The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1920-06-04
CONCERNING SUBSCRIBERS.

Several years ago the present own
er bought the Press and Benner
from the former owners. The form
er owners had large list of sub
scribers most of whom were in ar
rears, the newspaper business be!n
conducted then on the subscribe-in
the-spring- pay-in-the-f -fall-when-I-sel
cotton plan. A large number Of the
subscribers (?) who appeared on the
lists had been storing their cotton for
a number of years, we suppose, and
for that reason their names appeared
with ancient dates opposite them.
For convenience We undertook to
make collection of these previous
accounts. Some paid up, some dis
puted the accounts, and some said
nothing. Quite number said they
had subscribed for only year and
that the publishers kept sending the
paper without their authority when it
should have been stopped at the end
of the year and declined to pay for
the paper.
That is what happened to busi-
ness run on the old plan. For quite
a while we have been running the
paper on a new plan. 1t is called the
cash-in.advanee plan. Last week a
subscriber whose time had expired
and who had not renewed his sub
scription and consequently had been
missing the latest news, met US on
the street and didn't want 20 speak
to US. As he had always appeared
most friendly before, even being
willing to take a drink of Gamblers
Ale, or smoke a cigar with us, we
wondered what had, happened. (You
see we had given the instructions
about the subscribers, but we did not
know when this particular subscrib-
er's time was out.) We finally ascer
tanned that our former friend was
mad because we had stopped his pa
per.
But, if he is mad yeS, we would
have him vent his wrath on the per-
son responsible for his unfortunate
condition-that is, upon himself
When he subscribed for this paper,
he made contract. He agreed to pay
and paid, two dollars for the privil-
ege of receiving the paper for twelve
months. while we agreed to send him
the paper for twelve wonths. When
the twelve months was up, our con-
tract was fulfilled. We had no more
right to send him the paper for an
other twelve months than one of his
tenants would have to rent his land
for twelve months and at the end of
the term undertake to stay another
twelve months without speaking to
the owner about it. We thought
enough of our former subscriber to
send him two notices asking him to
renew, thus showing that we wanted
to stay on good terms with him, but
if he wanted the paper he did not say
so, not even when we twice urged
him to continue on our list. The fault
is all his, as any reasonable person
will readily see.
All of which leads US to declare
again that this paper is run on
strictly cash-in-advance basis. We pay,
cash in advance for the paper we
print the news on, and it takes the,
whole subscription to pay for the
paper itself, to say nothing of the
printing. We carry nobody over when
he fails to renew. We cut every per-,
son off at the same time. We play no
favorites. If the Label on your paper
is May 30, your time is out, and you
will not receive another paper, unless
you subscribe anew before Monday
The plan may not suit some people
but it is working fairly we'll with US