The Seattle Republican. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1???-1915, 1911-02-24
THE READER s INTEREST IN POSTAL RATES.

On Thursday Of last week the Postoffce Committee
of the Senate under the special urging OF the PRESIDENT
reported bill raise the postage on the magazines In
stead of uniform rate of cent pound IL Is 10 De
one cent a pound the pages OF reading matter ana
four cents pound pages containing any advertising
It is expected that this will raise several million
dollars for the Postoffce Department at the expense OF
the periodicals 1t is only due the readers OF this and
other magazines to tell them that the periodicals are now
RIM at such low margin of profit that the proposed tax
must be added the subscription price II the various
publications to continue at their present standard Oh
excellence Our Canadian readers now pay % cents
wear extra on account of the increased postal rate on
American magazines entering Canada Other publications.
make similar extra charge Canadian subscriptions
Now American readers are threatened with like ad
vance on all the magazines they read if this measure be-
comes law The case Of Of the priced magazines
whose large circulation based their price, serious
their very existence is threatened While every maya
zine will be less hurt the H. and lucent popular
aoaznes which Senator Dover once called the greatest
educational force in America in the past twenty years,
will be dealt welngh fatal blow and the gain to the
postal will be made at the expense OF hundreds
of thousands of readers The matter before Con
oress and will be decided few days. and those read
ers who feel an in preserving the present price
and ouav Of their magazines should write wire their
Senators and Representatives without delay protesting
against this measure
We have received from of advertisers some
Illuminating figures the Governments profit on maya
zine postage The President claims that when page OF
advertising is carried at cent pound, it is carried
at loss Our advertiser inserted full page advertise
ment on which we paid cent pound That was
where the Government lost according to the President
In few days however, the advertiser received 1000 let
ter of inquiry response to the advertisement each with
a two-cent stamp it. To every inquirer the adver-
ser sent six different followup letters and six different
circulars making total of 500 for postage far But
this was not all He received about 400 orders for sets
of books to be paid for in nstalmens. Each monthly
payment required notice. reply and receipt returned
Twohirds Of the payments in money ORDERS each
with fee Of three cents Altogether the Government
received about 1884, this advertiser reckons mainly in
frst-class postage which yields the Government i'm
ense profit On the whole transaction the Government
received handsome return for carrying that page Of
advertising at cent a pound That side of the
ignored OF the entire matter Of the business
administration of the Postofce Department is intimately
connected with this question Some think if the Depart
men needs money it could be had by starting parcels
post by revising its contracts with the railroads. but
we merely state the facts given above to show read
ers their own interest in the case ''' e~ - ''