New-York tribune., 1917-06-11

To the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir: In your issue of June T. 1917. was
very much interested to read your leading
editorial, under the caption, Take Away the
Subsidy" The view which you take is es-
pecialy broadminded for a newspaper that
is bound to be financially affected by any in
crease in postal rates, and wish TO con-
gratulate you on this ad-gauged spirit
that you have shown.
Your editorial was especially interesting
to me in view of the fact that THE Outlook
in an editorial by its distinguished editor
in chief in the number for May l6, 1917, at
tempts to show that any increase in second
class postal rates would be very objection
able. With respect to this proposed increase
THE Outlook" arrives at the following con-
clusions: "It is unjust; sit is injurious
to the public; "it is unpatriotic." From
having made an analysis of the postal rates
that The Outlook" is now paying, as COM
pared with ordinary freight and express rates
on merchandise, | am thoroughly convinced
that it cannot properly arrive at any one OF
the conclusions referred to above. The facts
upon which base this opinion are presented
below
Rates for "The Outlook"
The basis of my argument is to compare
the rate per 100 pounds. which "The Out
look" is paying for the transportation and
distribution of this publication to repre-
sentative points in the United States, with
the present freight and express rates per
100 pounds on merchandise between the same
points. The distances which | have chosen
for this comparison, as representing three
lengths of zone, are from Boston TO Buffalo,
from Boston to Chicago and from Boston
to San Francisco. The particular merchan
disc which | have selected for the sake of
the comparison is coffee, put up in packages
and packed in ordinary shipping cases.
For the sake of an extreme contrast, 1t
seems fair TO include a comparison of the
postal rates now paid on magazines, such
as THE Outlook" with the rates for letter
postage.
The comparative figures which have as
sembed are as follows:
To To To San
Buffalo Chicago Francisco
Postal rate on "The
Outlook per 100
lbs ............. sl.OO s1.OO slOO
Freight rate on
coffee per 100 lbs. .256 AZ 2.25
Express rate on cof
fee per 100 lbs. 1.60 $50 1880
Letter postal rate
per 100 lbs. $500 $500 $500
while these letter rates are based on
postage of cents an ounce, it is fact
that by actual weight average business let
ters weigh one-half an ounce each, and
therefore they in reality pay postage of
cents per ounce, or S6i per 100 pounds.)
While il is apparent that it costs approx
matelv four times as much TO send The Out
look" by mail express train service) from
Boston 10 Buffalo as it does TO send coffee
by freight from Boston to Buffalo, and while
il costs approximately twice much to send
The Outlook" by mail from Boston TO Ch
cago as it does TO send coffee by freight, it
ia seen that il costs two and one-fourth
times as much to send coffee by freight from
Boston to San Francisco as it does to send
"The Outlook" by mail from Boston to San
Francisco.
Moreover, THE Outlook" traverses the
country on express train time, and at San
Francisco the mail bags opened and the
copies are promptly delivered to the indi-
vidual subscribers without extra expense In
the case of the coffee, transported by freight
NJ two and one-fourth times the mail rate
it drags along for at least few weeks
and when it eventually reaches San Fran
cisco it not only has to stand truckage