Evening star., 1925-02-09
BARNUM ASSA|LS
POSTAL RATE RAISE
Says Proposed Increase AT.
feCting Publishers Adds
Nothing to Revenue.

Proposed postal rate increases af-
fecting periodicals. included in the
bill to be considered by the House
this week, will serve to drive from
the mails large volumes of news
paper circulation. while not con-
tributing additional revenue to the
Government, it is claimed in state
ment issued today by j. ID. Barnum,
chairman of the postal committee of
the American Newspaper Publishers
Association.
The combined postal wage and
postal rate increase bill which is to
he considered by the House this week,
If enacted into law, will work great
injury on the publishers OF daily
rewspa pers throughout the country
Mr.. Barnum pointed out.
Declaring the bill far more unSat-
isfactory to publishers than was the
bill reported to the Senate more than
month ago and later passed by the
Senate with material amendments in
so far as second-class rates were
concerned, Mr.. Barnum outlined two
outstanding objections.
The first, he said. was that in
creaSeS on nearby zones as proposed
by the House bill. would be without
advantage to the Government be-
cause they would serve only to cut
off postal revenue by driving news
+, paper circulation in large volume
from the mails because of exorbitant
rates. The second, he said, was tre
permanent feature of the rates in
the House bill. while it is true
he added, that this measure provides
Tor an investigation into the rate
situation by a joint congressional
committee after the close of the
present Congress. it also is true that
no time limit is placed on the rates.
and. according to the majority lead
frs of the House, these rates in all
likelihood if enacted into law VIII
become permanent"
He expressed the sincere hope that
81 this bill passes the House il will
be so amended by the Senate as net
I" work irreparable injury on the
newspaper business of this country"
Cites Two Important Phases.
1T is also TO be hoped" he added
that If any measure is enacted into
. law a this session providing for a
study by a joint commission of Con-
gress or any other agency of the rate
situation in the Post Office Depart
ment, an amendment can be adopted
which Will direct the attention of the
investigating body to two most i'm
portant phases of the entire postal
situation. One of these is the present
basis of the transportation cost The
other is the relation which the purely
public policy services of the Post
once Department bear to the cost of
that department, as compared with
the cost which is borne by the de-
partment is its handling of purely
, business functions
Along the first line he stated that
the Post Office Department pays for
Its so-called fast freight mail the
same charge that it pays for its high
ly important passenger service mail
There Is no reason in the world why
1t is not good business for the Post
once Department to revise, first, it's
method of transporting the mail and
second, Its contracts of pay for that
transportation Mr.. Barnum said.
Elaboratlng on the second point he
showed that the department performs
services of purely policy nature at
the command of Congress, which cost
more than S140,00 100000. or approxi-
mately 10 times the amount of the net
deficit incident to last years busi-
ness in the Post Office Department.
The deficit was s14,42S,77S.4l, while
the expenditures were more than
$5S7, 100000, and its operating reve-
nue. was almost s573,00O.00o.
Had these policy services been per-
formed by the Department of Agricul-
ture, the Department of the Interior
or any other department of the gov
ernment, they would have been paid
for out of the public funds, but hav-
ing been performed by the Post Office
Department, they were paid for al
most wholly out of postal revenues"
Mr. Barnunl showed