New Britain herald., 1916-07-12
SECOND CLASS MAIL
 IS NOW UNDER FIRE
Newspapers Are Disseminated Against, Is Basis of Objection

denCe or a determination among the leaders of congress to enact legislation creating a zone system of rates for second-class mail mater. The existing rates it is de- clared, are not equitable but discrim- mate in favor of the big magazines against the newspapers which only circulate locally, and the patrons of the first class service
 It seems that for many years rep resentatives in congress feared tack ling this problem because of threats of political annihilation. Now a sit uation seems to have developed where the newspaper publishers feel they should not be required to pay as much for sending thei r papers through the mails as do the nation al magazines. They base their claim on the fact that the average newspa- per circulates almost entirely with in a radius of two or three hundred miles of it's seat of publication while the national magazines are circulated more generally throughout the coun- try.
 Situation Aggravated.
 The fight made in the senate re- gently by the magazine publishers against the Blue Tag system of the government shipping various maga- zines by freight has only helped to aggravate the situation. During the debate at that time several of the members suggested that a zone sys- tenn of rates should be made applic- able to second class matter.
 Recently Representative Randall, of California, a member of the House Postal committee, introduced a bill +l,o 1o1; n,,{ 1f system of rates for all second class matter. The bill has created more than the usual amount of interest among members of congress and it's author has received many letters of indorsement from publishers in vari- ous parts of the country. The mem- bers of the Postal committees in both the senate and the house seem to be taking a keen interest in the matter. On the house side it is re- ported as almost a certainty that the committee will include a zone rate provision in the next regular postal appropriation bill along the line of the provisions contained in the Randall bill.
 Commenting on his bill MT. Ran dall today, said: My bill is de- signed to remove several gross evils or abuses from which the American people suffer in the administration of the postal affairs of the country, which are:
 $sO,OOO,OOO Annual Loss.
 "An annual net loss of more than eighty million dollars is occasioned by the one cent per pound rate on week 1y and monthly publications of the magazine class.
 2. "One cent drop letter postage in every town and city, and ultimate uni versal one-cent letter postage cannot be enjoyed by the people until this great loss in the carriage of one class of mail at the expense of those who pay letter postage Is stopped. During the calendar year 1915 the post office department issued two-cent stamps and two-cent stamped envelopes to the value of s159,395, ,250.76. During the same year, according to the off, cial estimate of the postmaster gen. eral, it's loss exceeded sSO,OoO, 900 on the carriage of second class mail at one cent per pound. This is an as- tonishing revelation! As a matter of fact, one-half of the postage paid on every letter bearing a two-cent stamp went to make up the deficiency caused by the insufficient newspaper and magazine postage.
 Daily Newspapers Suffer.
 3. Publishers of local newspapers, daily and weekly, suffer enormous losses in advertising revenues bv dis elimination in postal rates in favor of publications of national character, To- cated many hundred miles from the local field, but enjoying the same cfo1 +n JIrhi io5 ho pay in their restricted fields.
 "The time has come when the postal service must be put on a busi- ness basis. Discriminations against the man who buys the two-cent stamp and against the publisher of the news paper in the local field, must cease. The postal rate of one cent per pound which is granted as a virtual subsidy to the national papers of the magazine class has resulted in fabu- loI1s fortunes for private interests, and to which the postal department is giv- ing a plain contribution of more than eighty million dollars annually.
 ITO make this more definite in the minds of the public, let me give startling illustration of the working of this mail subsidy feature as ap- piled to one magazine published in Philadelphia This is regarded as one of the highest class women's publica- tions in America, and has more than 8 million subscribers, receiving more than s5,000 per page per issue for the advertising which appears in it's columns. The June issue of this magazine contained forty-two pages of advertising for which the publisher received in excess of s210,000. Each copy of that issue weighed one and one-quarter pounds, and the postal department received 1 IA cents for delivering each copy whether the