Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1916-12-22

district, or one to build a big post office
in some little town. When the voters
all over the country, learn what
efficiency and economy are in the ad-
ministration of government, they will
probably band together and demand
of their Congressman that he vote
against all appropriations of that kind
for his own district and every other dis
trict. A Congressman recently told the
Editor of the Times that he got $50, O00
appropriation for his district at the
last session of Congress, and he said to
make the appropriation was reckless,
wasteful expenditure, but said he, all
the other Congressman were getting
appropriations and / thought my dis
trict might as we'll have a bite OF the
pork as it went around. He said the
last Congress was the most reckless In
wasteful expenditure of any within
his recollectIon-and he knows.
George e Hosmer, chairman of the
legislative committee of the National
Editorial Association, says that several
thousand Of the smaller country news
papers are now paying as high as ten
cents a pound for the news print paper
they are using. There are $4,000 of the
country papers and they use about
1000 tons Of paper each week. The
more Inn portant country papers can by
purchasing In ton lots secure paper for
$105 a ton at the mill to which must
be added freight, carriage, etc, but the
paper of small circulation which can
buy in ten to twenty lots only,
must pay to dealers a price equal to
5000 per ton. Mr.. Hosmer estimates
that q $40 tons will cost the pub
fishers for the year, at present price,,
ten cents a pound. Large dailies which
buy paper In carload lots under a year.
ly contract can probably buy for 81,
1854, $50, the same amount of paper as
will cost the country publishers 81, 1858,
900. Mr.. Hoemer anticipates still
higher prices for paper during 1917,
kdhh tho5C INV PACFoAhhnB
The Publishers Auxiliary in an edi-
torial review of the present situation
says: cit spells ruin for many small
papers unless some way of meeting the
condition is found"
In his annual report to Congress, the
Postmaster General tells how the Post
Office Department Is not only self-sus-
tanning but Is yielding a surplus and
he recommends penny letter postage
in free delivery cities.
We 40 not accuse the head of the
Post Office Department with mierepre-
sentaIlon OF falsifyIng, but we do know
that the statement is misleading. A
merchant who builds q store must con-
slider The interest on his investment
ana depreciation and taxes as q part of
the cost of operating the business.
The government has millions upon
of dollars invested in post Of
ice buildings, the cost of which came
not out OF earnings of the postal system
out from other sources and in figuring
surplus or deficit for a fiscal year, no
account is taken IF this Investment. A
number of other features which enter
into The COSY VI ths~sxstsm ars-ignared
by MI. Burieson just a. they have been
Dy his predecessors.
To get at The real basis of cost, the
ex pe%nditures for new post office build
lngs should be charged against the pos
tai receipts, and theu the system would
al ways show a deficit instead of a pro-
fit.
Much of the so-called surplus of tie
last three years really belonged 10 the
railroad conn anies which through the
operation of the parcel post, lost the
pay they were receiving for carry ing
ex press matter, and Were compelled 10
carry tens of thousands of packages of
matter for the postal system without
pay so thai Practically every dollar of
parcel post money that went to the
government, was profit.
If a big department store had the
power TO charge its patrons a certain
rate for all goods delivered, and the
power to compel messengers to deliver
the goods without charge, 1t could soon
get rich. That could not happen in
ordinary business, but it did happen In
the governments treatment OF the rail-
roads. Was it honest?