Year: 1867

The Summit County Beacon is edit


ed by. some one whose fsasad is level"


as the following extract fIom that pa-


per shows. just read and see:


Every day, however, oonsinces us


of the WisdOm-nay the absolute ne


cessity of the advance pay system
both for the interest of the subscriber


as we'll as the publisher. Subscribers
who uniformly pay In advance, or


substantially so, remain steadfast and
thorough friends Of their county paper,


and. consider it indispensable TO the


well being of their families, while


many who suffer themselves to get in


to arrears become sour and dissatisfi-


ed, and bring themselves to believe


that it is an unnecessary expense, and


when finally requested to square up,


feeling that they are paying for a
dead horse, they order IL stopped
thus depriving themselves and their
families Of what is, byadvance subsUri-
bers, considered a valuable and cheap
source Of information and enjoyment


We do not, of course, expect that
everybody will continue to take the
Beacon always, and hence are not at
all dlspleased that occasional discOn-
tinuances are ordered, for by the inev-
table law of compensation which at


taches to every rightly conducted


county paper, the weekly additions


keep the list good, and in our case,
considerably more than do so. But


when good men, so far as pecuniary
ability is concerned, suffer themselves,
through our lenity, to get into arrears
from one to ten years, and then sum-
D1Grtly drop as, because required to pdy,
a0itboaJt penalty or interest, the same as
has been paid, gear By gear, by their
ale1ghbOrs, IS, 1t seems 10 as, The e:Utjbj-
ton Of bGsest 97l0TGtJtlJ1e.


As inconvenient as tits, however, for
publishers thus to furnish q paper for
a series of years, on trust, at a nero
trifle over its cost, though eventually
receiving their pay, the greatest evil
of the credit system is in the absolute
losses, to which they are subjected
thereby, and the various sWindling
operations of which they are made the
victims.


A man from an adjoining township
steps into your office and desires to be.
come a subscriber, saying that he will
hand In the money in the course of q
few weeks, and as he appears to be a
respectable man, and placing implicit
faith in human nature, you put down
his name. The few weeks pass by and
ripen into months and still the money
is not forthcoming. You send him a
bill and perohanee be will honor it so
far as to call and render a plausible
excuse with fair promise, and you
send it another year, and perhaps the
third and the fourth, when you are in
formed by the Postmaster that he has
removed to the far west, and after one
or two Intellectual efforts 10 trace his
and collect the amount
due, you place the account in the same
with the large list of other
dead ducks" with which your books
abound.


In other instances, subscribers, who
have paid in advance, move away be-
fore the expiration of the time for
which they have paid, generously Civ
ing some neighbOr permission to take
out the paper until the end of the term.
The publisher ignorant of the change
of programme, continues sending the
paper for year or two, when on find
ing how matters stand, he calls upon
the recipient, who fatty refuses to pay
for it on the ground that he diu't sub
scribe for ii, and rather than go to law
about it pockets the loss with the best
grace he can.


Another class of men-no, not men,
but suckers, after befooling a pub
Usher along for several years, with
fair promises, when finally required
TO straighen up, will hurl defiance in
bis teeth, dare him to sue, at the risk
Of paying his own costs, as they are
beyond the reach of execution. We
are preparing a list of this class Of
newspaper patrons who have thus
5windled the Beacon out Of from one
to five years subscription, with the view
of giving them proper ventilation, un-
less the qitid pro qllO is forthcoming
within a reasonable time


The are many other ways in which
the newspaper credit system works an
injury to both publisher and sUbscri-
Der, which we have not space to emu
nerate. The matter, however, is so
we'll understood as to need nc further
slucidation.