The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1918-05-23


70 Iowa Foreign Country
by Ellis Parker Butler]
was born In Iowa and when T WAS
a boy / was always a mighty proud
Iowan. I loved charts that showed
how Iowa had climbed from no popu-
lation at all until the stats stood
tenth in the union rejoiced to know
that Iowa was the first corn state and
/ was jealous Of Illinois because n
l1nois stood above Iowa in wheat pro
duction. One Of the things OF which
was proudest was that whenever a
magazine or other nationally circf,.
lated publication got out a map or
list showing where the circulation
was distributed, Iowa was always near
the top. 1t was a pretty fine thing for
Iowa, far-off farm state, to RAM
high In periodical literature buying,
thought
High Grade State.
l was rather right about That.
think Everyone knows that Iowa is
a good state. Iowans think It is the
best state In the union There are no
better schools in the world than the
Iowa schools. You find high grade
magazines and periodicals on more
farm home tables than in any state
you can name. Out there in the cen.
ter of the nation is a state that is
hayseed state and yet it is intelligent
educated and has much real culture
iowa sent more men. population con.
| sidered. into the union armies than
any other state, Iowa is vitality loyal
today.
Proud Of iowa.
1owa-that same patriotic Iowa
has very large foreign-born and for.
leign ancestored population It has an
enormous German-American popula
ton, some sections being almost en-
tirely German-American. The Iowa
German.Americans are patriotic
Americans. AS a man from Iowa I
am still mighty proud of my state.
A boy from Maine. boy from Iowa,
and boy from California meet One
is French-Canadian-American, one is
G erman-American one is Spanish
American. They meet and have some
thing in common because they all
read ST Nicholas, or the Youths Com
panion, or the American Boy. Their
common language and common read
ing matter unite them SAY. Amt
the new story dandy?" is the mass
phrase of a unity of interest that be-
comes unity 81 belief and thought.
When the Foreign-American begins
subscribing for one or two of oa,r
magazines we don't have to worry
about him any longer; he is an Ameri-
can. He is one with the descendant
Of the Pilgrims and with the descend
ant Of the first families of Virginia.
Congress passed a law at the last
session creating new rates for send
ing magazine by mail; 1t based the
rates on the zone system Under
this new law it costs many times as
much to mail a magazine to Iowa as
it costs to mail 1t to Nv York or
Massachusetts. It costs still more to
mail it to California. In my opinion
this zone system is all wrong, and
the law should be changed Why
penalize patriotic Iowa and make IL
less likely that Iowa will read the
unifying periodical literature? What
has California done-other than show
its patriotism-that II should be made
to pay more for national periodicals
than New York pays?
Doubts Truth.
In theory the zone system" IL
sweet and good: 'Tt costs more to car
~ a magazine to California than to
carry it to Albany; therefore let the
Californian pay many times what the
Albany reader pays" Personally I
doubt the truth of even that PROPOSE
ton. It is pretty to talk of a logically
proportionate charge for mail deliv-
cry but it does not exist and cannot
exist The best that can be done is
to establish a reasonably fair rate,
and 1t is no more fair to penalize Cali
fornia and Iowa on magazine postage
letter postage.
The zone system is slap In the
face to the states at distance from
the publishing centers. In effect the
New York zone is labelled "Intelli- |
gent; keep good reading matter cheap
here and the California zone BE
nighted and negligible; no matter If !
good reading matter Is made pro-
hibitive."
The effect Of the zone system win |
be such that you may well see printed !
on your favorite magazine: "Subscrtp- |
ton price, New York zone. So; Eng
land. Italy, Iowa California and Other
Foreign Countries $3.50"
Write to your congressman and
senators in protest against this dis
astrous postal zone" law.