Evening star., 1932-05-05
PUBLISHERS ASSA|L
POSTAL INCREASE
Association Declares Reve-
I nueS Will BE Decreased
by Boosting Rates.

The American Newspaper Publishers
Association yesterday sent the Senate
Finance Committee a warning that the
increase In second-class postal rates
would have exactly the opposite ef-
feet" from increasing revenues.
The committee voted Tuesday to
raise the rates on second-cla5s matter
which includes newspapers, to the rates
which were applied in 1921.
Elisha Hanson, attorney for the as
sociation, in his letter to Chairman
Smoot, said the publishers had been
given no opportunity to present their
views and he had been instructed to
place them before the chairman.
Sees Opposite Effect.
'In brief he said, they are as fol-
lows
eff your purpose be to increase the
reTtlaas Of Ine Government your ac-
tio''. if a~rrovad by the Congress. will
have exactly the opposite effect.
II your purpose be to relieve the
Post Office Department of a costly
service, your proposal will not accom-
plish that end.
THE 1921 rates were a part Of the
program laid down in the war revenue
act of 1917 to obtain increased reye-
nueS for war purposes. Four success
sive increases in second-cl3Ss rates
were authorized to become effective on
July /. 1918; July l, 1919; July l, 1920,
and July /, 1921.
"The first two increases produced
vastly greater revenues without dimin-
dshing the volume of the mail carried.
The third passed the saturation point.
Volume fell off and revenues increased
but slightly. The fourth-or the 1921
rates-not only failed to increase reve-
nues but drove millions of pounds of
publications from the mails. Very lit
tie, If any, of this volume has been re-
stored.
Cites Falling Revenues.
''The effect of these rates is particu-
iarly important in view of the fact they
so adversely affected the departments
revenues at a time when both circula-
ton and advertising were increasing
by leaps and bounds. Had the math
ematical calculations of their advocates
been correct, these rates should have
produced increases in revenues of from
1872 per cent to 25 per cent.
To-day, we are in period OF de-
creasing : circulation and advertising
lineage. Circulation has fallen off in
IIlc 1dSb JIlICt HedIo ny
10 per cent. Advertising lineage has
decreased more than 80 per cent, and.
in the case of certain publications with
large mailing lists, much more than 80
per cent.
"The Postmaster General has fire.
ouently informed Congress that the
only effect of increasing Second-class
rates will be to reduce the revenues of
the department without reducing its
cost During the last II years, so
many new agencies of transportation
and distribution have entered into COM
petition with the department that. to-
day, the post Office gets only that vol
ume of newspaper distribution for
which no competitive service is offered.
Penalty on Publishers.
"An increase in rates means new
competition for the department on
much of its present volume and a pen
atty on publishers and subscribers who
cannot avail themselves of this new
competition.
IF all newspapers are driven from
the mails by such policy, the expense
of the department will be reduced by
but an infinitesimal amount. More than
90 per cent of our distribution in the
mails is effected on rural free delivery
routes, which will be maintained
whether newspapers are carried or not.
The fallacious charge that second
class mail produces such a huge deficit
each year is due wholly to the fact so
much of it goes into this enormously
expensive distributing service.
Much of the remainder Of our mail
distribution is handled in bundles
kicked off moving trains. Railroad and
express companies put such bundles of
only when trains stop. For their serv-
ice, we now pay from 80 cents to SO
cents per hundred pounds. To have
them kicked of by postal clerk costs
us $3.50 per hundred in the first and
second zones, and more in all of the
others.
$50 many trains have been taken of
during the last few years and the Post
Once Department has not replaced
their service with substitutes, that to-
day many publishers, in order to serve
their subscribers on R. F. D. routes,
truck their publications at their own
expense from the press to post offices
as far as 100 miles from the Office OF
publication.
Papers Forced From Mails.
Evening newspapers have been
practically forced from the mails be-
cause Of the excessive cost of distribu-
ton on the day after publication by
the Post Office Department. as COM
pared with the more reasonable cost
for delivery on the day of publication
by the publishers themselves or by
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