Saturday news. (Watertown, S.D.) 19??-19??, 1917-06-21
E DIT O A
POSTAGE RATE AND THE ADVERTISING rAx

The Saturday News wishes that it could induce the newspaper
brethren of the state of South Dakota to sit down in some obscure
corner after they have gotten out their next edition and ponder
over this newspaper postage problem until they have threshed it
out in their minds beyond peradventure.
If they will give it due consideration from all angles, including
the advertising which they might get if the big magazines were not
contracting for 1t themselves and using the postoffce department
as a medium for practically free distribution, The Saturday News
cate that they believe it to be laborng under ddusion.
In this connection we reproduce the first paragraph of an edit
oral recently appearing in the Aberdeen News:
"Most of the daily newspapers are complaining bitter
ly and with justice against the proposed tax on adveris-
ing. The trouble with most of the daily newspapers is that
they fell for the arguments of the great city daiies and the
magazines in opposition to the proposed zone system of
second class postage, and when the magazines and some of
the great city dalies expressed a willingness to accept a
tax on advertising in lieu Of a raise in postage the smaller
newspapers We're left without a leg to stand on Congress,
of course, feels it simply must do something to the news
papers. That has become a habit of legislative bodies, state
and national. And the big fellows were on the job while
the little fellows were back home, hustlng for their home
communities So the senate committee fell for the argu-
ments of the big fellows
The Pierre captalJournal is another paper which agrees with
its Aberdeen contemporary. 50 far as this paper has observed,
these two newspapers and The Saturday News are the only journals
age rate. f 70
For the purpose of illustration, let us take two noted Phila-
deelphla publications., The Ladies Home Journal and the Saturday
Evening Post, each conceded to be a high type of its class. Each
thousand dollars a page, and each, including its advertising see
tons, is distributed throughout the country by Uncle Sam for one
Originally the one-cent rate was established to assist the cause
o. oda eaueafl on. me NEWSPAPERS We're then comparatively few and
Know It today was unknown. The chief aim then was to furnish the
public with high-class reading matter at a low rate.
But the development Of the advertising features of newspapers
gave rise to the multiplication of periodicals until today hundreds
upon hundreds Of Cheap john institutions, carrying a surfeit Of
Mgnlpinee advertising and a dearth of reading matter Of a degen-
Grating character, are serving no useful purpose in life other than
70 put profits from advertising into the pockets of publishers who
care nothing for either morals or religion.
4 result IS that the loss to the government in 1916 on account
OF tn system Of distribution approached the great sun Of one
hundred million dollars. In other words, it cost the government
approximately q million and a half dollars a week to handle second
class mai matter. To be still more specific, the posto6ce department
received from publishers for distributing their publications through
the mails about a million and a half less per week than the cost Of
the service. S5@# #
;aa Ine hrm which publishes these two high-class Philadelphia
ouinal saved approximately six hundred Thousand dollars in 1916
= distribution. That is to- say, it cost the postoffce department. for
carrying these publications through the mails substantially six hun
erea thousand dollars more than the publishers paid the government
Tor the service.
y. e " Isl part of the governments business to serve as n adver-
using distribution for publishers, our observations herein are out Of
place, out It every man should pay d reasonable sum for services
alsnaered Inn, then the government should cease to occupy the role
q nee distributor for advertising matter.
since advertising has become the distinctive feature Of SO large
q proportion OF the periodicals of the country, and since the bio
magazines reap their profits from this source, why should the local
newspapers be compelled to pay the same price per pound for carry
lg Inelr editions halfway across the county that the magazines
nent 49, $500
i. Who pays the taxes necessary to maintain the governmentY
11Imateiy every sdollar of it Isl contributed by labor. I'VE care
~ whether John D.Rockefeler 81 StandardaOl company is required
A1nsso oo syypsE rgos we oeAsso eoevLAa)