The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1928-02-16

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class mail to the large users of this
class of mail it proposes to substitute
the mail order houses and the big city
merchants in their efforts to secure
the merchandising business of the
smaller towns and cities by giving
these mail order houses and big city
merchants a cheaper rate on then
business solicitations carried through
the mails than would be accorded to
the merchant of the smaller city or
country town.
1t proposes direct discrimination
against the merchants of the smaller
cities and towns in favor of the mer-
chants and mail order houses of the
larger cities.
All of this is tied up in cocker"
clause in the bill that provides that if
the total weight of the total number
of circulars of one kind to be mailed
shall be twenty pounds or more the
postage rate shall be one cent for
each piece weighing two ounces or
less, but if the total number of copies
of any one circular to be mailed shall
weigh less than twenty pounds, the
postage charge on each piece of two
ounces or less shall be one and one
half cents.
Any one piece of Directly adj
vertising of the mail order houses or
the big city merchants is mailed to
many thousands of prospective buy
ers, and covers very wide sections of
the country. The total number of
such pieces of such Directly mail adj
vertising would easily weigh many
times twenty pounds, and because the
total weight of all of these was TWEEN
ty pounds or more the postage rate
would be one cent on each piece. The
merchant doing business in the small
Ter city or the country town who
wished to mail piece of direct-by-
nail advertising to the possible purch-
sers in his town and in the trade ter
tory of that town would have
ailing list of but few hundred, pos
ply one thousand names at the most.
ne total weight of this number of
'culars or small booklets would be
S than twenty pounds, and this
all city or country town merchant
lst pay one and one-half cents on
ch piece as a postage charge.
In the case of the mail from the
all order house or the big city mer-
chant the government must pay for
the handling and sorting of these
thousands of pieces of mail at the
office at which they are deposited for
mailing; the government must trans
port them on railroad trains for which
the government must pay the rail-
roads; when they arrive at destination
the government must pay for sorting
them by individual addresses and
must pay the carriers for delivering
them to the individuals to whom they
are addressed.
But in the case of the same class of
mail used by the merchants of the
small cities and towns, practically all
of it would be delivered direct to the
persons to which the pieces are adj
dressed through but the one post office
and the government would save the
cost of handling and sorting in one
postoffice and would save the cost Of
rail transportation. Yet it proposes
to handle the mail that involves these
/. additional costs at two-thirds the
charge for which it will handle the
mail that does not involve these addi-
tional( costs.
During 1927 the charge for hand
ling third-class mail of two ounces or
less was one and one-half cents per
piece, except for booklets of twenty
pages or more and weighing two
ounces or less, for which the charge
was one cent, and these one cent mail
ings were a comparatively small per-
centage of the more than four billion
pieces of third-class mail handled by
the Postoffice Department. During
1927 the cost to the government of
handling each piece of third-class mail
was 1.79509-approximately one cent
and eight mills. Of this per piece to-
tai, .34941-approXimately four mills
was the cost per piece for transport
tation and distribution in transit.
In other words, it cost the govern
ment a very small fraction less than
one and a-half cents to handle each
piece of third-class mail, weighing
two ounces or less, when there were no
transportation charges. That is, the
third-class mail directly through the
one postoffice and to the people of the
vicinity of that postoffie. That is
the character of the third-class mail
used by the merchants of the smaller
cities and the country towns.
But for the third-class mail origi-
nting in the large cities-the direct
= advertising of the mail order
he big city merchants
-ide areas, the cost