Evening star., 1925-02-15
DRIVE TO RAISE POSTAL
RATES ON PRESS SCORED
Higher Charges Would Result in Running
of Smaller Papers, Publishers
Official Says in Interview.

Just consider them for moment He
says the department loses $4,000 600.
It's revenue from newspapers and
magazines is s33, 900. 900 That means
the department is losing 240 per cent
based on it's revenue Now remember
this-many big publishers have quit
using the mails altogether. The Chi
caso Tribune sends So per cent of its
issue by other means than the mail.
The Curtis Publishing Co. sends
20 per cent of the Saturday Evening
Post and the Ladies' Home journal
through freight, express and trucks
The companies which carry this mat.
ter are private companies, and they
operate at a profit. Yet they are car
rying this material for less than the
present Government rate. Now, IL a
private company delivers those pub
LEGATIONS and makes profit, while
the Post Office Department, with
higher rate, loses 240 per cent. whak
is the matter with the Post OfficA:
A New Attitude.
This attitude of Congress toward
newspapers and magazines is some
| thing new. Our early lawmakers
were eager to encourage the wide
distribution of printed matter among
| the people. The first low second
l.
about 2 cents a pound without any
request for preference from the pub
| fishers. Later-about 1871, ! think
| Congress cut this rate in half. And
| here is a remarkable feature of that
action-it was done by Congress vol
UNFAIRLY and without the publishers,
so far as l can find, moving a finger
| to bring it about. Now, at almost
every session of Congress this deter
mination to raise the price of post
age on newspapers and magazines is
brought up"
| What is the reason for the changer"
1 inquired.
| High Rates Curb Spread.
1T looks very much as II Congress
were determined to punish the maga-
zines and papers for their criticisms
of itself. The change began to mani
| fest itself first just after the wave
of undertaking which swept over the
| country about Is years ago. / am
not defending undertaking. But from
| that time on, Congress began to mani
| fest a spirit of growing enmity 10
the press. The proposal to raise postal
| rates has been held as a sort of blud
geon over the heads of paper and
! magazine owners. 1t doesn't look like
a very wholesome thing, does it?
And 1t comes now at a bad time"
! Mr.. Pearson added. The already high
| rate on distant zones has a tendency
| to restrict the circulation of ma ga
zines and papers TO the territory close
| to their publication home. This is
| bad thing, and | will tell you why.
/ President Mckinley once said that
| the softening of the old hatreds be
| tween the North and the South was
| one of the fine achievements of his
| time. Who could undertake TO meas
| ure the value of such thing to the
| country in billions of dollars? How
| much of that was done by Northern
papers being read in the South and
| Southern papers being read in the
North? Is it not equally a good thing
| today for a ma agazine published in
| California to be read in New York
and for one printed in New York
to be seen regularly in California? :?
Do we not want to see the problems
| of the Kansas farmer reach the toll
ers in the eastern cities. and the
hopes and aspirations of the workers
| in the New England mills made
known to the men out on the western
| plains and on the plantations of the
| South? The free interchange of
| thought between East and West,
North and South, through the wide
| circulation of periodicals is a thing
| to be encouraged blythe Government.
| 1t is our national publications. more
/ than any other thing, which have
helped us all to know one another
| better. They have built up our ma
| tional consciousness. This bill is di
| rect blow at this important influence
| in our national life"