Perth Amboy evening news., 1919-04-24
&&
FL LIMIT is REACHED

- ) nnhlisLsrs Of the country arr in a combination to "get" him
because of the second class postal rates which he forced through great
" increasing the cost Of sending papers and magazines through INC
mails.
AS we said a few days ago, Mr.. Burleson is a fool III
None are s. blind as those who will not see.
If it were the publishers of the country alone who are complain
ing about the manner in which the Post Office Department is now be-
inc conducted he might be able to get away with his eowardty squeal
But the publishers are justified as they are to complain
ON their own account, are only a small fraction OF the great number OIL
business men of the country who are crying for renef'
The New York Merchants Association, one of the leading organi
cations of business men in the United States, with few, If any, publish
cs in its membership, has conducted an active campaign against ''
Burleson regime. 1t has sent out test letter after test letter 10 snow
The ineficiency of the present postal service. 1t has found tnat II IA
taken days for a letter to travel but a few miles. 1t has Land the IactS
before the Post Office Department, but the only satisfaction tneSe
business men could get was that the Post once Department was 1e
most efficient in the world.
1t IS common thing for business men now, in ordering things 10
give instructions not to use the mails as the postal service is 50 uhre-
liable.
And the decentralization of the mails is not due entirely to the war
The ineffciency began long before the United States entered the war
due to Mr.. Burleson's determination to pile up a surplus of money Tor
his department regardless of the service that was rendered the
country.
And conditions have not improved to any appreeiable extent since
The war. Only a few weeks ago a person in Florida sent a letter . a
party in New Jersey stating that he intended to start nome a Gay OF
two ahead of time. The letter was mailed Thursday. The party START
cd FRIDAY. the next day. He arrived home Sunday night and surprised
the party to whom he had written by appearing at his of1ce . n Mon
day morning. Tuesday morning the letter that ne a maheu on
Thursday arrived, stating that he would be home sooner tah OK
PEA A week o two ago the EVENING NEWS correspondent in Tren-
ton, only forty miles away, mailed a letter which was postmarked at
Y u M SATURDAY. night The letter ntame news Ior hohua o Po-
per. It did not reach the EVENING NEWS office until 3 o'clock
Monday afternoon, although the EVENING NEWS has a boy making
And special delivery, for which ten cents extra is charged, is no
better. In IN effort to gel more prompt delivery, the EVENING
on his letters containing news, but no better time was made.
No, this is not a publishers conspiracy to get the scalp o POST
master General Burleson. 1t is a fight, however, that the publishers
have taken up in behalf of the American people, especially the busl
ness world and in which they expect to be benefited along with all
But as bad as the first class mail service is, the service for second
class, which includes newspapers, is even worse. Hall the time the
newspapers ire never delivered at ALL
We know for a fact that the newspapers are put in the post office
at the various places Of publication regularly every day carefully adj
dressed to the subscribers. Yet a large percentage of these papers
that go into the post office r never heard of again The subscriber
never receives them and they are never returned to the publisher.
What becoms of them?
Are they piled up at some terminal and then taken out and
Are they allowed to accumulate at some central point like New
York and then, when a sufficient number has been collected, loaded
on scows and towed out to sea to be dumped overboardg
What becomes of all the thousands of newspapers that are mailed
regularly every day from the various newspaper offices of the coun-
try and that ae never heard of againf
This is not the complaint of the publisher alone. The humble SUBJ
scrlber who wants the paper from home and who pays his good money
for a subscription wants to know. He is vitality interested.
Time was when the average person going away on a two weeks
or month vacation would order the home paper to follow him. That
custom has been almost wiped out through the Burleson inefficieney
in delivering the second class mail. The party either never got the pa
per at all, and when it did arrive it came in punches two r three at a
time once or twice a week Twas money thrown away.
Naturally, the publisher was not alone in his complaint. He re-
ceived all kinds of sarcastic letters from the subscriber, but he was and
still is poweriess as long as the Burleson blight rests upon the postal
And now BurlesOn has extended his control to the wire service
which is rapidly deterioratng n the same manner as the postal serv-I
~ - mas even piaeed a censorship on the wires for some understudy
to decide what is hbelous and what is not. The courts used to decide
an " 'ue was hpdnus II not. Today Burleson s underStudy
looks over the matter to be sent and he passes upon the message first
Il, IN his wisdom, he decides that it is Ibelous he refuses to put i'll
on the wire.
Imagine what power this gives IN administration that might have
an inscriptions political boss at the head of the Post Office DEPART
ment In the control of the wire service. If there is fraud and corrup-I
ton IN any of the departments of the administration and a newspaper
desires 20 expose it and telegraph the facts to other newspapers toll
nave them publish IT. as they desire to do, the political boss. sitting att
the head OF the Post Office Department in control of the wire service
of the country, refuses to permit it to be sent over the wires OF tile
ground that, In his opinion, it is hbelous1
And thus is destroyed the free press of the country which has
been the bulwark of liberty in this country since the nation was
founded.
A scoundrel in Office hates publicity more than anything else. I'll
he can get control of the wires of the country and prohibit the trans
mission of facts exposing his corruption he is enthroned more securely
than any potenate that has ever lived.
The publishers may be opposing the Burleson regime, but they
are only a fraction of those who are finding fault. The public in gen.
eal and the business men in particular are the principal complain
ants. Organized labor has its grievance also.
Burleson must go. He cannot fool the people into believing that