list
the President would add first, second,
and third class postmasters. taking them
I out Of politics As to second-class mail
matter. he protests that the government
/ is furnishing 10 the owners Of maya
zines a service worth millions more than
/ they pay for 1t. and that justice re-
quires the rates be increased.
/ New York Evening Post: There is at
| least one recommendation in the Pres
ident's message that there ought 10 be
no difficulty In carrying out during the
short session OF Congress. The reasons
in favor Of increasing the salaries of
United States judges are so strong. the
! expense involved so utterly insignificant
/ in comparison with the Importance of
the object TO be attained. that the pas
sage of the bill-already pending
should be attainable with very little ex-
penditure OF the time of Congress.
New York World: Business and in
dustry viii be interested in the fact that
no changes OF Importance are proposed
in interstate commerce and antitrust
laws While the President makes il
plain that be did not at the recent ses-
sion secure all the legislation on those
subjects that he desired. he now asserts
that business methods have been greatly
| improved. and he is willing TO proceed
for the present with the laws as they
stand. promising their strict enforce
ment
New York Herald: II insist that if
the fact is, as the experts Of the Post
Office show, that we are furnishing to
the owners of magazines a service worth
millions more than they pay for it, then
justice requires that the rate should be
increased. President Taft
Renewing the suggestion made in his
| Of Eaef h.
dent again calls the attention of Con-
gress to the inadequacy of the postal
rate at which thousands OF so-ealled
: magazines that are in substance mere
! advertising circulars are distributed as
second class matter.
The Postmaster General has pointed
out that the advertising part OF a maya
zine should be charged for at higher
rate than its reading matter a plan
which would save many useful publica-
tons from being excluded from the mails
by d prohibitive rate. President Taft
evidently approves Of this.
New York Sun: In the President
message will be found these sentences:
The unrestricted manner in which the
franking privilege is now being used by
the several Federal services and by Con-
gress has laid it open to serious abuses
a fact clearly established through in
vestlgations recently instituted by the
department While it has been impos.
sible without a better control of frank
l. ing TO determine the exact expense tC
the government of this practice there
can be be no doubt that it annually
reaches into the millions.
The method by which nonpayment OF
postage is obtained is simple. A good
natured member Of Congress is induced
/ to have printed in the Congressional
Record those documents the circulation
of which is regarded as OF Importance
They are then reprinted in pamphle
form and ere entitled TO carriage free
The object they are designed to serve
may be partisan or nonpolitical.. Thel
are privileged because Of publication il
the Congressional Record and by virtue
of the signature of Representative o.
a Senator.