The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-02-15
Claim That Postmaster Gen. eral Ignores Some Im-
 pOrtant Facts
BASED CONCLUSIONS
 ON BUT ONE EXAMPLE
Claim They Have Filed Bona Eide Statistics With Department of Commerce and Labor Show
 ng Hitchcock Is Wrong

Washington, February 14.-The reply of the Periodical Publishers association to the statement which Postmaster General Hitchcock issued last night in support of his proposal to increase the rate Of postage on the advertising portions of large magazines was made tonight In the form of a statement issued here by the postal committee of the publishers as- sociation
 MT. Hitchcock entirely ignores" the committee says, "the fact that second- class mail is the chief producer of the first-class postage that finally saves the deficit of the postoffice balance sheet. The publishers show advertisements on which the postoffice department has made IA per cent profit from carrying maga- zine advertisements.
 "So MT. Hitchcock goes to the maga- zines, constituting, as he says, only one fifth of the second-class mail (and owing to their small number of pieces to the pound, much the least costly class to the postoffice department, insisting that they pay the whole deficit. The injustice Is aggravated by the fact that 1t Is pecu-
 
 vertising that saves the postoffice bal snce sheet by originating frst-class post age.
 But One Example "Mr. Hitchcock instances one magazine perhaps the most profitable periodical in the country-to show that this period icaPs increase in advertising rate result ed in profit of S917, ,l06, or enough to pay it's postage bill. The absurdity of this sort of long distance accounting is ob- vious when 1t Is explained that the Amer ican magazines cost to edit manufacture, deliver and administer nearly twice as much as the publishers net from sub- scriptions.
 The postal committee of the Periodical Fut fishers association has obtained the exact figures from the books of the ac- cc Ints of the five standard monthly mag azines which carried the most advertis- ing in 1909. These figures of profits ara | cn file in the department of commerce a'l labor. The aggregate hrlaf net prof. l its of these five magazines are less thar | one-tenth of the aggregate advertising in- comes. The reader gets the balance. This operation of large advertising receipts passed over to the reader in the shape of a better gazine than his subscription money will make, edit and deliver ac- counts for the phenomenaly low priced. widely read American periodicals. Is Unprofitable On Mir. IIitchcock's own figures in his sta tatement--showing that the proposed postal change would mean only cents d pound postage on the whole magazine though as the bill stand 1t would mean more-it is easily calculated that the pro- posed increase would raise less than g., 5J0 COG for the postoffice department, from which must be substracted the great new exrense of administering this complex and discriminating measure.
 "On the other hand it would entirely wipe out the profits of many periodical Is, magazines. agricultural papers. religious papers and trade journals and seriously CT pple the balance. This has been made plain by hundreds of publishers who have communicated with their congressman giving their exact profits.'
 The periodical publishers say they do net consider it necessary to discuss MT. Hitchcock's attempt to question the off, fio ial figures of the publishers profits by tbis notation of the wild guesses of a concern trying to sell stock to the public by mail"