The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1917-08-27

REPUBLICAN
fishers like to feel that IL they can
get out of paying for one paper 1t
will help right the wrongs they have
suffered at the hands of some other
paper. Those who feel that way
about paying are not desirable Gus
toners and the man who publishes
paper sometimes loses money on
them. People usually pay such bills
according to their own spirit of fair
ness and according to the good will
they feel toward that paper and to-
ward newspapers in general. A pub
Usher cannot go to each subscriber
once a year and collect his money. If
he did, he would not have time nor
money left to keep on producing a
good newspaper. The best and most
thoughtful patrons call at the office
and pay the money. Publishers usu-
ally send the others their bills, and
they pay when it Is convenient. s ONE
never find 1t convenient and when
their paper stops the are apt to feel
offended and hunt up some other
printing office and try that paper for
lawhile-till the publisher of that pa
per cuts them off for failure to pay.
BY that time they find some new pa
per whose publisher does not know
them, and then try his paper for
lawhile-till he wants his money. The
veteran publisher knows that people
who abuse newspapers the most and
are loudest in praise of the new pa
per are generally the ones who have
been blacklisted by the older papers
in the county.
XXXvIII.
In the fall of 1916 a Blackfoot
publisher, knowing that there must
be some errors in his subscription
accounts, and desiring to get every
one correct, spent $55 in labor, ma
terials and postage, to send a state
ment to each subscriber showing the
condition of his or her account.
Those who were paid in advance and
those who were in arrears all re-
ceived the same form of letter, and
in each letter was a stamped envel-
ope addressed to the publisher for
reply. In thirty days only four re-
plies were received pointing out err
rors, but number of people threw
away their letters and entered the
office long afterward and roasted ev-
erybody in sight for having sent out a
bill that was wrong. A number of
people whose account was paid in ad-
vance received their letter stating
that it was paid in advance and show
ing to what date it was paid, and
promptly sent back to the publisher
to say that they didn't owe the bill
and wanted their paper stopped. A
large number of them promptly mail
ed back the statement with check
to match. Those who were in ar
rears and did not respond in a rea-
sonable time received their bill with
a request to pay, and many of them
paid all arrears and long period in
advance. Still another reminder was
sent to those who did not respond,
and the total amount collected from
those who paid indicated that it cost
from 4 II to 9 cents on the dollar to
obtain the money, or an everage OF
7 per cent for collection from the
best customers. Those who had to
be collected from by other methods
made such heavy losses that their
patronage was not profitable. Accord
ing to these records the publisher
learned that the average of his best
subscribers who intend to pay him
So year for the paper, really only
delivers him $1.S5. The average re-
ceived from the other class such as
did not respond to the requests by
mail and who did not call at the of
flee to pay voluntarily, was SO low
that it sounded like bankruptcy to
mention it. And those people were
not the very poor people and the
poor new settlers and dry farmers
as might be supposed, but sprink-
ling of all classes, rich, poor and
well-to-do, religious, criminal and
otherwise.
xxx.
When all newspapers treat the
public fairly, all newspapers can ex-
pect to be treated fairly by the pub
lie. So long as there are unprinc1-
pl6Q m0u LII Lu0 newspaper uuoihOoo
in any of the states, some of the peo-
pie of the states will suffer injustice
at their hands, but they should not
charge that up against all newspa-
pers. When all of the public get so
they treat the newspaper men justly,
there will be less provocation for the
to mistreat the public. The
public, if they acted in unison, could
put any newspaper out of business
in short time, or they could afford
it the opportunity to develop a fine
public service and good business.
But the public have so many differ
emit ideas and tastes, and their de-
sires and interests vary SO much
from day to day, that if Satan him
self were operating newspaper he
would have few visitors every day
who would want him to do some
thing to hurt some other person;
but that customer would want Sa-
tan's paper suppressed the rest OF
the year as protection against the
of the injured person.
I