The mud-sills of this book are hewn from the presupposition that the person who reads it has not only the essentially necessary equipment to do his own thinking, but also a more or less practiced habit of doing it. It is upon such foundation the superstructure of this volume was built. It is written in the hope of promoting, or provoking, thought on certain subjects, along certain lines—not to create or school thinkers. So, if the reader lacks the necessary cranial furnishing to do his own thinking, or, if having that, he has a cultivated habit of letting other people do his hard thinking and an ingrown desire to let them continue doing so, such reader may as well stop at this period. In fact, he would better do so. The man who has his thinking done by proxy is possibly as happy and comfortable on a siding as he would be anywhere—as he is capable of being. I have no desire to disturb his state or condition of static felicity. Besides, such a man might “run wild” or otherwise interfere with the traffic if switched onto the main line.
Emerson has somewheres said, “Beware when God turns a thinker loose in the world.” Of course Emerson cautioned about constructive and fighting thinkers, not thinkers who think they know because somebody told them so, or who think they have thought till they know all about some unknowable thing—the ratio of the diameter to the circumference of the circle, how to construct two hills without a valley between, to build a bunghole bigger than the barrel, and the like.
There are thinkers and thinkers. Emerson had the distinction between them clearly in mind no doubt when he wrote that quoted warning. So, also, has the thinking reader. It is for him this volume is planned; to him its arguments and statements of fact are intended to appeal. Its chapters have been hurriedly written—some of them written under conditions of physical distress. The attempts at humor may be attempts only; the irony may be misplaced or misapplied; the spade-is-a-spade style may be blunt, harsh or even coarse to the point of offensiveness. Still, if its reading provokes or otherwise induces thought, the purpose of its writing, at least in some degree, will have been attained. It is not asked that the reader agree with the conclusions of the text. If he read the facts stated and thinks—thinks for himself—he will reach right conclusions. The facts are of easy comprehension. It requires no superior academic knowledge nor experience of years to understand them and their significance—their lesson.
Just read and think. Do not let any “official” noise nor breakfast-food rhetoric so syncopate and segregate your thought as to derail it from the main line of facts. Lofty, persuasive eloquence is often but the attractive drapery of planned falsehood, and the beautifully rounded period is often but a “steer” for an ulterior motive—a “tout” for a marked-card game. Do not be a “come-on” for any verbal psychic work or worker. Just stubbornly persist in doing your own thinking, ever remembering that in this vale of tears, “Plain hoss sense’ll pull you through when ther’s nothin’ else’ll do.”
As a thinker, you will now have lots of company, and they are still coming in droves. Respectable company, too. Mr. Roosevelt suddenly arrived a few days since at Columbus, Ohio. Then there is Mr. Carnegie and Judge Gary. The senior Mr. Rockefeller, also, has announced, through a representative, that he is on the way. These latter, of course, have been thinkers for many years—thinkers on personal service lines chiefly, it has been numerously asserted. Now, however, if press accounts are true, they have begun to think, a little at least, about the general welfare, about the common good—about the other fellow.
Whether this change in mental effort and direction, if change it be, has followed upon a more careful study of conditions which have so long, so wastefully, or ruthlessly and viciously governed, or results from the fact that the advancing years have brought these gentlemen so near Jericho that they see a gleam of the clearer light and occasionally hear the “rustle of a wing,” I do not know. Nor need one know nor care. That they come to join the rapidly-growing company of thinkers is sufficient.
Chicago, March 1, 1912.
This is nice winter weather. However, as The Man on the Ladder was born some distance prior to the week before last, there’s a tang and chill in the breezes up here about the ladder top which makes the temperature decidedly less congenial than is the atmosphere in the editorial rooms of my publisher.
But, say, the view from this elevation is mighty interesting. The mobilization of the United States soldiery far to the Southwest; the breaking up of corrals and herds to the West; the starting of activities about mining camps in the West and Northwest; the lumber jacks and teams in the spruce forests of the north are indeed inspiring things to look upon; and over the eastern horizon, there in the lumber sections of New England and to the Southeast, in the soft maple, the cottonwood and basswood districts, the people appear to be industriously and happily active; away to the South——
Say! What’s that excitement over there at Washington, D. C.?
“Hello, Central! Hello! Yes, this is The Man on the Ladder.”
“Get me Washington, D. C., on the L.-D. in a hurry—and get Congressman Blank on that end of the wire. The House is in session, and certainly he ought to be found in not more than five minutes.”
It is something unusually gratifying to see that activity about that sleepy group of capitol buildings—the “House of Dollars,” the house of the hoi polloi, and the White House—a scene that will linger in the freshness and fragrance of my remembrance until the faculty of memory fades away. There are messengers and pages flitting about from house to house as if the prairies were afire behind them. Excited Congressmen are in heated discourse on the esplanade, on the capitol steps and in the corridors and cloak rooms. And there are numerous groups of Senators, each a kingly specimen of what might be a real man if there was not so much pickled dignity oozing from his stilted countenance and pose. There now go four of them to the White House, probably to see the President, our smiling William. I wonder what they are after. I wonder——
“Yes, yes! Hello! Is that you, Congressman Jim?” “Yes? What can I do for you?”
“Well, this is The Man on the Ladder, Jim, and I want to know in the name of heaven—any other spot you can think of quickly will do as well—what’s the occasion and cause for all that external excitement and activity I see around the capitol building? There must be a superthermic atmosphere inside both the Senate and House to drive so many of our statesmen to the open air and jolt them into a quickstep in their movements. Now go on and tell, and tell me straight.”
Well, Well! If I did not know my Congressman friend so well, I would scarcely be persuaded to believe what he has just phoned me.
It appears that a conspiracy—yes, I mean just that—a conspiracy has been entered into between our Chief Executive, a coterie of Senators, possibly a Congressman or two and a numerous gang of corporate and vested interests, cappers and beneficiaries, to penalize various independent weekly and monthly periodicals. Penalize is what I said. But that word is by no means strong enough. The intent of the conspirators was—and is—to put certain periodicals out of business and to establish a press censorship in the person of the Postmaster General as will enable him to put any periodical out of existence which does not print what it is told to publish.
It would seem that when the Postoffice appropriation bill left the House, where all revenue measures must originate, it was a fairly clean bill, carrying some $258,000,000 of the people’s money for the legitimate service of the people. Of course it carried many service excesses, just as it has carried in each of the past thirty or forty years, and several of those looting excesses so conspicuous in every one of the immediately past fifteen years.
But otherwise, it may be stated, the House approval carried this bill to the Senate in its usual normal cleanliness. It was referred to the Senate Committee on Postoffices and Postroads, the members of which, after conference with the President, annexed to it an alleged revenue-producing “rider.”
This rider I will later on discuss for the information of my readers. Here I desire only to call the reader’s attention to the fact that under the Constitution of the United States the United States Senate has no more right or authority to originate legislation for producing federal revenues than has the Hamilton Club of Chicago or the Golf Club at Possum Run, Kentucky. But the conspirators—I still use the milder term, though I feel like telling the truth, which could be expressed only by some term that would class their action as that of assassinating education in this country. These conspirators, I say, did not hesitate to exceed and violate their constitutional obligations and prerogatives. They added a revenue-producing “rider” to House resolution 31,539. The rider was to raise certain kinds of second-class matter from a one-cent per pound rate to a four-cent per pound rate. Not only that, but they managed to induce Postmaster General Hitchcock to push into the Senate several ulterior motive reports and letters to boost the outlawry to successful passage. But, more of this later.
My friend Congressman Jim has just informed me that the conspirators were beginning to fear their ability even to get their “rider” to the post for a start; that many members and representatives of the Periodical Press Association of New York City, as well as those of other branches of the printing industry, hearing of the attempt to put this confiscatory rider over in the closing hours—the crooked hours—of Congress, hurried to Washington and sought to inform Senators and members of the House of the truth about second-class mail matter. Congressman Jim also informed me that a delegation representing the publishing interests of Chicago had arrived a few hours before and were scarcely on the ground before “things began to happen.” “People talk about Chicagoans making a noise,” said Jim in his L.-D. message, “but when it comes to doing things you can count on them to go to it suddenly, squarely and effectively. That delegation is one of the causes of the excitement which you notice here. Good-by.”
Friend Jim, being a Chicago boy, may be pardoned even when a little profuse or over-confident in speaking of what his townsmen can do, but Congressman Jim is a live-wire Congressman, and has been able to do several things himself while on his legislative job, even against stacked-up opposition.
While reporting on Congressman Jim’s message from Washington, I phoned the leading features to the office and have just received peremptory orders to write up not only this attempt but other attempts to raid the postal revenues of the country by means of crooked riders and otherwise. So there is nothing to do but go to it.
Incidentally, my editor, knowing my tendency to write with a club, cautions me to adopt the dignified style of composition while writing upon this subject. I assure my readers that I shall be as dignified as the heritage of my nature will allow and the subject warrants. If I occasionally fall from the expected dignified altitude I trust the reader will be indulgent, will charge the fault, in part at least, to my remote Alsatian ancestor. He fought with a club. I have therefore an inherited tendency to write (fight), with a club. So here goes.
In opening on this important subject, for vastly important it is from whatever angle one views it, I wish first to speak of the governmental postoffice department and then of Postmaster Generals.
First I will say that this government has not had, at least within the range of my mature recollection, any business management of its postoffice department above the level of that given to Reuben’s country store of Reubenville, Arkansas.
The second fact I desire to put forward is that since the days of Benjamin Franklin there have been but few, a possible three or four, Postmaster Generals who had any qualifications whatsoever, business or other, to direct the management of so large a business as that comprehended in the federal postal service. Not only are the chiefs, the Postmaster Generals, largely or wholly lacking in business and executive ability to manage so large an industrial and public service, but their chosen assistants (Second, Third and on up to the Fourth or Fifth “Assistant Postmaster Generals”), have been and are likewise lacking in most or all of the essential qualifications fundamentally necessary to the management and direction of large industrial or service business enterprises. I venture to say that none of them have read, and few of them even heard of, the splendid book written by Mr. Frederick W. Taylor explaining, really giving the A, B, C of the “Science of Business Management,” which for several years has been so beneficial in the business and industrial methods in this country as almost to have worked an economic revolution. I equally doubt if they have even read the series of articles in one of the monthly periodicals, which Postmaster General Hitchcock and his coterie of conspirators tried to stab in the back with that Senate “rider” on the postoffice appropriation bill. Yet Mr. Taylor wrote these articles, and Mr. Taylor must know a great deal about economic, scientific business management. He must know, otherwise the Steel Corporation, the great packing concerns, several railroads, the Yale and Towne Manufacturing Company, the Link Belt Company and a number of other large concerns, as well as the trained editors of several engineering and industrial journals, would not have so generally, likewise profitably, adopted and approved his recommendations and directions.
Yet while most of these “Assistant Postmaster Generals” and their subassistants have been glaringly—yes, discouragingly—incompetent to manage and direct the work of their divisions, some of them have shown an elegance of aptitude, a finished adroitness in using their official positions to misappropriate, likewise to appropriate to their own coffers, the funds and revenues of the Postoffice Department. Reference needs only to be made to the grace and deftness displayed by August W. Machen, George W. Beavers and their copartners. The one was Superintendent of Free Delivery, the other Superintendent of Salaries and Allowances, and the way they, for several years, made the postoffice funds and revenues “come across” beat any get-rich-quick concern about forty rods in any mile heat that was reported in the sporting columns of the daily press.
General Leonard Wood, Congressman Loud and a few other reputable officials induced President Roosevelt to institute an investigation. The investigation was made under the direction of Joseph L. Bristow. Then things were uncovered; that is, some things were uncovered. In speaking of the nastiness disclosed William Allen White in 1904 wrote, in part, as follows:
“Most of the Congressmen knew there was something wrong in Beaver’s department; and Beaver knew of their suspicions; so Congressmen generally got from him what they went after, and the crookedness thrived.
“When it was stopped by President Roosevelt, this crookedness was so far-reaching that when a citizen went to the postoffice to buy a stamp the cash register which gave him his change was full of graft, the ink used in canceling the stamp was full of graft, the pad which furnished the ink was full of graft, the clock which kept the clerk’s time was full of graft, the carrier’s satchel tie-straps, his shoulder straps, and his badge were subject to illegal taxation, the money order blanks were full of graft, the letter boxes on the street were fraudulently painted, fraudulently fastened to the posts, fraudulently made, and equipped—many of them with fraudulent time-indicators. Often the salaries of the clerks were full of graft. And in the case of hundreds of thousands of swindling letters and advertisements that were dropped in the box—they were full of graft.”
We will now get down to the present Postmaster General, Mr. Frank H. Hitchcock. I have read, and shall later print in this volume the Senate “rider” to the postoffice department appropriation bill, which, so far as The Man on the Ladder has been able to learn, Mr. Hitchcock either wrote or “steered” in its writing. I have also read his series of letters to Senator Penrose, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Postoffices and Postroads; also his 1910 report. At this point I shall make my comment on Postmaster General Hitchcock brief but, mayhap, somewhat pointed.
Most Postmaster Generals for the past thirty or more years have been incompetent. There have been a few notable and worthy exceptions, but their worthiness was almost completely lost in the department by reason of previously planted corruption and political interference. Most Postmaster Generals, as has been stated, have had little or no qualification for the management and administration of so large a service industry as that covered by the federal postoffice department.
Mr. Hitchcock, in his administration of the department, in his reports and recent letters to the Senate and the House, has shown himself scarcely up to the average of his incompetent predecessors.
Mr. Hitchcock’s “rider” to the 1911 postoffice appropriation bill and his recent letters to Senator Penrose and others will convince any fair-minded, informed reader that he is either an “influenced” man or is densely ignorant. I wish to make this point emphatic: The careless, loose, hurried—yes, even silly—wording of that “rider” and the false and foolish statements in his letters to Senator Penrose, relating to his demand for an increase of three cents a pound on certain periodicals now carried in the mails as second-class matter at one cent a pound, he to be given authority to pick out and designate the periodicals which should be subject to the increased rate—his false and foolish statements in that “rider,” and in his recent letters, I say, must show to any intelligent mind that Mr. Hitchcock is either an “influenced” man or a six-cylinder, chain-tired, hill-climber of an ignoramus in matters relating to periodical publication, and also in many essential matters relating to his department.
My previous statements regarding the government’s postoffice department, about Postmaster Generals in general and about Mr. Hitchcock in particular, may not be up to the broadcloth of dignity, but they do carry the dignity of fact and truth, as I shall proceed to demonstrate to my readers.
Let us consider first the government postoffice department and then Mr. Hitchcock’s recent actions and utterances.
Most of the Postmaster Generals, including Mr. Hitchcock, appear to have been greatly exercised about “deficits,” yet persist in pursuing methods of business management and direction that must, almost necessarily, make expenditures of the department exceed its receipts.
Also I may ask, in this connection, why so much agony, or “front,” whichever it may be, about a “deficit” in the Postoffice Department? The postal service of the country is a public service, a service of all the people. As such the revenues of the federal postoffice department should not be permitted to exceed the actual cost of the service rendered under honest, economical and competent management and direction.
The departments of war and the navy produce no revenue save the comparatively speaking trifling sums received from the sale of junk, abandoned equipment, accoutrements, etc. These departments render personal or direct service to but a small fraction of the vast number of people served by the postoffice department. Almost the entire appropriation for war and the navy in the past forty-five years might be called a “deficit” so far as any service they have rendered to the great body of the Nation’s citizenship is concerned. Yet in the face of all this, so loosely, carelessly and crookedly have the departments of war and of the navy been managed that there is scarcely a session of Congress which is not appealed to for huge sums of money to cover “deficits,” to meet extravagant, wasteful and, not infrequently, fraudulent expenditures in excess of the vast sums set aside for them in their annual appropriation bills.
A few years since it was found that the navy department was employing more clerks than it employed service men.
As to these strictures on the Postoffice Department, I will here quote for the benefit of readers who may not have studied this postal service question, a few authorities on the subject under consideration.
A few years ago the methods and abuses of the federal Postoffice Department were investigated by a joint commission of Congress. One paragraph of the commission’s report reads as follows and must be regarded as officially significant:
“It appears too obvious to require argument that the most efficient service can never be expected as long as the direction of the business is, as at present, intrusted to a Postmaster General and certain assistants selected without special reference to experience and qualifications and subject to frequent change. Under such a system a large railroad, commercial or industrial business would inevitably go into bankruptcy and the postoffice department has averted that fate only because the United States Treasury has been able to meet deficiencies.”
Pretty plain, straight talk that, is it not?
The resolution to appoint a commission of three members and appropriate $50,000 for the commission’s use was tacked onto the postoffice appropriation bill after the Senate “rider” was ditched. That resolution was under discussion in the House March 3rd (1911)—the usual swan-song day for those who failed to “arrive” at the November election. Mr. Weeks, chairman of the House Committee on Postoffices and Postroads, led the discussion. The discussion was participated in by several Congressmen, among whom was Congressman Moon of Tennessee. Judge Moon is recognized as one of the best informed men in Congress on postal matters, and particularly informed as to present methods of transporting and handling second-class mail. Mr. Moon, though a member of the conference committee which had just agreed to the bill, Senate resolution and all, as amended in conference, quite vigorously opposed the appropriation of $50,000 of the people’s money for a “Commission” to investigate the cost of transporting and handling second-class mail matter. He based his opposition largely on the fact that two or three previous commissions had been appointed to investigate the same question or matter; that these previous commissions had gone into the subject thoroughly, had collected every scrap of information that, under the present methods, or lack of method, in the postoffice department, it was or is possible to collect; that these commissions had spent hundreds of thousands of the people’s money; that they had made complete and exhaustive reports covering all the information obtained or obtainable; that these reports are on file and easily accessible, and that the postal committees of neither Senate nor House had given any attention or consideration to those reports.
From the many trenchant things said by Mr. Moon I take the following:
“If the gentleman will excuse me a minute, I am trying to get to another reason which I want to present to the House as to why I deem it inappropriate and unwise to pass this legislation. Now, when the experts undertake to determine just exactly what ought to be paid for the carrying of the magazines, how the government ought to be remunerated for the carrying and handling of these magazines, or other second-class matter, they are bound to take as the basis of the investigation the manner in which the second-class matter is now handled and the manner in which it is paid for. In other words, the basis of weighing and the computation of paying are the basic facts upon which they must rely in order to determine the question. I undertake to say to this House deliberately, that in view of our method of weighing and of the computation of railway mail pay, that no expert on the face of this earth can today come within fifteen or twenty millions of dollars of what the compensation ought to be for the transportation of second-class mail.
“If every fact has been adduced that would lead to a proper conclusion as to what the pay ought to be, if we are to go again over the same field of investigation with no possibility of any more light, tell me what sense there is in expending the public money for that purpose? And, then the very minute you undertake to reach the correct result you are confronted with a proposition that you cannot justly charge the cost of transportation and handling to a class of matter flatly that in itself produces a return to the government in another class of matter, probably in excess of the charges of transportation and handling of that matter itself—the second class. How are you to draw the lines for the determination of these questions? You are in the dark; it is a chaotic proposition, considering the method by which it must be determined today.”
I take it, that however much they may differ from him in his political and economic views, readers recognize in William Randolph Hearst one of the most alert and best informed men in this country on the subject of publishing and distributing periodical literature. He certainly ranks among the largest, if he is not indeed the largest, publisher and distributer of newspapers and other periodical prints there is in this country,—yes, I may say, in the world.
On February 24, 1911, a letter over Mr. Hearst’s signature appeared in the Washington Post. In this communication he touches upon the efficiency—rather the inefficiency—of the Postoffice Department in handling the postal service of this country. I would like to reproduce the letter entire, but cannot. I will, however, reprint some of its cogent statements which bear largely upon the point under consideration. Mr. Hearst says:
I know something about the cost of distribution of publications. I know something about the reasons for the excessive cost of distribution of the postoffice. And I say that the high cost of distribution in the postoffice is largely due to loose and careless and reckless methods, to antiquated systems and incompetent management.
It is estimated that 40 per cent of the charged weight of mail matter is composed of cumbersome mail bags and their heavy iron locks and fastenings.
How absurd to imagine that a man who wanted to break into a mail bag would be deterred by a ponderous lock.
The postoffice department might as well insist that a burglar-proof lock be affixed to every letter, under the inane impression that the only way to tear open a letter would be to pick a lock.
I know, too, personally and positively, of an instance where the great mass of western mail was sent over one railroad and when the bulk of it was transferred to another railroad, all the postal clerks previously employed were maintained on the first railroad for over two years after the mail had been transferred.
The Evening Journal, without any of the powers of the great United States government behind it, distributes its product for seven-tenths of a cent a pound, and included in this average is the 1-cent-a-pound rate paid to the government for copies mailed. Obviously, then, the proportion of the product which is not carried by the postoffice is delivered for much less than seven-tenths of a cent per pound.
The New York American distributes by mail and express 303,584 pounds of daily and Sunday papers every week at a cost of $1,655.17, or little over one-half a cent per pound. This average includes 28,028 pounds sent by mail at 1 cent per pound, so, obviously, the average of matter not distributed by mail is less than one-half a cent per pound.
The New York American sends 67,268 pounds of these papers over the Pennsylvania Railroad at one-fourth of a cent per pound, or one-fourth the rate paid to the United States postoffice department.
That same rate—one-fourth of a cent per pound—is exactly the rate charged by the Canadian Government for carrying magazines by mail through its postoffice department and for distributing them over a thinly populated territory even greater than the United States.
How absurd, then, to assert that the government cannot distribute the magazines profitably at this present rate when it handles the magazines along with all other mail distributed and without any particular extra expense because of them.
Even if, as I said, the government were handling the magazines at a loss, it would be doing a creditable thing. But it is not handling the magazines at a loss. It is carrying them at a profit, and if it taxes the magazines out of existence it will compel the postal department to be conducted at a greater loss than the loss at which it is now conducted.
What inconsistency, too, for the administration to advocate a government subsidy to restore a United States merchant marine and at the same time advocate a measure to put out of existence a much more important American institution.
If it is a Republican policy to promote business and encourage industry, and a proper Republican and American policy to take money out of the United States Treasury to subsidize a private business in order to create an industry, why is it not a proper Republican and American policy to continue to provide a cheap mail rate in order to maintain a great American industry and perpetuate a mighty educational influence already existent?
The evidence in support of my impeachment of the Postoffice Department on account of its almost total lack of business method, its absolute helplessness to tell, even with approximate accuracy, the loss of any division of its service, or the revenues resulting from any given source or class of mail carried, would not be complete without quoting Senator Penrose and former Senator Carter.
Senator Penrose of Pennsylvania is Chairman of the Senate Committee on Postoffices and Postroads, and former Senator Carter was conceded to be one of the well informed men on postal matters in Congress.
The excerpt from Senator Penrose is from an address he made on the floor of the Senate, within the year, when speaking to the subject of second-class mail rates, and that from Mr. Carter is from his address on the same subject made in March, 1910. Both follow:
It is idle to take up such questions as apportioning the cost for carrying second-class mail matter or the proper compensation of railroads for transporting the mails until we shall have established business methods in postoffice affairs by a reorganization of the whole postal system.—Senator Penrose.
I deeply sympathize with the earnest desire of the department officials to get rid of the deficiency they are fated to encounter every year, but I submit that the first real movement toward that end must begin with the substitution of a modern, up-to-date business organization for the existing antiquated system.—Senator Carter.
Comment on the plain, blunt statements of these members of our highest legislative body, each admittedly well informed on the subject to which he speaks, is quite unnecessary.
In closing this division of my subject I desire to quote President Taft; quote from his message to Congress under date of March 3, 1911. It is an illuminating message and forcefully pertinent to the point we are considering. I would like to reprint the entire document, but fear I cannot do so. Of course, President Taft’s strictures and adverse criticisms are general—since they apply to all governmental departments—but every official in Washington knows, and none better than the President himself, that they have both adhesive and cohesive qualities when applied to the postoffice department.
In this message the President asks for an appropriation of $75,000 to continue the work he has already begun, that of revising departmental methods of doing business and of instituting a practical, commonsense system of accounting under which, or from which, it will be possible for administrative and legislative officials to learn, approximately at least, just what departments have done—to any date—and just what it has cost to do it, two items of information as appears from the message of the Chief Executive which neither his nor any previous administration has ever been able to learn, and is not now able to learn with any considerable degree of dependable accuracy.
As yet I have not learned whether the President obtained the $75,000 asked for. I hope he did. If Congress will appropriate $750,000 for the purpose the President names in his message, and sees to it that the money is judiciously and intelligently disbursed, it is the opinion of The Man on the Ladder that not less than $100,000,000 annually would be saved in government expenditures, or one hundred millions more of service, material, equipment, etc., delivered for the money now expended.
Following is the essential part of the President’s message. The italics are the writer’s:
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
I ask that you include in the sundry civil bill an appropriation for $75,000 and a reappropriation of the unexpended balance of the existing appropriation to enable me to continue my investigation by members of the departments and by experts of the business methods now employed by the government, with a view to securing greater economy and efficiency in the dispatch of government business.
The chief difficulty in securing economy and reform is the lack of accurate information as to what the money of the government is now spent for. Take the combined statement of the receipts and disbursements of the government for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1910—a report required by law, and the only one purporting to give an analytical separation of the expenditures of the government. This shows that the expenditures for salaries for the year 1910 were $132,000,000 out of $950,000,000. As a matter of fact, the expenditures for personal services during that year were more nearly $400,000,000, as we have just learned by the inquiry now in progress under the authority given me by the last congress.
The only balance sheet provided to the administrator or to the legislator as a basis for judgment is one which leaves out of consideration all assets other than cash, and all liabilities other than warrants outstanding, a part of the trust liabilities and the public debt. In the liabilities no mention is made of about $70,000,000 special and trust funds so held. No mention is made of outstanding contracts and orders issued as incumbrances on appropriations; of invoices which have not been vouchered; of vouchers which have not been audited. It is, therefore, impossible for the administrator to have in mind the maturing obligations to meet which cash must be provided; there is no means for determining the relation of current surplus or deficit. No operation account is kept, and no statement of operations is rendered showing the expenses incurred—the actual cost of doing business—on the one side, and the revenues accrued on the other. There are no records showing the cost of land, structures, equipment, or the balance of stores on hand available for future use; there is no information coming regularly to the administrative head of the government or his advisers advising them as to whether sinking-fund requirements have been met, or of the condition of trust funds or special funds.
It has been urged that such information as is above indicated could not be obtained, for the reason that the accounts were on a cash basis; that they provide for reports of receipts and disbursements only. But even the accounts and reports of receipts and disbursements are on a basis which makes a true statement of facts impossible. For example: All of the trust receipts and disbursements of the government, other than those relating to currency trusts, are reported as “ordinary receipts and disbursements.” The daily, as well as the monthly and annual statements of disbursements, are mainly made up from advances to disbursing officers—that is to say, when cash is transferred from one officer to another it is considered as spent, and the disbursement accounts and reports of the government so show them. The only other accounts of expenditures on the books of the Treasury are based on audited settlements most of which are months in arrears of actual transactions; as between the record of cash advanced to disbursing officers and the accounts showing audited vouchers, there is a current difference of from $400,000,000 to $700,000,000, representing vouchers which have not been audited and settled.
Without going into greater detail, the conditions under which legislators and administrators, both past and present, have been working may be summarized as follows: There have been no adequate means provided whereby either the President or his advisers may act with intelligence on current business before them; there has been no means for getting prompt, accurate and correct information as to results obtained; estimates of departmental needs have not been the subject of thorough analysis and review before submission; budgets of receipts and disbursements have been prepared and presented for the consideration of Congress in an unscientific and unsystematic manner; appropriation bills have been without uniformity or common principle governing them; there have been practically no accounts showing what the government owns, and only a partial representation of what it owes; appropriations have been overencumbered without the facts being known; officers of government have had no regular or systematic method of having brought to their attention the costs of governmental administration, operation and maintenance, and therefore could not judge as to the economy or waste; there has been inadequate means whereby those who served with fidelity and efficiency might make a record of accomplishment and be distinguished from those who were inefficient and wasteful; functions and establishments have been duplicated, even multiplied, causing conflict and unnecessary expense; lack of full information has made intelligent direction impossible and co-operation between different branches of the service difficult.
I am bringing to your attention this statement of the present lack of facility for obtaining prompt, complete, and accurate information in order that congress may be advised of the conditions which the President’s inquiry into economy and efficiency has found and which the administration is seeking to remedy. Investigations of administrative departments by congress have been many, each with the same result. All the conditions above set forth have been repeatedly pointed out. Some benefits have accrued by centering public attention on defects in organization, method, and procedure, but generally speaking, however salutary the influence of legislative inquiries (and they should at all times be welcome), the installation and execution of methods and procedure, which will place a premium on economy and efficiency and a discount on inefficiency and waste must be carefully worked out and introduced by those responsible for the details of administration.
Does that broad accusation of the President approve or disapprove our previously expressed opinion of governmental department service in general and of the postoffice department in particular? Notice the statements I have taken the liberty to italicize. Permit me to repeat a few of them:
“The chief difficulty in securing economy and reform is the lack of accurate information as to what the money of the government is spent for.”
Does not that fully bear out what Judge Moon said in discussing the Senate resolution to appropriate $50,000 more for a second-class mail commission—devote fifty thousand more after the government had already spent several hundred thousands delving into the same subject and got little or nothing of value, by reason of the loose, careless and wasteful methods of the federal postal department?
… “There is no means for determining the relation of current surplus or deficit.”
An inviting business situation that, is it not? Especially “inviting” is it to officials and subordinates who want something they have not earned, who want to find something.
“No operation account is kept, and no statement of operations is rendered showing the expenses incurred—the actual cost of doing business—the actual cost of doing business on the one side and the revenues accrued on the other.”
Now, my dear reader, don’t you know that such a method or system, or lack of method or system, would put a western corn farm in “financial distress” the first season and out of business the second? A cattle ranch, handled on such loose, ignorant methods would be sold out in a year. What, in reduction, does this unqualified statement of our President mean?
It means that the heads of governmental departments do not know; that their subordinates do not know, and, therefore, our President, our Senators and our Congressmen do not know. Nor can they, under existing conditions and methods, find out. They cannot find out even the common—the basic—essentials of business methods and management which Job Fraser, down in “Egypt,” must know in order to keep his hen range out of bankruptcy.
Do you remember a quotation, some pages back, from the joint commission which investigated the postoffice department? The investigation which rummaged into the second-class mail schedule particularly? If you do not remember, turn back and read it again. It fits like the skin of an Alberta peach to what the President has just said (March 3, 1911), in his message from which we have quoted.
While collecting millions of revenue beyond all possible expenditures, under competent, honest management, our federal postoffice department would have gone into bankruptcy save for the backing of the government’s treasury—for the backing of your money.
“The only other accounts of expenditures on the books of the treasury are based on audited settlements, most of which are months in arrears of actual transactions; as between the record of cash advanced to disbursing officers and the accounts showing audited vouchers, there is a current difference of from $400,000,000 to $700,000,000, representing vouchers which have not been audited and settled.”
Of course, I do not know how that may strike the reader. It strikes the writer, however, as being about as near the limit as any individual or corporation could go without falling over the financial edge and nearer the limit than any sensible, well and honestly directed government should go.
Again—No, I will requote no more. Turn back and read the quotation from the President’s message again. Read carefully, and then read it once more. Any citizen, whose mental tires are not punctured will be not only a wiser but a bigger and better citizen for having done so.
It was my intention to close this division of my subject with the excerpts from President Taft’s message. My attention however was called to a move made by Postmaster General Hitchcock, and an interview had with him bearing on said move. It was taken note of and “spaced” by a majority of the newspapers having general circulation in the United States. What I shall here quote is taken from a Chicago paper of date April 1, and the “write-up,” nearly a column, is based, it is probable, on a wire to the journal either from its Washington correspondent or a news agency. As the article appeared in so many newspapers I take it that the information conveyed is entirely dependable.
From the write-up it appears that Postmaster General Hitchcock has made “a round dozen” of changes among the postal officials in the railway mail service. Some of the changes were promotions—on the government’s pay roll—changes of division superintendents from one division to another, shifting of division chief clerks and of division inspectors, etc., etc. Theodore Ingalls, formerly superintendent of “rural mails,” is now superintendent of the “railway mail service,” succeeding Alexander Grant, who, the friendly space writer says, “is one of the most widely known postoffice officials in the service.” Whether favorably or unfavorably known, the write-up sayeth not. At any rate, Mr. Grant goes to the St. Paul division of the railway mail service at $1,000 per year less than he formerly drew from the postoffice department funds. Per contra, Mr. Ingalls steps from “rurals” to railway mails at an increase of $1,000. The other “round dozen” changes are of similar character, though affecting positions subordinate or minor to the ones named. No dismissals, just shifting the official pegs around, possibly for the “good of the service,” as Mr. Hitchcock says; possibly for other reasons. It is to be hoped that Postmaster General Hitchcock stated the entire truth and that these changes are for the good of the service. The railway mail service is certainly in dire need of betterment, as the reader will learn before I finish, if he but has the interest and the patience to follow me to the end.
Why Mr. Hitchcock did not make some twelve hundred changes in the railway mail service instead of a “round dozen,”—and many of them dismissals—I do not know. Perhaps Mr. Hitchcock does know. Let us hope he does and be thankful for small favors. Many people, however, who have watched the Postoffice Department’s maneuverings during the past forty years have seen too many “Sunday Editions” put to mail to be fooled by any of this “shake-up” talk. This shifting of the official shoats from one pen to another, still leaving them with their noses and four feet in the trough, is a too common and well known practice in the police and other public safety departments of our larger cities to fool anybody who has had his eyes open since the first full moon in April, 1868.
Shake-ups which do not retire incompetent or “faulted” public officials and servants, just as a “faulted” casting is rejected at “milling,” is not a “shake-up” that will stand good in any strata of human intelligence above that found in asylums for broken-down cerebral equipment. It is betterments, not “shake-ups,” that are needed.
The reader will please understand that there is no personal animus in what I here—or elsewhere—write. I have not had the pleasure, and possibly the honor, of personal acquaintance with Mr. Ingalls, Mr. Grant and others of the “round dozen” involved in the Postmaster General’s “shake-up.” They are probably all fine gentlemen personally, whom it would be a privilege to meet and to know. But we are writing to a subject infinitely larger than any man or set of men.
The people of this country are “up against” a postal service proposition—a proposition so stupendous in import, so far-reaching in its application, so crucial in its effects upon us and the children who follow us, and involving service so incompetent, so wasteful, so corrupt in its management and operation as to have appalled those of us who have watched and studied its practices, and to have become a joke, provoking a smile or laugh among postal officials of other nations who render a service that serves.
For upward of forty years—a few bright spots excepted—our Postoffice Department has shown itself not only incompetent in the matter of business management, but disregardful in serving the people who pay for the service. I am aware this is a bald statement, a “mere assertion,” some postoffice official or sinecure postal “servant” may say, but it will have to be said more often, more carefully and studiedly and far more eloquently, in order to have it believed outside the family circle than it ever has heretofore been said to get the people of this country to stand for it.
In the “write-up” annexed to Postmaster General Hitchcock’s few paragraphs of interview, the “space” artist gives us, in epitome, the biography of the men Mr. Hitchcock promotes and demotes in that “round dozen” of changes. Some of my readers may have scanned the “booster” newspaper stuff of which I am writing. If so, much of what I have here said may be bricks or straw, just as it may happen that they know or do not know the true “innards” of the service status of this Postoffice Department of ours. I will not do more here than to point to the epitome biographical sketches of the promotes and demotes in the friendly “write-up.”
In substance it says that Mr. Ingalls “is a highly trained postal official” and “entirely familiar with the railway mail system, having begun his postal work in that service.”
Now, we all sincerely hope that is true. I once ran a sawmill, but, candidly, I do not believe that any sensible business man would hire me today to run his saws in any mill turning out mixed cuts. It may be that Mr. Ingalls has accumulated just the proper, and the proper amount of, information in superintending “rurals” to enable—to qualify—him to manage and direct that case-hardened, looting division known as the Railway Mail Service. Let us hope that he knows how to do it.
In the past twenty-five or thirty years it has been conclusively shown that the postoffice department, en tout, knows about as much concerning the railroad end of the railway mail service as a mongrel spitz poodle knows of astronomy.
So I might comment on other names mentioned in the write-up of this “shake-up” of our Postmaster General. They have all been good men. Possibly they each and all are good men yet—for the jobs to which the Postmaster General has promoted or demoted them. The people may appreciate and even honor Jim Jones because he “worked his way up” from mail carrier on a rural route at Rabbit Hash, Mississippi, to Superintendent of the Cincinnati Division or the St. Paul Division of the railway mail service, and even more so, if he got stilted to the position of “Superintendent of the Railway Mail Service.” Still, listen. While we, the people, at Rabbit Hash, Mississippi, may be entirely satisfied to see our boy, Jim Jones, move up the ladder to official honor and salary, how about you other 93,760,000 people? You want prompt, cheap service in the railway mail and our Jim Jones fails to give it to you,—fails when you know the conditions and the facilities are at call and command to give it to you.
What is the answer? Simply that you 93,760,000 other folks may not think so well of our Jim Jones’ railway mail service ability—or business ability—as we of Rabbit Hash may think.
Now I have said enough about Postmaster General Hitchcock’s “shake-up.” What I have not said the intelligent reader will readily infer—and there is a whole lot to be inferred.
At the outset I intended to quote Mr. Hitchcock—quote Mr. Hitchcock himself—in evidence or proof of my previously made and repeated statement, that the Postoffice Department is incompetently, is wastefully, if not crookedly, managed and directed.
I am now going to quote Mr. Hitchcock. Of course, he here speaks of only the railway mail service. It is admittedly one of the worst divisions for waste and steal. But there are others scarcely a neck behind.
The subjoined dispatch states (March 31, 1911), that “while signing the orders necessary for the changes Mr. Hitchcock said:”
The investigation which we conducted so long and so carefully indicated clearly that the action which I have taken was absolutely necessary. The railway mail service has suffered greatly from poor management and lack of supervision.
In certain of the divisions it was found that the chief clerks had not been inspecting their lines, as was their duty. Some of the routes had received no inspection for several years. …
The inquiry showed that the business methods of the service in several offices were antiquated and that, as a consequence, there was much duplication of work. Instructions from the department directing improvements, as for example the proper consolidation of mail matter and the conservation of equipment, received only perfunctory attention.
There had been a lack of co-operation also in carrying into effect certain reforms which I had indicated, and it was made evident by the inquiry that no proper spirit of co-ordination with the department existed in the railway mail service.
We will now give our consideration to Postmaster General Hitchcock and the “rider.” I may say some plain, blunt things of him. If so, it is because I believe Mr. Hitchcock’s official action and statements touching the recent legislative move were a deliberate, calculated attempt to ruin some of the greatest periodicals the world has ever known, yes, the greatest periodicals the world has ever known. Not only was it that, but the method and time of presentation in the session, as well as the questionable secretiveness of that official in preparing and advancing the measure, supply reasonably valid grounds for the charge frequently made that this attempt at “snap” legislation was but a step in a conspiracy to throttle the periodical press, to place a muzzle on the most effective means of education which our people have had during the past two decades.
Nationally we have far departed from the mudsill principles of the democratic polity which our founders in their best judgment had framed for us and bespattered the forest paths of the country with their blood to maintain for us—the forest paths not alone of the Atlantic states but also of those vast acquisitions in the West, known in history as the Northwest Territory and the Louisiana purchases, out of which the fathers carved so many imperial states. So far indeed have we departed from those principles, regained from tyranny and maintained for us by the founders and builders of this governmental polity, that their original intent has been lost sight of by many of our people.
As a result of the struggle for subsistence on the one hand and corrupt political practice on the other, we are traveling rapidly toward the old, old way. As the kilted Scots put it, quoting Bulwer Lytton, we are rapidly reaching that view of life which leads men, in the heat of a justified anger, to say “Happy is the man whose father went to the devil;” meaning thereby that our sons can be happy if we manage to steal and loot enough from the government, or from our fellow citizens through governmental favor and protection, to build for those sons stone fronts on “Easy street” and leave a bank balance and “vested interests” sufficient to maintain them.
People happy in the enjoyment of unearned wealth seldom make good, safe or dependable judges or lawmakers for people who are unhappy.
There may be, of course, some rare exceptions to that statement. The history of twenty centuries, however—yes, of forty centuries—has shown very few of them. This may appear to some as a digression from my subject. Well, so count it, if you will. I have made it as a “foreword” for three statements I wish to make—statements cogently asserted in support of an assertion made some paragraphs back.
Mr. Hitchcock, in both action and advocacy, has not only been a conspicuous member, as newspapers and other reports show, but a leading factor, in the gang of “influenced” mercenaries and aspiring politicians who sought to “submerge” certain periodicals which for ten or more years have been telling the people the truth—the truth about crooked corporation practices and about crooked public officials.
I am here going to make those three statements. I believe them statements of fact. Think them over. Study them. If, after, you think I am wrong or overstate the facts, then—well, then, that is your affair, not mine. Remember, I write with a club—not a pencil.
The first of the three statements I wish here to make is: The social and political polity which patriotic and liberty-loving progenitors gave us, established for us, has been adroitly led from its prescribed way. Today our governmental and social organizations are rich in policemen, soldiers, prisons, poorhouses, organized charities, charity balls, owners of unearned wealth and in politicians who helped those owners to acquire that unearned wealth and who furthermore continue to protect them in its possession.
The second statement I wish my readers to consider is: The periodical monthlies and weeklies (and a few “yellow” newspapers), which Mr. Hitchcock and his coterie of conspirators would muzzle or, by laying an excessive mail rate upon them, suppress or ruin—and incidentally, make the Postmaster General an unrestrained censor of the country’s periodical literature——
Those periodicals, I started to say, have given more real educational benefit to the adult population of this country during the past ten years than has been given by all the “little red school houses,” colleges, universities, and churches combined.
I do not, as you will notice, include the “political stump.” I do not care to comment on its peculiar didactic value or fascination for fools. That means both you and me, reader. We each, occasionally, go to hear the political “stumper” tell us a lot of “influenced” lies.
The third statement I wish to make is: Postmaster General Hitchcock is, so far as the writer has been able to learn, a politician. Not only is he a politician, the reports read, but he is a wise, smooth and “ambitious” politician.
That is bad. “Why?” Well, because an “ambitious” politician is about as useful to us, to you and to me, as are bugs in our potato patch, or dry rot in our sheep herd. The “ambitious” politician is a disease, attacking either our kitchen garden or our mutton supply.
“What’s the answer?”
Here is one answer: It is a long way between “three rooms rear and a palace.” But even they who crawl about the earth, begging for leave to live, see things, hear things, feel things, and read things. They are beginning to understand much of what they see, hear, feel and read.
Is that, Mr. Hitchcock, a reason, one of the reasons, why you who have so energetically, likewise offensively, tried to shut us out from our main source of information, from our mental commissary?
Arise, please, and answer.
There are still other remarks which I must make about Mr. Hitchcock’s peculiar recent action and talk. It may not be at all pleasant to him. Yet the statements I shall make, I am ready to support by a “cloud of witnesses.”
As before stated, this attempt to muzzle the press of the country, for that appears to be the ultimate, likewise the ulterior, purpose of Mr. Hitchcock and his coterie of senatorial and other abettors in their recent attempt to outrage the constitutional rights of our people, the constitutional rights of the Lower House and the rules of both Senate and House, as Senator Robert L. Owen, in brief but pertinent remarks in the recent closing days of the late session (February 25, 1911), pointed out,—remarks rife with the cogency of truth.
In a previous paragraph I stated, in effect, that Postmaster General Hitchcock is an “influenced” man or a densely ignorant one. That he is densely ignorant on matters pertaining to periodical publications has been amply evidenced by subsequent quotations from his own reports and letters. That he at least shares the prevailing ignorance as to the methods, and the result of methods, for handling the vast business of the federal Postoffice Department, I have already pointed out.
Possibly I am in error here, but when Senators and Congressmen who have studied for years the methods of handling business in the Postoffice Department were—and are—convinced that it is impossible for the most expert accountants to collect and collate dependable information, relating either to any of its divisions of service or to the department in general; when old and tried students of the loose, wasteful methods of this department, of its utter lack of business system, yes, of its crooks and crookedness—when, I say, such experienced students frankly and bluntly state their complete inability to gather any dependable data as to the business done by Mr. Hitchcock’s department, I am in doubt as to the correctness, or lack of correctness, in my previous intimation that Mr. Hitchcock is ignorant of his departmental affairs and practices, as well as of matters pertaining to periodical publication and distribution.
Mr. Hitchcock has been at the head of his department something like three years, I believe. He has talked so much and written so much about postal “deficits,” about the cause of those deficits and how to remedy them by holding up periodical publishers, that, maybe, he has learned more about his department, more about deficits and the cause of them—learned more about these things in three years than older and more experienced men have learned in ten years—yes, twenty.
Maybe he has. If so, then I was in error when I intimated that his ignorance extended to departmental matters as well as to periodical publishing. If, however, I was in error as to Mr. Hitchcock’s knowledge of his departmental matters, I find myself in a multitudinous and growing company of intelligent and informed people to whom he will have to talk and write much more, and to talk and write far more eloquently, persuasively and wisely than he has thus far talked and written, to convince them that he has accumulated more departmental wisdom in three years than numerous older students of the subject gathered in ten.
What training or opportunity Mr. Hitchcock had, previous to his installation in his present position, to qualify him for the office—training and opportunity which enabled him to grasp so comprehensively, as he would have it appear, the duties, functions, faults in accounting, frailties in the service personnel,—in short, all the essentials of knowledge and information pertaining to a competent administration of the department, general, divisional and in detail, I do not know.
Of course, Mr. Frank H. Hitchcock was chairman of the Republican National Committee in 1908, which committee, with the aid of “a very limited campaign fund,” as one colossally profound “stumper” put it, steered the votes to Judge Taft and himself to his present exalted position. Now, this experience of Mr. Hitchcock may or may not have especially qualified him for ready, quick and comprehensive understanding of all that the Postoffice Department needs to make it yield even a half of what the people of this country are today paying for.
It may have done so. Thoughtful people, however, are numerously entertaining a private opinion, and thousands of them are publicly expressing it, to the effect that, so far, Mr. Hitchcock’s voluminous talk about the affairs, methods, needs and “deficits” of his department displays a knowledge of the subjects he talks about far more comprehensive than comprehending. That is, he has talked assertively or persuasively, as his auditor or audience fit into his purpose, upon numerous departmental phases of administration, regarding which final analysis in the crucible of “plain hoss sense” shows he knows little.
And he knew less when he talked than he now knows. The periodical publishers of the country have been “handing him” some information, after they got notice of what he was trying “to put over,” since he went to President Taft not later than October or mid-November last. I say that, because President Taft covered Mr. Hitchcock’s idea (or scheme) of removing the postal department deficit in his December message for 1910.
Now, did Mr. Hitchcock influence President Taft, or did President Taft influence Mr. Hitchcock?
That is the question; whether it is better to be the “influenced” or the “influencer.”
The above query may be awkward, or even an uncouth way to state the question, but in evidence that it is a question with thoughtful people—informed people. I desire here to quote some statements written by Samuel G. Blythe. With no thought of discriminating praise I can positively say that Samuel G. Blythe stands with the best of you boys who are doing so much for our enlightenment—FOR OUR EDUCATION—IN MATTERS RELATING TO OUR NATIONAL GOVERNMENT.
Is not that right, boys?
I hear a unanimous “aye.”
In this connection, however, I wish to remind you boys that many of you—most of you, probably—have done as much to help the people of the country in your local fields of interest and activity as you have done to enlighten us as to Washington’s politics, policies and tangential peculiarities.
With this explanation for my taking our “Sam” instead of you other boys for quotation, maybe mutilation, just here in the context of this book, I may add that his article in the Saturday Evening Post of date, April 15, 1911, is before me. It so fits the point I am now considering—whether Postmaster General Hitchcock was “influenced” or “influencing”—that I am going to quote, and, possibly, take all sorts of liberties with Mr. Blythe’s splendid presentation of Mr. Hitchcock’s attitude, action and animus.
Mr. Blythe, in his article in the Saturday Evening Post, (published by the Curtis Publishing Company, Philadelphia, and, by the way, one of the most educative weekly periodicals the world has ever known), tells us something of Postmaster General Hitchcock’s procedure since in office.
I am here going to appropriate some of the information furnished in Mr. Blythe’s article. Whether I use quotation marks or not, I want the reader to know that Samuel G. Blythe has “wised me up a heap” regarding our Postmaster General’s peculiar official gyrations since the latter arrived on his present job.
First, it would appear that Mr. Hitchcock arrived with the “deficit” in his brain. I mean, of course, the Postoffice Department deficit was on his mind, and being fresh from that state of splendid attainments and beans—Massachusetts—Mr. Hitchcock came to his job brimful of nerve, purpose and postal service deficits. He was determined to do things, especially to that deficit. Well, he has been doing things, but scarcely in a way that one would expect from a man coming from the people who grow up there. The writer cannot say whether or not Mr. Hitchcock “growed up there.” If he did, some cog must have slipped or “jammed” in his raising. Most born Plymouth rock men whom I have met, and I have had the pleasure of meeting many, start out, and live, on life lines which clearly and cleanly recognize the fact that the end is on its way, and that they are going to meet it—meet it with a brave, honest face and a moral courage that will answer “Here” at the final round-up.
I presume, however, there are a few Easterners who grow haughty, supercilious and dictatorial in proportion to the square of the distance they are removed (by fortuitous circumstance, political preferment or other means), from the “down-row” in the fall husking, the spring plowing, the free lunch and other symptoms of human industry or need.
This is wholly an “aside.” How it may apply to Mr. Hitchcock must be left to readers who have a more intimate personal acquaintance with him than have I.
At any rate, he came to his present official job, it appears from most dependable information, with a “deficit”—the postal service deficit, of course—in his mind, and he immediately began in his vigorous, though somewhat peculiar, way to work it off. Whether his dominating intent was to work that deficit off the department books or merely work it off his mind, has not thus far appeared, save, of course, to the coterie in the circle of Mr. Hitchcock’s intimates and a somewhat numerous body of periodical and newspaper reporters on the job in Washington.
The latter, of course, know everything. And what they don’t know they go to all extremes to find out. It was, therefore, a hopeless attempt of Mr. Hitchcock’s (though he yet seems scarcely able to understand how so much information got to the public), to keep his scheme to remove the Postoffice Department’s deficit by shunting the whole of it onto some twenty or thirty periodicals—it was, I say, a hopeless task for him to keep that scheme safely within the periphery of the corral where herded the “influenced” and the “influencing.”
But why go on? Mr. Blythe in his article tells some things I want to say and he says them so much better than I can tell them that I will give the reader the benefit of that difference and quote him on a number of points. As showing the studied attempt at snap legislation in the very closing hours of Congress, Mr. Blythe says:
The Sixty-first Congress expired by constitutional limitation at noon on March 4th, last. On Friday afternoon, March 3, the postoffice appropriation bill was up for consideration in the Senate. It was being read for committee amendments. At half past 4 page 21 of the bill was reached, and with it the amendment proposed by the Senate Committee on Postoffices and Postroads to increase the rate of second-class postage in certain specified cases and in certain contingencies. Second-class postage is the postage paid by newspapers, magazines and periodicals.
There had been several speeches. Senator Carter spoke for the amendment, and Senators Bristow, Cummins and Owen against it. Senator Jones, of Washington, had a few observations in favor of the amendment also. At 5 o’clock Senator Boies Penrose, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Postoffices and Postroads and in charge of the bill, rose in his place, withdrew the amendment increasing second-class postage, and submitted in its stead an amendment providing for a commission to investigate the question of fact concerning the cost to the Postoffice Department for transportation of second-class mail matter. This amendment was unanimously adopted and the Senate proceeded to the consideration of other sections of the bill.
Postmaster-General Hitchcock sat immediately behind Senator Penrose when this happened. He had been on the floor of the Senate most of that afternoon, and a great portion of the time for several days previous when the discussion of the postoffice bill seemed imminent. When Senator Penrose withdrew the amendment, the Postmaster General’s strenuously urged plan to use the taxing power of the government to make himself a censor, with almost unlimited power to declare what magazine and what periodical should be taxed and what magazine and what periodical should not be taxed; to give himself the sole determining power to decide what is a newspaper and what is a periodical—his long conceived plan, perfected quietly, put into preliminary execution without warning to those concerned, to be jammed through if possible, failed and failed utterly.
Mr. Blythe also refers to the fight Postmaster General Hitchcock put up against investigation. Here I desire to quote him at some length:
The Postmaster General had enlisted the President. He had put it up to the Republicans on the Senate Postoffice committee as an Administration measure to be supported by administration men. He got the President to use the same argument. He contrived an amendment, after much labor, so drawn as to give him the greatest powers of discretion in the application of the increase in second-class postage. He had the regulation of the magazine and periodical press of this country in his own hands, he thought; and he was preparing to regulate it according to his ideas—when he met with a sudden check. It was a good scheme, a far-reaching scheme, but it didn’t go through. The Postmaster General, being a small-bore politician, took a small-bore view of the situation. He underestimated the force of public opinion.
It is my purpose to tell here the full story of Mr. Hitchcock’s attempt to put through this legislation. Before starting, however, there is this to be said: There never has been a minute, since this contention began, considerably more than a year ago, when the publishers of the country have not been willing to submit the disputed question of fact to a proper tribunal, to determine exactly what it should cost the government to transport second-class mail. There never has been a minute when the publishers of the country have not been willing to pay exactly what, under a businesslike administration of the department, it should cost to transport their publications. They do not desire any subsidy from the government, and never have. The publishers have held that the statement of Hitchcock that it costs 9 cents a pound to carry second-class matter is absurd; and they have further held that if the postoffice department were run on proper business principles, instead of being run as a political machine, there would be no deficit.
Notwithstanding, Mr. Hitchcock fought the idea of a commission to the last gasp. He spent day after day at the capitol, for three weeks before the session closed, in the corridors, in committee rooms, on the floor of the Senate, working for his plan to increase second-class postage, granting concessions here, putting out explanations there, assuring certain publishers they would not be taxed, writing letters to Senators and Representatives showing how their districts or states would not be affected, utilizing every resource of his department, of his political connections as former chairman of the Republican National Committee, to get support. He had the votes in the Senate, too, if he could have brought the matter to a vote. That was where he failed. A united opposition was organized, an opposition composed of men who think and act for themselves and who were prepared to fight until noon on March 4.
When Frank H. Hitchcock, after being chairman of the Republican National Committee in the campaign of 1908, was made Postmaster General as a reward for his political services, he inherited, in his department, a deficit, an antiquated, cumbersome and unbusinesslike organization, and several sets of figures. Hitchcock is young and ambitious. He has been in the government service, in various capacities, most of his life since leaving college. He was anxious to make a record. As Postmaster General he was political paymaster for the administration, to a great degree, as there are more postmasters than any one other kind of public officials, and postmasterships are perquisites of the faithful politicians in the Senate and House of Representatives. This kept Hitchcock in politics, in a way, for he knew what the obligations of the administration were, having made most of them as national chairman, and he paid them off as circumstances permitted.
He thought, too, that if he could put the Postoffice Department on a self-sustaining basis—where it had not been for years, if ever—he would do a great stroke for himself; and he began work along those lines. There need be no discussion here of the methods by which he made apparent reductions in the expenses of the department. Whether by bookkeeping or otherwise, he did make some apparent reductions, mostly by not spending appropriated moneys, by reductions in force, by elimination of substitute carriers and by other similar means.
Mr. Hitchcock, it would seem, was a peculiarly active public servant. Mr. Blythe also speaks of how Mr. Hitchcock got a cue from a predecessor, Charles Emory Smith. Mr. Smith in the industrious activities of his official duties, signing of reports which subordinates wrote, vouchers for contracts and other payments, and drawing his salary—Mr. Smith had laboriously (?) figured it out that the second-class mail rate ought to be 7 cents a pound. Mr. Hitchcock goes Smith two cents better. This statement of Mr Smith’s grew on Mr. Hitchcock. “It opened the way to two things,” as Mr. Blythe ably points out as follows:—
First he could increase the revenue of the department if he could increase the second-class rate; and second, he could get a whip hand over the magazine press.
He reported his assumed facts to the President in time for Mr. Taft’s message to Congress, sent in in December, 1909. In that message Mr. Taft made the statement that it costs the government 9 cents a pound to transport second-class mail matter, the total cost being more than sixty million dollars a year, and asked that there should be an increase in second-class rates. Mr. Taft instanced this as a subsidy for the magazine and periodical press. Mr. Hitchcock’s report as Postmaster General contained substantially the same statements.
The House Committee on Postoffices and Postroads, where the postoffice appropriation bill originates, took cognizance of these statements by the President and by the Postmaster General, and ordered a hearing on the matter, which was held early in the session. The various publishers of the country, representing not only the Periodical Publishers’ Association but many other organizations of publishers of various classes of periodicals, sent representatives to Washington, and there were full hearings before the committee, extending through several days. The publishers stated their side of the case and the committee took the matter under advisement. The House committee reported out the postoffice bill with no recommendation of any kind in it for an increase in second-class postage; and no separate bill providing for the increase was prepared, introduced or reported.
Then Mr. Blythe, under the subcaption of “Running Down the Nine-Cent Myth,” says:
Some years previously the congress authorized what was known as the Penrose-Overstreet Postal Commission, composed of members of the postoffice committees of the Senate and House, of which Senator Penrose was then the Senate chairman and the late Jesse Overstreet the House chairman. This commission met in various places, had long hearings and made a report and prepared a bill. Before making its report or preparing its bill the commission employed, at a cost of seventy-five thousand dollars, or thereabouts, chartered accountants and business experts to make a thorough examination into the business methods of the postoffice department, its expenditures and its resources. The results of the work of these examiners was incorporated in the report to Congress by the Penrose-Overstreet commission. It is notable that this commission asked the late Postmaster General, Charles Emory Smith, of Philadelphia, who was responsible for the statement that it cost seven cents a pound to transport second-class mail matter, where he got his figures, and he did not remember, nor would he testify concerning them.
At any rate, when the Penrose-Overstreet bill, providing for the reorganization of the Postoffice Department and the placing of that great institution on a business instead of a political basis, was introduced in the Senate and the House, it contained no recommendation for the increase in second-class postage, because the commission had been unable to find any figures of cost of second-class transportation on which such an increase could justifiably be demanded, even after expert examination of the books of the department by unprejudiced men.
Of course, I may be mistaken—I may be. But how, in the name of Jehosaphat, Pan and all the other ghostly deities of antiquity, does it happen that men like Samuel G. Blythe and hundreds of others,—men in position to learn and know the facts, likewise, who have both the ability and the courage to tell what they know—agree with me? Why, I ask, if I am mistaken in what I have said and am trying to say, do so many other men who have studied this question, all of them probably of greater ability, most of them certainly of far greater opportunity than have I, why, I inquire again, do they so unanimously concur in the judgment I am trying to pass on Mr. Hitchcock and his department?
I shall probably take the liberty, later, further to use the data given in Mr. Blythe’s timely and informative contribution, quoting or otherwise, for which I confidently feel he will excuse me. Just here, however, it is fitting that the reader be given a reprint of that night “rider” to which I have made so frequent reference.
House bill No. 31,539 brought the postoffice appropriation bill to the Senate. In the Senate it was read twice and then on February 9, 1911, it was referred to the Senate Committee on Postoffices and Postroads from which it was reported back by Senator Penrose, Chairman of the Committee, “with amendments.” It is only one of those amendments we shall here care to consider. That one appeared on page 21 of Senate Bill (Calendar No. 1067), and the “rider” portion begins at line 7. Following is the “rider:”
(Page 21.)
7 “Provided,
8 That out of the appropriation for inland mail transportation
9 the Postmaster General is authorized hereafter to
10 pay rental if necessary in Washington, District of Columbia,
11 and compensation to tabulators and clerks employed in connection
12 with the weighings for assistance in completing computations,
13 in connection with the expenses of taking the
14 weights of mails on railroad routes, as provided by law:
15 And provided further, That during the fiscal year ending
16 June thirtieth, nineteen hundred and twelve, the rate of postage
17 on textual and general reading matter contained in periodical
18 publications other than newspapers, as described in the
19 Act of Congress approved March third, eighteen hundred
20 and seventy-nine, entitled “An Act making appropriations
21 for the service of the Postoffice Department for the fiscal
22 year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and eighty,
23 and for other purposes,” and in the publications described
24 in an Act of Congress approved July sixteenth, eighteen
25 hundred and ninety-four, entitled “An Act making appropriations
(Page 22.)
1 for the service of the Postoffice Department for
2 the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and
3 ninety-five,” shall be one cent per pound, or fraction thereof;
4 and on sheets of any publication of either of said classes
5 containing, in whole or part, any advertisement, whether
6 display, descriptive, or textual, four cents per pound or
7 fraction thereof; Provided, That the increased rate shall not
8 apply to publications mailing less than four thousand pounds
9 of each issue.”
As previously stated, and pointed out by Senator Owen, all amendments of character with the above are clearly in violation of Section 7, Article 1 of the Constitution of the United States. Here is the wording of that section:
“All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments as on other bills.”
That is plain enough, is it not, as to the Senate’s lack of right or power to originate revenue-producing measures either by bill or amendment? A glance at lines 4 to 9 (page 22), as above quoted, will convince even a stranger in a strange town or a market garden delegate that this “rider” amendment, if it had passed, would originate revenue.
Mr. Hitchcock talked, so it is alleged, that it would produce $6,000,000 or more, thus removing that “deficit” he has had in his brain or on his mind. Some of the best qualified men in this country have shown, and they have used Mr. Hitchcock’s own figures in doing so, that the increased mail rate as this “rider” provided would not produce over $2,000,000 additional revenue, probably not over $1,000,000, after paying for the added clerical and inspection service which such a discriminating classification would require.
The reader will note (line 18 of the “rider”), that “newspapers” are exempted from the increased tax. The reader should likewise note that under both this “rider” and the present law, newspapers are carried free to addresses inside the county of publication, save to addressees resident of towns and cities having carrier delivery. By this is meant that this tricky rider, as will be readily seen, leaves the present law—the one-cent a pound rate—in force and applying to all “newspapers.”
Just here I want to ask the thoughtful reader a question or two, though they are somewhat tangential to the direct line of thought we are at this point following:
If such a breach of constitutional law, of the legislative rules governing Congress and of plain, common and understood justice as was covered in this, I believe, studiedly discriminating “rider” on the postoffice appropriation bill—if such a breach was permitted, I ask, how long would it be, do you think, before our newspapers would be made victims of similar restrictions and injustices?
In short, how long do you think it would take the gang of conspirators (the “influenced” and the “influencing” factors in the personnel of the conspiracy) who tried to “put over” that rider, to make any nincompoop of a politician who chances to be, or who may become, Postmaster General a censor of all periodical literature, newspapers as well as magazines, published in this country?
In this connection another thought comes which I desire to pass on to the reader. If such censorship is permitted, such discriminating, abrogative legislation is tolerated, how long will it be, think you, before our “banking interests,” our “steel interests,” our “packing interests,” our “hide and leather interests,” our “rail transportation interests” go into the periodical business?
Each of these have the country covered—yes, flooded—with agents. No trouble whatsoever for them to get the postal department’s required “bona fide” subscription list and thus be “entered” at the one-cent second-class rate.
“Will they carry advertising?” Later, yes.
When our children are paying the cost of our blunder they will be advertising each other and—at the one-cent a pound rate.
Think it over and—well, wake up. If necessary, get cogently brisk with that Senator or Congressman of yours. At least, let him know that you are on the job as well as he and that you understand the job as well as he.
Of course, the “steerers” and “cappers” for this press-muzzling and official censorship game will tell you that such entrance of the “interests” into our literary field is “quite impossible;” that “the postal laws prohibit it;” that “it would be a foolish waste of money on their part,” and a score or more of other equally silly, equally false and equally “steered” arguments.
You can take it from me flat that the man—any man—who hands you that sort of talk is either hired to talk it or he is mentally unsound.
The “interests” are already in the periodical business. They own, or control, at this hour, hundreds of newspapers, magazines and other periodicals. This is a matter of common knowledge to every citizen who reads when he is awake. Not only that, but the interests, banking, industrial, transportation, etc., have gone into the book publishing business (the bound book), and hundreds of thousands of copies of their capping “literature” have been distributed to the people, either free or at a price far below cost of production.
Not only that, but the “interests” are annually (now), distributing millions, in the aggregate hundreds of millions, of circular letters and circular matter, under seal and open circular-matter sheets, pamphlets, etc., first and third class, at a cost of eight cents a pound or more.
So, I repeat, the man who attempts to controvert my previous statement as to the intent, the ulterior motive, of the conspirators backing that rider to the 1911 postoffice appropriation bill is either hired—bought—or is a fool.
It is one of his easiest “stunts” for any writer to produce a “promotion” story or article. For instance: The “Packing Interest,” monthly or weekly, can print three or four “nice” stories. One, say, about “Lucy and Her Window Garden,” another about “High Light Pink, the Broncho Buster,” etc., etc. Then can follow a “literary” write-up of how “Jones Rose From a Wheelbarrow Man to Foreman in a Steel Mill,” or about how “Cruiser Miller Dropped His Blazing Ax and Became Partner in a Great Lumber Company,” etc., etc. After this may come a “Home Department,” and then a few local or “plant” news items.
In the first, your wife and mine will be told how to make her currants (not her currency) jell; how to make children “bread winners;” how to “crochet an art tidy,” or how to “Subsist a Family of Five on Thirty-Nine Cents a Day.”
In the “Local” or “Plant” news may appear some explanation of how Crawloffski, who had lost a leg in service, is “improving in the hospital” (County), and “is under the competent care of the company’s physician,” of the promotion of “Mr. James Field, formerly ‘run-way driver,’ to the position of ‘hammer-man’ in the slaughter pen, with an increase of $2.80 a week in salary.”
Of course, it will be understood that I am not giving the entire scope and plan of an “Interest’s” periodical. The point I am trying to establish is, that no “Interest” periodical will, for a time at any rate, advertise its own interests, save as news matter, and that each “Interest” can and will advertise the others—the mutual interests—and do it, too, at the cent-a-pound rate and without violating any postal law now existent.
I will now return to Mr. Hitchcock’s activity and arguments for this “rider” to that postoffice appropriation bill. I call it “his,” as, from the evidence, I am forced to the conclusion that it originated with him. Most certainly he nursed it and pushed it forward with the urgent solicitude which a fond father would display in advancing his first-born or favorite scion. The excerpts which I have taken from Mr. Blythe clearly evidence that fact.
Mr. Hitchcock is on record as stating that it costs “9.23 cents a pound to transport and handle second-class mail matter.” I am quoting from memory. Maybe he did not include “handling,” and put 9.23 cents per pound as the cost of transportation only. At all events I remember that one writer, with keen perception and a robust sense of the humor of things, as well as the justice involved, pointed out the fact that any of the competing railroads between New York city and Chicago (easily proven to be twice the “average mail haul”), would carry Mr. Taft, our 300-pound “good fellow” President, the “run” at less than 9 cents a pound. Incidentally the writer pointed out these facts: President Taft would have a sleeping berth or compartment, a porter in attendance, smoking room accommodations, likewise barber, manicure, buffet, library and dining-room services and conveniences. The Chief Executive would of course put himself on board and “discharge” himself at the terminal station.
How about 300 pounds of second-class mail matter, say some monthly New York periodical? This is brought to the mail car, wrapped and directed to destination, Chicago for instance, to keep the comparison clear and fair. It is dumped on the floor in a corner of a mail car, with all the intermediate station deliveries atop of it or stacked about it, and at Chicago it is tumbled off to the publisher’s agent or salesman. That is all the service rendered by either the railroads or the Postoffice Department in handling that 300 pounds of second-class mail matter.
Yet the Postmaster General says it costs the government 9.23 cents a pound to render such service!
Is not that rather jarring to one’s exalted opinion of Mr. Hitchcock’s all-round, comprehending knowledge of a just and fair mail haulage rate? If it does not jar the reader he should take his thinking apparatus to the cobbler and have it half-soled.
A glance at freight schedules will show any reader that live stock, cattle, hogs or sheep, are carried from Chicago to New York, Boston or other eastern destination at only a small fraction of his dead-mail rate. Again, while double-deck live stock cars are in extensive use on long hauls, the stock is not corded up on the decks as much of the second-class mail is piled up. Not only that, but the live stock must be watered and fed in transit.
The rail rates for the carriage of dead-freight makes Mr. Hitchcock’s 9.23 cents a pound, which he figured as the cost to the government of carriage and handling second-class mail, read so absurd as to be a joke, were the purpose and purport of his statement not so grave and serious as they are. Even the 4-cent rate that he and a coterie of his friends tried to put over in the Senate rider—$80.00 a ton for carrying dead weights the average mail haul, and dumping it off at destination—is a ridiculous charge.
Why, the express companies are carrying hundreds of tons daily of dead-freight over such average haul for less than a cent a pound; yes, they are carrying tons of second-class mail matter and carrying it at one-half a cent a pound. It has been cited by Mr. Hearst and other publishers that certain railroads carry second-class mail matter over fast freight runs for about one-quarter of a cent a pound. In this connection another thought presents itself: Did, or did not, Mr. Hitchcock, at the time he was pushing his “rider” in the Senate, have any adequate knowledge of the amount, of second-class mail matter which publishers were then sending by express and fast freight? If he had such knowledge, then he must have known of the fact that thousands of tons of periodicals are now carried by the railroads and express companies at a rate lower than the government’s mail charge of one-cent a pound. If Mr. Hitchcock had such knowledge when he was handing his string-talk to President Taft, having his “heart-to-hearts” with certain senators, I wonder if he intimated to them what must necessarily happen to the second class mail division and to that deficit which, apparently at least, has so continuously, likewise so effusively and diffusively, worried him?
If the fast freights and express are now taking thousands of tons of second-class matter from the government in competition with the one-cent a pound rate, how many thousands of tons more would they take from the government if the latter advanced its rate to four cents a pound? And what effect would the withdrawal of so vast a tonnage from the government’s second-class service have upon the deficit our solicitous Postmaster General has kept himself so exercised about—that $6,000,000, or, to be exact, using Mr. Hitchcock’s own figures, $5,881,481.95? That deficit, if converted into cash, would barely furnish parade money to our army for a month. If the Atlantic squadron undertook a junket with such financial backing its progress would probably end by rounding the Statue of Liberty at the entrance of New York harbor. If Mr. Hitchcock’s attempt to put up a four-cent rate on periodicals had succeeded, thus forcing the prominent publishers to find cheaper means of carriage and distribution, his $6,000,000 would have soared upward to a point making it worth very serious consideration.
DEFICITS AFFECTED BY SECOND-CLASS TONNAGE.
In this connection I desire to show that deficits in the federal postal service are largely governed by the tonnage of second-class matter carried, the greater such tonnage the smaller the deficit. To do this I shall take the liberty to quote from the “Inland Printer,” probably the most widely read periodical among the printing crafts, as it certainly is one of the best informed and most carefully edited journals of any in matters relating to the publication and distribution of periodical literature. The article speaks of several points pertinent to our subject and is so instructively written that I know my readers will appreciate it in its entirety. If the publishers of the periodical will pardon my wholesale appropriation of their article, I am confident my readers will do the same. The article is of date March, 1911, and was written by Wilmer Atkinson, whose permission I should also ask for reprinting it in toto:
In 1860 the postal deficit was $10,652,543; in 1910 it was $5,848,566. The postage rate was four times greater in 1860 than now.
Coming down twelve years to 1872 the total weight of second-class matter was that year less than 65,000,000 pounds.
Now it is 817,428,141 pounds, more than twelve times greater.
Then the postage rate was four times what it is now.
Then the gross revenue was $21,915,426; now it is $224,128,657, more than ten times as much.
Then there was no rural free delivery; now that system costs $36,923,737.
Then there were no registered letters; now there are 42,053,574 a year.
Then there were issued $48,515,532 of domestic money orders; now there are issued $547,993,641.
Then postmasters were paid $5,121,665; now they are paid $27,514,362, and their clerks are paid $38,035,456.62.
Then city delivery cost but little; now it costs $31,805,485.28.
In 1872 there were issued of stamps, stamped envelopes and wrappers less than $18,000,000 (there were no postal cards); now are issued, including postal cards, $202,064,887.96, more than ten times as much.
Observe that the weight of second-class matter is 752,428,141 pounds greater than in 1872, costing therefore (according to some official mathematicians), more than 9 cents a pound for transportation, or a total of $67,718,532.69. The deficit for 1910 is almost identical with that of 1872.
1885-1910
As late as 1885 the government income from the issue of stamps, stamped envelopes and wrappers and postal cards was $35,924,137.70.
In 1910 it was $202,064,887.96, more than five times as much.
The number of registered letters issued in 1885 was 11,043,256; in 1910 it was 40,151,797.
The amount of money orders issued rose from $117,858,921 in 1885 to $498,699,637 in 1910.
The total postal receipts rose from $42,560,844 in 1885 to $224,128,657 in 1910, an increase of $181,567,813.
The postage rate on second-class matter in 1885 was double what it is now.
During the intervening period the weight of second-class matter had increased about 600,000,000 pounds.
Now we will get down a little closer in this business and see what has happened within the last five years.
1906-1911
In 1906 there was a gain in weight of second-class matter of 41,674,086 pounds; in that year the deficit was $10,516,999.
In 1907 there was a gain in weight of 52,616,336 pounds—11,000,000 pounds more than in 1906; the deficit was reduced to $6,653,283.
In 1908 there was a loss instead of gain in weight of second-class matter of 18,079,292 pounds; the deficit went up to $16,873,223, an increase over the year before of more than $10,000,000.
In 1909 there was only a slight gain in weight of 28,367,298 pounds; the deficit went up to $17,441,719.
In 1910 there was a gain in weight of 94,865,884 pounds, the largest ever known; and the deficit dropped to $5,848,566.88.
From 1906 to 1910 there were 198,863,387 pounds increase in the weight of second-class matter; the deficit was $4,668,432.12 less in 1910 than in 1906.
The impression is prevalent that the amount paid for railway transportation was cut down the past year, but the truth is that the railroads were paid $44,654,514.97, the railway mail service and the postoffice car service cost $24,065,218.88, a total of $68,719,733.85, which is more by a half million than was paid in 1909, and over $7,000,000 more than was paid in 1906.
It is claimed that there is no definite relation between deficits and second-class matter; very well, the foregoing are the official figures; let them speak for themselves.
In the whole history of the Postoffice Department, neither an increase of second-class matter nor a reduction of the postage rate has ever increased deficits, no matter what burdens have been piled upon the service in the way of an extension of city delivery, the establishment of rural free delivery, the multiplication in number and increase of pay of officials, increase of government free matter, increase of railroad and other transportation charges, nor an increase in the obstructive energies of postal officials directed against the publishing business. (See In Memoriam, page 49.)
It has come to be generally understood and conceded that second-class matter originates mail of the other classes. The Postal Commission testifies that “No sane man will deny that second-class matter is the immediate cause of great quantities of first-class matter.” Mr. Madden and Mr. Lawshe said the same thing. Meyer said that “It is known that second-class matter is instrumental in originating a large amount of other classes of mail matter.” To what extent this is so can not be determined with exactitude, but the official figures given throw a flood of light on the subject.
There are four classes of (paid) mail matter—first, second, third and fourth. The first comprises letters and postals, the second newspapers and periodicals, the third circulars, and the fourth merchandise.
How, of themselves, could the first, third and fourth classes develop faster than the growth of population? Does not their extension depend upon the business energy and the intellectual activity of the people, and in turn do not these depend very largely upon the circulation of the public press?
Will it, therefore, be deemed unreasonable to conclude that of the $202,064,887.96 of stamps sold for the first, third and fourth classes of mail matter last year, $150,000,000 of it originated immediately, remotely and cumulatively from the second class? How else than in some such way can we account for the prodigious development of the postal business, which has outrun population sixfold or more?
The late Senator Dolliver, at the American Periodical Association’s banquet, at the New Willard hotel, at Washington, a year ago, said: “I look upon every one of your little advertisements as a traveling salesman for the industries of the United States.”
The amazing development of the industries of the country is in a large measure due to second-class matter; the great increase of second-class matter is due to the low postage rate; and the wonderful expansion of the postal establishment is based chiefly upon the widespread distribution of newspapers and periodicals.
The foregoing figures are respectfully submitted; they are official; and their significance can be interpreted by any intelligent and thoughtful person. In the presence of these figures, is it too much to claim that the government has never lost a dollar in transporting second-class mail, that it is by far the most profitable of any, and that, were it withdrawn or greatly curtailed by an increase of rate, the postal establishment would collapse into bankruptcy?
In view, also, of the foregoing figures it is hoped that the government will assume a less antagonistic attitude toward the publishing business, and encourage and promote the circulation of the public press rather than repress and curtail it. Its obstructive course has been pursued too long, having no basis in justice, business foresight, or common sense.
Let there be a realization and an awakening!
IN MEMORIAM.
During the last fiscal postal year the death list of publications footed up to 4,229. Of these, 504 died a-bornin, that is, were denied entry; the others—3,725—were papers that had been established.
In the decade from 1901 to 1910, inclusive, 11,563 publications were strangled at birth (denied entry), and of established papers that died there were 32,060.
How many of these were forced to give up the struggle for existence on account of the hard conditions imposed by the government, we have no means of knowing. It is not found in the annual reports. It is beyond question that with sample copies cut off and necessary credit for subscriptions forbidden, no publishers without large cash capital to draw from can start and keep going in competition with old established papers.
Why at this time, when the people are trying to get rid of monopoly, the government should thus build one up, is hard to comprehend.
We are informed that the rule in regard to expired subscriptions “has met with strong approval and continues to grow in favor with publishers and the public generally.” This statement is made by the newly installed Third Assistant Postmaster General, but it is a delusion which Mr. Britt has unfortunately inherited from his predecessor. It may be true as to those benefited by the monopoly, but not as to those who have been put down and out. “Dead men tell no tales.”
I had intended to omit that “In Memoriam.” Then I carefully read it over. The appalling slaughter of the “innocents” which it exposes was so new to me, news of such a tragic nature in the domain of periodical publishing, that I then and there changed my mind. I am of the opinion that the news conveyed in its five brief paragraphs will be as new and as surprising to most of my readers as it was to me. Think of 42,623 publications put out of business in ten years? Of 4,229 sent to the commercial—in most instances, probably, to the financial—junk pile in one year—last year? Then think of the causes this conscientious writer holds chargeable for a large share of the slaughter!
ATTEMPT TO BREACH THE CONSTITUTION.
We will now revert to the bold attempt made in presenting that rider amendment to the postoffice appropriation bill to breach the federal constitution, following which we will take up some of Mr. Hitchcock’s efforts to show how much or how little he knows about the business of publishing and distributing magazines and other periodical literature.
First let us inquire if Mr. Hitchcock and the coterie backing that Senate “rider” knew that, under the Constitution, all measures for raising federal revenue must originate in the Lower House of Congress? One scarcely dares conclude they were so densely ignorant as that. Then, was theirs a deliberate, calculated attempt to breach the constitutional prerogatives and rights of the Lower House? Did they figure upon putting through that vicious rider in the congested closing hours of Congress? I call them the crooked hours of Congress. Did those backers of that rider hope that Senators and Congressmen would overlook or fail to read that rider, hope that so many would be so fully occupied by the swan-song chorus being sung during those closing hours that they would not notice that “rider” jumping the constitutional hurdles?
Now, if either one of the last assigned reasons is valid, a word stronger than “ignorance” should apply to such tricky, treacherous action, whether it is practiced by Senators, Congressmen, cabinet chiefs or chiefs higher up. One greatly dislikes to apply a fitting term to such ulterior motives as lead high and respected public officials to breach the constitution by trickery about on a level with that of the sneak thief or with that of a “con” man who thinks he has done his full duty by the people when he has sold Reuben the painted brick. But how could Mr. Hitchcock and those Senators co-operating with him be ignorant of the plain letter of the law and supported by a long line of precedents in both the Senate and the House?
As to the Senate precedents for the House’s right to originate all measures for the raising of revenues, Mr. Henry H. Gilfry, Chief Clerk of the Senate, compiled in 1871 a work entitled “Decisions on Points of Order with Phraseology in the United States Senate.” Mr. Gilfry cites the attempt of the Senate to repeal the income tax. The House returned the bill to the Senate with a reminder that the Constitution “vests in the House of Representatives the sole power to originate such measures.” Mr. Gilfry cites many other precedents.
In 1905 the Senate tried to originate revenues by amendment to the postoffice appropriation bill. That amendment was very similar to the “rider” of Mr. Hitchcock. I will here reprint it:
“That hereafter the rate of postage on packages of books or merchandise mailed at the distributing postoffice of any rural free delivery to a patron on said route shall be three cents for each pound or any fraction thereof. This rate shall apply only to packages deposited at the local postoffice for delivery to patrons on routes emanating from that office, or collected by rural carriers for delivery to the office from which the route emanates, and not to mail transmitted from one office to another, and shall not apply to packages exceeding 5 pounds in weight.”
The House brought that measure to conference and flatly refused to recognize the power of the Senate in the premises. The Senate receded and the amendment was killed.
“Hinds’ Precedents of the House of Representatives” is a recognized authority. In Chapter XLII, Vol. 2, under the caption, “Prerogatives of the House as to Revenue Legislation,” Mr. Hinds cites many instances in which the House had invariably insisted upon the exclusive exercise of its rights as defined in Section 7, Article 1, of the Constitution.
Mr. Hinds cites in all one hundred and twenty-five precedents, each of which raises the same point of order as was raised in debating Mr. Hitchcock’s late “rider” and on each of which the House maintained its right to originate all bills for raising revenues.
In view of the fact that some of Mr. Hitchcock’s supporters were men of experience, skilled parliamentarians, in view of the fact that some of them were trained lawyers, and in view of the further fact that the works both of Mr. Hinds and of Mr. Gilfry are on file in the reference libraries of the Senate and House and probably in most of the departments, how, I ask, in view of the above facts, can either Mr. Hitchcock or any of his supporters enter a valid plea of ignorance of the fact that their attempt to put over that rider was contravening the constitutional rights and prerogatives of the House?
No, they were not ignorant. In my judgment, as based upon the reports which have reached me, that “rider” was a deliberate frame-up and its architects were a few conspirators who sought by means of that rider either to put certain periodicals out of business or force them to print what they were told to publish.
Possibly I may be in error as to this, but the careful observation of the best informed and most experienced correspondents on the Washington assignment, as well as a number of Senators and Congressmen, have, in reports made, supplied ample evidence to warrant my statement to the effect that there was a collusive understanding among a few people to present that “rider” in the closing hours of the session with the hope that in the rush of affairs it might escape notice and go through. And that hope was born of an ulterior purpose to get even with some monthly and weekly publications—publications of independent thought and voice and which have for several years been telling the truth about certain Senators and Congressmen. These independent periodicals have also been telling a rapidly growing multitude of eager readers the cold, unvarnished facts about some corporations and corporate interests which, it is generally believed and openly charged, are represented in federal legislation and in cabinet and other official circles in Washington by several of the very men who were so actively supporting Mr. Hitchcock in pushing his “rider” over the legislative course.
A brief summary of the history of that rider may be presented at this point. The Penrose-Overstreet bill was before the House in the early part of 1910. It carried no recommendation of an increased rate on second-class matter. This Penrose-Overstreet bill was, however, reintroduced in the House by Congressman Weeks, of Massachusetts, Chairman of the House Postoffice Committee, and by Senator Carter in the Senate. The House refused either to approve or take action on Mr. Hitchcock’s recommendation. After consideration, the Senate approved the House bill. That bill carried no recommendation for an increase in second-class postage rates. Not a single member of the Senate during the debate suggested nor introduced any bill or amendment recommending such increase.
In his message of December, 1910, President Taft recommended an increase in the second-class mail rates. His recommendation was couched in language very similar to that used in his message of December, 1909.
Mr. Samuel Blythe, from whom I have previously quoted extendedly, says some pertinent things in commenting on the situation at this point in our brief outline of how this “rider” got mounted for a lap or two and then was blanketed in the home-stretch:
“The Postmaster General had not been idle in the matter. He had it on his mind. Moreover, his party had been defeated at the polls in the previous November and about the only Republicans who were successful were Progressive Republicans against whom the President had admitted, in his famous Norton-Iowa letter, he had been discriminating and for whom Mr. Hitchcock had no sympathy. The policies, and in many cases the individuals, in the progressive movement had had large support from the magazines and periodicals; and before that, the reactionaries who had ultimately been defeated, had been assailed because of their misdeeds.”
There is a lot of bone and sinew in that. Of course, both the President and his Postmaster General wanted to make good; wanted, as I have previously intimated, to get rid of those pestiferous independent periodicals which had been so conspicuous and powerful in unhorsing some of their stand-pat friends in the elections of November.
Mr. Hitchcock is not one of the sort of men who rush in where angels fear to tread. He is quite a general. He can make the waiting tactics of General McClellan, it would seem, apply beautifully to a political maneuver. He can wait and bide his time. At any rate, he waited. He waited until the President and other friends had worked that announced method of “discriminating” against the progressives, the so-called “insurgents,” to the end of appointing a Senate Committee on Postoffices and Postroads, the personnel of which suited Mr. Hitchcock’s quietly nursed purpose—in fact suited him as well as if he had selected the committee himself. Mr. Hitchcock, however, still waited, and while he waited, the House Committee had been appointed and was engaged in considering the postoffice appropriation bill. This House Committee held numerous sessions and gave hearings to many newspapermen and to publishers of periodicals. It went over the entire field of requirement in the government postal services and appears to have gone into the subject of second-class mail rates and the cost of its transportation and handling most carefully and thoroughly. The result of its deliberations was to tender to the House a bill carrying, as previously stated, an appropriation of some $258,000,000 for the year’s salaries, maintenance and operation of the Postoffice Department, a sum which must certainly appear liberal to any informed reader.
In this connection, two points stand out in bold relief. First:—When the House bill covering the 1911 appropriations for the Postoffice Department was passed and advanced to the Senate, it carried no provision or recommendation for an increase of the second-class postage rates.
Second:—As previously stated the House committee held many sessions while considering and preparing its 1911 Postoffice Department appropriation bill, and at no session of that committee did Mr. Hitchcock urge an increase in the second-class postage rates. He made no propositions or recommendations to that committee touching on increases in the second-class mail rate.
In fact he made no proposition of any sort to that committee. Nor did he submit any statements or figures to that committee, other than those contained in his 1910 report and in the President’s message.
Rather a queer procedure that, is it not? Especially is it queer, likewise suggestive, in a man who, for two years, had been running with anti-skidding tires on and the high-speed lever pushed clear down, in a wild chase to capture an increase in the second-class mail rate.
That is the way it looks to The Man on the Ladder, anyway.
Why did Mr. Hitchcock so completely ignore that House committee? Or why, at most, did his attitude, when present at any of its sessions, manifest so little interest as almost to indicate an indifference as to what was done or not done? Why, again, was Mr. Hitchcock so inactive, so void of suggestions and recommendations when before that branch of federal legislative authority with which he knew must originate all measures for the raising of revenues?
Why? To that question there appears, to The Man on the Ladder, but one valid answer. Mr. Hitchcock was waiting.
When the House bill was sent to the Senate and referred to the Senate Committee on Postoffices and Postroads, it appears from reports of people whose business it is to watch things done and doing at Washington, D. C, that Postmaster General Hitchcock livened up a bit, being careful, however, not to put any noticeable pressure on his high-speed lever until those meddlesome publishers had left town and were well away.
These publishers, knowing the constitutional prerogatives of the Lower House, considered matters safe and settled when the House bill making appropriations for the Postoffice Department was adopted and advanced to the Senate. They knew it carried no section advancing second-class postage rates nor any recommendations favoring such advance. With the publishers that ended it. But they failed to consider Mr. Hitchcock. His wiles and ways were, it appears, neither understood nor even suspicioned by those publishers. So, confident and content, they gathered up their belongings, packed their grips, paid their hotel bills and hied away to their several homes. Then it was that Mr. Hitchcock got busy with that discriminatingly selected committee of the Senate—the Committee on Postoffices and Postroads.
To see how “discriminating” some one or more persons had been in selecting that committee, let us look over its membership. At its head, as Chairman, sat Boies Penrose. He is the reputed Republican boss of Pennsylvania and an “organization” man. So is President Taft an organization man. Therefore Senator Penrose is an Administration man to the last ditch—that is, of course, if the administration is Republican. Mr. Hitchcock is also an organization man, and if both the President and his Postmaster General wanted this “rider” turned loose on the senate tanbark, Mr. Penrose was willing to go along with them. The other members of the committee were:—
Republicans:—
Scott, of West Virginia.
Burrows, of Michigan.
Dick, of Ohio.
Crane, of Massachusetts.
Guggenheim, of Colorado.
Democrats:—
Taliaferro, of Florida.
Bankhead, of Alabama.
Taylor, of Tennessee.
Terrell, of Georgia.
We will scrutinize that list and see how the members fared at the November election. The first four Republicans and the first Democrat as named in the list were defeated at the last senatorial selection—in fact they were repudiated by the states they had been representing or misrepresenting, as the reader cares to take it. As these defeated toga-smudgers attributed their overthrow largely to newspaper and other periodical attacks upon them, Mr. Hitchcock naturally found them in line for anything he wanted to visit upon those offensive publications.
Of the other Republicans, Crane, is reputed to be lugging around with him a large-sized aspiration to be Republican leader in the Senate. If he cashes that ambition, he must necessarily stand pat with the President and Hitchcock, in spite of the alleged fact that Senator Crane does not carry an over-load of esteem for said Hitchcock. The other left-over Republican member of the committee, Guggenheim, would not be worth mentioning were it not for the fact that the methods pursued by himself and his friends in his elevation to senatorial honors have put him in the class almost removed from criticism. Those methods received much caustic consideration from newspapers and other periodicals. Simon Guggenheim, though reputed to be noticeably obtuse in comprehension and decidedly pachydermatous of integument, is probably neither so dull nor so thick of skin as not to have felt and to have remembered the exposure the magazines made of the methods they asserted were used to secure his toga; methods, it was asserted, which virtually bought his “friends,” both those in and those out of Colorado’s legislature. Yes, Simon probably remembers those exposures and the sources from which they emanated.
Entirely aside from that fact, Simon Guggenheim is a dyed-in-the-wool Administration man. In fact, if reports be true, and his record in the Senate appears to justify the reports, Senator Guggenheim could not be other than an Administration man. First, it is said, there are “official” motives and reasons for his being such, and, second, that his intellectual equipment is so out of repair, or so lacking in native operating power, as virtually to disqualify him for any part or position save that of a nonentity in legislative procedure and affairs.
So Senator Simon “Gugg” must necessarily stand with the President and the Postmaster General on the “rider” amendment as on any other proposition they wanted to forward.
As to the hold-over or returned Democratic members of that committee little needs be said as the Democrats were in the minority anyway. Senator Bankhead is quite generally recognized as a congenial, obliging and accommodating politician. In all probability, he would not enter any strenuous objections to Mr. Hitchcock’s proposed amendment, provided a hint was given him that the President approved it. That such hint was handed around quite freely before the committee’s report was submitted to the Senate is a matter of common knowledge.
Senator Taylor first voted for the rider amendment. Later, however, when he neared Jericho, the scales appear to have fallen from his eyes and he then saw things differently. At any rate he later voted against the amendment.
Senator Terrell of Georgia was ill, and therefore not present when action was had. It will be seen, then, that the Postmaster General had his “discriminating” committee.
Mr. Hitchcock began his advance on that committee February 1st. He approached certain of its members on the 1st and 2nd and informed them, in effect, that he wanted them to urge a second-class amendment to the postoffice appropriation bill, which the committee had under consideration. He, it is reported, also assured these senators that President Taft most earnestly desired that an increase be made in second-class rates. He got a committee appointed, consisting of Senators Carter, Crane and others to confer with the President regarding the matter. Owing, however, to the pending of other legislation in the Senate (the ship subsidy bill in particular), the matter dragged along until the 8th of February. During the delay, Hitchcock made sure of the committee by nailing down Penrose, Crane, Burrows, Carter, Scott, Bankhead, Taliaferro, Dick and Simon “Gugg.” On the date last named, Senators Carter and Crane went to the White House “by request” to confer with the President. The President, it is said on authority, flatly told the two Senators that they “must” put the amendment into the bill. It is also reported, and to their credit, that the two Senators argued strenuously against the expediency of inserting it, pointing out the fact that such an amendment would go out on a point of order under Senate Rule XVI. Mr. Hitchcock was present throughout the conference. Incidentally, it may be likewise noted that Vice-President Sherman dropped in, quite “by accident” of course, but he showed no hesitancy, it is said, in participating in the discussion as actively as Postmaster General Hitchcock had been doing from the beginning of the conference. While the President and his Postmaster General were arguing with the Senators to prove to them how important the action was to the Administration; why the “rider” must go into the bill as an amendment, and probably why it was “time for all good organization men to come to the aid of the party,” Mr. Sherman probably dropped a few timely hints to the effect of how easy it would be, with the gavel in his hands and a quick, true and favoring eye for floor recognitions, to get around Senate Rule XVI. In the end, Senators Carter and Crane were won over and a meeting of the Postoffice and Postroads Committee was called for the afternoon of the same day, Wednesday, February 8th, 1911.
When the committee got together it was found that there was not a single proposition of any sort relating to second-class mail rates before it for consideration. Neither was there a written suggestion, recommendation or report bearing upon that subject before them. Mr. Hitchcock, however, was present at this committee meeting. He formulated his proposition and the committee went into session, the discussion being led by Senators Carter and Crane, who had become “convinced” against their best judgment if not against their will, in the forenoon of the same day, to support the amendment. The discussion lasted for several hours, with Mr. Hitchcock’s deficit occasionally buzzing as his wheels went round. Then the committee adjourned until the next afternoon, February 9th.
Mr. Hitchcock left the room after the discussion and, it is said, went immediately and reported to the President. Upon learning that the attitude of the committee was unfriendly, the President at once began to turn on more current, not hesitating to use his patronage club in doing so, reports say.
The committee met, as agreed at its adjournment. Mr. Hitchcock was present with his rider amendment all written up and fully varnished and frescoed, and in two hours Mr. Hitchcock’s rider amendment was tacked onto the bill, in wording substantially as it appears on another page.
Then the real fight began. Hitchcock stood to his embrazured guns, to his reprisal rider, throughout the entire engagement. As an evidence that it was his rider, or his and President Taft’s, I desire here to present to the reader points in proof:
That picked “discriminating” Senate committee had a majority of defeated or otherwise disgruntled politicians. They were defeated or disgruntled because certain independent periodicals had, figuratively speaking, peeled the varnish and smooth epidermis off them, thus exposing their decayed or decaying carcasses to a public not only able to read and understand, but a public willing to read and understand.
I will offer a few other established facts. Mr. Hitchcock, during the closing days of the fight, devoted nearly his entire time to pushing and advocating his measure, his carefully prepared scheme. A canvass of the Senate was made, which canvass led Mr. Hitchcock to believe he had the votes to put his rider over the course a sure winner. In that, however, he was mistaken. A number of the Senators had wised up as to the real purpose and purport of that rider and, in the canvass, they handed back to him a little of his own peculiar brand of jolly, which he had delivered to them in unbroken packages, freight prepaid.
After his canvass, Mr. Hitchcock still kept his oil tank well filled, and his “deficit” playing rag-time to boost his rider along. He even kept his deficit buzzer going after nearly everyone about the Capitol knew that Senators La Follette, Bristow, Owen, Gore, Cummins, Bourne, Clapp, Beveridge, Borah, Brown and others intended to talk his rider into the ditch or talk the postoffice appropriation bill into the Sixty-second Congress.
Yes, Postmaster General Hitchcock, though neither a very competent nor scrupulous tactician, nor an able manager for any large business, industrial or other, is a good fighter. That much must be said for him. When a man fights to the last ditch for a lost or losing cause or purpose as he fought for his “rider,” that man has courage, nerve, whatever we may call it, in him. At any rate it is a quality which commands respect and the man possessing such a quality will receive his just meed of respect wherever men are men.
Mr. Hitchcock worked up a vigorous support for what The Man on the Ladder considers not only an objectionable cause, but a cause viciously dangerous to our form of government, to the material welfare of our people, to their educational advancement as well as to their moral and intellectual betterment.
That is the reason he opposes the purpose of this rider amendment and the methods used to enact it into law. In brief, that is why this book has been written. How Mr. Hitchcock secured a following, even for the brief period his followers followed, for such a cause and the methods used to advance it is as difficult for me to work out or solve as the “Pigs-in-Clover” puzzle or the “How Old Is Ann” problem. He must certainly have learned some new “holds” or tricks in what Sewell Ford calls “the confidential tackle,” or he could not have secured so many “falls” in so short a time for a cause that was bad and for methods even worse, if such were possible.
Now we will take up the Postmaster General’s somewhat prolific, if not always lucid, verbiage, to prove that he knows more about the publication and distribution of publications than the most experienced and successful periodical publishers have yet learned, however experienced they are and however hard they have striven to familiarize themselves with the many intricacies which the business involves.
FOOTNOTES
Now, see here, Samuel, if you have any knock to make about the liberties I may take with your Saturday Evening Post informative article, knock me, not my publisher. I may quote and even disfigure a little, but I assure you the latter will be far this side of the ambulance.
Postmaster General Hitchcock’s persistent activity in seeking to push the “rider” through the Senate was a noticeable feature in the closing hours of that session of Congress, his industry showing in his daily contact on the floor of the Senate with the members who seemed pliable or willing to harken to his wishes in the matter pertaining to the legislation he wished to have made into law. The following communications, adroit and carefully worded to Chairman Penrose, boldly justified the increase on second-class matter, and may be regarded as the dying struggle of the postoffice head to gain his point.
The italics are the writer’s and set out the controversial promiscuousness of the Postmaster General. The letters bear date February 14-15, 1911:
Washington, D. C., February 14, 1911.
My Dear Senator:—In response to your request I submit the following statement relative to the section of the postal appropriation bill, H. R. 31539, now pending in the Senate that provides for an increase in the postage rate on the advertising portions of periodical publications mailed as second-class matter.
Under the provision in the bill the postage rate on the advertising pages of magazines is increased from 1 cent to 4 cents a pound, but this increase does not apply to newspapers of any kind, nor does it affect periodical publications mailing less than 4,000 pounds each issue. By the terms of the provision the privilege of carrying advertisements is for the first time extended to several classes of periodical publications enumerated in the act of March 3, 1879, namely, the periodical publications of benevolent or fraternal organizations, of regularly incorporated institutions of learning, of trade union organizations, and of professional, literary, historical, and scientific societies, including state boards of health.
As the advertising portions of magazines comprise on an average about a third of their total weight the effect of an increase from 1 to 4 cents on the advertising pages will be to advance the postage rate for second-class matter as a whole about 1 cent, making the second-class rate 2 cents a pound instead of 1 cent, as at present. In view of the fact that it costs the government about 9 cents a pound to handle and transport this class of mail the proposed increase is an exceedingly moderate one.
In a whole page newspaper advertisement printed on the 12th instant, signed by 34 of the principal magazine and periodical publications of the country, it is stated that the increased rate “will drive a majority of the popular magazines out of existence, and with them the enormous volume of profitable first-class mail their advertising creates.” This charge is made in the face of the fact that some, if not all, of the signers of the statement are realizing tremendous profits from the vast amount of high-priced advertisements.
It has been found on investigation that one of the great periodical publications signing this protest contained in 21 of its successive issues, from January 1, 1910, to and including May 21, 1910, exclusive of cover pages, an average of 19,354 agate lines of advertising matter, which, at the same rate, would make a total of 1,006,408 lines for the year.
On October 1, 1910, the publisher of this periodical increased the rate for ordinary advertising in his publication from $5 to $6 an agate line. At the higher rate the gross value of the ordinary advertising space for one year would amount to $6,038,448. Increased rates charged for the inside and outside cover pages would bring $650,000, making a total gross value of $6,688,448. Allowing a discount of 15 per cent, or $1,003,267, there would remain as a total net value of the advertising in this publication for a single year the tremendous sum of $5,685,181. The additional income from advertising resulting from the increased rates would amount in a year to $957,107, which would be much more than sufficient to pay the proposed higher postage rate of 4 cents a pound on the advertising pages of the publication during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1910. In other words, the advance in advertising rates for this periodical will not only meet the higher postage charges, but will leave a surplus of increased revenue to swell the annual profits of the magazine.
In a printed statement recently issued by the president of one of the leading magazine-publishing companies of New York City, the exceedingly profitable nature of the magazine business was clearly set forth. According to his statement the profits of his own magazine for the month of October, 1910, showed an increase over the corresponding month for 1909 of 100 per cent on advertisements and 151 per cent on subscriptions, making a net annual profit for dividends and surplus, based on a circulation of 500,000 copies monthly, of $348,980. Regarding the periodical-publishing business in general, the same gentleman says in his statement that “magazine publishers receive gross incomes as high as $6,000,000 in a single year. Dividends amounting approximately to $1,000,000 yearly have been made.” Speaking of the publishers of some of the magazines joining in the protest against the proposed legislation, he says that one of them, according to his own statement, realizes a net profit of $1,000,000 annually; of another, the principal owner of two great publications, that his gross income is more than $6,000,000 annually, and that his net profits for the same period exceed $1,000,000; of another, that his magazine yields more than 10 per cent on a capital of $10,000,000; of another, that his net profits are $600,000; of another, that the value of his advertising space alone is $1,500,000 a year; of another, that his advertising receipts are $75,000 per month and his profits are from $600,000 to $800,000 per year; of still another, that his publishing business represents a profit of 100 per cent a year to its stockholders.
My Dear Senator:—On February 13, 1911, Everybody’s Magazine published in the local newspapers a full page advertisement attacking the proposed increase in second-class postage carried by the postal bill now pending in the Senate. In their statement the publishers claimed to have a circulation of 650,000 copies per issue and asserted that “the postal measure now before Congress increases the cost of handling Everybody’s Magazine $150,000 a year.” They further stated that in view of the fact that the magazine makes “each year for its stockholders about $100,000,” the proposed increase would “actually exclude the magazine from the mails.”
The department’s figures for the calendar year 1910 show that Everybody’s Magazine mailed at the New York City postoffice 2,898,372 pounds of its issues as second-class matter, on which the postage at the cent-a-pound rate was $28,983.72. As an average of one-half of the pages is devoted to advertising, the proposed increase of 3 cents per pound on such matter would make the additional postage $43,475.58 per annum instead of $150,000, as stated by the publishers of the magazine.
Based on the publishers’ statement of 650,000 circulation, the gross income of Everybody’s would be about $1,550,000 annually, divided as follows:
200,000 subscriptions, at $1 (net) $200,000
450,000 news-stand sales, at $1 (net) 450,000
150 pages of advertising per month, at $500 per page 900,000
Grand total $1,550,000
Since the publishers state that the magazine makes each year for its stockholders only about $100,000, the approximate cost of publication reaches the surprisingly high figure of $1,450,000. Using their own statement showing a circulation of 650,000, it appears that Everybody’s issues 7,800,000 single copies annually. If their total net profits are only $100,000, it is evident that it must cost the publishers approximately 19 cents to place a copy of the magazine in the hands of a reader who can secure it on the news stand for 15 cents.
Before your committee reported the bill providing for the increased rate on second-class matter, the publishers of Everybody’s Magazine announced that on and after March 6, 1911, their rates for ordinary advertising would be advanced from $500 to $600 a page. On the extremely conservative estimate that the magazine carries a monthly average of 150 advertising pages, this advance will produce an additional income of $150,000 per annum. As the proposed increase of postage during a like period will amount to approximately $43,500, it is evident that out of the increase of revenue alone the magazine will be able to pay the additional postage and still retain a considerable surplus for its stockholders.
Yours, very truly,
Frank H. Hitchcock,
Postmaster General
Investigations recently made by the Postoffice Department show that large numbers of periodical publications already entered as second-class matter are in reality nothing more than trade catalogues, which, under the law, ought to be treated as third-class matter and subjected to a postage charge of 8 cents a pound, which is the rate for catalogues. By inserting a few pages of reading matter, these publications succeeded in being classed as magazines and thus secured admission at the cent-a-pound rate. Among publications of this kind is one containing 140 pages, 99 per cent of which are devoted to advertisements; another containing 562 pages, 97 per cent of which are devoted to advertisements; another containing 238 pages, 93 per cent of which are devoted to advertisements; and another containing 268 pages, 89 per cent of which are devoted to advertisements. Almost the entire space in these publications is devoted to the carrying of commercial advertisements, and this in defiance of the statute specifically excluding from the second-class privileges “publications designed primarily for advertising purposes.”
By the proposed law, magazines, in so far as they provide public information, are left exactly on a par with newspapers and the smaller periodicals, for the increase of rate of 3 cents a pound attaches only to such portions of the magazines as are devoted to advertising purposes.
The stock argument of magazine publishers that the profit to the government on first-class matter induced by the advertisements in their publications offsets any loss incurred by reason of the low postage rate on second-class matter is disproved by the fact that the government’s entire profit on first-class matter is less than the total loss on second-class mail matter.
During the fiscal year 1910 over 800,000,000 pounds of second-class matter were carried through the mails at a loss to the government of $62,000,000. The profits on all other classes of mail matter were more than swallowed up by this tremendous loss, leaving a postal deficit for the year of about $6,000,000. It is estimated that the annual saving to the government through the proposed increase in postage will amount to about $6,000,000, or enough to wipe out what remains of the deficit.
Magazines have repeatedly increased their advertising rates as their circulation has grown, but the postal charges for the handling and transportation of these magazines have remained stationary for years, so that while this increased circulation has swollen the profits of the publishers it has added correspondingly to the loss sustained by the government. It is clearly inequitable that the public in its general correspondence, the publishers of books and pamphlets, and the senders of small merchandise should continue to be taxed to meet the deficit caused by a subsidy enjoyed by the publishers of the large magazines.
Yours, very truly,
Frank H. Hitchcock,
Postmaster General.
My Dear Senator:—Observing that the periodical publishers in their opposition to the pending provision increasing postage on second-class mail matter frequently refer to the low rate of one-fourth cent per pound charged by the Dominion of Canada on newspapers and periodicals, I think it well to point out the fact that while this exceptionally low rate does prevail in that country because of the peculiar conditions there, European countries, so far as our information goes, charge a higher rate than the United States, notwithstanding their much smaller areas. The rates charged by Great Britain, Germany, and France are considerably higher than the rate provided for in the bill now pending in the Senate. I inclose herewith a memorandum giving such information as we have regarding the postage rates charged on newspapers and periodicals by European countries.
Yours, very truly,
Frank H. Hitchcock,
Postmaster General.
Postage rate, in cents per pound, on newspapers and periodicals in European countries.
Cents.
Great Britain (one forty-first of the area of the United States), 1 cent a copy for local delivery, but for general distribution by parcels post in quantities, 6 cents for the first pound and 2 cents for each additional pound up to 11 pounds.
Germany (one-seventeenth of the area of the United States) 4?
France (one-seventeenth of the area of the United States) 4
Italy (one thirty-third of the area of the United States):
Daily newspapers 1?
Other publications 2
Holland (one two-hundred-and-eighty-fourth of the area of the United States) 1?
Belgium (one three-hundred-and-eighteenth of the area of the United States) 1?
Under the provisions of the International Postal Convention, newspapers and periodicals are mailed by all the signatory parties at the uniform rate of 1 cent for each 2 ounces or fraction thereof—practically, 8 cents per pound.
Postmaster General Hitchcock in his letter, submitted under date of February 14, 1911, quotes some publisher (name not mentioned), as saying that “magazine publishers receive gross incomes as high as $6,000,000 in a single year” … “that one of them, according to his own statement, realizes a net profit of $1,000,000 annually” … another, “the principal owner of two great magazines, says that his gross income is more than $6,000,000 a year;” of another “that his magazine yields more than 10% profit on a capitalization of $10,000,000,” etc., etc.
Beyond stating that the foregoing declarations were made by the “President of one of the leading magazine publishing companies of New York city,” Mr. Hitchcock sayeth not, save as he quotes (see seventh paragraph of the Hitchcock letter), this President as saying what Mr. Hitchcock says he said. The Postmaster General does not name this “President.”
Regretting this oversight of our Postmaster General very much, I would like to know whether or not this “President” is the real, genuine article of president, or is merely one of these “phoney” presidents who laboriously support the honors of the corporate title and vote three shares of stock, usually given by the promoters of an organization for the “influence” of an honored name in starting the wheels to revolve.
I mean by this that it would be information to thousands of Mr. Hitchcock’s readers, as well as to thousands of publishers and printers, and numerous millions of American citizens, had he, Mr. Hitchcock, told them whether this “President” he quotes so liberally, likewise confidently and confidingly, is a real, live-wire president, active in the management of his periodical, and, therefore, fully informed as to its business, expenditures, profits, etc., etc., or, on the other hand, whether or not he is merely a corporation stool-bird for the promotion of a publication enterprise through selling the stock of the concern to the E. Z.-Mark investing public.
The quotations which our Postmaster General makes from this publisher “President” sound to me with quite a familiar tang. They read a good bit like a promotion circular, like an “annual statement” which corporations and companies as well as individuals print and distribute to call attention to the prosperous future they have in sight, incidentally inviting investment from savings banks accounts, stocking hoardings, etc.
Nothing wrong about that method of “public bubbling” at all. Even banking institutions, national and state, sometimes resort to it. Occasionally, commercial houses have used it. So, also, has the Steel Corporation, when it wished its employes to chip in a few millions for “a personal interest.” Our friend, “Bet-You-a-Million-Gates,” used it to advantage in reorganizing the Louisville and Nashville system, and it is a practice now and again indulged in among our Napoleons of finance, as well as great captains in the industrial realm.
For this reason I cannot—until our Postmaster General further enlightens us regarding this publisher-president as to his personality, individuality and general business activity in and knowledge of, his own publication business,—say anything in adverse criticism of this “President” Mr Hitchcock quotes so liberally, likewise unctuously.
However, having been a periodical publisher myself, in a small way, I shall presume here to present a few figures approximately applicable to larger periodical enterprises. Mr. Hitchcock has much to say about gross receipts, gross revenues, and other gross. I shall present my estimate of net profits. For this purpose, I shall take a monthly periodical reputedly issuing 650,000 copies a month, each number weighing about one pound.
Now, let it be here distinctly understood by the reader that my figures, mostly estimates, are those of a man with experience only as a small periodical publisher, say of 50,000 a month, not 650,000.
Estimated income of the publisher of a standard monthly periodical distributing 650,000 copies monthly of average weight of one pound each, Mr. Hitchcock figures to be (see his letter), about $6,000,000. The gross annual receipts from subscriptions on a periodical issuing 650,000 copies per month, and retailing at 15 cents per copy, is less than $750,000. Such periodicals realize about 12? cents each for subscribed copies and 8 cents net for copies delivered in bulk to newsdealers and agencies. The first item of expense the publisher incurs, therefore, is in the issue cost of production over what he receives for the copies issued. It is knowledge common to every periodical publisher, newspaper as well as magazine, that every subscriber as well as news-stand buyer of his periodical is a subsidized reader. Do you catch the import of that statement?
Did you ever think of that, Mr. Reader? Frankly I confess that I did not, until quite recently, when a large producer of trade journals and edition books, and likewise one of our largest manufacturing printers, pointed out the facts to me. His varied business interests are such that he must necessarily buy at the lowest market cost, must know to the fraction of a cent what those costs are—the cost of composition, of presswork, of ink, of color work, of covers, of binding, of cartage, of rail haulage, of distribution, etc., etc.
Well, this gentleman summoned me off the ladder, and “called” me in a way which made my landing somewhat abrupt, in order to tell me some things about periodical publishing which he had shrewdly, likewise correctly, guessed that I did not know.
Among the things he told me, not only told me but proved to me, was the one stated: that readers of periodicals get, in net mechanical cost, more than the publishers receive for the publication sold.
In proof of this he cited the 8-page dailies issued in cities of the second and third classes, and the 16 to 32-page dailies published in our metropolitan cities; also the great “Sunday Editions” issued by the latter, issues which run more largely to color and tonnage than to news and literature. The former, (the dailies), my publisher friend pointed out, realize about six-tenths of one cent a copy—a little less, if they do cartage for any considerable part of their local deliveries or pay rail haulage charges on outside deliveries. Of course, my tutor is speaking of news agents and carrier deliveries. On their regular subscribed issues publishers realize a little more. But the difference, when cost of wrapping and addressing is figured, is so trifling as not to be worth considering. It can be safely figured that the net price received by the publisher of a newspaper is six-tenths of one cent for the daily and about three and a half cents—probably nearer three cents—for the leviathan metropolitan Sunday edition.
Just here is where my publisher friend’s knowledge of market costs came forth for my enlightenment and, I sincerely hope, for my reader’s as well. Having studied his business from the “stumpage” up, so to speak, he began with the cost of pulp wood timber, “of stumpage,” from the spruce forests of the north and farther north, the scattered linn or basswood of the east and southeast, and of the soft maple and cottonwood of the southeast and south. Then he told me of the prices paid the “lumber jacks” to fell and saw this pulp-wood; of the cost of hauling it by ox, mule or horsepower to the river “roll-way,” which river would carry it down to the pulp mill, or hauling it to the railroad loading station for rail carriage to the same point.
Nor did he do that only. He told me the price of the “web press roll” and of “flat-print” papers into which the wood pulp is made, paper stock on which is printed all our periodicals—both newspapers and monthly and weekly periodicals. Next he told me of the price of composition, (typesetting, as we used to call it), by the most modern methods, the linotype and the monotype machines. Then he talked of ink and presswork costs, of color work, folding, stitching and covering or binding; of the cost of wrapping, addressing, cartage, rail haulage and distribution. The result of the expert’s showing of the cost of raw material and of skilled and other labor in periodical publication, as the periodicals are printed and marketed today, was to the effect that the reader gets his daily, weekly or monthly publication, on an average, at less than half what it costs the publisher to produce it.
Further, it was conclusively shown to me, that the publisher’s net receipts for a newspaper, magazine or other periodical is often but a third, sometimes less than a fourth, of the net cost to him of its production and distribution.
With this preliminary, we will now go back to our magazine of 650,000 monthly issue and Postmaster General Hitchcock’s estimate of its profits.
Postmaster General Hitchcock’s talk of “gross” receipts of $6,000,000 a year is ill advised. Let us see what must be charged off from that $6,000,000 before the publisher can count his profits.
First, we will figure the publisher’s loss on published copies. Taking only the flat cost of paper, ink and composition; of the cost of fine color and half-tone pages such as monthly periodicals must print; of cover designing, presswork, and binding, of wrapping and addressing, say 150,000 copies of the monthly issue to individual addresses, that being, approximately at least, the number of subscribed readers the publisher will have on a total issue of 650,000 copies. Next comes the cost of sacking his subscribed circulation and of bundling and wrapping, then of cartage to mail trains. The prominent periodical publisher not only delivers his subscribed list sacked to the mail car, but he routes the larger portion of it, the railway mail clerks having nothing to do with it save to dump it off at the designated stations. Then he must meet the carriage and delivery cost, about 1 cent a pound, or $20.00 a ton. All these I consider flat costs of producing and delivering the publication. To this flat cost must be added the expenditures for contributing writers, for editors, proofreaders and special investigators (including travel and other expenses), stenographers, postage and stationery for a large correspondence, clerical, messenger and other administration service, rents, insurance, etc., etc. And, finally, the expenditures made in the way of commissions and premiums to work up a subscribed issue.
A monthly periodical of the size and character which Postmaster General Hitchcock has reference to—of the size and character to win its way to an issue of 650,000 copies a month—must cost its publisher not less, on an average, than 30 cents per copy, probably more. The subscribing reader pays 12? cents per copy for it—pays directly to the publisher. The news stand buyer pays 15 cents a copy, but the publisher, after paying newsdealer and agency commissions on the latter sales, realizes but 8 cents per copy. Here let us see how this publisher’s circulation-cost and receipts figure out. Six hundred and fifty thousand monthly issue figures to an issue of 7,800,000 copies for the year. At 30 cents’ cost of production, which is rather low than high, those copies cost the publisher to produce, to get readers for and to distribute, the annual total of $2,340,000. He realizes in return from subscription and news stand sales about as follows:
From news stand and agency sales (500,000 per month, or 6,600,000 copies a year), he realizes 8 cents per copy or $480,000
From subscribers (150,000 per month or 1,800,000 a year), at 12? cents each 225,000
Total receipts $705,000
Thus it is clear that for an expenditure of $2,340,000 a year to produce and distribute his excellent low-priced periodical to readers, the publisher gets in return only $705,000, thus standing a net loss of $1,635,000 on his mechanical output—no, on his literary and educational output. And, mark you, that $705,000 Mr. Hitchcock must, necessarily, have included in his “gross” receipts. How, then, is the publisher able to furnish his readers such literary and educational nourishment at so great a loss on production?
There is but one answer: The advertising carried by the periodical must recoup the loss on publication and yield the publisher whatever profit he may realize. Yet Mr. Hitchcock, in the profound profundity of his knowledge of periodical publishing, figures that the advertising receipts are clear profit to the publisher. True, he does, in one of his urgent letters to Senator Penrose, I believe it is, incidentally admit a possible maximum cost or expense of “fifteen per cent” in securing and printing the advertisements. “Fifteen per cent!”
Omitting all undigestible words, I shall merely say that Mr. Hitchcock’s fifteen per cent talk—about the cost of soliciting and printing advertising matter by any of our high-class periodicals, shows a knowledge of the subject nearly on the level of that of a cold-storage egg.
Why, fifteen per cent of the gross receipts for advertising by any of our high-class periodicals scarcely would meet—I doubt if in any such case it does meet—the expenditures made for skilled “layout” men and designers. Everyone knows that the advertising pages of any of our standard weekly and monthly periodicals are art pages. People read the “ads” in these periodicals. They are largely attracted to them by their artistic arrangement, typographically and in design. It takes brains to make that arrangement, brains of finer fiber or better trained than the cold storage variety. The service of such brains costs money. Who pays it? The publisher. And the publisher who gets the services of such brains at less than fifteen per cent of the “gross” charge for his advertising must, in these days, be a wonder in business acumen or a “pow’ful ’suadin’ boss,” as Rastus used to say, down on the Yazoo, years ago, when he took a job at twenty-five cents a day less than he had asked.
I say the people read these “ads” and, fearing I shall forget it later, I desire to interpolate here another thought: They are led to read them because of the artistic letterpress, the designing, the attractive phrasing, catchy wording, etc. They read them. You and I read them. And—well, that is my point—my thought.
The “ads” in periodicals of the class of which we are speaking cover almost every field and domain of life—of human life—of our lives. They tell us of the latest inventions and achievements in the mechanical and industrial world; of the latest improvements in the cultivation of the land; of the latest and best in “hen range” management and “run-way” poultry raising; of the latest achievements of Luther Burbank, or some other wizard in the domain of pomology; of kitchen and flower gardening; of how to cut down our gas bills; to make the ton of coal deliver more “duty”—more thermic B. T. U.’s—of the best new books and of bargain reprint editions of the best old ones; of where to get a cheap home, cheap acres around it and how to build and furnish a comfortable home cheaply; in fact, of an infinity of daily and hourly needs. So what is the use of my enumerating further? Every reader knows what those “ads” in our standard periodicals do for us. They enlighten, they inform, they educate us. And that is why we read them, and that is why we should continue to do so.
We will get back now to Mr. Hitchcock and his “wondrous ways” of figuring a publisher’s profits on the advertising he prints. Postmaster General Hitchcock appears to have ignored the fact I have already pointed out—ignored the fact that the publisher’s heaviest loss is on the printing and distribution end of his periodical, and thus is a charge against his advertising receipts.
Mr. Hitchcock, so far as I have been able to read him, furthermore ignores the important fact that advertisements are secured for a periodical largely by solicitation. Of course, the “Want,” “To Rent,” “For Sale” and similar small line “ads” come to newspapers largely without personal solicitation. But the display advertiser does not frantically rush to the publisher and say: “Here’s my check for $500.00. Give me a page display for this line of goods.” Not at all. The publisher must go after him and, not infrequently, go after him numerous times before he lands his $500.00 or $5,000.00 contract or order. To secure such advertisements the publisher employs the most skilled advertising solicitors within reach of his bank balance. Such men, if carried on his regular payroll, are among the “high-salaried” human units which make up the operating, managing and service personnel of his business. If they are not on regular salary the publisher must pay such men a liberal commission on the contracts secured, a commission seldom or never as low as 10 per cent and I have known them to range as high as 40 or 50 per cent of the gross price received on the first or initial contract, “just to show the advertiser what we can do for him,” as the publisher frequently reasons.
TESTIMONY UNDER OATH.
Senate Document No. 820 presents a reply by some publishers to Mr. Hitchcock’s loose or reckless statements on the point under consideration. I wish to appropriate for use here some very manifestly truthful statements made in that Senate Document No. 820. I shall summarize or quote as best fits my line of presentation.
In 1909 the publishers of five standard magazines, admittedly carrying “the largest amount of advertising” among the monthly periodicals, made a sworn statement covering their receipts, expenditures and net profits. That sworn statement is on file in the Department of Commerce and Labor and is easily accessible to the Postmaster General if he desires to know a little something of what the publishers know about their own business. The publishers of the five periodicals thus making sworn statements to the government of their incomes, expenditures and profits, are the publishers of “Everybody’s,” “McClure’s”, “The Review of Reviews,” “The Cosmopolitan” and “The American.”
The named periodicals, it will be at once recognized, if not the strongest, at least are among the strongest monthly periodicals of this country. Yet these sworn statements show that Mr. Hitchcock’s proposed increase of 3 cents a pound in their mailing rates would, under present conditions, exhaust “81.8 percent of their net profits.”
If Mr. Hitchcock’s proposal, prompted, it would appear, by ulterior motives, as was recently evidenced by his voluminous buttonholing of interested or “interests” Senators and Congressmen to put his “rider” over—no, maybe it is not really his, but it looks like him—for an increase on second-class matter would, if made operative, would so seriously impair the financial strength of five such strong periodicals as those named, what, it is the part both of duty and of honesty to ask, will become of the scores of smaller periodicals, especially of those periodicals which issue more than “two tons” at a mailing and which serve, inform and educate a reading patronage that needs them?
If Mr. Hitchcock’s actions in this matter are clean and open—not “influenced”—he might not only serve himself but a good and worthy cause as well, if he would give some pointers to these smaller publishers—those between his “4,000 pounds an issue” exemptions from his four-cent rate and the stronger periodical publications, five of which are before him in sworn statement. If he would give, I say, these middle-class publishers—we may so call them for the comparison in hand, though their published matter is of the highest class all the time—if he would give such publishers some method or scheme to keep from the financial rocks, they, I am quite sure, would greatly appreciate it. Possibly they would put him on their free lists in perpetuity.
Mr. Hitchcock appears to be a phenomenon at “figurin’” and for the devising of methods to obliterate postoffice “deficits;” also at following the ulterior motive and its “influence,” and still provide, by exemptions or otherwise, to protect the “fence-building” country newspapers,—indeed newspapers in general, now that I read him again. Likewise he protects the farm, the religious, the scientific, the mechanical and other publications whose influence, it appears, does not obstructively influence the “influences” which have directed his recent action.
I do not know who wrote that Senate Document No. 820. Whoever it was, he certainly knew “a gob of things,” as our splendid friend, the washerwoman, would put it, about the United States Postoffice Department, its management and its methods. I shall probably “crib” or plagiarize several times from this Senate Document No. 820, but just here I desire to quote a paragraph from it:
“Postmaster General Hitchcock’s profound ignorance concerning the relation of magazine advertising to magazine profits is shown by the fact that although these magazines received in 1909, $2,463,940.39 for advertising, the aggregate of their net incomes was only $230,734.57,—less than one-tenth of their advertising receipts.”
This Document No. 820 is all good, so good that I believe I will reprint from it further and at this point:
Postmaster General Hitchcock proceeds in the first and second paragraphs on page four to cite a recent increase of advertising rates of a certain magazine, and to consider, and use in figuring, as net profits the total amount of advertising it carries for the year.
(It is of incidental interest, in showing the partisan attitude of the Postmaster General, that in calculating the total amount of advertising received by this publication, he takes the number of lines actually printed in this weekly’s richest advertising season, ignoring the fact that in the summer this periodical is sometimes published at a loss, and makes an estimate of its advertising patronage for the whole year on the basis of what it received in the months when advertising is at its height).
But the gigantic error of the Postmaster General is in calculating the additional income from advertising for this weekly resulting from its increased advertising rate, and assuming that this increased income is all profit. This error arises from the Postmaster General’s total ignorance of the publishing business in general; and in particular, of the fact proved above, that the magazines save only a small fraction of their aggregate advertising income as net profits after paying the expenses of production and administration.
Then the Postmaster General finds out how much money the increased rate brought the periodical and observes with an air of finality that this income was more than sufficient to meet the higher postal charges.
The facts are, of course, that to get this higher advertising rate, the “great periodical” had to publish enough more copies and additional reading matter in those copies to justify the increased rate; and that to manufacture and supply these additional subscriptions it costs magazines more than twice as much as they get from subscribers. Furthermore, the Postmaster General takes gross advertising income as net profit, apparently thinking that advertising flows into periodical offices without the asking, where, as a matter of fact, it is necessary to spend enormous sums for high-priced men to solicit advertising, for other men to lay out plans and make designs for advertisers, and for a large clerical force to handle the advertising department. The calm way in which the Postmaster General ignores the cost of presswork and paper on which the advertising is printed, exhibits his ignorance of the fact that there is in business an expense side of the ledger as well as an income side.
If a magazine has 100,000 circulation and a fair corresponding rate for advertising and if the circulation is then increased to 200,000, the publisher has the same right and the same necessity to charge more for the doubled circulation that a grocer has to charge more for two pounds of tea than for one pound. But what possible relation has this to the fact that postage rates have remained stationary? The postoffice gives no more service than it did before magazine circulations and advertising increased—in fact it gives less, as it now requires the big magazines to separate and tag for distribution, and, in many cases, deliver to the trains, a vast quantity of magazine mail, formerly handled entirely by the postoffice.
I wonder if Mr. Hitchcock ever read “Job Jobson, Nos. 1, 2 and 3.” If he has not there is something due him which he ought to take immediate steps to collect. “Job Jobson” in three little pamphlets tells more than either Mr. Hitchcock or myself will ever be able to learn about second-class mail carriage and handling—unless, of course, we read those three booklets of Job Jobson.
Why are Job Jobson’s three booklets so important? A very pertinent question, indeed, at this stage of our consideration. Job Jobson’s three booklets are toweringly important inasmuch as they were written by Wilmer Atkinson, publisher of the Farm Journal of Philadelphia, one of the most successful as well as the most useful farm periodicals the world has ever produced.
More than that, Mr. Atkinson has so long and so thoroughly studied this second-class mail rate question that both Mr. Hitchcock and myself would have to take our places in the kindergarten class where he is tutor.
I haven’t those three “Job Jobson’s” by me. I have thumbed two of them out of existence, but from the one I have I desire to quote a couple of paragraphs which I hope it will do Mr. Hitchcock as much good to read as it does me to re-read. Here they are in all their vigor:
Publishers, one and all, should take their stand upon the immutable principle that newspaper circulation is not a crime, and it is not a fault, that neither a law on the statute books, much less arbitrary power outside the law, should ever be invoked to curtail the liberty and independence of the press, which are a sacred inheritance from the fathers; or to cripple newspaper enterprises or bankrupt those engaged in this noble calling.
That to send their papers into the very confines of the republic, into every home, however rich, however humble, to brighten and to bless, is a great and beneficent work, worthy of all praise and all honor—worthy of the nurturing care, rather than the antagonism of government.
And that was written only a few years ago—written true to the facts. I desire here to quote a couple more paragraphs. They have been published generally throughout the country and universally indorsed. They are written by the Hon. Woodrow Wilson, Governor of New Jersey:
A tax upon the business of the more widely circulated magazines and periodicals would be a tax upon their means of living and performing their functions. They obtain their circulation by their direct appeal to the popular thought. Their circulation attracts advertisers. Their advertisements enable them to pay their writers and to enlarge their enterprise and influence.
This proposed new postal rate would be a direct tax, and a very serious one, upon the formation and expression of opinion—its most deliberate formation and expression—just at a time when opinion is concerning itself most actively and effectively with the deepest problems of our politics and our social life. To make such a change, whatever its intentions in the minds of those who proposed it, would be to attack and embarrass the free processes of opinion.
I have before me the Postmaster General’s report for 1910. It presents a large amount of information both in statistical tabulation and in “straight matter.” A portion of the former, however, leaves the average lay mind rambling around in circles, wondering what in the name of all that is lofty it was compiled for, what service value it can possibly have and what was the ailment from which the fellow who compiled it suffered; that is, was his a case merely of bad liver or indigestion, or a serious case of ingrown intellect, struggling to help his fellowmen know how real dizzy and foolish tabulated figures can be made to appear?
Mr. Hitchcock in this 1910 report has separated himself from some striking oddities, about as serviceably valuable as a smoking compartment would be to a laundry wagon. Of course, it may be that Mr. Hitchcock did not write the division of this report signed by him. Some talented secretary, clerk or assistant may have cranked it up. However that may be, do not let what I here say deter you from looking through this 1910 report should it come your way. It contains a variety of excellent things, some valuable information, well collated and intelligibly presented. The foolishness and fooleries in it are—well, they are of the kind common to all, or at least most, departmental reports, federal, state, county and city. Much of the tabulated “statistics” in each can have no possible service value either in this world or the next—even assuming that statistics and statisticians will be recognized at all in that division of the “next” to which we all aspire.
As to the “straight matter” in these departmental reports, one often finds in it some most excellent suggestions, as is certainly the case with Mr. Hitchcock’s 1910 production. One also finds a lot of other suggestions and space-written stuff that would make a totem laugh—that is, of course, presuming a totem could laugh and had advanced as far as the third grammar school grade in reading.
And the “literary style” of these official reports; so aerial in elevation, so officially dignified in “tone,” so profusely profound or profoundly profuse in elaboration and detail, and often so trivial in significance or import!
If they were still with us, the “literary” standard of most of these departmental reports would make Bertha M. Clay hug the rail and E. P. Roe carry weight. But, of course, one must not look for nor expect literary exaltedness in a departmental report. It should, however, tell us—we people—a good many things we wish to know, in fact, ought to know. It should not give us too much talk merely to show us how much—or how little—some chief or assistant knows. If you get the opportunity, read the Postmaster General’s 1910 report, and you will find many things in it that will jar you loose from your expectations, but do not be alarmed at that. Just keep in mind the fact that you can come as near reciting the Rubaiyat backwards as can Postmaster General Hitchcock, and that you at least know Old Mother Hubbard “by heart” as well as he knows it.
The point I am trying to make—to emphasize—is that Mr. Hitchcock’s 1910 report presents much valuable information for you and me. So you should not allow its follies to scare you off. For instance, the Postmaster General’s fifty notations of “Improvements in Organization and Methods.” Why he should stop at a round fifty I do not know. I believe he could easily have added twenty or thirty more of kind. Some of these “improvements” are most excellent; some of them are so assumedly conclusive on matters previously—for years—in doubt and controversy as to touch off the risibles in any man who has made anything like a careful study of conditions governing the Postoffice Department. For instance, his “Improvement” numbered 10 reads:
“The successful completion of an inquiry into the cost of handling and transporting mail of the several classes and of conducting the money order, registry and special delivery services.”
We can hope that the aforesaid “inquiry” was so carefully and comprehensively conducted as to entitle it to be classed as “successful” as Mr. Hitchcock’s statement is assertive. However, just how far we may prudently indulge such hope is a matter for grave consideration. The Postmaster General’s Third Assistant, James J. Britt, attempts to tell us (pp. 328-329, 1910 report), all about it. Mr. Britt will be referred to later.
Again: Mr. Hitchcock in his No. 11 “Improvement,” reports “the successful prosecution of an inquiry into the cost to the railroad companies of carrying the mails, the result of which will form a reliable basis for fixing rates of pay for railroad mail transportation.”
Now, if Mr. Hitchcock has really and truly so conducted an “inquiry” as to ascertain a “reliable basis” of pay for the mail haulage service rendered by the railroads—“a reliable basis” that can be built upon, acted upon and enforced—if he has done that, then he deserves a niche in the Hall of Fame. But here, again, I am doubtful. Did you take Britt’s word for it, Mr. Hitchcock, or did you steer the “inquiry” yourself? The only point of interest to us of the commonalty involved in your eleventh improvement is: Can you, or any other Postmaster General, compel or persuade the railroads to carry the mail at a reasonable rate? Will such rate be based upon that “reliable basis” you say you have ascertained?
Grant us but that and we shall ask no more nor will you have any “deficits” to worry about. I know you explain quite fully (pp. 18-20), as to how you went about it, how Congress made appropriation for a force of “temporary clerks” to tabulate the information, the data which your “successful” inquiry brought to the surface. Still, knowing something about the devious peculiarities of the railways in the past—say, back to the Wolcott investigation (at this moment I forget the year when this was made and have neither the time nor the opportunity to climb down and look it up)—unless the railways have had a rush of honesty and conscience into their reports, accounts and practices, I am gravely doubtful as to the dependability of the data your “inquiry” uncovered. Of course, if you went after them, backed by a court order calling for a showdown, Mr. Hitchcock, you may have arrived somewhere in the vicinity of the facts. Otherwise—well, you got about what other inquirers got—got what the railways wanted you to know.
I shall make no further specific reference to the fifty improvements the Postmaster General claims to have covered into operative effectiveness. It is due, however, that I say, in this connection, that the majority of those named in the report are sound, sane and serviceably economic. It is also due from me to say that I personally know that Mr. Hitchcock has already made a number of them effectively operative in his department and to the betterment of its service. My contention with the Postmaster General is chiefly concerning three points, viz.:
First—His manifest intent to throw the burden of his departmental deficit upon a few independent periodicals which, by reason of their independence, have indulged the proclivity or practice of telling the truth about corporate, vested and other favored interests, and about corrupt officials—city, county, state, national, executive, legislative and juridic.
Second—His colossally unjust and unfair way of figuring his “deficit” against such periodicals. Maybe it was Britt, Third Assistant Postmaster General, or some other “pied” subordinate who did the figuring. I do not know. However, in common with other citizens, I hold Mr. Hitchcock responsible for those figures, as we are fully warranted in doing by reason of his official position.
Third—Mr. Hitchcock, it appears, in his reports and letters, gives us a lot of talk that is twisted, “pretzel talk,” someone has aptly called it. This “night-crawler” talk quite naturally—legitimately, if not naturally—leaves thoughtful people to wonder what he wants, what he is after, what interest or interests he is trying to subserve and what “influences” have influenced him to go after certain periodicals in so bald and crude a way.
Still, that does not altogether fully express my third objection to Mr. Hitchcock and his methods. His letters and special reports in support of the absurd claim that the transportation and handling of second-class mail matter costs 9.23 cents per pound, a figure above or equal to that which will carry gold or currency bills by express for the average mail haul, furnish valid grounds for doubt as to the good faith of his intent, to suspicion an ulterior motive back of his action and writings. To this I do not hesitate to say that his 1910 report, I mean his own personally signed section of it, is offensively bureaucratic. Mr. Hitchcock, it appears from his own recommendations, would have his bureau or department bigger than Congress. He wants powers and authority centered in it which Congress should not delegate, which Congress has no rightful powers nor authority to delegate.
Now, do not misapprehend me. Maybe Mr. Hitchcock has not done all this on his own initiative. He may have acted wholly on a long-distance or a central direction from the main stem. I shall, however, proceed to support my accusation that Mr. Hitchcock evidences in his 1910 report a desire—a tendency, if not a desire,—to make the Postmaster General not only a censor of periodical literature (as indicated in the wording of that “rider” amendment printed on a previous page), but to have delegated to him powers over the mail service which not only contravene the basic principles of a democratic form of government, but which, also, tend to establish a bureaucracy that, if carried to its full flower, will, necessarily abrogate our form of government itself.
Here let us note Mr. Hitchcock’s recommended legislation. In the report before me he makes thirty-six recommendations. In each of these which grants added powers or authority touching any matter, the wording of the suggested legislation gives such added powers and authority to the Postmaster General. In certain minor matters, especially such as relate only to departmental methods of handling its service accounts, etc., such grant of power is entirely proper. Among Mr. Hitchcock’s recommendations are several of such character, and, so far as I have studied them, they appear sound, and consequently their passage by Congress and their application to the department would, in my judgment, effect material savings or betterments in the service.
In a number of other instances, however, Mr. Hitchcock asks legislation that will grant him (or any succeeding head of the federal Postoffice Department), powers and authority which should be granted to no bureau or departmental division of our government service. I mean that the acquirement of such legislative powers and authority by bureaus (cabinet service divisions), is inimical to the basic principles of our government; in fact, it is a stealthy move to establish in this country the bureaucratic form of government which has proved a curse in every existing monarchical government, causing their peoples to rebel against them, or constantly a condition of unrest under the system—a condition which indicates either enforced submission to governmental wrongs and impositions or a dwarfed and submerged manhood, “begging for leave to live” and devoting most of its thought to a few questions, such as: “Why did I arrive? What am I here for? I work, why does the government take most of my earnings? Why does the government and its bureau heads live, live in luxury, while I and my wife and children merely exist,—barely subsist? Why are hundreds of millions taken every year from people who need it to secure the common comforts of life, and given, unearned, to those who need it not at all?”
It would require pages even to print the inquiries which the victims of bureaucratic governments ask themselves daily, ask themselves daily so long as they exist above the level of the clod, above the level which Edward Markham so forcefully and eloquently depicts in his “Man with the Hoe.”
The point I desire to emphasize is that when the great body of people in any country—its “citizens”—begin to ask themselves such questions, their patriotism begins to dry-rot and die, and when the patriotism of a nation’s people begins to die, that nation is on the farther slope of its existence; it has started on the decline, more or less sharp, which ends in rebellion, dissolution, extinction. This is the uniform lesson of history. He who reads it not so reads either not carefully or not comprehendingly.
To a few of my readers the foregoing may appear to be a digression from my subject. It is not intended as such. It is intended to call the reader’s attention to some powers and authority Mr. Hitchcock seeks in his recommended legislation, legislation which should not be enacted. Let us look at a few of those recommendations. If space permitted, I would take pleasure in commenting on several more of them.
On page 10 of his report, Mr. Hitchcock repeats a recommendation of his 1909 report. He repeats it “earnestly.” He also expresses the opinion that “as soon as the postal savings system is thoroughly organized, the Postoffice Department should be prepared to establish throughout the country a general parcels post.” As a “preliminary step” to such establishment of a parcels post Mr. Hitchcock seeks authority from Congress to initiate a “limited parcels post service on rural routes.” On page 26 of his report, Mr. Hitchcock suggests the substantials of the legislation he believes necessary to enable him to establish his contemplated “limited parcels post service on rural routes,” as an experimental test.
As evidence that he wants the power and authority to make this “experiment” on his own lines and judgment and pursuant of his own purposes I shall here quote the form of his advised legislation. To anyone who has made study of parcels post service it is needless to say that among the civilized nations of the earth the United States is so far in arrears in such service as to be generally recognized as an international joke. It is quite needless to say to such that Mr. Hitchcock’s prattle of a “limited” parcels post and of trying it on certain selected rural routes (with no privileges of service beyond the geographical limits of such routes), as an “experiment,” is more than a mere joke.
Informed people know that any such restricted test of a parcels post service is no test at all. Informed men also know that our Federal Postoffice Department needs make no “experiments” on the parcels post service, “limited” or other. Every other civilized nation, and even provinces such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand and others, have made the “experiments,” likewise the successful demonstrations. The experiments of these other nations and provinces, as well as the results of them, are ours for the asking. Not alone that, but informed men know, and know positively, that our Federal Postoffice Department is in possession of—or was in possession of—all this information gathered from the experiences and trials and tests of a parcels post service in these other countries.
So, I repeat that Mr. Hitchcock’s talk about making an experimental test of the general value of a parcels post service by putting it in operation on a few selected rural routes is a joke, or else it is an evasion in order to delay the installation of a service which every citizen wants, save, of course, the few individuals who now own and control our railroads, which individuals also own, to a controlling extent at least, our express companies.
But I must quote Mr. Hitchcock’s advised legislation in order to show the reader that Mr. Hitchcock desires that the resulting powers and authority center in him, or in his successors:
In order that the recommendation on page 10 of this report for the introduction of a limited parcels post service on rural routes may be promptly carried into effect, it is suggested that legislation substantially as follows be enacted:
For one year, beginning April 1, 1911, the Postmaster General may, under such regulations as he shall prescribe, authorize postmasters and carriers on such rural routes as he shall select to accept for delivery by carrier on the route on which mailed or on any other route starting at the postoffice, branch postoffice or station which is the distributing point for that route, or for delivery through any postoffice, branch postoffice, or station on any of the said routes, at such rates of postage as he shall determine, packages not exceeding 11 pounds in weight containing no mail matter of the first class and no matter that is declared by law to be unmailable, and he shall report to Congress at its next session the results of this experiment (Page 26, 1910 Report.)
The italics are mine. They make all the comment that is necessary in proof of my charge that Mr. Hitchcock seeks powers and authority which should not be delegated to any bureau head.
As a companion piece to the foregoing Mr. Hitchcock asks the following legislation—legislation which, if granted or enacted, must look to any man who has given even a cursory study to the subject of parcels post service, as merely a “stall,” a bit of dilatory play to delay effective and efficient action to install a serviceable parcels post until the express company interests pull down two or three hundred millions more of unearned profits.
Following is the companion piece of the last preceding quotation. The italics are mine and make the only comment that is necessary:
As suggested on page 10 of this report, an investigation should be authorized as to the conditions under which the transportation of merchandise by mail may be wisely extended. For this purpose it is recommended that legislation substantially as follows be enacted:
The Postmaster General is hereby directed to ascertain by such investigation or experiment as is found necessary, and to report to Congress at its next regular session, the lowest rates of postage at which the Postoffice Department can carry by mail, without loss, parcels not exceeding 11 pounds in weight; and he is hereby authorized to place in effect for one year, beginning April 1, 1911, at such postoffices as he shall select for experimental purposes, such rates of postage on fourth-class matter as he deems expedient; and the sum of $100,000 is hereby appropriated to cover any expenses incurred hereunder, including compensation of temporary employees and rental of quarters in Washington, D. C. (Page 26, 1910 Report.)
We will here drop the subject of parcels post for the time. In a later section of this volume I shall discuss the subject—largely aside from Mr. Hitchcock’s attempts, as has been authoritatively reported to me, to delay if not to block its successful installation.
I will make a few more quotations in evidence of Mr. Hitchcock’s desire to acquire bureaucratic powers:
To provide for a postal note in accordance with the plan outlined on pages 10 and 11 it is recommended that legislation substantially as follows be enacted:
The Postmaster General may authorize postmasters at such offices as he shall designate, under such regulations as he shall prescribe, to issue and pay money orders of fixed denominations not exceeding ten dollars, to be known as postal notes.
Sec. 2. Postal notes shall be valid for six calendar months from the last day of the month of their issue, but thereafter may be paid under such regulations as the Postmaster General may prescribe.
Sec. 3. Postal notes shall not be negotiable or transferable through indorsement.
Sec. 4. If a postal note has been once paid, to whomsoever paid, the United States shall not be liable for any further claim for the amount thereof. (Page 29, 1910 Report.)
Let us next look at a peculiar, “an unusual,” request for legislation granting authority to the Postmaster General to do a most “unusual” thing, the granting of salaries higher than $1,200 a year to clerks and carriers, who are paid under the present law $600 a year, whenever the postmaster “certifies to the department” that “unusual” conditions in his community prevent him from securing efficient help. The italics are my own and make comment unnecessary:
In last year’s report, attention was directed to the desirability of authorizing the appointment of clerks and carriers at higher salaries than $600 at offices where unusual conditions prevail. Congress added to the appropriation for unusual conditions a proviso that may have been intended to meet the recommendation of the department, but subsequent experience has shown that it fails to do so. The proviso referred to has effected so great a reduction in the amount available for salaries of employees at offices where conditions are unusual that the service at a number of such offices cannot be maintained after the close of the present calendar year, unless additional funds are provided by Congress. The same law placed a restriction on the maximum salary allowable, making it impossible for the department to meet satisfactorily the unusual conditions existing in certain parts of the country. In order that the needed relief may be afforded legislation substantially as follows should be enacted:
Whenever a postmaster certifies to the department that, owing to unusual conditions in his community, he is unable to secure the services of efficient employees at the initial salary provided for postoffice clerks and letter carriers, the Postmaster General may authorize, in his discretion, the appointment of clerks and letter carriers for that office at such higher rates of compensation within the grades prescribed by law as may be necessary in order to insure a proper conduct of the postal business, and their salaries shall be paid out of the regular appropriation for compensation of clerks and letter carriers: Provided, That whenever such action is necessary in order to maintain adequate service at any postoffice where conditions are unusual the Postmaster General may authorize the appointment of clerks and letter carriers at salaries higher than $1,200, their salaries to be paid out of the appropriation for unusual conditions at postoffices. (Page 30, 1910 Report.)
I wonder what our Postmaster General is after in asking re-enactment of legislation of this sort, legislation granting him censorial powers without so much as intimating that fact. Maybe some of you organized labor men, or mercantile tradesmen can tell me. I am listening. So are others.
By the act approved May 27, 1908, making appropriations for the service of the Postoffice Department, it was provided:
That Section 3893 of the Revised Statutes of the United States be amended by adding thereto the following: And the term “indecent” within the intendment of this section shall include matter of a character tending to incite arson, murder, or assassination.
The enactment of this statute accomplished beneficial results, and it does not appear that injustice or undue hardship resulted therefrom to any person or interest. However, the provision quoted was not retained in the penal code adopted March 4, 1909, and became void when the code went into effect on January 1, 1910. On the assumption that the omission was inadvertent, it is recommended that the provision be re-enacted. (Page 37, 1910 Report.)
Following is one more reach by Mr. Hitchcock for bureaucratic power which should not be granted:
By virtue of his office the Postmaster General has the power to conclude money-order conventions with foreign countries and to prescribe the fees to be charged for the issue of international money orders. In like manner he should be empowered to determine, from time to time, as conditions may warrant, the fees to be charged for the issue of domestic money orders. It is recommended, therefore, that Section 2 of the act of January 27, 1894, be repealed, and that as a substitute therefor legislation substantially as follows be enacted:
Section 2 of the act of January 27, 1894, entitled “An act to improve the method of accounting in the Postoffice Department and for other purposes,” is hereby repealed. A domestic money order shall not be issued for more than one hundred dollars, and the fees to be charged for the issue of such orders shall be determined, from time to time, by the Postmaster General: Provided, however, that the scale of fees prescribed in said Section 2 shall remain in force for three months from the last day of the month in which this act is approved. (Page 38, 1910 Report.)
I have probably quoted sufficient to show that Postmaster General Hitchcock is reaching for power and authority which should not be delegated to any bureau or cabinet head. The last statement is made, of course, in the confident belief that the reader joins me in the desire and confident hope that the basic principles of our government will be neither superseded nor abrogated by legislative grants of bureaucratic power and authority, which power and authority once granted is seldom or never recovered to a people without sanguinary action on their part, with all the waste of effort, vitality, money and human life usually a concomitant of such action.
There are several more of Postmaster General Hitchcock’s legislative recommendations I would like to quote, did space permit, but there is one other which I will quote, because it wears a sort of humoresque drapery when taken in connection with that “rider” Mr. Hitchcock so industriously tried to put through the necessary three-ring stunts required in the senatorial circus; also when taken in connection with a little, not separately stitched, brochure which Mr. Hitchcock turns loose on pages 7 and 8 of his most excellent, though ulteriorly tutoring, report.
On pages 7 and 8 the Postmaster General tells us, as best he can, under influenced and influencing conditions, the why and wherefore for his attempt to load his department deficit onto a few periodicals which he, likewise certain of his “influencers” possibly, does not like. Well, I want my readers to read this bit of official effort, in a wrong cause. I want them to read it in the raw, with no spring papering or decorating on it.
As has been my practice in quoting, I shall take occasion to italicize a little. But that will not cut any four-leaf clovers this early in the season. I italicize merely to call the reader’s attention to the elegant assertiveness of Mr. Hitchcock’s “style” and to his planned determination to “put it over” on those pestiferous periodicals—weekly and monthly—in spite of constitutional prohibitions, Senate rules or publishers’ opposition.
Stay! I have another reason for italicizing. I want the reader to read those italicized phrasings of Mr. Hitchcock’s unstitched brochure a second time, and to read them more carefully the second time than he did the first. If the reader will kindly do this we will be better acquainted, also be mutually better acquainted with Mr. Hitchcock and his dominating purpose, whether ulterior or other, in attacking a special class or division of periodical publications in order to recoup a deficit created wholly by the rural delivery service and by the free (franked and penalty), service rendered by his department. We will first quote his little second-class brochure and follow it with his humoresque legislative recommendation:
In the last annual report of the department special attention was directed to the enormous loss the government sustains in the handling and transportation of second-class mail. Owing to the rapid increase in the volume of such mail the loss is constantly growing. A remedy should be promptly applied by charging more postage. In providing for the higher rates it is believed that a distinction should be made between advertising matter and what is termed legitimate reading matter. Under present conditions an increase in the postage on reading matter is not recommended. Such an increase would place a special burden on a large number of second-class publications, including educational and religious periodicals, that derive little or no profit from advertising. It is the circulation of this type of publications, which aid so effectively in the educational and moral advancement of the people, that the government can best afford to encourage. For these publications, and also for any other legitimate reading matter in periodical form, the department favors a continuation of the present low postage rate of 1 cent a pound, and recommends that the proposed increase in rate be applied only to magazine advertising matter. This plan would be in full accord with the statute governing second-class mail, a law that never justified the inclusion under the second-class rates of the vast amounts of advertising now transported by the government at a tremendous loss.
Newspapers are not included in the plan for a higher rate on advertising matter because, being chiefly of local distribution, they do not burden the mails to any such extent as the widely circulating magazines.
Under the system proposed it will be possible, without increasing the expenditure of public funds, to utilize for the benefit of the entire people that considerable portion of the postal revenues now expended to meet the cost of a special privilege enjoyed by certain publishers.
In view of the vanishing postal deficit it is believed that if the magazines could be required to pay what it costs the government to carry their advertising pages, the department’s revenues would eventually grow large enough to warrant 1-cent postage on first class mail. Experiments made by the department show that the relative weights of the advertising matter and the legitimate reading matter in magazines can be readily determined, making it quite feasible to put into successful operation the plan outlined. Under that plan each magazine publisher will be required to certify to the local postmaster, in accordance with regulations to be prescribed by the department, the facts necessary to determine the proper postage charges. The method of procedure will be worked out in such manner as to insure the dispatching of the mails as expeditiously as at present. (Pages 7 and 8, 1910 Report.)
That sort of a literary hand-out may be all right for certain of our citizens transplanted from south European environment, likewise from malnutrition and inanition, by the ship load to this country, where most of them expected to find $1.50 or $2.00 per day growing on vines or low bushes—and found it, in most cases, too.
But to the home-grown American citizen, “His Majesty,” such departmental literature is a noise something like a “chuck” steak makes when his hunger suggests a “porter house” and he is without the price. That is “His Majesty” who earns what he acquires and pays for what he gets and who does not take on an over-load of the sort of official talk Mr. Hitchcock ships him in packages similar to the above. Our home-grown American citizens like to have their officials say something that means something. They do not want any literary ham-and’s served to them at four prices, they knowing where to obtain them at first cost.
I intended to make further comment on the foregoing—or gone—quotation from our Postmaster General. I shall, however, deny myself that pleasure, confidently believing that my italicization of certain of its phrasings and statements is sufficient comment for the reader who is following me in this effort to peel the varnish and frescoe from a planned bad cause.
The reader who has followed me thus far and has not discovered that I am writing against the men who are, I believe, trying to set the brakes on legislation in order to serve some “good interest” which pays them a thousand or more for each of the twelve annual connections with the cashier or “deposit certificates”—the reader who, I say, has followed me thus far and failed to discover that fact should quit right here. It will not cure him to read the rest of what I shall say. It is to be worse than what I have previously said; in fact, it is going to be some distance beyond “the limit.” My advice to any “frail” reader, therefore, is to quit right at this point and give his brain a rest until he is able to “come back” and learn something.
We will now take a look at the humoresque “throw” of our Postmaster General for legislative action. To fully appreciate it, the reader must bear in mind that Mr. Hitchcock’s division of his 1910 report is of date, December 1st, 1910, and signed by himself. The reader should furthermore bear in mind that Mr. Hitchcock had previously reported—and more frequently asserted—that the transportation and handling of second-class mail cost the government 9.23 cents per pound. The reader should, in this instance, likewise take into his judgmental grinder the fact that Mr. Hitchcock, in the quotation which follows, is trying to put up another hurdle for the magazines and other periodicals to jump; that is, for such of them as he may not like, to jump.
This recommendation for legislative authority is intended to cut out the sample copy privilege of periodicals, a privilege which the government should encourage rather than discourage:
In order to discontinue the privilege of mailing sample copies at the cent-a-pound rate, legislation in substantially the following form is suggested:
That so much of the act approved March 3, 1885 (23 Stat., 387), as relates to publications of the second class be amended to read as follows:
“That hereafter all publications of the second-class, except as provided by Section 25 of the act of March 3, 1879 (20 Stat., 361), when sent to subscribers by the publishers thereof and from the known offices of publication, or when sent from news agents to subscribers thereto or to other news agents for the purpose of sale, shall be entitled to transmission through the mails at one cent a pound or fraction thereof, such postage to be prepaid as now provided by law.”
While I have not the act of 1885 at hand, I am aware that it permits what the Postmaster General asks for, a 1-cent per pound rate for periodicals admissible under the acts of 1879 and 1885. Mr. Hitchcock asks for this legislation, a-cent per pound rate, December 1st, 1910.
Before that date and since he has repeatedly asserted, both in print and “interview,” that second-class mail costs the government 9.23 cents per pound to transport and handle. Do you see the equivocating “ulterior” in this bit of recommended legislation? If you do not, just go into the back yard and kick yourself until you awaken to the fact and then come back and read Mr. Britt’s statement, page 328 of the 1910 report. Britt is Third Assistant Postmaster General and knows—well, he knows so much that he has to space-write in order to fill in about sixty pages of this 1910 report. But, as I have to take notice of Mr. Britt’s furnished data later, I shall give him no more attention at this point.
I believe that I have either furnished the evidence to prove the purpose, the ulterior purpose, of Postmaster General Hitchcock, or of his influences, to punish certain periodicals, to penalize them for telling the truth, likewise to acquire bureaucratic powers to give his department the right of censorship over our periodical literature; not only that, but to have the successful introduction of a parcels post dependent on conditions of his own choosing.
Next we will again take notice of Postmaster General Hitchcock’s peculiar figures. I do not know where he learned how to do it, but his “figerin’” has any expert accountant on the mat taking the count. He is certainly a “phenom”—or his Third Assistant, Mr. Britt, or other aid, is the “phenom.” At any rate the figures Mr. Hitchcock and his third “assist” are wonderfully, likewise mysteriously, worked into a little third-grade problem which makes it look like a proposition in trigonometry or fluxions.
It’s too complicated for me. I never had the advantage of hulling beans in Massachusetts. My cornfield arithmetic was all acquired in Illinois. So, instead of permitting myself to become enmeshed in Mr. Hitchcock’s figures, I shall resort to my frequently used tactics. I shall quote.
I have before me several analyses of Mr. Hitchcock’s peculiar application of the “double-rule-of-three,” as the schoolmaster used to call it down in that little school house at the cross roads in District 6, Town. 17, R. 3 E. The schoolmaster used to divide his time between “’rithmetic” and lamming. I graduated with honors in the latter. ’Rithmetic never seemed to take kindly to me—save to push me along in the lamming course. But——
Well, that is sufficient explanation to the reader to give broad, likewise legitimate, grounds for excusing me if I dodge, or try to dodge, Mr. Hitchcock and his Third Assistant when they get down to “figerin’.”
Candidly I am at a loss to know why young men of their physical robustness and their abnormal—yes, phenomenal—super-excellence in the matter of figuring things out, should be frittering away their time on a loafing job with the government. They ought to be holding down the chairs of Mathematics and of Expert Accounting at Onion Run University, or at some other advanced institution of learning.
But, as previously intimated, I am going to quote—am going to let someone else into the maelstrom of official figures.
I would not, however, have the reader think for a minute that I lacked the courage to take the plunge myself. Not at all. I know my limitations. Mr. Hitchcock is not only a graduate of Harvard, but he is a graduate of two Republican party campaign committees. I’d be perfectly willing to take chances against Harvard in any game of figuring, but when it comes to sitting into the game with a graduate in two courses of party campaign figuring, one as Secretary and the other as Manager of the National Republican Committee,—well, when it comes to that, I believe the reader will excuse me if I push some more expert arithmeticians to the front.
I will first quote from the 1907 Joint Commission which investigated costs of second-class mail haulage and handling, and then I will quote the publishers whose figures Senator Owen so pertinently presented in connection with his remarks when speaking in opposition to the rider, February 25, 1911.
Being perfectly familiar with the proceedings of the Senate Committee on Postoffices and Postroads, he must, necessarily, have learned something from the publishers who came with the open, frank—yes, certified—information as to their business. Likewise, he must have got fairly well acquainted with Mr. Hitchcock and also have learned something of his promotive methods of figuring.
I have, as yet, not had the pleasure—the honor—of meeting Senator Owen or his strong, clean minded, clean acting colleague, Senator Gore, but I like them.
Why?
Because they stand on the floor of the Senate and fight—fight for what is right.
Now that I have a copy before me, I will proceed to quote from that report made by the 1907 commission—a commission which dug up more information regarding the haulage and handling of second-class mail matter than Mr. Hitchcock could possibly have gathered in two years as head of the Postoffice Department. The commission was composed of Senators Penrose, Carter and Clay and Congressmen Overstreet, Moon and Gardner, men far better informed as to federal postal affairs than is Postmaster General Hitchcock.
This commission was authorized by Congress to make inquiry regarding second-class mail matter. The reader may remember that I made reference to this report on a previous page. It presents much information and collated data, which, if Mr. Hitchcock had studiously read would have enabled him to avoid many of the egregious blunders he has made at frequent intervals during the past two years when discussing the subject. It would, at any rate, have prudently curbed or restrained what appears in Mr. Hitchcock to be a native or acquired tendence to volume or tonnage in talk when he is speaking of second-class mail matters or of the publication and distribution of periodical literature. I do not concur in a number of the conclusions of this commission as presented in its report, but no fair-minded man can read that report without being convinced that the commissioners delved into the subjects of the classification of second-class mail matter and the cost, to the government, of its haulage and handling most earnestly; also as thoroughly and as deeply as the lack of organization in the Postoffice Department and its antiquated, careless and inaccurate accounting left it possible for anyone to go.
This commission began its sessions in New York, October 1, 1906. It sent advance notice to all the organizations of publishers in the country, to publishers not in organization, to editorial associations, to boards of trade, mercantile, commercial and trades associations and to other individuals and organizations that might be interested, directly or indirectly, in the subject matter to be investigated. It invited them to present their views, complaints, objections and suggestions in writing and also to send representatives to present their views and their grievances, if any, to the commission in person. The notice and invitation of the commission met with a large response from the newspapers and other periodical publishers, also from other individuals and associations interested in the distribution of periodical literature by reason of the commercial, educational, religious, fraternal, scientific or other benefits such literature conveyed to the people.
At the suggestion of this commission, the Postoffice Department prepared and delivered to it “an elaborate statement with exhibits” to show the “defects of the existing statute as developed in actual operation.” Also, the then Postmaster General, Mr. George B. Cortelyou, his Second Assistant, Mr. W. S. Shallenberger, and his Third Assistant, Mr. Edwin C. Madden, prepared and presented personal statements to the commission.
Now some readers may wonder why I so particularly present the work done by this commission for their consideration at this point in my discussion of the general subject we have under consideration. In view of my previous statement, to the effect that I do not agree with some of the conclusions of this “Penrose-Overstreet Commission” some reader may wonder why I make reference to it at all. Well, there are several reasons why I do so and do it just at this point in the consideration of our general subject. Among those reasons are, briefly stated, the following:
The inquiry and investigation of this commission were broad, comprehensive and thorough.
Its report presents many arguments, recommendations and conclusions which must appeal to any man who is fairly well informed as to our federal postal service, as sound and sensible, however widely he may differ from the commission’s conclusions on some other points covered in its report.
Some readers who have seen and read the Penrose-Overstreet Commission’s report may possibly have concluded that it presents all the information collected and collated by the commission. The reader so concluding would, almost necessarily, think the information it presents insufficient, both in subject matter and in detail, to be as helpful to the Postmaster General as, on a previous page, I have asserted the work of this commission would be to Mr. Hitchcock, or would have been had he taken the trouble to consult the voluminous but carefully collated data gathered by the 1906-7 commission and on file in his department.
I will here quote a few lines from the report of the Penrose-Overstreet Commission in proof of the fact that its inquiry, investigations and work provided Postmaster General Hitchcock, had he but taken the time to consult it, a store of information vastly greater than that presented in its brief official report of sixty-three pages.
Read the following and you will readily understand why Representative Moon, on March 3, 1911, so strenuously objected to the appointment of another second-class mail commission and to spending $50,000 more of the people’s money to investigate a matter already thoroughly and comprehensively investigated and to collect and collate data which is already on file in the Postoffice Department. The quotation is from page 6 of the commission’s report. The italics are the writer’s:
In accordance with this plan, (outlined in immediately preceding paragraphs), which operated to economize the time as well of the commission as of those appearing before it, a great volume of evidence was presented upon all aspects of the question from the standpoint both of the postal service and of the publications involved
…
The testimony taken by the commission at these hearings, with statements submitted in writing by publishers not orally heard, boards of trade, and the like, and other data collected by the commission in the course of its investigations, together with a complete digest of such testimony, are embodied in the record of its proceedings submitted with this report.
To the end of getting our corner stakes properly located in order to run our lot-lines correctly, I desire to quote further from the report of this 1906-7 commission. It says some pertinent things and says them hard. Before quoting, however, I desire to amplify a little on the character of that commission, on the general character of the men composing it as indicated in their official and public action.
The first point of interest for us commoners to note and appreciate is that the photographs of none of them, so far as I have been able to learn, have appeared in the rogues’ gallery. We may therefore presume that they are not only intelligent but “square” men—men worthy of Mr. Hitchcock’s consideration and respect as well as our own.
The second point worthy of note in considering the personnel of that commission is that none of them, so far as public reports show, ever had the advantages and opportunities of acquiring that peculiar and specialized knowledge of federal postal affairs, second-class or other, which may accrue to men from a postgraduate course in national party management.
In this connection, however, it may be said that some members of the commission may have come near to such unusual opportunities as just mentioned for acquiring expert knowledge of the classification, transportation and handling of second-class mail.
It is also fitting for me to say in speaking of the gentlemen composing that 1906-7 commission that, so far as I have been able to look up their biographies in the Congressional Directory and elsewhere, I find nothing to indicate that any of them ever tried to rob a smokehouse nor have any of them ever tried to put over any piece of “frame-up” legislation of the nature of Mr. Hitchcock’s “rider,” printed on a previous page—legislation to hobble, punish or ruin periodicals honest enough and independent enough to tell the truth to a hundred millions of people.
The foregoing are some of the reasons—there are many others—why I think the membership of that Penrose-Overstreet Commission of 1906-7 was possessed of an ability, character and qualification to have commanded Mr. Hitchcock’s careful consideration of the information and data the commission so carefully collated, after thorough investigation, and submitted with its official report.
“Maybe he did make a careful study of that collated data?”
Yes, maybe he did. But if he did, then much of the “student discipline” and of the “study habit,” which graduates of Harvard are presumed to have acquired, must have lapsed in the shuffle of the cards from which recent years have dealt his hands. I say this respectfully as well as candidly.
I cannot think of it as possible for a man of Mr. Hitchcock’s known intellectual gauge to read—studiously read—the facts as presented in the testimony before that 1906-7 commission, or so read even the 63-page official report signed by five of the commissioners (Representative Gardner being ill at the time the report was submitted)—I cannot, I say, think it possible for any man of Mr. Hitchcock’s admitted intelligence to read that testimony, collated data and report, and then proceed to talk or write so wide of known facts as does he in parts of his 1909 and 1910 reports and in his letters to Senator Penrose, printed in previous pages.
It may be—yes, it is most probable—that the commission did not dig out all the facts. But admitting that, the further admission must be made by any fair-minded man that most of the facts it did dig out appear to be the very facts which Postmaster General Hitchcock ignored—ignored with the self-centered nonchalance of a “short story” cowboy when “busting” a broncho before an audience.
I shall now present a few statements from the report of that commission, first quoting some of the arguments presented by publishers who appeared at its hearings personally or by representatives, or who presented their views in writing on the various phases of the questions under consideration. The quotations made, the reader must understand to be the commission’s summary of what the publishers testified to, criticised or recommended, and not the full testimony or reports as made by the publishers.
I have taken the liberty to italicize certain phrases and sentences in these quotations, my purpose being, of course, to bring the points so italicized more particularly to the reader’s notice:
The primary purpose and function of the postal service being the transportation of government and letter mail, second, third, and fourth class matter are not strictly chargeable with that proportion of the total cost of the service which would be equivalent to their proportion of total weight or volume, but these secondary classes, on the contrary, are chargeable only with that fraction of total cost which would remain after deducting all expenses of installation and general management involved in the maintenance of a complete postal service for government and letter mail. This method of computation should be applied not only in respect of the expenses of administration and handling, but especially in respect of the expense of railway mail transportation, in which, by reason of the sliding scale of payment, the additional burden of second-class matter entailed but an infinitesimal additional cost. As an illustration of this point, attention was drawn to the statement of Dr. Henry C. Adams, in his report to the commission of 1898 (p. 404), that if the volume of mail had been decreased so that the ton-mileage had been 169,809,000 instead of 272,000,000, the railway mail pay would have been practically the same.
In other words, the argument is that the true cost of second-class matter is merely that part of total cost which would be saved if second-class matter were now eliminated.
The foregoing is from page 9 of the commission’s report. On the same page of the report it gives a summary of another set of reasons presented by the publishers in their argument in support of their contention that the mail rate on second-class matter should be low:
That second-class matter, by reason of the fact that it is handled largely in bulk in full sacks already routed and separated and requires little or no handling by the railway mail service or the force at the office of mailing and of delivery, is in fact the least expensive class of matter. With respect to the proportion so routed and separated, it was variously estimated by the publishers as from 70 to 93 per cent of the total weight. The assistant postmaster at New York fixed the percentage for his office at 67 per cent, and the assistant postmaster at Chicago estimated it, for the country at large, to be between 50 and 60 per cent.
The representative of the American Newspaper Publishers’ Association, speaking for the metropolitan daily press, stated that less than 6 per cent of their circulation went into the mail at all, in many instances the proportion being as low as two-thirds of 1 per cent; that the radius of circulation was not more than 150 miles; that their mailings averaged 49 pounds per sack, and that 93 per cent of all second-class matter going out of New York city, for example, was already sorted and routed. It was admitted, however, that while the newspapers avail themselves of express and railway transportation for matter sent out in bulk, single copies sent to individual subscribers invariably went by mail.
Postmaster General Hitchcock appears to have largely ignored the fact so clearly pointed out by the publishers in 1906—yes, pointed out as long ago as 1898—that second-class mail matter is a large producer of the revenues received by the government from mail matter of the first, third and fourth classes. Following is a summary of what the publishers pointed out to the 1906-7 commission:
There is an immense indirect revenue on second-class matter, due to the fact that second-class matter is itself the cause of a great volume of first-class matter, upon which the department reaps a handsome profit. While the extent to which first-class matter is thus indebted to second-class matter is necessarily indeterminate, attempts were made to illustrate it by particular instances. This was done by computing the amount of first-class mail arising, first, from the direct correspondence between a publisher and the readers, and secondly, from correspondence, between the readers and the advertisers, resulting from the insertion of the advertisements. In the instances chosen, the first-class matter thus stimulated appeared to be very considerable. Upon this basis it was argued that any reduction in the volume of second-class matter would inevitably be followed by a corresponding reduction in first-class matter. This would not only deprive the Postoffice Department of the revenue from the first-class matter, but by diminishing the total weight of the mails would correspondingly increase the rate of mail pay, so that the net result of the elimination of the socially valuable second-class matter would be an actual increase in the total cost of the service.
The foregoing is taken from pages 12 and 13 of the commission’s report. I desire to quote further from page 13—four paragraphs—and I urge they be read with care. The reader, too, should remember that this is not all that the publishers said on the points touched upon. It is, however, no doubt a fair epitome or summary of what they said or wrote to the commission. The reader should also keep in mind the fact that what they said and wrote was said and written in 1906, and all they said and wrote is on file and easily accessible to Postmaster General Hitchcock:
Within an average radius of 500 miles the express companies and railways stand willing to transport second-class matter, in bulk packages weighing not less than 5 to 10 pounds to a single address or to be called for, at rates actually lower than the second-class postage rate. Inasmuch as the average haul of second-class matter was reported by the Wolcott commission (p. 319), to be but 438 miles, it is impossible that the government should lose anything upon the transportation of this class of matter, or if in fact it should be found to be doing so, the loss must arise from an overpayment to the railways.
Even if it should be found that second-class matter was being carried at a distinct loss, that loss would be entirely justified by the educational value of the periodical press. From the beginning of the republic it had been the policy of Congress to foster and assist the dissemination of information and intelligence among the people. Next to the great public school systems maintained by the states, the newspaper and periodical are the chief agency of social progress and enlightenment. So far from this being a subsidy to the publisher the advantage of the low postage rate had been passed on to the subscriber in the form of a better periodical and a more efficient service. Any substantial increase in the postal rates, while for the time being bearing heavily on the publisher, must eventually fall upon the subscriber, either in the form of an increased price for his reading matter or of a deterioration in the quality of that matter.
The correct method of dealing with the question of cost is to treat the service as a whole, and if the revenue for the whole service, including allowance for government mail, meets the cost of the whole service, it is immaterial whether each class of that service pays its own cost, or even whether the cost of one class has to be made up by a greater charge upon other classes.
With respect to rates, with the exception of some of the representatives of the stockyards journals, periodical publications were a unit against any increase. It was urged that the periodical publishing business has been built up on the present second-class rates, and that a change from 1 cent a pound to 4 cents, as suggested by the Third Assistant Postmaster General, would cripple, if not destroy, every existing periodical. While some would, perhaps, be able to adjust their business to the new rates and survive, the majority would perish, and the loss would fall heaviest on the smaller and weaker periodicals.
We will next note some things which that 1906-7 commission said on its own account or quotes some one in whose opinion they concurred or did not, as the case might be.
Some pages back, I told the reader, in effect, that while this commission’s official report was a good one, presenting some valuable suggestions, I did not agree with certain of its recommendations and conclusions. Now, any adverse criticisms I intend to make concerning that report are, I think, best made right here, after which I will quote a few paragraphs from it which I believe highly commendable. There are many suggestions and recommendations that I believe would be of great value did the department but act upon them, and the vast amount of data the commission collected and made a digest of would, had he but looked into it carefully, most certainly have persuaded Postmaster General Hitchcock to speak and write less loosely on the subjects of second-class mail rates and periodical publication and distribution, induced him to talk in a way that would not leave the impression with studious, thoughtful auditors and readers that he got his opinions at a bargain sale during its rush hours.
I shall comment adversely on but a few points of the commission’s report. Three of its members (Senators Carter and Clay and Representative Overstreet) have passed—not off the edge of life but to official retirement, or, maybe, to the political morgue. They, in time, may be able to “come back.” The Man on the Ladder has heard varied opinions—some of them decidedly variegated, too—anent the probability of those three gentlemen coming back. Personally I am not sufficiently acquainted with their official service careers to justify the expression of an opinion of them. If, while in office, they directed their efforts and activities to a service of their constituents and the interests of the people in general, let us hope they may “come back.” On the other hand, if while in office they were but working models of the so-called “practical” politician, then, as a matter both of self-respect and of duty, we must hope they stay in the morgue.
“The ‘practical’ politician is the working politician.”
Well, yes, that may be. But most of those within range of my vision from the ladder top appear to be devoting their most active and strenuous industry to “working” the people.
No, I do not like that type of human animal popularly designated as a “practical” politician. Especially do I not like him in public office—executive, legislative or judicial—elective or appointive, and I have run the lines on a good many of them. Most of them when in positions of official power and opportunity act as if their consciences had been handed down in original packages direct from their jungle ancestors. At any rate most of those in positions of official power and authority seem to follow one working rule, and follow it, too, both industriously and consistently.
To conceal one theft, steal more.
The typical “practical” politician, when holding down a public office, usually holds-up the people. They pose and talk as courageous patriots and large thinkers. Under close scrutiny, however, most of them will show up or show down merely as discreet private or personal interest liars.
But I have permitted my field glass to ramble from the specific to the general. Whether the three passed members of the 1906-7 commission are politically dead or taking only a temporarily enforced rest, the situation is one which suggests the propriety of that subdued and respectful tone one is expected to use when standing by as a friend is lowered to an enforced rest.
I shall now offer my strictures of a few recommendations made by the 1906-7 commission and of some of the arguments the commission’s report offers to their support.
The first objection I find to the report of this Penrose-Overstreet Commission is that several of its paragraphs indicate that the commission appears to have been afflicted with Mr. Hitchcock’s current ailment—an ingrown idea that some action, legislative or other, must be taken in order to curb the circulation growth and keep down the piece or copy-weight of periodicals. To The Man on the Ladder such an idea is not only faulty to the point of foolishness but it violates long established and successfully applied business practices in the transportation and handling of goods or commodities, whatever their character. The idea, it would appear, is based upon an oft-repeated but nevertheless false statement of fact, to the effect that the government is losing money in the carriage and handling of second-class mail at the cent-a-pound rate.
The falsity of that statement I shall conclusively prove to the reader later, if he will be so indulgent as to follow me. Here I shall say only this: If the government has ever lost a cent in rail or other haulage and handling of second-class mail matter, such loss has been wholly the result of excessive payments to railroads, Star Route and ocean carriers, to political rather than business management and to permitted raiding of the postal revenues in various ways—from overmanning the official and service force to downright thievery.
I have adverted on a previous page to the stealings of the Machen-Beavers gang, exposed by the investigation of Joseph L. Bristow, and a stench still exhales from the Star Route lootings exposed some years previous. In the Star Route case, the waste—a more fitting word is thievery—the stealing was largely effected through the medium of “joker”-loaded or unnecessary contracts, the contracts running to the advantage of some thief who “stood in” with the party in power.
Nor has all the Star Route grafting and stealing been stopped, though both Postmaster General Hitchcock and his recent predecessor, Mr. George B. Cortelyou, deserve great praise for having eliminated much of it, and Mr. Hitchcock’s active, continued efforts to further clean out that Augean stable must command the hearty approval of every honest citizen. But, as just stated, some of the original graft and steal still lingers.
Last year I personally investigated one Star Route. It was a twenty-mile drive (round trip). The contractor was receiving $600 or more a year for the service. What he paid the villager to cover the route with his patriarchal team I do not know. The villager, however, picked up a little on the side by hauling over his drive local parcels, some merchandise and an occasional passenger. I watched his mail deliveries to the village office for ten days. On no day did the revenue to the government exceed sixty cents, and on seven of the ten days it was below twenty cents. One day it was but ten cents.
In this connection it should also be mentioned that the village which that Star Route was presumed to serve was on a regular rural route and received fully 95% of its mail by special carrier service connecting with a trunk line station only six miles away.
But to return to my objection to the manifest efforts of the Postmaster General and of recommendations in the Penrose-Overstreet report to adopt methods or secure legislation to restrain increase in both the circulation and the copy-weight of periodicals. Of course if the government really sustains a loss on the carriage and handling of second-class matter, the loss would be greater on 160 tons than on 80 tons. I, however, contend, and shall later prove, that—barring waste, payroll loafing and stealage—the government now transports and handles second-class matter at a profit.
Postmaster General Hitchcock, so far as I have found time to read him, has made no particular effort to restrict or limit the piece or copy-weight of periodicals. He was, seemingly at least, so occupied in his efforts to “get” a few periodicals through the means of that unconstitutional “rider” of his that he had little or no time for anything else. But the 1906-7 commission boldly advocated a penalizing of periodical weight for copies mailed to piece, or individual, addresses.
A table of graduated increases is given and some very peculiar argument, to put it mildly, is presented to support the recommended scale, or system, of weight penalization. Following I quote from pages 28-29 of the commission’s report. The italics are mine:
The rate then for copy service would be one-eighth of a cent per copy not to exceed 2 ounces, one-quarter cent per copy not to exceed 4 ounces, and one-half cent for each additional 4 ounces or fraction thereof to be prepaid in money as second-class postage is now paid. Tabulated, it would appear thus:
Not exceeding— Cents.
2 ounces ?
4 ounces ?
8 ounces ?
12 ounces 1?
16 ounces 1?
20 ounces 2?
24 ounces 2?
28 ounces 3?
Etc., etc.
The net result calculated by the pound will be, upon the periodicals above the average weight of 4 ounces and not exceeding a pound, a change from 1 to about 1? cents per pound. For heavier periodicals the rate would average 1? cents per pound for those weighing 2 pounds, and increasing by an infinitesimal fraction with the proportion of weight above 4 ounces but never reaching, no matter how heavy the periodical may grow, the limit of 2 cents per pound.
While the actual increase of rate upon the normal periodical, especially in view of the publisher’s right at all times to send it by bulk at a cent a pound, would be so small as not to upset his business, there would be two advantages to the postal revenue, one at each end of the line.
(1) The making of a definite minimum charge for the handling of the individual piece. (2) Increase of revenue as the periodical grows heavier, due to the fact that the initial rate of one-quarter cent for 4 ounces is less than the incremental rate.
This system of payment by the individual piece with a minimum limit of weight and an increased rate for each increment of weight is common to the postal systems of the entire world with the exceptions of Canada and the United States. The only difference is that in the present project the incremental rate is higher than the initial rate.
Although this graduated scale would appear to be more favorable to the smaller periodical than to the large one, it must be borne in mind that the periodical weighing less than 1 ounce and of necessity paying the initial rate of one-quarter cent would be paying a rate (2 cents per pound), slightly greater than the large periodical. This increase upon the periodical weighing less than 2 ounces finds ample justification in the obvious fact that the expense of handling second class matter is not to be measured simply by gross weight. On the contrary, as was pointed out by the representatives of the publishers in comparing the cost of handling second-class with that of first-class mail, such expense is to be measured by the number of pieces handled and frequency of handling. A pound of periodicals which is made up of 10 or 12 or, as is sometimes the case, 30 or 40 separate pieces, each one of which requires a separate course of handling and delivery, can not with justice be treated as the equivalent of a pound of matter which requires but two, or, at most, four courses of handling and delivery.
This increase would be offset, moreover, for the normal periodical weighing less than 2 ounces, the country weekly, by the retention of the free county privilege.
The foregoing is substantially the commission’s whole argument, save a little more talk about “normal” periodicals, “normal” weeklies, and a statement to the effect that all countries, other than the United States and Canada, increase the piece, or copy, postage rate as the weight of the periodical increases—that is, these other countries do not give a flat pound, gram or other unit of weight rate.
Now, I shall briefly state my objections to some points in the above quotation—those points I have italicized.
The reader, however, must bear in mind that the scale of increase in mail rates above reprinted applies only to single copies—to copies mailed to individual addresses. For copies mailed in bulk, in packages weighing not less than ten pounds, to some agent of the publisher or other individual, to be taken up by the agent or individual at train or at central postoffice, the commission recommended the cent-a-pound rate.
In adverse criticism of the commission’s argument for penalizing weight, because all foreign countries do so, I need but say:
1. There are more high-class newspapers—papers which, necessarily, have weight—published in this country than is published in all the rest of the world.
2. There are four times as many of what the 1906-7 commission—also Postmaster General Hitchcock—would class as “periodicals” published in this country as are published in all the rest of the world.
Sounds “loud,” does it? Well, look into the matter. Maybe I am mistaken. If so, it is a mistake made after thirty years of study of the conditions controlling in my country—in your country—and of the prices paid in other countries for efficient, satisfactory service.
3. Those “other countries”—the stronger ones, at any rate—either own or absolutely control the railroads which transport their mails. In some of them, rail transportation of mails—also of government officials, the service personnel of the army and the navy, and of other government “weight”—are carried free of charge.
4. Those “other countries,” of which so much is said and written ostensibly for our enlightenment, have gone through the mill—their peoples have been ground fine in mills of sophistry and special pleadings, to which, for fifty years, we have been carrying our grists.
5. Those “other countries” are making their mail service a source of governmental revenue.
The people of this country, today, no more expect a revenue from the government’s postal service than they expect it from the War, the Navy, the Interior, the Judicial or other service department.
The people want service, not revenues, from any federal service department.
And you gentlemen who vote away the people’s money for services not rendered—which you know will not be rendered when you vote to “burn” the money—will, before those independent periodicals are through with the recent sand-bagging attempt to censor or control their published thought—you will learn, I mean to say, that people want service not revenues; that they want “duty,” as an engineer would name it, not a coached prattle about B. T. U. or other legislative and official thermics.
Now, let us look back at that quotation—at some of the points in it I have italicized.
First paragraph quoted: Aside from small country dailies—now carried by mail to addresses inside the county of publication free—and fraternal papers, Sunday School sheets and similar publications, there are few periodicals published in this country which weigh two ounces or less.
First paragraph following tabulation: “The rate would average 1? cents per pound” for periodicals weighing two pounds.
A glance at the table shows that the piece or copy rate on a periodical weighing 28 ounces is given as 3? cents. A periodical weighing two pounds, or 32 ounces, would be charged a half cent more, or 3? cents for mail carriage and delivery, instead of 2 cents as now.
Second paragraph following the table, also in last paragraph quoted: “Normal” periodicals.
What is a “normal” periodical? Are the 4 or 8 page weeklies published in the back counties and the small religious, college, Sunday school and fraternal sheets that weigh two ounces or less “normal” periodicals? Are the dailies of our large cities, weighing from four to twelve ounces, “normal” periodicals? Is the Saturday Evening Post, weighing from ten to twenty ounces a “normal” periodical?
Are any of the periodicals in the following descriptive list “normal?”
The newspapers and other periodicals named in the following tabulation are those I could find within convenient, likewise hurried, reach. I tried to get them as near concurrent dates as I could. The tabulation will show the reader the proportion of advertising to body matter, printed in the different periodicals on the dates named.
Readers particularly interested in the data presented in the tabulation should, however, understand that for the newspapers listed, no account was taken of the “write-up” or “promotion” advertising printed as reading matter. Some newspapers, at certain times, carry a considerable amount of such paid matter while the standard monthly and weekly periodicals carry little or none of it at any time:
NAME OF PERIODICAL. Date of Issue. No. of Pages or Columns. Reading Matter, Pages or Columns. Advertising Matter, Pages or Columns. Gross Weight of the Periodical.
NEWSPAPERS.
Chicago.
The Examiner.
Sunday Edition 6-11-11 392 Cols. 171? Cols. 220? Cols. 15 ozs.
Daily Edition 6-8-11 126 ” 77? ” 48? ” 4? ”
Record Herald.
Sunday Edition 6-11-11 448 ” 286? ” 161? ” 18 ”
Supplement 20 pp. 14 pp. 6 pp.
Daily Edition 6-8-11 126 Cols. 77? Cols. 48? Cols. 5 ”
The Tribune.
Sunday Edition 6-11-11 490 ” 212? ” 277? ” 20 ”
Supplement 30 pp. 22? pp. 7? pp.
Daily Edition 6-8-11 168 Cols. 86? Cols. 81? Cols. 6? ”
Inter Ocean.
Sunday Edition 6-11-11 316 ” 242? ” 73? ” 12 ”
Daily Edition 6-8-11 84 ” 59? ” 24? ” 4 ”
The American. 6-8-11 126 ” 65 ” 61 ” 4? ”
Daily News. 6-8-11 210 ” 87 ” 123 ” 7? ”
Daily Journal. 6-8-11 112 ” 63? ” 48? ” 4? ”
The Evening Post. 6-8-11 84 ” 64? ” 19? ” 3? ”
Boston.
The Globe.
Sunday Edition 6-11-11 720 ” 399 ” 321 ” 25 ”
Supplement 28 pp. 20? pp. 7? pp.
Daily Edition 6-12-11 128 Cols. 102? Cols. 25? Cols. 4 ”
New York City.
The American.
Sunday Edition 6-11-11 392 ” 221? ” 170? ” 12? ”
The Herald.
Sunday Edition 6-11-11 728 ” 373 ” 355 ” 23? ”
Daily Edition 6-12-11 114 ” 73? ” 40? ” 4 ”
Philadelphia.
The Enquirer.
Sunday Edition 6-11-11 576 ” 339? ” 236? ” 18? ”
Daily Edition 6-12-11 128 ” 65? ” 62? ” 4 ”
Pittsburg.
The Gazette Times.
Sunday Edition 6-11-11 504 ” 358? ” 145? ” 15? ”
Supplement 20 pp. 15? pp. 4? pp.
Daily Edition 6-12-11 84 Cols. 56 Cols. 29 Cols. 3 ”
Cleveland.
The Plain Dealer.
Sunday Edition 6-11-11 512 ” 292 ” 230 ” 16? ”
Daily Edition 6-13-11 112 ” 71 ” 41 ” 3? ”
Cincinnati.
The Enquirer.
Daily Edition 6-13-11 112 ” 66? ” 45? ” 4 ”
Louisville.
The Courier Journal.
Daily Edition 6-10-11 112 ” 91? ” 20? ” 4 ”
St. Louis.
Post Dispatch.
Sunday Edition 6-11-11 400 ” 261? ” 138? ” 12 ”
Globe Democrat.
Daily Edition 6-13-11 112 ” 67? ” 44? ” 4 ”
Kansas City.
The Star.
Daily Edition 6-15-11 112 ” 61? ” 50? ” 4 ”
San Francisco.
The Chronicle.
Daily Edition 6-10-11 126 ” 86? ” 39? ” 4? ”
Los Angeles.
The Times.
Sunday Edition 6-4-11 1170 Cols. 586? Cols. 583? Cols. 35? Ozs.
Supplement 30 pp. 24? pp. 5? pp.
MONTHLY AND WEEKLY PERIODICALS.
Everybody’s Mag. 4-1911 316 ” 146 ” 170 ” 22 ”
” ” 7-1911 284 ” 140 ” 144 ” 20 ”
Cosmopolitan ” 3-1911 266 ” 144? ” 120? ” 18 ”
” ” 7-1911 288 ” 146? ” 141? ” 17 ”
McClure’s ” 6-1911 244 ” 113? ” 130? ” 12 ”
American ” 6-1911 224 ” 132? ” 91? ” 15 ”
Pearson’s ” 6-1911 206 ” 143 ” 63 ” 16? ”
Sat. Evening Post 5-20-11 68 ” 32? ” 35? ” 9 ”
” ” ” 6-3-11 80 ” 33? ” 46? ” 10 ”
Ladies’ Home Jour’l 6-19-11 84 ” 52? ” 31? ” 16 ”
The Literary Digest 5-13-11 72 ” 37? ” 34? ” 8 ”
Inland Printer 3-1911 176 ” 68? ” 87? ” 24 ”
Publishers’ Weekly 3-18-11 136 ” 62? ” 73? ” 7? ”
Review of Reviews 6-1911 268 ” 129 ” 139 ” 17 ”
Scribner’s Magazine 6-1911 250 ” 134 ” 116 ” 16 ”
Harpers’ ” 6-1911 284 ” 164 ” 120 ” 21 ”
Popular ” 4-10-11 286 ” 226 ” 42 ” 14 ”
The Argosy 5-19-11 246 ” 194 ” 52 ” 12 ”
The All Story 4-19-11 228 ” 194 ” 34 ” 11 ”
The New Magazine 5-19-11 200 ” 192 ” 8 ” 10 ”
Next to last paragraph: Note the statement that “the periodical weighing less than one ounce” must “of necessity” pay the “initial rate of one-quarter cent” or “two cents per pound.”
The initial rate as given in the table is but one-eighth of a cent. That would make a per copy mail rate of two cents per pound, whereas an initial rate of one-quarter cent per copy would make four-page sheets and leaflets “normal” periodicals weighing less than one ounce pay at a rate of four cents per pound.
Next, note the crossed argument in the paragraph just referred to. The commission seems to accept the argument made by the publishers—that it cost less to handle a pound of mail made up of but one to four pieces than it costs to handle a pound made up of from ten to fifty pieces. That is a fact which admits of no controversy, is it not?
Then why did this commission advise the adoption of a flat rate of increase of two cents a pound (one-half cent for each four ounces), as the mail rate on periodicals weighing more than four ounces.
If the argument of the paragraph just cited is sound—and it certainly is sound—a just graduation of the mail charge for the carriage and piece handling of the heavier periodicals should scale downwards and not continue a flat rate, especially not continue at a flat rate on increase in weight that is greatly excessive, as two cents a pound certainly is.
I shall speak further of periodical weights later in connection with railway mail pay and car rentals. The report of this 1906-7 commission in various other paragraphs manifests a clear intent to restrict and, if possible, to curtail the expansion of second-class mail matter, not only by curbing the enlargement of periodicals in size by increasing the second-class rate and by penalizing added weight, but by putting restrictions upon the periodical publisher which must necessarily make it more difficult for him to increase his circulation. These restrictions, so far as yet expressed, apply to the publisher’s sample copy privileges and to the amount of advertising a periodical may carry.
On page 48 of its report the commission, speaking of methods to curb a periodical’s growth in both circulation and weight, advises that the following be covered into the law in lieu of certain phrasings now in the statutes and which, the commission asserts, have proved quite inadequate in restraining periodicals from expanding their circulation beyond a point which they are pleased to call “normal.” They advise that the law “enforce the requirement that the periodical may be issued and circulated only in response to a public demand.”
In the draft of a bill which this 1906-7 commission recommends become a law, the following are the means by which circulation “only in response to a public demand” will be attained:
(a) By reducing to a minimum the sample copy, which is one of the main agencies of inflation. The legitimate periodical employing this means only to a slight extent will not be at all affected.
(b) By abolishing all premiums, whether of printed matter or merchandise.
(c) By either prohibiting all combination offers, as, for example, a set of books with a magazine, or requiring that in all cases a price shall be set upon both elements of the combination and that the full advertised price of the periodical be paid.
(d) By requiring that the publication shall print conspicuously, not only its regular subscription price, but any reduced price at which it is offered in clubbing arrangements and the like.
(e) By providing that all copies which the postmaster, in the exercise of due diligence shall be unable to deliver, shall be returned with a postage-due stamp for an amount equal to double the third-class rate. In other words, charge the publisher the third-class rate both for the forwarding and the returning of any copy sent otherwise than in response to an actual demand.
To The Man on the Ladder the commission’s talk, advising the enforcement of “the requirements that the periodical may be issued and circulated only in response to a public demand” (page 40 of report), reads much like one of two things—either the inconsidered or ill-considered prattle of persons who want to say something, or the argument of ulterior motive—of a covert purpose to restrict, to cripple, to kill the greatest instrument for the education of its adult citizens which any nation of earth has to date discovered—an instrument that is economically within easy reach of its exchequer.
How much of a “public demand” does the reader think there would have been for the reaper, for the thrashing machine, for the case-hardened, steel shared plow, for the sewing machine, for the triple expansion engine, for the traveling crane, for any brand of breakfast food, of ham, of flour, books—in short, how much of “public demand” would there have been for any of the mechanical inventions, for any of the multitude of betterments in the housing, clothing and subsisting of our people, had not that “public demand” been created? No one wants anything, however excellent it may be, until his attention is called to it and he believes it will aid him or her, as the case may be, that it will lighten the stress of labor or increase its product, or in other lines and directions improve the conditions of their lives, industrially or otherwise. Ninety-nine per cent of “public opinion,” as to whether or not that public wants or does not want this, that or the other thing is influenced—is promoted by what it senses in personal contact with the thing or by what it hears said of it or reads of it.
That statement is as true of the members of the 1906-7 commission and of Postmaster General Hitchcock as it is of Mr. William Mossback of Mossville, Connecticut. The “demand” of each of us—our desire to possess this or that—is prompted—is created—by what we see, hear, feel, taste, smell or read of it. We stand at the head of the nations of earth for progress in the various fields of mechanical improvement, from kitchen utensils to laundry equipment, from the plow to the electric crane. What is true of the progress of our people through the adoption of labor-saving mechanical devices, implements and machinery is correspondingly true in various other fields of progress—a progress largely the result of promoted “demand” for the better things, for the improvements of which our people have read in our newspapers and in our monthly and weekly publications—yes, read of in the advertisements and in descriptive write-ups of such periodicals, if you will have it so.
So this prattle about issuing a periodical “only to public demand” is not only prattle—it is not only unsound and unbusinesslike both in theory and service practice, but it is also a stealthy attempt to garrote the facts, likewise an attempt to subject the great publishing interests of the country to the rankest kind of injustice.
How is the publisher to secure additional subscribers if he be denied mailing privilege to sample copies?
True, the bill recommended by this commission would allow the publisher to mail sample copies to the extent of ten per cent of his subscribed issue. Mr. Hitchcock, however, as I shall shortly show, proposes to exclude all sample copies from the mails.
The following is quoted from Mr. Hitchcock’s 1910 report and shows that the Postoffice Department, as at present directed, is determined to curb the growth and development of periodical literature in this country in every way possible—ways that scruple not at biased rulings and grossly unjust distinctions. In the following Mr. Hitchcock is after what he is pleased to designate as an “abuse of the sample-copy privilege.”
In order to discontinue the privilege of mailing sample copies at the cent-a-pound rate, legislation in substantially the following form is suggested:
That so much of the act approved March 3, 1885 (23 Stat., 387), as relates to publications of the second class be amended to read as follows:
“That hereafter all publications of the second-class, except as provided by Section 25 of the act of March 3, 1879 (20 Stat., 361), when sent to subscribers by the publishers thereof and from the known offices of publication, or when sent from news agents to subscribers thereto or to other news agents for the purpose of sale, shall be entitled to transmission through the mails at one cent a pound or fraction thereof, such postage to be prepaid as now provided by law.”
In drafting the above recommended legislation Mr. Hitchcock no doubt was greatly assisted by the luminous suggestions, advice, analyses, etc., of his Third Assistant, Mr. Britt, to be found on pages 331 and 332 of the 1910 report—which suggestions, advice, etc., is based largely on “estimates”—“estimates” which any student or careful observer of the Postoffice Department methods of figuring and accounting will readily discern are, in several particulars, somewhat “influenced,” if not, indeed, “fixed.”
Up to January 1, 1908, periodical publishers were allowed to mail sample copies of any issue in number equal to that of their subscribed lists. Acting on the recommendation of the Penrose-Overstreet Commission, no doubt approved by Mr. Hitchcock, the mailing privilege on sample copies was cut down, January 1, 1908, to 10 per cent of the subscribed issue. Now comes Mr. Hitchcock with a bit of recommended legislation, as quoted above, which would, if favorably acted upon by Congress, deny the mailing privilege to all sample copies at the cent-a-pound rate.
Though not pertinent to the subject immediately under consideration, I desire here to call the reader’s attention again to a point in Mr. Hitchcock’s recommended legislation as quoted above—a point which is conspicuously worthy of a second notice and to which I have called attention on a previous page.
Mr. Hitchcock’s report, from which the foregoing piece of recommended legislation is quoted, bears date of December 1, 1910. Keep that in mind. In that recommendation he would grant a continuance of the cent-a-pound postage rate on periodicals “sent to subscribers,” but to such only. No sample copies are to be carried and handled, mind you, at the cent-a-pound rate after Mr. Hitchcock’s recommendation becomes law—that is, if it ever does become law.
Now, the subscribed mailings of any periodical—newspaper or other—are piece or single-copy mailings, which are admittedly the most expensive or costly to the government to transport and handle.
Yet Mr. Hitchcock recommends that the cent-a-pound rate shall continue to be extended to such single copies—a most just and sensible recommendation.
But Mr. Hitchcock when he wrote that bit of recommended legislation was thinking—and thinking only, if indeed he gave the subject any personal thought at all—of curbing the circulation growth of periodicals and, as a means to that end, recommends the exclusion of all sample copies from the pound-rate privilege.
Read carelessly or superficially that bit of suggested legislation in itself does not appear to have anything to do with sample copies. On second and more careful reading, however, its purpose becomes clear. If the cent-a-pound rate is to be allowed only to regularly subscribed copies of a periodical, then all sample copies must be mailed, if mailed at all, at the third-class rate—must pay eight cents a pound.
When it comes to covering or cloaking ulterior purpose or intent in legislation, Mr. Hitchcock is an expert, it would appear from the rider he so strenuously tried to put astride the 1911-12 postoffice appropriation bill, and from the foregoing as well as some others of his suggestions to Congress. But the point to which I more especially desire to call to the reader’s attention when I obtruded that last preceding quotation at a point where it interrupted a consideration of the Penrose-Overstreet Commission’s report was this:—
As previously stated, Mr. Hitchcock’s 1910 report bears date, December 1, 1910. On that date, as appears from the last quotation, he desired a law that would bar all sample copies from the mails at the present second-class rate. It also appears that Mr. Hitchcock at the date named—December, 1, 1910—desired that all periodicals issued, except sample copies, be carried, as now, at the cent-a-pound rate.
Somewhere around February 1, 1911—barely two months after he makes that cent-a-pound recommendation—we hear Mr. Hitchcock assertively declaring, and contentiously arguing, that it costs the government 9.23 cents per pound to transport and handle second-class matter.
What happened to his mental gear in so short a time to induce so loud a change in his mind?
Or was it a change of mind? On page 328 of that 1910 departmental report, Mr. Britt, Third Assistant Postmaster General, who has charge of the accounting division of the service, makes the bold statement that it cost the government $62,438,644.70 more to carry and handle the second-class mail last year than was received for the service. Being an “expert” figurer Mr. Britt found no difficulty in arriving at that absurd 9.23 cents a pound as the actual cost to the government of carrying and handling second-class mail. On pages 7 and 8 of the report, Mr. Hitchcock himself gives publicity to a conviction that the cent-a-pound rate should be increased on certain periodicals—the magazines—generously suggesting that the increased rate be confined to their “advertising pages” only. In the loosely worded “rider” he carelessly—or purposely—uses the word “sheets” in place of the word “pages” as used in his report.
Still, in face of his Third Assistant’s lofty figuring, the conclusions of which are announced on page 328 of the report, and of his own statement of the “reasons for an increase of rate” on periodicals of the magazine class, for carrying and handling their “advertising pages”—in face of these statements, how did his mental gear so slip, or “jam,” as to induce him to recommend, on page 35 of this same report, the enactment of a law continuing the cent-a-pound rate on all periodicals mailed, except sample copies?
Did he intentionally double cross both himself and his Third Assistant or, in his anxiety to curb the circulation growth of periodicals, did he forget what he and Mr. Britt had said?
What’s the answer?
I give it up. However it may appear to the reader, to The Man on the Ladder it appears that Mr. Hitchcock in his 1910 report has written, figured and “recommended” himself into a situation that is far more humoresque than it is consistent or informative.
Returning to the report of the 1906-7 commission, I will mention a few more of its objectionable recommendations.
As previously stated, the Penrose-Overstreet Commission recommended the enactment of a law requiring that newspapers and other periodicals devote not more than one-half their space to advertising matter (Section 3 of recommended bill, page 50 of report). Thus, in pressing an ill-conceived purpose to restrain the growth of circulation and increase of weight of monthly and weekly periodicals, they would, it appears, cut into that division of their published matter which produces the greatest revenue to the government for carriage and handling.
The truth of the last clause preceding has been so frequently and conclusively shown as to require no argument to convince the veriest tyro in knowledge of federal postoffice affairs and the sources of its revenues that the statement made is true. Elsewhere in this volume, however, the truth of the statement will be found fully established.
I confine the application of the statement to monthly and weekly periodicals, to such as are of general circulation. It of course applies, but in lesser degree, to newspapers. The advertising matter published in the newspapers is largely of local character, while that published in our high class monthly magazines and weeklies, in trade journals, etc., is largely general in character. The advertisements published by the former are chiefly those of local merchants and manufacturers and of local, commercial, financial and other interests. On the other hand the advertisements carried by the class of monthly and weekly periodicals indicated represent persons, companies and interests widely scattered throughout the country. Because of this phase in the character of the advertisements carried, the newspapers advertising space is not nearly so large a contributor to the government’s revenues from first, third and fourth class mail carriage and handling as is the advertising space of our high-class monthly and weekly periodicals.
It is true that this 1906-7 commission makes a somewhat strained effort to assign two chief reasons for its recommendation to curtail the space which publishers of periodicals of all kinds may devote to advertising matter.
1. The commissioners appear to have been carrying around with them a stern purpose to suppress what they designate as the “mail order” publications, devoted largely to advertising the wares carried in stock by one or, at most, a few firms that individually or jointly pay for publishing the “weekly” or “monthly”, as the case may be.
There can be no question that there is a large number of such alleged periodicals which have been issued and distributed through the mails for the plainly manifest purpose of advertising the merchandise of those who pay for publishing them. I believe, however, that there are fewer of such fake periodicals enjoying the mail service at second-class rates today than there were ten or fifteen years ago. The Postoffice Department, it must be said to its credit, has “disciplined” a large number of them out of existence or, at any rate, out of the second-class mail rate privilege.
But even if there are more of such fraud and fake periodicals today than formerly, any fair-minded man must agree that it is a very rank injustice to punish—to penalize by harsh restrictions and increased mailing rates—the thousands of legitimate and highly serviceable periodicals for the sins of a comparatively few alleged publications which have abused or are abusing the second-class mail rate privilege.
The department, with its large force of inspectors and investigators, should be able to weed out and exclude such “fixed” periodicals. If it cannot do so it appears to The Man on the Ladder that it would not require a very large amount of industrious, strenuous thinking on the part of six robust, competent legislators to frame a law that would reach the guilty without punishing or crippling the innocent.
2. This commission was also, it would appear, a stickler over compliance with the postal statutes—statutes (those now largely governing) enacted in 1879 and 1885, therefore so antiquated in their wording in several particulars as to be a misfit when attempt is made to apply them to the vast business and varied character of periodicals today.
The statute of March 3, 1879, in its definition of what the law would recognize as a periodical says, among other things, that a periodical must be “originated and published for the dissemination of information of a public character, or devoted to literature, the arts, sciences, or to some industry.”
This portion of the statutory definition the Commission seems to have entertained a special grudge against. At any rate it expatiated at considerable length in its report, against the inadequacy, lack of definiteness, etc., of the definition as given. The commission’s chief objection seems to center around the fact that space in periodicals should not be devoted to “commercial ends.”
On page 35 of the report the commission says:
“What was in the mind of the author (of the 1879 statute), is clear enough. He wished to prohibit the misuse of the privileges for commercial ends as distinguished from the devotion to literature, science, and the rest.”
It is possible that they knew what was in the mind of the author of that ’79 statute better than I know it, or than Jim Smith or Reuben Peachtree knows it. It is also possible that they did not know the mind of that lawbuilder any better. While the ’79 statute does not, in many particulars, meet present conditions as they should be met, in defining a publication that should be recognized as a periodical, it requires a supercritical or finicky mind to find much fault with it.
A periodical must be “originated and published for the dissemination of information of a public character, devoted to literature, the arts, sciences or some special industry.”
Now, when one considers the broad application of the word “literature,” the word “arts,” comprehending as it does not only the mechanical and liberal or polite arts, but also business, commercial, mercantile and others, including the science of business management, and the term “special industry” and the broad field covered by it—when one considers the broad application of those words, it is a fairly legitimate inference that it was “in the mind” of the writer when drafting that ’79 statute to give a broad meaning and range of service to the publications he intended should be classed as periodicals.
In this connection it is pertinent to ask why periodical publications should not serve, either in their advertising pages or in their “body pages,” devoted to fiction and articles on political conditions, economics, history, the lives and deeds of men, forests and forestry, mills, mines, factory, farm and a vast array of other features, phases and conditions—why, I ask, should our periodicals not give aid by giving space to the great mercantile, manufacturing, financial, agricultural and other interests in this country—interests which, collectively, have built up a commerce more vast today than that of any other nation of earth?
Why should not this vast commerce of ours—a commerce in which every man, woman and child of our people is directly or indirectly interested—be aided and served in every legitimate way by our periodicals? Will some politically living member of that Penrose-Overstreet Commission rise and answer? Answer, not in hypercritical nothings, but straightly and bluntly?
Another immediately pertinent thing should be stated and another asked here. Among the instruments which have contributed to build up the great commerce of the nation, the American periodical must be recognized—is recognized—as one of the most efficient.
Why, then, this recent attempt to cripple, to curb, to lessen, its influence and effort? And why, again, try to curtail its circulation and usefulness by prattle about a postal “deficit” as reason for restrictive departmental rulings and laws when, should such restrictive measures be made effective, a shrinkage of postal revenues and a consequent increase of deficit would, necessarily, result?
Will some one whose thought-dome and pockets are not full of ulterior motives and postal service “deficits” please rise and answer?
Returning to the 1906-7 commission’s agony over the definition in the act of 1879 of what should be considered a periodical and, therefore, entitled to mail entry as second-class matter, it appears that the commissioners, in an apparent anxious anxiety to prove their charge against the author of the act for careless, ambiguous wording, quote a lawyer’s opinion, or part of such opinion, in support of the carefully framed-up “arguments” which it presents in didactic order, both before and after the quotation.
The quotation, it should be noted, is from the brief of the Postmaster General’s counsel in Houghton vs. Payne, 194 U. S. 88, or so the commission’s report designates it.
The point of the commission’s argument appears to be: (1) that owing to its loose, indefinite wording, the act of ’79 was of easy evasion when it came to passing upon the kind and character of matter which might be published in periodical form and mailed at second-class rates, and (2) that, by reason of such loose and indefinite wording, periodical publishers have evaded the intent and purpose of the act—have abused their second-class rate privileges—have violated the law.
That, at any rate, I read as the point and purpose of the commission’s somewhat labored, if not strained, argument. They quote (pages 37-38) this counsel in support of that argument. I shall here reprint that quotation as evidence that the publisher of “the universally recognized, commonly accepted, and perfectly well understood periodical of everyday speech” (see fifth paragraph of quotation) have not violated the law nor sought to do so.
The quoted opinion presents some italicized words, phrases and clauses as it appears in the report. I have taken the liberty to further italicize in reprinting it:
“The next words only strengthen the same idea—originated and published for the dissemination of information of a public character. Not, it will be observed, that it shall contain information of a public character, but shall be published for the dissemination of such public information. Each of these words is significant, and each gathers significance from its neighbors. Dissemination is here a word of strong color and tinges all the rest. It indicates a dynamic process, an agency at work carrying out a purpose for which it was originated and set in motion. But strong as the word dissemination is, it is fortified by the use of the word information. An agency for the dissemination of knowledge for example, might better consist with the idea of a library of books. But the word is not knowledge, but information. The distinction is obvious. One has the sense of accumulated stores; the other of imparting the idea of things for current needs. One is, as it were, human experience at rest; the other, human experience in action. One may be as stale as you please; the other must be new, fresh, vital. A book, a volume, is the medium of one; a journal the medium of the other.
“Information,” says the Century Dictionary, “is timely or specific knowledge respecting some matter of interest or inquiry.” It is, as it were, vitalized knowledge; knowledge imbued with life and activity. Nor when we come to the next phase do we find any change in the idea—or devoted to literature, the sciences, arts, or some special industry. Devoted to literature. Mark you, not that the publication shall be literature or contain literature, but that it shall be devoted to literature. What is meant by devoted? The Century Dictionary puts it thus: To direct or apply chiefly or wholly to some purpose, work, or use; to give or surrender completely, as to some person or end, as to devote oneself to art, literature, or philanthropy. There again we have the idea of a permanent continuing entity, a thing existing for a given purpose, appearing regularly at such intervals (not greater than three months), as may most effectually meet its needs, in the interest of art, of science, or literature.
Do we say that a book—a novel, a history, a drama—is devoted to literature? It is not devoted to literature; it is literature, and it would be an absurdity to speak of it as devoted to itself. Such a locution would be merely a willful perversion of language.
On the other hand, a review or a magazine may be said to be devoted to literature with perfect naturalness and propriety. For we rightly conceive of the review or magazine as one definite recognizable entity—a continuing whole, originated for a given purpose, and made up of similar parts having a common object—literature, for example, or art, or science, or whatever else it is to which the whole is devoted.
Taking these words, originated and published for, dissemination, information, devoted to, they all point to one conclusion. They are, we repeat, strong and pregnant words. There is but one concept consistent with them all. We confidently submit that an attentive reading of the statute will leave no doubt that what Congress constantly had in mind in the creating of this privileged class of publications was the universally recognized, commonly accepted, and perfectly well understood periodical of everyday speech.
In establishing the rate for newspapers and other periodical publications Congress was not seeking to discriminate between good literature and bad literature or to establish a censorship of the press with prizes for merit. The thing it had in mind was not the goodness or badness of the information disseminated, but the instrumentalities by which that dissemination might be accomplished. It was not thinking of all the accumulated stores of sound and pure literature in the vast libraries of the world, but it was thinking of how the mind of an inquiring and progressive people might be kept abreast of the times in all departments of human thought and activity. Congress did not stand hesitating between a good book and a bad newspaper.
Another position taken by the Penrose-Overstreet Commission, and one which The Man on the Ladder strongly opposes, is that a periodical may not or “must not consist wholly or substantially of fiction.”
The words just quoted are exactly the words used in the sixth paragraph of Section 2 of the bill the enactment of which this commission recommended.
Now, whatever their wit or wisdom, their eloquence or adroitness of speech, their beauty of shape and apparel, or their loftiness of position, that “recommendation” should recommend the personnel of that commission, it seems to me, to some “wronghouse” for a long rest. Their conclusion, their lex recommendation and their “argument” in support, taken collectively, are as thrilling, likewise amusing, as the point in a story “where the woman is turned on and begins to short circuit the hero,” putting it as near as I can remember in the language of Sewell Ford, Bowers, or some other “enlivening writer.”
Lest the reader think my adverse criticism of the commissioners too harsh, or not in keeping with the dignity of the gentlemen composing that 1906-7 commission, I shall here quote a few of the paragraphs it presents as basis for its recommendation. The reader will oblige by carefully noting the italics. They are mine, and, following the quotation, I shall comment on some of those italicized phrasings and statements:
“Not only does the element of fiction constitute the (1) propulsive force behind the expansion of second-class matter, but it serves at the same time (2) to undermine the main statutory check upon the commercial exploitation of the second class. Being free to make up a periodical which contains nothing but fiction, publishers find ready at hand the very thing with which to interlard and disguise the advertising matter, for the sake of which the publication is really issued. This they could not do if the advertisement carrying text was required to be news matter or critical matter of a current nature. (3) Deprive the mail-order journals of the right to cloak their advertising with fiction and require them to publish something in the nature of a newspaper or review with expensive news-gathering apparatus and an editorial staff and (4) the mail-order advertising journal will completely disappear. It lives only by reason of two things, the cheapness of its fiction, with which it cloaks its advertising, and the cheapness of the postal rate which that fiction cloak enables it to obtain.
“The distinction between the fiction-carrying periodical and the nonfiction-carrying periodical (5) is precisely the distinction between a periodical fulfilling the purposes of the act and the publication which, although periodical in its form, has no true periodicity in its essence.
“Another consequence of the expansive power of fiction is found in the confusion of the newspaper and magazine types and the unhealthy exaggeration of the modern newspaper, as shown especially in its Sunday editions.
“The newspaper is rapidly being extended into the magazine field at the sacrifice both of the postal revenue and the (6) true mission of the newspaper. The miscellaneous matter contained in the Sunday issue of a newspaper must of necessity lack the quality to make it socially and educationally valuable.” (Page 37.)
“No fiction necessarily involves the element of periodicity or time publication which is involved in the very idea of a newspaper or periodical. It follows, then, (7) that the real purpose of the act of March 3, 1879, namely, the diffusion in the quickest possible way at the smallest possible cost of timely information among the people, is perverted when the right to that quick and inexpensive diffusion is extended to the form of fiction. But the periodical form devoted to fiction, or in which fiction constitutes the predominant feature, is the very form of periodical which serves to swell the second class. The popular demand for fiction seems to be practically unlimited. The temptation offered by the low postal rate to supply that demand through the periodical form is a temptation impossible to resist.” (Page 39.)
I shall make my comment on the foregoing in the order that its italicized assertions are numbered.
(1) The “element of fiction” has not and does not constitute “the propulsive force” stated. Was it “fiction” that propulsed the circulation of Everybody’s? of Pearson’s? of The Cosmopolitan? of The American? of McClure’s? of The Saturday Evening Post? of The Inland Printer? of The Progressive Printer? or of scores of other monthly and weekly periodicals whose publishers are independent enough to do their own thinking and courageous enough to publish what they and their representatives found to be the truth?
Was “Frenzied Finance” fiction?
Was Anna M. Tarbell’s exposures of Standard Oil fiction?
Was the exposure of the Waters-Pierce Oil Company’s connection with the great Senatorial “I” of Texas fiction? Was the shake-up of the “Big Three” life insurance companies fiction? Were the hundreds of other trenchant write-ups and exposures of wrong practices, of impositions, of crookedness and crooks in official, corporation and private life, “fiction?”
The man who reads and will attempt to answer any of those questions affirmatively needs to have his brain dusted up—that is, of course, on the presumption that he is not paid for vocal gyrations.
And yet it was the telling write-ups and exposures of these independents which greatly increased their circulation and, consequently, increased second-class tonnage.
(2) There is no such “main statutory check.” Moreover, the “commercial exploitation” given in the advertising pages of our standard periodicals to merchants, manufacturers, etc., is, as previously shown, not only just and due to the vast commercial interests of the country, but it is safely within both the letter and the intent of the statute.
(3) As previously intimated, a sextet of experienced legislators who could not frame up a law that would put the “mail-order journals” and other abusers and abuses of the second-class mail-rate privilege out of business without ruinously restricting and obstructing the vast legitimate periodical interests of the country, that sextet ought to do one of two things, either send their thought equipment to a vacuum cleaner to get the dust blown off and then try again, or they should turn the task over to some other legislators. There most certainly are scores of legislators in the Senate and the House fully equipped to prepare such a piece of legislation.
(4) In comment under (3) I noted this “mail order advertising journal.” I did so to indicate that the Penrose-Overstreet Commission, as it appears to me, worked the “mail order” print stuff overtime for the purpose of reaching certain legitimate publications.
(5) There is no such distinction between “a fiction-carrying periodical and the non-fiction carrying periodical” as that named. Fiction in a periodical is just as permissible under the act as is the series of war stories, or reminiscences, now (May, 1911), running in one of the magazines; as in the series of articles on the civil war now running in one of the Chicago newspapers, or as would be a series of articles on “the Panama Canal,” on the “Development of the Reaping Machine,” on “Treason in Our Senate,” on “The Depletion of American Forests,” on “The Railroads’ Side of the Railway Mail Pay,” or on any other subject of the historical past or active present.
In fact, most of the current fiction, whether in serial or short-story, published in the standard monthly, weekly and other periodicals of large general circulation presents far more of truth than do the stories, reminiscences and “historical narratives about the civil war,” written forty-five years after the events, and, if based on personal experience, written from fading memory of the facts.
(6) While one may agree with the thought expressed by the commission at (6), its wording expresses a desire or tendency to censor the periodical press of the people by legislative restrictions and departmental rulings which not only contravene the Federal Constitution, but which are inimical to the personal rights and liberties guaranteed by that constitution.
Force is added to this objection to the commission’s recommendation by the fact that it specifically delegates to the Postmaster General the power and authority to decide the kind and character of printed matter which shall have the right of entry at second-class rates, and which complies with the requirements the commission would have written into the law.
Section 2 of the at present governing statute, the commission advised (see recommended bill, page 49 of report), should, in its opening paragraph, read as follows:—
“No newspaper or other periodical shall be admitted to the second class unless it shall be made to appear by evidence, satisfactory to the Postmaster General or his lawful deputy in that behalf, that it complies with the following conditions.”
Then follow the “conditions,” several of which I have already shown to be seriously objectionable.
(7) I have already presented, under (5), some objections to the commission’s argument made in this seventh citation. I will, however, again say that the publication of fiction, other than immoral, in periodicals, does not, in my judgment at least, in any way infringe the “purpose of the act” of 1879. I will here go further, and say that the act of ’79 does not comprehend in its “real purpose,” as the commission tries to make it appear at (7), that “the diffusion in the quickest possible way at the smallest possible cost of timely information among the people”—that is, the act does not so purpose if the word “timely,” as here used, is intended to mean “news” or “currence of matter,” etc., as the commission elsewhere in its report argues for. In fact, the commission’s statement at (7) is further alee of the “real purpose” of the act of 1879 than is the publication of any fiction in a periodical, and that too, whether the fiction be a reprint of some old production or the imaginative visualizations of some current writer who moved from periodical publication in 1908 or 1909 to print as a “best-seller” in 1910, or from a best seller in 1908-9 to periodical form in 1911.
In short, the commission’s position regarding the publication of fiction in periodical form contravenes the “real purpose” of the law. So, also, does its position on several points it seeks to bolster in its report contravene the real purpose of that act, as I have previously shown, quoting in one instance the opinion of a Postmaster General’s counsel, which opinion the commission itself quoted to support a false position.
I feel constrained to make another point against the stand this commission took against the admissibility to the second class mail rate privilege of periodicals largely devoted to fiction.
It appears to me that these commissioners must have confined their reading in recent years largely to the older and so-called “classic” fiction, to professional tomes, to juridic opinions, attorney’s briefs, and to “booster” stuff for parties and candidates published in our newspapers. Certainly they could not have read much of the periodical fiction published by our high-class monthlies and weeklies. If they had done so, they would not, it seems to me, have written so loosely and unwarrantedly of the “fiction” in their report.
Had they read much of the fiction appearing in the leading periodicals during current and recent years, they would have learned at least two facts about it:
1. Much—yes, most—of the fiction printed during recent years in our standard periodicals (even in those printing only fiction as “body matter”), has been highly didactic or educational in character.
2. The periodical fiction published in our leading magazines and weeklies has taught our people lessons in morals, in politics, in political economy, in social, domestic and industrial life. It has told its readers of the habits and habitat of animals, of birds and bees; of flowers, of fruits and forestry. Nor has there been much of “nature faking” in it. Some of the most informative matter ever printed bearing upon natural history, the geography, topography and hydrography of this earth, has reached us through the periodical fiction of the past ten or twelve years. Not only that, but such fiction has gone to the farm and into the laboratory, into the mine, the factory, the mill, and the lumber camp; into the mercantile establishment, into transportation, both rail and water; into the counting room, into the “sweat-shop” and into the tenement districts, the purlieus and the “submerged tenths” in both the lower and higher “walks” of the world’s various and varying civilizations, and it has taught us things we did not before know.
Then why should new laws be enacted, or old laws be twisted, turned or misconstrued, to exclude “fiction”—periodical fiction—from the second-class mail rate privilege?
One other objection I find to this 1906-7 commission’s report. It recommends the appointment of a “Commission of Postal Appeals.”
The report states that certain publishers favored such a commission. That be as it may, I do not believe that such a commission will return service value at all commensurate with the amount of public money it would cost to keep its wheels “greased” and operating. Next to a bureaucracy, government by commissions is the worst. Can the reader think of a “Commission”—a Government, a State, County or City Commission—that ever discharged, promptly and satisfactorily, the duties assigned to it? One is put to no trouble to think of scores of Civil Service Commissions, Forestry Commissions, Subway Commissions, Canal Commissions, Traction Commissions, Railroad Commissions, Postal Commissions, Inter-State Commerce Commissions and a host of others.
But do you know of one of them that ever did any real serviceable work for the people—did it until an aroused and hostile public opinion kicked it into doing the work?
You may know of one. The Man on the Ladder knows of none, and he has been watching the service value of the “commission” for thirty-five years. As a governing instrument it has largely been a subversive instrument. It always spends its appropriation. It always puts as many of its uncles, brothers and nephews on the pay roll and takes as many junkets as is possible under its appropriation and, if the appropriation is exceeded, it usually asks for more and—gets it.
We have an Interstate Commerce Commission. It has been on the job ever since John Sherman put it on duty. Sherman knew what he intended—wanted—it to do. Did it do what he and the rest of us depended on it to do? Well, not to any noticeable extent. It spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of our money while it permitted the railroads and express companies to rebate, “differential” and “short” and “long” haul us out of hundreds of millions of easy or stolen dollars.
O yes! of course the Interstate Commerce Commission is, of late, getting down to business—getting down to the work John Sherman intended it to do when he drafted the bill which created it.
Why has that commission finally arrived at its starting point? Why is it now trying to do—and trying, even yet, to do it in a loose, dilatory way—what Sherman intended it to do?
“Why?” Why, simply because the people have finally learned—thanks largely to the enlightenment given them by the independent periodicals of the country—that they have been governmentally treated as fools—that they have been treated as sheep to furnish fleece and mutton for a few who feast and wear fine raiment, yet earn it not.
O yes, the people have learned some things and they, recently, have been learning rapidly. It is the people who have learned who have virtually kicked the Interstate Commerce Commission into dutiful action.
No, I positively do not like government by commission, and especially do I not like government of our postal service, or any phase, feature or division of it, by a “Commission of Postal Appeals” or by any other commission, however dignified its title may be. Any suggestion or recommendation of such a commission is, to The Man on the Ladder, but a suggestion and recommendation to further load an already overloaded service.
By that, I mean that the service now rendered by the Federal Postoffice Department is not nearly commensurate with the number of employes carried on its payrolls or with its expenditures, and that the creation of a commission—any postal commission—will only add names to the department payrolls and thousands of dollars to its already excessive expenditures.
In closing my consideration of this Penrose-Overstreet Commission’s report—a report which Mr. Hitchcock appears to have taken some “hunches” from while it also appears he gave very little or no study or consideration to the vast amount of informative data it collected and filed—I desire to make a statement or two and then ask a pertinently impertinent question or two.
Among the vast amount of informative data on the subject of transporting and handling second-class mail matter, its cost to the government, etc., there are pages upon pages of testimony by publishers the commission invited to appear before it in person or by representative. Some of that testimony, so newspapers reported during the hearings in both New York and Washington, is supported or re-enforced by the jurats of the publishers testifying. Some of those publishers stated in their testimony that the sample copies they had distributed had, by reason of the correspondence and mail business resulting, amply compensated the government for carrying and handling such sample copies. Several specific and detailed statements were made by the publishers.
Again: The publishers furnished voluminous testimony—both in their own statements and in the correspondence of business men who had patronized the columns of their publications—in proof of the fact that (1) the advertising pages of their publications were as generally read, if not more read, than were the body pages, and (2) that the sales of stamps by the government for the correspondence and business resulting from the advertisements printed yielded far more postal revenue than did any other character of second-class matter the mail service handled.
Now, the questions.
When this Penrose-Overstreet Commission sent out its invitations most of them went to publishers and associations of publishers. At any rate so it would appear from statements in the commission’s report.
Did the commission believe the publishers invited were liars?
If so, why did it invite them?
After hearing their verbal testimony and looking over their written statements, did the commission conclude that those publishers were liars?
If so, why did it spend the people’s money to collate, digest and file the testimony of liars for the information of Mr. Cortelyou, the then Postmaster General, Mr. Meyer and Mr. Hitchcock, his successor, and other Postmaster Generals who will follow Mr. Hitchcock?
Again—If those commissioners of 1906-7 concluded, either before or after hearing them, that the publishers were or are liars, why may not, or should not, those publishers conclude (after reading their report) that the commissioners are liars?
FOOTNOTES
Covers are included in the total for pages given.
One cover page included in count for periodicals carrying cover with no advertising matter on title page of same.
Three pages of cover are counted as advertising.
The weight of supplements to Sunday Editions of newspapers (when mentioned as supplements in list), is included in the gross weight of the issue as given.
I quoted from Senator Owen on a previous page when discussing the unconstitutionality of Senate revenue-originating amendments. Under his leave to print Senator Owen embodied in his remarks on February 25, 1911, the arguments presented by some of the publishers in reply to Mr. Hitchcock’s statements. They point out in particular his peculiar method of figuring by which he reaches results so at variance with the facts as, at times, to be far more amusing than informative. I shall here quote some of them.
I have previously adverted to the promptitude of Senators Owen, Bristow, Bourne, Cummings and others in getting onto the firing line. Their combined resistance soon forced Mr. Hitchcock to unmask his guns. He was ready, it would seem, to do or concede almost anything provided, always and of course, he could give a few of those pestiferous, independent magazines a jar that would so agitate their several bank accounts as to influence them to print what they were told to print.
But when the General found that he was flanked, and his position being shot up, he began to display parley and peace signals. “The country newspapers would not be affected”—they would still be carried and distributed free—55,000,000 pounds of them or more each and every calendar year.
The “poor farmer” needs special government aid, you know. Or, if the farmer should not be personally in need of government assistance, as now it frequently and numerously chances, why, well—oh, well, we desire to show our friendly “leanin’s toward him.” He may remember it at the next Presidential election—just when we may be needing a few farmer votes. So, as one evidence of our kindly consideration for the farmer, we will not trench upon his special privilege. He shall still have delivered him—free—fifty-five to seventy million pounds of “patent insides” and other partisan dope sheets, printed in his own county and published and edited by regularly indentured, branded and tagged political fence-builders—guaranteed “safe” under the pure food laws, etc.
Then Postmaster General Hitchcock also let it be generally known that it was remote from his intentions to add a mail-rate penalty to any religious, educational, fraternal or scientific periodical. Some of these—not including the Sunday School leaflets, of course—circulate in vast editions ranging from 500 to 5,000 copies a month. They, too, were such “powerful educational instruments,” he or some of his assistants assured doubting Thomases in both the upper and the lower branches of federal legislation.
Next, he back-stepped a little to assure trade journals that it was not his purpose to hand them any advance over the cent-a-pound mail rate, or so at least, Washington correspondents reported. Finally it is said, a statement generously borne out by the wording of his jockeyed “rider,” that newspapers—all newspapers—would be fanned through the mail service at the old cent-a-pound rate.
It would appear that the anxious interest of our Postmaster General was willing to let almost any old thing in the shape of a “periodical” switch through and along at the old rate, if he could only ham-string a few—a score or less—of monthly and weekly periodicals which persisted in printing the unlaundered truth about looters, both in and out of office.
Now, we will present a few figures and statements of the publishers, presented in answer to Mr. Hitchcock’s voluminous, likewise varied and variegated, utterances, both verbal and in print, to support his lurid guess that it costs the government 9.23 cents a pound to transport and handle second-class mail matter.
Before quoting the publishers, however, I desire to say two things:
1. The periodical publishers must necessarily know, I take it, more about the business of printing and distributing periodicals than Mr. Hitchcock has been able to learn about that business in the two politically swift years he has been on his present job.
2. The publishers in replying—in presenting the facts—are entirely too dignified. Of course, dignity is a fine thing—an elegant decoration for our advanced and super-polished civilization. But when some human animal deliberately and industriously tries to shunt on to your siding a carload or more of “deficits” and other partisan and “vested interest” junk, and tells you its price is so much and that you have to pay the price—well, at about that point in the progress of our splendid civilization, I think it both the part of justice and of thrift to lay dignity on the parlor couch and walk out on your own trackage, making as you loiter along a few plain and easily understood remarks. That is just what I believe these publishers should have done when Mr. Hitchcock covertly tried to deliver to them, charges collect, his several large consignments of talk about “deficits,” “cost of carriage and handling second-class matter,” “publisher’s profits” and other subjects about which he was either equally ill-informed or ill-advised.
Yes, there are occasions when it is quite proper to hang one’s dignity on that nail behind the kitchen door and sally forth in shirt sleeves with top-piece full of rapid-fire conversation.
With these suggestions, from which it is hoped the publishers may take a few hints for future guidance when Presidents and Postmaster Generals undertake to deliver to them a cargo of cold-storage stuff that was “off color” before it left the farm, I will proceed to do what I have several times started to do—quote the publisher on Mr. Hitchcock’s ring-around-a-rosy method of figuring.
In quoting from the publishers’ “exhibits” it is due to Senator Owen that we reprint a few paragraphs from his foreword. In speaking to “the merits of the case,” the Senator said:
Separate and apart from the fact that this proposed amendment violates the Constitution of the United States and the rules of the Senate, I regard such method of legislation as unwise, if not reprehensible, for the reason that, in effect, it is a denial of the right to be heard by those who are deeply interested in it. Over a year ago the periodical publishers affected desired to be heard in this matter, and were not given a proper hearing on this vital question. Indeed, they appear to have been left under the impression that nothing would be done in regard to the matter; or, at all events, they seem to have been under this impression. When the matter came before the House of Representatives and the committee having the matter in charge, no discussion of this matter took place. No report on it was made. No opportunity to be heard was afforded. Neither was the matter discussed on the floor of the House. When the postoffice appropriation bill came to the Senate, no hearing was afforded, but at the last minute, after the committee had practically concluded every item on the appropriation bill, this item was presented, not only giving the periodical publishers no opportunity to be heard, but giving the members of the committee no opportunity to study this matter and to digest it. I regard it as grossly unfair, and at the time in the committee I reserved the right to oppose this amendment on the floor of the Senate.
In the affairs affecting our internal administration I am strongly opposed to any secrecy.
In my judgment, the claim made by the Postoffice Department is erroneous on its face, for the obvious reason that it is conceded that these magazines are brought by express and distributed in Washington, D. C., over 250 miles from New York, at less than 1 cent a pound for cost of transportation and distribution. The Postoffice Department declares that it costs 9 cents a pound. This is a mere juggling of figures.
I have no doubt that if a proper weighing of the mails was observed, and if the railways were to carry the mails at a reasonable rate, this distribution could be made at a cost approximately that which I have named, as illustrated by the cost of distribution in Washington City, which is an undisputed fact.
After presenting the publishers’ “Exhibit A,” in which they refute Mr. Hitchcock’s unfounded assertions of colossal profits in the magazine publishing business—a subject which I treat elsewhere—the Senator presents their “Exhibit B,” which counters the Postmaster General’s claim that the proposed increase in rate would yield a large revenue to the government. “Exhibit B” reads as follows:—
It has been shown from the original books of account of the five most prominent magazines that the proposed measure charging 4 cents a pound postage on all sheets of magazines on which advertising is printed would tax these magazines, the most powerful group, best able to meet such a shock, nearly the whole of their entire net income. This means that the new postal rate could not be paid. There is not money enough in the magazine business to pay it. Magazines would simply be debarred from the United States mails.
But assume, for the sake of argument, that this would not be the case, and that the money could be found to pay the new postage bills, what, theoretically, would be the increased revenue of the Postoffice Department, for the sake of which it is proposed to take more than all the profits of the industry that has been built up since 1879?
The Postmaster General, in his statement given to the Associated Press, and published in the newspapers Tuesday morning, February 14, claims that the proposed postal increase on periodical advertising would amount to less than 1 cent flat on the weight of the whole periodical. This is not the way the ambiguously worded amendment works out literally; but, accepting the Postmaster General’s figures and applying them to the weights, given in his annual report, of the second-class mail classifications affected by the increase, let us pin the Postoffice Department down to what it hopes to gain from a measure that would confiscate the earnings of an industry.
Mr. Hitchcock in his statement gives 800,000,000 pounds as the total weight of second-class matter. In his report for 1909 he gives the percentage of this weight of the classifications that could possibly be affected by this proposed increase as 20.23 per cent for magazines, 6.4 per cent for educational publications, 5.91 per cent for religious periodicals, 4.94 per cent for trade journals, and 5 per cent for agricultural periodicals, making 42.97 per cent altogether of the 800,000,000 pounds that might be affected by the proposed increase, or 343,760,000 pounds. Of course, this includes the periodicals publishing less than 4,000 pounds weight per issue, and exempted by the amendment.
But, making no deduction whatsoever for these exemptions, and none for the great expense of administering this complex measure, with its effect of conferring despotic power, certain to be disputed, the Postmaster General claims that this figures out only 1 cent increased revenue on 343,760,000 pounds, or a gross theoretical gain to the Postoffice Department of $3,437,600. These are the Postmaster General’s figures, not the publishers’.
But from this figure of 343,760,000 pounds the Postmaster General would have to subtract the weight of all the periodicals exempted, and also subtract all the new expense involved for a large force of clerks.
There will also be a great increase of work for inspectors, as the proposed measure puts a premium on dishonesty. There will be constant temptation for unscrupulous people, who try to take the place of the present reputable publishers, to publish advertising in the guise of legitimate reading matter. There will be extra legal expenses for the disputes that arise between publishers and the Postoffice Department over matters in which the publishers may believe the department is using the despotic power given by this measure to confiscate the property of publishers. In the hearings before the Weeks committee, it was frankly admitted by members of the House Committee on Postoffices and Postroads that the government postoffice service could never be run with the economy and efficiency of a private concern.
With all the expense of this new scheme subtracted from such a small possible gain as is claimed by Mr. Hitchcock, what revenue would remain to justify the wiping out of an industry built up in good faith through thirty-two years of an established fundamental postoffice rate?
If the department succeeded in saving $2,000,000, after deducting the exempted publications and all the new expense involved for a great force of clerks, this would amount to less than 1 per cent of its revenues for 1910. It would amount to less than one-eighth of the postoffice deficit in 1909. It would amount to less than one-fourteenth of the loss on rural free delivery alone in that year.
But even this gain would be only theoretical; for, as shown before (Exhibit A), many of the comparatively small groups of periodicals left to be published, after the favored ones were exempted, would find that it required more than all their income to pay their share of the new rate.
You can not take away from a person more than 100 per cent of all that he has—even from a publisher. It is not there.
These figures of increased revenue to the government are based on the department’s own statements. They are mathematically accurate.
They must not be interpreted, however, as measuring the extent of publishers’ losses. They take no account of the increases, certain to follow the enactment of this legislation, in the rates of other lines of distribution from which the government derives no revenue. They take no account of the loss in circulation volume, that is certain to follow an attempt to raise the price of magazines to the public. They take no account of the loss in advertising revenue that is certain to follow a loss in circulation.
Neither are these figures a complete record of the effect on the government revenue. They take no account of the certain destruction of publishing properties, and the consequent destruction of postal revenue on the profitable first-class matter their advertising once created.
“Postscript: Since this calculation was made and a flood of telegrams from agricultural publications has come to Congress, the afternoon newspapers of Tuesday, February 14, reported that at a cabinet meeting on that day it was decided by the Administration and announced by Postmaster General Hitchcock that agricultural periodicals will be exempted from the increased postal rate. The owners and other representatives of agricultural periodicals gathered in Washington to oppose the amendment to the postoffice appropriation bill at once left Washington for their homes. It was reported at the same time that the religious periodicals had also been assured that a paternal Administration would take care of them.
“This leaves the situation in such shape that the Administration has at last got down to the comparatively small group of popular magazines.
“These magazines proper, the Postmaster General says, constitute 20.23 per cent of second-class matter, or only 162,000,000 pounds, out of the 800,000,000 pounds of second-class mail.
“As the Postmaster General says, as explained above, that the proposed increase would only mean 1 cent a pound more on the whole periodical, he could only figure out a theoretical gross gain of $1,620,000. But his figures are, as usual, all wrong.
“From this $1,620,000, that his figures come to, he would have to deduct, of course, the exempted periodicals and also all expenses of administering the proposed new measure.
“The pretense of raising second-class rates to do away with the postoffice deficit therefore disappears.
“A few popular magazines are to be punished.
“The absurdly unjust discrimination involved in the proposed increase of postal rates on certain subclasses of second-class mail, leaving the larger subclasses, more costly to the postoffice, untouched, is shown in Exhibit C.”
But how about this new development, in which the Postmaster General apparently decides from day to day and hour to hour as to whether one class of periodicals or another shall be allowed to live or made to die?
Has there ever before been in America, or in Russia, or in China, a censor with this power? If the institutions of this country are to be so changed as to give this despotic censorship to one man, ought that man to be the official in charge of the political machinery, as patronage broker, of the Administration?
Now, we come to weights, and here the publishers begin to talk back a little. In introducing the publishers’ “Exhibit C” Senator Owen said:
“It is insisted by the Postoffice Department that it is entirely just to increase the cost on advertisements in the magazines. I submit their answer:”
Why should the Administration have gone to a small 20 per cent portion of the second-class mail to increase postal rates? The Postmaster General gives the magazine weight as 20 per cent of the whole second-class mail, and newspapers as 55.73 per cent. Why leave out the largest classification entirely and concentrate all the new tax on a little 20 per cent classification, which in profit-making and tax-bearing capacity is vastly smaller than even the figures of 20 per cent and 55.73 per cent indicate?
The real reason why the Administration concentrated its fire on the magazines is well known.
But let us look at the reasons given by the Administration—given hurriedly and weakly, and almost absurdly easy to disprove.
Why are newspapers exempt and magazines punished to the point of confiscation?
The Administration says (a) magazines carry more advertising than newspapers; (b) they cost the Postoffice Department more than newspapers, because they are hauled farther.
(a) It is not true that magazines carry more advertising than newspapers. By careful measuring the entire superficial area and the advertising contents, respectively, of each of 36 daily newspapers and each of 54 periodicals—the chief advertising mediums of the country—it is found that magazines averaged 34.4 per cent advertising, newspapers averaged 38.08 per cent advertising.
(b) The statement that magazines cost the Postoffice Department more per pound than newspapers is easily susceptible of final disproof from the department’s own figures—the most extreme figures it has been able to bring forward in its attempts to prove a case against the magazines.
The Postoffice Department states that owing to the different average lengths of haul, it costs 5 cents to transport a pound of magazines and 2 cents to transport a pound of newspapers.
Admit that these figures, often repeated in the department’s reports, are correct. Let us see how the final cost of service for a pound of magazines looks beside the final cost of service to a pound of newspapers.
Besides the cost of transporting mail, figured of course by weight and length of haul, there are three huge factors of cost, apportioned according to the number of pieces of mail—rural free delivery, railway-mail service, and postoffice service (Postoffice Department pamphlet, “Cost of transporting and hauling the several classes of mail matter,” 1910).
TRANSPORTATION COST OF MAGAZINES AND NEWSPAPERS.
By weighing carefully the representative magazine, every copy of a year’s issue of 64 leading magazines, and by weighing 60 different classes of newspapers, daily and Sunday, the postal committee of the Periodical Publishers’ Association has found that the magazine weighs, on the average, 12.3 ounces and the newspaper 3.92 ounces.
The Postmaster General’s report for 1909 furnishes the total pounds of second class mail—764,801,370—and the proportion of newspapers and magazines in this weight—55.73 per cent and 20.23 per cent, respectively.
This gives 154,719,317 pounds of magazines in the mails and 426,223,803 pounds of newspapers.
The cost of transporting these, by the Postoffice Department’s figures, is 5 cents a pound for transporting magazines and 2 cents a pound for transporting newspapers, making $7,735,965.85 for hauling magazines and $8,524,476.06 for hauling newspapers.
THE HANDLING COST.
But the department says specifically, in the pamphlet referred to above, that the handling cost it apportions according to the number of pieces, in three classifications of expense—the railway mail service, rural free delivery, and postoffice service. The total cost of these items charged against second-class matter is (Postmaster General’s report, 1909), $39,818,583.86.
The total number of pieces of second-class mail handled was 3,695,594,448 (H. Doc. 910, “Weighing of the Mails.”)
Newspapers, averaging 3.92 ounces each, and weighing in the mails altogether 426,223,803 pounds, furnished 1,740,000,000 pieces to handle (taking round millions, which would not affect the percentages), or 47.17 per cent of all second-class pieces.
The 154,719,317 pounds of magazines, weighing 12.3 ounces each, furnished 201,260,000 pieces to handle, or 5.44 per cent of all second-class pieces.
Figuring these piece percentages on $39,818,583.86, the expense which the department says should be apportioned according to the number of pieces, and which it does so apportion, we have the handling cost on the 154,719,317 pounds of magazines $2,166,139.96, or 1.4 cents per pound.
The newspaper-handling cost would be 55.73 per cent of $39,818,583.86, or $28,782,425.10, which, divided by the total of newspaper pounds, gives us the handling cost of a pound of newspapers 6.75 cents.
THE NET RESULT.
So, using the department’s own figures and methods of figuring, we have the cost of hauling and handling magazines, 5 cents plus 1.4 cents, or 6.4 cents; the cost of hauling and handling newspapers, 2 cents plus 6.75 cents, or 8.75 cents.
This shows that without going into the miscellaneous expenditures at all, which would slightly further increase the cost of newspapers as compared with magazines, the department’s own figures show that it is losing on the fundamental operations of hauling and handling 7.75 cents a pound on 426,223,803 pounds of newspapers, or $33,032,844.73, as against losing 5.4 cents a pound on 154,719,317 pounds of magazines, or $8,354,843.11.
With a loss, according to its own figures, over 400 per cent as great on newspapers as on magazines, the department goes to the magazines, of scarcely one-third the weight of newspapers, and with not one-twentieth the financial ability to pay such a new tax, to meet the whole burden of its futile and confiscatory attempt to reduce the deficit.
Furthermore, the advertising in magazines, which the department proposes to tax out of existence, is the very national mail-order advertising that produces the profitable revenue, as against the local announcements in the newspapers of the class of page department-store advertisements, etc., which do not call for answers through the mails under first-class postage (see Exhibit F).
And, still further, the modern newspaper of large circulation is more of a magazine, as distinguished from a paper chiefly devoted to disseminating news and intelligence and discussion of public affairs, than the modern magazine. Compare the “magazine sections” of the large newspapers (and most of the balance of their Sunday issues), with publications like the Review of Reviews, World’s Work, Current Literature, Literary Digest, Collier’s Weekly, or even with Everybody’s, the American, the Cosmopolitan and McClure’s, to see the obvious truth of this statement.
I have marked the fourth from last paragraph of the publishers’ “Exhibit C” to be set in italics. I did so for fear the hurried reader might gather a wrong impression from its wording. The publishers do not mean to say that it costs the government 7.75 cents a pound to carry and handle newspapers, nor 5.4 cents a pound to carry and handle magazines. It is a known fact that both the newspapers and the magazines can be carried and handled by the government at a profit at $20.00 a ton—at the cent-a-pound rate. Mr. Hitchcock asserted in the official brochure to which the publishers are here making reply, I take it, that second-class mail hauling and handling costs 9.23 cents a pound. In this “Exhibit C,” the publishers are proving that, even if his absurd claim as to cost were true, his method of apportioning that cost between newspapers and other periodicals is grossly unfair, as well as ridiculously wrong mathematically.
Then Mr. Hitchcock, or his department, suggests that the magazines meet the added charge put upon them for haul and handling by increasing their sale price. That is, let the five, ten or fifteen-cent weeklies ring up five cents more per copy on subscribed and news stand prices—make the readers pay it. Let the monthlies do likewise.
That suggestion carries a sort of familiar resonance. “Make the rate (tariff) what the traffic will stand.”
Ever hear of it? If you have not, then you must have arrived as a mission child in the Chinese or Hindoostanese “field of effort,” and have lived there until the week before last.
Ring up the revenues and make the dear people pay it in added purchase price!
The people have a few dollars stored away in savings accounts or stockings, and if they want a thing they will broach their hoardings. They have the money. We want it.
One of the surest and easiest ways to get it is to make them pay more for what they consider essentials to their subsistence, to the comforts and the pleasures of their lives. They have been buying some splendid monthly periodicals at twelve and a half cents to fifteen cents. If they want them, why not make ’em pay twenty or twenty-five cents?
Yes, why not? It’s the people, and—well—
“To hell with the people.”
For four decades or more of our history, that “official” opinion of the “dear people” has delivered the goods. The Congress, or certain “fixed” members of it, told us that we needed, in order to be entirely prosperous and happy, a tariff on “raw” wool, “raw” cotton, “raw” hides, “raw” sugar and several other “raws,” assuring us that such action would greatly inure to our benefit.
They lied, of course. But it took us fool people a generation or more to find out that fact. In that generation, the liars gathered multiplied millions of unearned wealth and passed it into the hands of “innocent holders,” most of whom, if our court news columns are correct, have been spending it to get away from the trousered or the skirted heirs they married.
The point, however, I desire to make here is that while this varied and various “raw” talk was being ladled to us—and most of us ordering a second serving—our patriotic friends in positions of legislative authority, and our commercial and business “friends” who steered the “raw” talk, had “cornered” all the home-grown raw and were selling us the manufactured product at two prices.
But this is aside. I inject it here merely to illustrate how easily and continuously we fool people are fooled.
Postmaster General Hitchcock’s prattle about the publishers recouping themselves by lifting the price on us is of a kind with all the other “raw” talk which has looted us for forty or more years.
We buy a better periodical—say a monthly—for fifteen cents today than we got for fifty cents thirty years ago.
Not only that: The fifteen-center tells us of our wrongs, of how we were and are wronged and of how we may right the wrongs. The fifty-center of thirty years ago told us largely of things which entertained us—things historically, geographically, geologically, astronomically, psychically or similarly informative and instructive. They told us little or nothing of how we were misgoverned—of how misgovernment saps and loots and degenerates a people. That function of periodical education was left largely to the five, ten and fifteen-centers of the present day—periodicals of price within reach of limited means and of a large, rapidly growing desire to know.
See the point? “No”? Well, then don’t go to arguing.
If you do not see the point, just sit up and shake yourself loose a little.
“A little wisdom is a dangerous thing”; “For much wisdom is much grief,” and similar old saws which truth-perverters glossed into sacred or classic texts. The people are gathering “wisdom” from these low-priced, carefully-written, independent periodicals—periodicals which tell the “raw” truth. It is dangerous. They will hurt themselves. We vested-interests people and “innocent holders” must set up some hurdles; must keep the dear, earning people from learning too much—from learning what we know. Their chief source of enlightenment are the cheap, attractive, instructive, independent periodicals. Our first act should be to cut down—or cut out—this source of supply.
Then the dear people will come back and read what we hire written for them, and then—
Well, then the dear earners of dollars for us will not “learn wisdom” enough to hurt them or—us.
But, getting back to Mr. Hitchcock’s reported suggestion, in effect, to advance the subscription or selling price of the magazines and others of the “few” periodicals that would be affected by his proposed “rider” legislation. I shall call attention to but one basic fact which his suggestion covers—intendedly or not, I know not.
To me, it appears better to do this by a few direct statements.
1. An advance of two or five cents a pound on the people’s subsistence supplies—meats, vegetables, etc.—or on a yard of textile fabric they must have to cover or shelter their nakedness, will be met by them as long as they can dig up, or dig out, the funds to buy.
2. A corresponding advance in the price of some desired, or even needed, article which is not absolutely necessary to subsist, clothe or shelter them will induce them to hesitate before purchasing—will often lead to an exercise of self-denial which refuses to make the purchase—refuses, not because they do not want the article, but because they cannot afford it by reason of pressing subsistence needs.
That these rules of domestic economy apply to the sale and circulation of periodicals was quite conclusively shown to Mr. Hitchcock by the publishers. Senator Owens adverts to this point as follows:
“It has been suggested that the magazines could collect the additional cost imposed on them by raising the price of their magazines.”
He then quotes “Exhibit D” of the publishers in reply:
It has been shown (Exhibit A) from the original books of account of the chief magazine properties that the measure providing for a new postal rate of 4 cents a pound on all magazine sheets on which advertising is printed would wipe out the magazine industry—would require more money than the publishers make.
Could not the burden be passed on to advertisers or subscribers, or to both?
WHY ADVERTISERS WOULD NOT TAKE THE BURDEN.
Magazine advertisers buy space at so much a thousand circulation. The magazine is required to state its circulation and show that the rate charged per line is fair. Some advertisers go so far as to insist on contracts which provide that if the circulation during the life of the contract falls below the guaranteed figures they will receive a pro rata rebate from the publisher.
In view of the small net profits of the industry—it is shown in Exhibit A that the combined final profits of the five leading standard magazines of America are less than one-tenth of their total advertising income—it is clear that the publisher must be trying always to get as large a rate as possible for the advertising space he sells, and it is absolutely true that he has already got this rate up to the very maximum the traffic will bear.
Advertisers would not think of paying more than they are now paying for the same service. Some of them would use circulars under the third-class postal rate, which the Postmaster General says is unprofitable to his department. Most advertisers would simply find this market for their wares gone, and the thousands of people—artists, clerks, traveling men—engaged in the business of magazine advertising would lose their means of livelihood.
There is no possible hope that the advertiser will pay the bill.
WOULD THE SUBSCRIBER PAY THE INCREASED POSTAL RATE?
The 4 cents a pound rate on advertising would require an advance of approximately 50 per cent in subscription prices if the publisher is to recoup himself by raising the cost of living to the public in its consumption of magazines.
Would the public pay 50 per cent more for the same article?
The question is answered eloquently and finally by the subscription records of the magazines that were forced to increase their rates on Canadian subscriptions when Canada enforced a 4-cent rate on American periodicals. As the discriminatory rate was later withdrawn in certain cases, we have a complete cycle of record and proof. First, the Canadian subscription list before the increase; second, the Canadian subscription list after the increased postal rate and increased subscription price to the Canadian public; third, the Canadian subscription list after the postal rate and the subscription price to the public had been restored to the original status.
HERE IS THE RECORD OF THE REVIEW OF REVIEWS.
In June, 1907, the Review of Reviews began to pay 4 cents a pound postage on Canadian subscriptions, instead of 1 cent, and was forced to raise its Canadian subscription price from $3 to $3.50 a year.
Its Canadian yearly subscribers in July, 1907, numbered 2,973.
At once the subscription list began to fall off, and continued to do so steadily until in January, 1910, it had come down to 904 names.
Early in 1910 the Review of Reviews was readmitted into the Canadian postoffice at 1 cent a pound, its subscription was reduced to the old figure of $3, and the Canadian list quickly “came back,” having reached already in February, 1911, the figure of 2,690 annual subscribers.
Below follows the detailed record, eloquent of what would happen if the prices of popular American magazines were increased 50 per cent to the public. In this Canadian incident the price of the Review of Reviews was increased only 16? per cent and the circulation fell off 69 per cent.
REVIEW OF REVIEWS—CANADIAN SUBSCRIBERS.
June, 1907, began to pay extra postage 2,840
July, 1907 2,973
August, 1907 2,921
September, 1907 2,875
October, 1907 2,761
November, 1907 2,604
December, 1907 2,260
January, 1908 1,536
February, 1908 1,330
March, 1908 1,170
April, 1908 1,350
May, 1908 1,300
June, 1908 1,363
July, 1908 1,360
August, 1908 1,407
September, 1908 1,348
October, 1908 1,357
November, 1908 1,381
December, 1908 1,299
January, 1909 1,095
February, 1909 1,163
March, 1909 1,263
April, 1909 1,321
May, 1909 1,355
June, 1909 1,353
July, 1909 1,369
August, 1909 1,371
September, 1909 1,382
October, 1909 1,237
November, 1909 1,278
December, 1909 1,227
January, 1910 904
February, 1910 974
March, 1910 1,129
February, 1911 2,690
The next exhibit (“Exhibit E”) of the publishers shows quite conclusively “that it would be ruinous to them to raise the rates in the manner proposed,” and Senator Owen presents their plea.
I am going to reprint here their plea as presented in “Exhibit E,” but in doing so The Man on the Ladder desires to remark that the argument, as it has been megaphoned into our ears for the past three or four decades, that an increase of tax rate (whatever the nature of the tax), or a reduction of the tariff or selling rate would be “ruinous,” does not cut much kindling in his intellectual woodshed. It has been entirely a too common yodle either to interest or to instruct any intelligent man who has been watching the play and listening to the concert for forty years. This “ruinous” talk has been out of the cut glass, Louis XVI, Dore, Dolesche and other high-art classes ever since Mrs. Vanderbilt, as was alleged, discovered that Chauncey M. Depew was merely her husband’s servant, just as was her coachman.
If there is a congressional murmur or a legislative growl about cutting down a rail rate, the rail men immediately set the welkin a-ring with a howl about “ruin.” If someone rises with vocal noise enough to be heard in protest against paying 29 cents a pound for Belteschazzar’s “nut-fed,” “sugar-cured,” “embalmed” hams and insists that they should be on the market everywhere at not to exceed 23 cents, Bel. and his cohorts will immediately curdle all the milk in the country with a noise about ruin! ruin! RUIN!
If some statesman rises in his place and offers an amendment reducing the tariff on “K,” or cotton, or sugar; or providing that the government shall build two instead of four “first-class” battleships, the bugles are all turned loose tooting “ruin” for the “wool,” the “cotton,” the “shipbuilding” or other industry affected, as the case may be, and “ruin” will be spread and splattered in printers’ ink all over the country. No, your Man on the Ladder does not have much respect for this “ruin” talk, as it is usually “stumped” and “space-written” for us commoners in the industrial walks of life and in its marts of trade. But when he hears that warning sounded by men engaged in a business industry with which he himself is fairly familiar—a business he himself has several times had to put forth strenuous effort to “lighter” over financial shoals or “spar-off” monetary reefs—when it comes to talk of “ruin” among men engaged in the business of publishing periodical literature in this country, why, then, he gets down off the ladder and listens.
There are two special and specific reasons why every commoner—every earner—should listen to the publishers’ arguments in proof that Mr. Hitchcock’s proposal means ruin to many of them—some of even the strongest and best.
1. An increase of three hundred per cent, as the Postmaster General sought in his “rider” (though somewhat covertly), in the carriage cost and delivery (rail or other) of its product would ruin almost any established business there is in this country, if such increase was forced in the limited time named in that “rider.” A suddenly enforced increase of even one hundred per cent in the haulage and delivery cost of product would put hundreds of our most serviceable industries on the financial rocks.
2. A business man or a business industry that has been giving us thirty cents in manufacturing cost for our fifteen cents in cash is certainly deserving not only of a hearing but of a vigorous, robust, militant support.
That the periodical publishers of this country are doing just that thing—have been doing it for the past twelve to twenty years—no honest periodical reader who is at all familiar with the cost of production will attempt to deny.
That is sufficient reason for presenting here the “Exhibit E” of the publishers:
We point to the history of deficits in the Postoffice Department since 1879, when the pound rate of payment was established for second-class matter. The question at the head of this exhibit is answered by the successive changes in the size of the deficit, compared with coincident changes in the volume of second-class mail.
It will be seen that the largest percentage of deficit in the past 40 years occurred before the pound rate of 2 cents was, in 1879, established for second-class matter; that the percentage of deficit decreased with great rapidity as soon as second-class matter, under the stimulus of the new pound rate, began to increase rapidly; that this decrease in the deficit was accelerated after the second-class rate was lowered, in 1885, to the present rate of 1 cent a pound, and after second-class matter had increased beyond any figure hitherto dreamed of; that the decrease in percentage of deficit continued, coincidently with the increase in volume of second-class mail, until 1902, when large appropriations began for rural free delivery service. Then deficits began to grow as the specified loss on rural free delivery grew. In the last fiscal year, 1910, when the rural free delivery loss remained nearly stationary, as against 1909, the deficit decreased by approximately $11,500,000 to the lowest percentage but one in 27 years, although in this same year second-class matter made the largest absolute gain ever known, amounting to 98,000,000 pounds more than in 1909.
We submit that so many coincidences, taken over a whole generation, and observed in relation to the enormous production of profitable first-class postage through magazine advertising, raise the strongest presumption that the larger the volume of second-class mail becomes the more fully the postoffice plant is worked to its capacity in carrying newspapers and periodicals and the first and third class mail their advertising engenders, and the smaller becomes the deficit, other things being equal.
The other thing that is not equal is the new expenditures, unprofitable in the postoffice balance sheets for rural free delivery. According to the Postmaster General’s report there is in 1910 a surplus of over $23,000,000 outside the specific loss on rural free delivery. A chief reason why the Postoffice Department has this $29,000,000 to lose on rural free delivery is that periodical advertising, and the enormous postal business it generates, has long ago extinguished the deficit and given the huge surplus to spend for a beneficent but financially unprofitable purpose.
But one thing is proved beyond any shadow of doubt by this history of decreasing postoffice deficits and coincident increases in second-class mail, and that is, that the deficit can be reduced with an ever-increasing body of second-class mail, carried at one cent a pound. It can be, because the record shows it was.
Below is a fuller history of postoffice deficits and second-class increases:
THE FACTS AS TO DEFICITS AND SECOND-CLASS MATTER.
The annual reports of the Postmaster General are the authority for the following figures:
In the year 1870 there was a deficit in the operations of the United States Postoffice Department of 21.4 per cent of its turnover.
In 1879 there was passed the act that put second-class matter on a pound-payment basis. An immediate increase in second-class matter began.
In 1880 there was a deficit in the postoffice operations of only 9.6 per cent of its business.
In 1885 was passed the law that made the rate for second-class matter 1 cent a pound, which still further increased second-class mail. It trebled in the decade preceding 1890.
In 1890 the deficit in the operations of the Postoffice Department was 8.8 per cent.
The next decade brought a much larger increase in second-class matter than any previous 10 years—from 174,053,910 pounds in 1890 to 382,538,999 pounds in 1900.
The deficit in the postoffice operations in the year 1900 was 5.2 per cent of its business.
In the prosperous years following 1900 the increase of second-class matter was stupendous; from 382,538,999 pounds in 1900 to 488,246,903 pounds in 1902, only two years. The increase of advertising in the magazines was even greater than the increase in second-class matter. These years brought the great forward movement in the production of low priced but well edited magazines, made possible by large advertising incomes, and also in the increase in circulation by extensive combination book offers, and so-called “clubbing” arrangements, by which the subscriber could purchase three or more magazines together at a lower price than the aggregate of their list prices.
In 1901 there was a deficit in the postoffice operations of only 3.5 per cent of its business.
In 1902 the deficit for the postoffice operations was 2.4 per cent, the smallest percentage of deficit in 18 years and the smallest but two in 40 years.
RURAL FREE DELIVERY STEPS IN.
But in this year is seen for the first time, in important proportions, a new item of expense, $4,000,000 for rural free delivery. Our government had wisely and beneficently extended the service of the postoffice to farmers in isolated communities, regardless of the expense of so doing. The report of the Postmaster General for 1902 says: “It will be seen that had it not been for the large expenditure on account of rural free delivery, the receipts would have exceeded the expenditures by upward of $1,000,000.”
It will be clear, from these figures, which are taken from the reports of the Postmaster General, that beginning with the advent of the second-class pound-rate system, the deficit of the postoffice has steadily declined, the rate of decrease being always coincident with the expansion of circulation and advertising of periodicals, until in 1902 there was a substantial surplus, which the government wisely saw fit to use for a purpose not related to the needs of magazines and periodicals or to their expansion.
A REAL SURPLUS OF OVER $74,000,000 IN NINE YEARS.
Since 1902 there has always been a surplus in the operations of the Postoffice Department, outside of the money the Government has seen fit to expend for rural free delivery, (wisely, and otherwise wastefully.) In the present year, 1910, the report of the Postmaster General shows a surplus of over $23,000,000 outside the loss on the rural free delivery service of $29,000,000. The years 1902 to 1910 have each shown a surplus in the postoffice profit and loss account, the nine years aggregating over $74,000,000, outside the actual loss on the rural free delivery system.
How enormously second-class mail aids the department’s finances by originating profitable first-class postage can be appreciated by referring to the specific examples in Exhibit F.
It should be borne in mind that the turning of large deficits into actual surpluses, which has come coincidently with the expansion of second-class mail, of circulation pushing, and of advertising, has come in spite of an enormous expansion in governmental mail, carried free, and Congressional mail, franked, which has not been credited to the postoffice at all in calculating the actual surplus shown above.
Next the publishers come forward with “Exhibit F.” Their “Exhibit F” is not merely an “exhibit.” It is an exhibition, with a three-ring circus, a menagerie and moving pictures as a “side.” Candidly, I am of the opinion that it was this “Exhibit F” of the publishers which induced our friend, the Postmaster General, to loosen the clutch on his mental gear.
Of course, it is possible Mr. Hitchcock did not, nor has not, read this “F” of the publishers. If such a misfortune has cast its shadow across his promising career, I regret it.
“Why?”
Well, to anyone anxiously interested in dissipating, or removing, the federal postoffice “deficit,” the reading of the publishers’ “F” should be most entertaining.
That F of the publishers most certainly presents some facts which any man, unless he is a fool, as some descriptive artist has appropriately put it, in an “elaborate, broad, beautiful and comprehensive sense,” must appreciate.
Senator Owen introduced “Exhibit F” of the publishers in necessarily, and of course, dignified form—a form in keeping with the exalted position he holds and worthily fills. Your uncle on the ladder, however, is not, as you may possibly have already discovered, restrained by any code de luxe as to his forms of speech or as to their edge.
The publishers in their Exhibit “F” show and, as I have said, show conclusively, that the advertising pages in periodicals (newspapers or other), are the pages which support—which pay the bills—of the Postoffice Department of these United States.
I would ask the reader to keep that last statement in mind, for, in spite of the Postmaster General’s voluminous, cushion-tired conversation and automatic comptometer figuring, the publishers furnish ample evidence in proof that the statement just made is safe and away inside the truth.
Oh, yes, of course, I remember that Solomon or some other wise man of ancient times has said “all men are liars.” That was possibly, even probably, true of the men of his day. It may also be admitted without prejudice, I trust, to either party to this case, that there is a numerous body of trousered liars scattered in and along the various walks of life even at this late date. So, there appears to be no valid reason nor grounds to question the veracity of Solomon, or whoever the ancient witness was, when he testified, to the best of his knowledge and belief, that all men are prevaricators. However, I desire in this connection to have the reader understand that The Man on the Ladder is of the opinion there are a few men on earth now, whatever the condition and proclivities of their remote ancestors may have been, who have an ingrown desire or predisposition to tell the truth.
This view of the genus homo is warranted, if indeed not supported, by the plainly and frequently observed fact that in almost every recorded instance where the truth serves a purpose better than a lie, the truth gets into the testimony.
The Man on the Ladder also believes there are men—bunches of men—in this our day who will tell us the truth whether they can afford to do so or not.
I have given this “aside,” if the reader will kindly so consider it, to the end of calling to his attention two points, namely:
First, There are probably just as many truth tellers, likewise liars, in the world today as there were in olden times.
Second, There is probably just as high a moral code—just as high a standard and practice of veracity—among the periodical publishers of this country as there is among officials of the Federal Postoffice Department.
I am of opinion that few, indeed, among my readers will be found to question the fairness of that statement. Especially will they not question it when they take into consideration the fact that pages of the publishers’ testimony were under oath, or jurat.
Now, the Postmaster General’s whole talk—his whole word-splutter—was, it seems, to create an impression that the government was losing millions annually because of the large amount of advertising matter distributed by magazines and other periodicals.
On the other hand, the publishers in their “Exhibit F,” and elsewhere, try to show, and in the writer’s opinion do show quite conclusively and dependably, that the excess of expenditure over receipts in the Postoffice Department would be two to four times greater than it now is were it not for the first, third and fourth class revenues resulting directly from those advertising pages in our periodical literature.
Before giving these publishers a chance to tell the truth, as presented in their “Exhibit F,” I desire to make a few remarks about the point under consideration—the profits to the government from periodical advertising.
The publishers present the evidence of their counting-rooms—the inside testimony. I desire to present some outside testimony.
I may present it in an awkward, raw way, but I have a conceit that the “jury” will give it consideration.
Three months ago, there was a “party at our house.” No, it was not a bridge party. Mrs. M. On The L. has, in my visual range, I can here assure you, many commendable virtues—meritorious qualities and qualifications. Likewise, she has some faults. The latter I cannot, if the dove of peace is to continue perching on our domicile lodge pole, mention here. I may, however, say with entire safety, that “bridge” and alleged similar feminine amusements are not among them.
The party to which I advert was a “tea.” The guests were six,—Mrs. M. On The L. serving. The guests not only had “the run” of the house, but they took possession of it. I stuck to my “den” until it was invaded and then—well, then, my dear trousered reader, I did precisely what you would have done. I backed off—I surrendered.
“What was the result?”
In this particular case, the chief feature of the result was that these seven women, in less than ten minutes, had appropriated every copy of all the latest, and some a month or more old, of the magazines and weeklies about my work-shop. They also annexed me. I “just had to go downstairs and have a cup of tea with them.” Although I am not entrancingly fond of tea, I did exactly what you would have done. I went. Necessarily, I had to be good. I was good. I said—as near as I knew how—the things that were proper to say and as near the proper time as I could. That is, I said little and listened much.
It is of what I heard—and afterward learned—I wish here to speak. I wish to speak of it because it fits like a glove to the point the publishers make in their “Exhibit F,” which is to follow.
While the hostess was preparing and spreading luncheon—a necessary concomitant of all “teas,” other than mentioned in novels—the six guests scanned the magazines and talked magazines. From their conversation it appeared that five of the six took, either by subscription or news-stand purchase, one or two monthly magazines “regularly.” Whether the ladies read them or not was not made clear to me. One of them did make mention of two “splendid stories”—“The Ne’er do Well,” by Rex Beach, and, at the time of the “tea,” appearing, in serial, in one of the monthlies. The other was a short story entitled “The Quitters,” which, the lady stated, had appeared in one of the magazines some time previous.
Now, so far as I can recall, the reference made by this one of the six ladies was the only mention made of the “literary” features of the magazines they had read or to such features of those they were examining. There was considerable talk and attention given to the body illustrations.
In calling such stories as the lady mentioned “literary” I presume apologies are due the Penrose-Overstreet Commission. While both the stories are “brand-new,” are well written, each teaching a lesson—have, in short, all the essential elements of “currency and periodicity”—yet that commission, in the anxious interest it displayed to secure “a general exclusion act” against fiction in periodicals, would, possibly, see nothing of literary merit in either of the stories the lady mentioned.
I shall, however, offer no apologies to the commission for classing the two stories as literature and of exemplary currency. On a previous page I have given my reasons for differing from the commission on its strictures on current fiction as run in our standard monthlies and weeklies. The lady’s expressed opinion of the two stories is another reason for differing from that expressed by the commission. In my judgment, the lady who spoke has a broader, juster and far more comprehending knowledge of literature—of its merits and demerits, whether fiction, historical, biographical or classic—than has any member of that commission.
But to return to our tea party. Those six ladies scanned and thumbed through my magazines. As said, there was comparatively little talk or comment about the body-matter of the periodicals. But those women—all married, five of them mothers, two of them (three, counting the hostess), grandmothers—gave fully three-fourths of their time to the advertising pages.
But that is not all. Their scanning of the advertising pages of those periodicals developed some business action. The business talk started when one lady called attention to the “ad” of a military school in a town in Wisconsin, “where Thomas attends,” Thomas being her son. It developed that the lady seated next to her had a son Charles whom it was desired to start in some preparatory school in the fall. Another matron had a daughter she desired to have take a course at some school for girls. Both of the ladies with candidates for preparatory courses, however, were of the opinion that all the “good schools” appeared to be in the East and each would prefer to send her son or daughter to some school nearer home. To this opinion the mother of the boy attending the Wisconsin school earnestly protested.
“We have just as good preparatory schools, colleges and universities in the West as they have in the East,” she declared. “My boy is doing splendidly at the——, Wisconsin. He has been there two terms now. If you don’t want to send Charles to a military school, there are a score or more of excellent schools for either boys or girls in the West and South—some of them right near us, too. Just look here!”——
And then began a scurrying through the school “ad” pages of three or four of the magazines for the names and locations of preparatory schools. The advertisements of a number were found.
“Take the names and addresses and write all of them for their catalogues or prospectuses or pamphlets, giving the courses of study that pupils may take, the advantages they offer and other information. That’s what I did before deciding where to send Thomas. I wrote twenty-two different military schools in the country and got a prompt reply from each of them. In fact some of them wrote me four or five times, besides sending their little printed books which gave their courses of study and set forth the special advantages their students enjoyed.”
Of course, it was Thomas’ mother who spoke. Her suggestion, however, gripped the rails at once. The two matrons with children to place in preparatory schools asked for pencil and paper. I relieved them of the immediate labor of writing out their lists, by gallantly inviting them to take home with them such of the magazines as they thought would serve their purpose, and, as they were near neighbors, they could scan them at their leisure and address directly from the advertisements. I lost three of my favorite magazines on my tender.
“This has no bearing on the point!” Eh? Well, let us see about that.
Of course, I do not know what the mothers of that son and daughter who were to be started in preparatory school work did. It is safe to presume however, that they adopted the plan suggested by Thomas’ mother. We know what she did. At any rate we have her own statement of the course she pursued, and there can be advanced no valid reason for doubting her word. Besides, as she is our “next-door” neighbor, I have made, within the month, special inquiry of her as to what she did. I found that she had kept the catalogues of the schools to which she had written and had carefully “filed” in a twined package, as a careful housekeeper usually files things, every letter she had received from the schools.
More than that: She wrote nine of the schools a second letter and three of them, she wrote four times. To the Wisconsin school to which she finally intrusted the training and instruction of her son she wrote six times.
Now let us see what revenue the federal postal fund actually received from this one mother in her efforts to place her boy in a good, safe school.
First the mother herself wrote forty-five letters. On these the Postoffice Department collected 90 cents.
Second, her “twine file” shows that, all told, she had received from the twenty-two schools written to, a total of 163 letters. On these the government collected $3.26.
Third, the catalogues sent her were of various sizes. Their carriage charge, at third-class rates, I think would range from two to six cents or more. Putting the average at only three cents, which in my judgment is low, the government collected for their carriage 66 cents.
Fourth, thirteen of the schools, either not knowing her boy had been matriculated or thinking she might have other boys “comin’ on” to preparatory school age, sent her their catalogues for the following year—another 39 cents.
Add those four items and you will readily ascertain that the government received $5.21 in revenue from the efforts of Thomas’ mother to select a school for him—a school that would give him military training and discipline, as well as academic instruction in selected studies.
Her course of action was prompted entirely by the school advertisements she saw in two magazines.
How many other mothers and fathers were influenced to similar action by the three or four school “ad” pages in those two magazines I do not know. There must, however, have been many, I take it, otherwise the schools and preparatory colleges would not persist in advertising so extensively, year after year, during the summer months, in our high-class monthly and weekly periodicals.
The two magazines from which Thomas’ mother got her school address weighed a little under a pound each. If they reached her by mail, the government got only about two cents for their carriage and delivery, which was ample pay—$20.00 a ton—for the service. But supposing Mr. Hitchcock’s wild figures were correct—that it cost the government 18 cents to deliver those two magazines to that mother—a rate of $180.00 per ton. Of course, no man could so suppose unless he stood on his head in one corner of a room and figured results as the square of the distance at which things appeared to him, or chanced to be one of those “blessed” mortals prenatally endowed with what may be called mental strabismus. But for the sake of the argument, let us suppose that it did cost the government 18 cents to deliver those two magazines to Thomas’ mother; let us admit that that falsehood is fact, that that foolishness is sense. Then what?
A magazine weighing one pound and printed on the grade of paper used by our high-class periodicals will count 250 or more pages. Four pages of school “ads,” therefore, would count for about one-fourth of one ounce.
Even at Mr. Hitchcock’s absurd figure of nine cents a pound, the cost to the government of carrying those four pages of school advertisements in each of two monthly magazines to the mother of Thomas was less than four-fifths of one cent.
Do you grasp the point?
Remember, Mr. Hitchcock has separated himself from much talk to show to a doubting public that it is the advertising pages of periodicals which over-burden the postal service and are responsible, largely, for the alleged “deficit.”
I say “alleged” deficit. I say so, because it is not, and never was, a deficit de facto. I shall later give my reasons for so saying—shall show that this much talked of deficit in the Postoffice Department’s revenues is quasi only—a mere matter of accounting, and bad accounting at that.
But here we are considering the cost to the government of carrying and delivering advertising pages to the reading public of this Nation. Especially are we considering the transaction between the government and the mother of Thomas—a transaction induced and promoted by eight pages of advertising—four pages in each of two magazines.
As just stated, it cost the government less than four-fifths of one cent, even if we rate the carriage and delivery cost at Postmaster General Hitchcock’s absurd figure of nine cents a pound, to deliver those eight pages of school advertisement to Thomas’ mother. Even the delivery of the complete magazines which printed those advertising pages would, at Mr. Hitchcock’s own figures, cost the government only about 18 cents. Let’s admit it all—the worst of it, and the worst possible construction that the worst will stand. Then how does the government stand in relation to the resultant transaction—the transaction induced by those eight pages of advertising?
It cost the government 18 cents, according to Mr. Hitchcock’s method of hurdle estimating, to deliver those two magazines to Thomas’ mother. Well, let it go at that. The government is out, then, 16 cents, the publisher having paid in 2 cents at the present pound rate for mail carriage and delivery.
On the other hand, those two magazines each carried four pages of school “ads.” Those “ads” start Thomas’ mother into a canvass of the schools by correspondence. The result of that canvass, as previously shown, turned into the government’s treasury a gross revenue of $5.21 for postage stamps to cover the first and third-class business resulting.
The government, then, is $5.05 ahead so far as gross receipts and gross revenues are concerned, and it is ahead that sum, in the specific transaction under consideration, solely and only because of those eight pages of school advertisements printed in the two magazines.
Is that not a fair—a just—statement?
As Mr. Hitchcock states that there is a large profit to the government for the stamps sold and as that $5.21 was all for stamps, then those eight pages of advertisements and Thomas’ mother must have turned into the postal fund a handsome net profit on the service rendered by the Postoffice Department.
Now, I desire to return to our “tea.” Two other “business” actions developed which serve to prove the statement made on a previous page, namely: It is the advertising pages of our periodicals which yield the largest revenue to the government for the postal service it renders.
The first of the two postal revenue-producers came up as we sat at luncheon. Each of the ladies had a magazine or weekly in hand. There was as much talking as eating in progress, or more. I presume that is the proper procedure or practice at “tea” luncheons. I am not a competent authority on “tea” proprieties.
One of the ladies “had the floor,” so to speak, and expatiated eloquently and at length on the merits of an electrically heated flat-iron or sad-iron, an advertisement of which she had found in the magazine she was scanning—a cloth smoother she had had in use for some three months. Three of the other matrons were wired—that is, their homes were electrically lighted. The others were getting their domiciliary illumination from what is vulgarly designated as the “Chicago Gas Trust,” at 85 cents per.
“Results?” Three of the assembled party desired to write for “full particulars” about that flat-iron at once.
My boss furnished paper, envelopes, pens and ink. My assigned duty in this business transaction was both simple and secondary. The boss ordered me to go over to the drug store, buy the stamps and mail those three letters.
I did so.
The government got six cents postal revenue from me on that sad-iron “ad.” What further revenue was gleaned from the correspondence between the three ladies and the flat-iron manufacturer I know not.
It took me a long time to reach that drug-store—a short block away—buy the stamps, “lick ’em,” stick them on the envelopes and drop those three letters into the mail-box just outside the druggist’s door. At any rate, the ladies so informed me when I got back. They did it politely, kindly, but very plainly. Not wishing to scarify their feelings by admitting that I had purposely loitered because of an inherent or pre-natal dislike of teas, I did what I thought was the proper thing to do under the stress of impinging circumstances—I lied like a gentleman. I told the ladies that the druggist happened to be out of two-cent stamps and had sent out for them—sent to another drug store for them.
“How unfortunate!” exclaimed one of the party. “We want a lot more stamps. We have each written for a sample of these new biscuits. We have to enclose ten cents in stamps and the letters will have to be stamped. That’s eighty-four cents in stamps and we want to get the letters into the mail tonight.”
Then I was shown the advertisement of the desired “biscuits.” In the good old summer time of our earthly residence, “when life and love were young,” we called such mercantile pastry “crackers.” Mother baked all the biscuits we then ate, or somebody else’s mother baked them. Of course, sometimes Mary, Susie, Annie, Jane or another of the dear girls learned the trick and could “bake as good as mother.” Then she baked the biscuits. And they were biscuits. Now, every cracker is a biscuit, and every biscuit one gets smells and tastes of the bakeshop where it was foundried.
But that is entirely aside from our subject. The “ad”—a full page—set forth the super-excellence of some recently invented or devised cracker—“biscuit,” if you prefer so to call it. It was an attractively designed and well-written “ad.” The advertiser offered to send a regular-size package of the “biscuits” to anyone on receipt of ten cents in stamps—“enough to cover the postage”—and the name of the grocer with whom the sender of the stamps traded. That, in brief, was the “ad” offer, and each of the ladies wanted those biscuits—my boss as anxious to sample them as any of the others. On a corner of the luncheon table in symmetrical, pyramidal array, was 84 cents in miscellaneous change.
Before it came my turn to speak, Mrs. M. On The L. gave me a scrutinizing look—a censorious look—a look that said, “I know where you have been,” and took the floor. She did not rise in taking it either.
“Oh, he can get the stamps. Take that change and these letters. You can go to some other drug store and get the stamps. Put ten cents in stamps in each envelope and then seal and mail the letters.”
That’s the speech the boss made.
I should be ashamed to admit it, but I am not. There are limits to the endurance of even such a temperate-zone nature as that of the writer. The boss’ speech reached the limit. My patriotism was set all awry. Even my earnest desire to reduce the “deficit” in the postal service was, for the moment, forgotten—was submerged.
I took the 84 cents those friendly ladies had pooled on “biscuits” and the seven unsealed letters, assuring them I would certainly find the stamps. I then went up to my den, unlocked a drawer of my desk, found the stamps, made the enclosures, stamped and sealed the envelopes, and then came down and passed out on my assigned errand. I got back just as the “party” was donning its hat to depart for its several homes, assured it that its orders had been carried out, and, by direction of the boss, escorted home one of its members who had some distance to walk.
Now, I think I did my whole duty to that tea-party, and more than my duty to reduce the postal “deficit.”
I trust the “dear reader” will not have concluded or even thought that I am trying to be funny or humorous, nor even ludicrous. I have been writing of actual occurrences, and writing the facts, too, of those occurrences, as nearly as I can recall them after an interval of less than three months. I introduce the de facto happenings at our “tea party” here because they apply—because they illustrate, they evidence, they prove that the advertising pages of our periodicals are the pages which produce a large part, if indeed, not the larger part of our postal service revenues.
But we must look after our “biscuits” a little further.
The seven women at that tea party spent 84 cents for stamps to get a sample of those crackers. Fourteen cents of these stamps went to cancellation on the letters they mailed. The other 70 cents went to cancellation on the cracker packages which the cracker inventor sent them—cancelled at the fourth-class rate—cancelled at the postal carriage rate of sixteen cents a pound.
Is that all? No it is not all. It is only the first link in a postal revenue producing chain.
The manufacturer of that cracker or biscuit, as you may choose to call it, wrote each of those seven ladies a neat letter of thanks, and neatly giving a further boost to the biscuit. I know this because I have seen the seven letters—all “stock form” letters.
That contributed 14 cents more in postage stamps for cancellation.
Three of the ladies heard from that cracker baker four times. Their grocers probably had not put the cracker in stock. My boss got a second letter from the baker.
That contributed 20 cents more in postage stamps for cancellation.
The advertiser sent by mail to each of the seven grocers the ladies had named a sample package of the “biscuits” and a letter naming the local grocery jobber or jobbers through whom stock could be had, the jobber’s price of it, etc.
That contributed 84 cents more in postage stamps for cancellation.
Nor is that all. My boss’ grocer got three letters from that cracker baker and a visit from a salesman of a local jobber before he “stocked.” If the grocers named by the other six ladies were similarly honored then the builder of those biscuits must have written the seven grocers whom the tea party ladies had named fourteen letters in addition to the first one.
That contributed 28 cents more in postage stamps for cancellation.
Now let us figure up—or down—how one tea party of seven (I was the working or “worked” member, so am not to be counted in), and a one page “ad” stands in account with the postal revenues.
The magazine carrying the cracker “ad” weighs about a pound. The single “ad” page cannot possibly weigh more than three-fiftieths of one ounce. To carry and deliver that one “ad” page the cost to the government, then, even at Mr. Hitchcock’s extension-ladder rate of 9 cents a pound, would be about one-thirtieth of one cent.
But as we did in the case of the school advertisements previously mentioned, let’s give our Postmaster General the whole “hullin’ uv beans.” Let us credit the government with Mr. Hitchcock’s alleged cost of carrying that magazine to that tea party—nine cents.
Per contra, the government must give that “ad” page credit for producing stamp cancellations to the amount of $2.30.
Figure it out yourself and see if that is not the actual showing of the ledger on this account of the Postoffice Department with that one “ad” page and those seven tea party women.
That, I believe, is fair and sufficient evidence from the outside—from the field—in support of the facts which the publishers present in their “Exhibit F,” and which I shall here reprint:
The astonishing record contained in (Exhibit E), of the absolutely unvarying coincidence of decreases in postoffice deficits with increases in second-class mail is square up against the Postmaster General’s statements that the department loses 8.23 cents on every pound of second-class mail and loses over $60,000,000 a year as a whole, on second-class mail.
What is the explanation? How can the phenomenon of constantly decreasing deficits, coincident with increasing second-class mail, be reconciled? To be sure, the Postmaster General has been trying for two years to make out a case against the magazines, and nothing is better understood than that, under orders, he is using all the figures and the infinite opportunities of such a complex mass of figures as those of the postoffice, to make the case for the magazines as bad as possible. Of course, it does not cost the department 9.23 cents a pound for second-class matter; but also, of course, in all probability, the cost must be more than one-ninth Postmaster General Hitchcock’s figures. Then why is it that the more second-class matter there is mailed the more money the Postoffice Department has?
The answer is that the advertising in the periodicals, the very advertising the Administration is trying to drive out of existence, is far and away the most important creator of profitable first-class postage that exists. That, furthermore, the varied and constant efforts of publishers to extend the circulation of their periodicals by sending out tens of millions of circulars, each making for a 2-cent reply, and the great and complex business that has been built up around the originating and handling of advertising have made this national market for reputable wares—a market where the purchasing is done by mail with 2-cent stamps—the stamps that pay the Postoffice Department’s bills and give it $23,000,000 a year to spend over and above receipts from rural free delivery, in advancing that splendid service for the country dweller.
There were published in 1909 in fifty American magazines 12,859,138 lines of advertising, for over 5,000 advertisers, who used over 25,000 different advertisements, and it is obviously impossible physically to tabulate complete results. But let us nail down certain specific examples of advertisements inserted in magazines, and follow the record right through, of the work they did for the postoffice, the expense they put the postoffice to, and the profit they brought it.
These score or more of specific instances tell the whole story. Read, especially, the first instance—the complete bookkeeping transaction of one magazine advertisement in account with the United States postoffice:
A MAGAZINE ADVERTISEMENT IN ACCOUNT WITH THE UNITED STATES POST OFFICE.
In the Saturday Evening Post of November 26, 1910, was published a 224-line advertisement of the Review of Reviews.
Three thousand seven hundred replies were received, 1,776 of them inclosing each 10 cents in first-class postage.
The paper on which this advertisement was printed weighed 0.132815 ounce. The half of it printed with the advertisement weighed 0.06640625 ounce.
One million seventy thousand copies of the Saturday Evening Post were sent through the United States mails, so that the postoffice transported 4,440.9 pounds of this advertisement. At 9.23 cents per pound—the pound cost of transporting and handling second-class matter given by the Postoffice Department—the total cost of giving the postoffice services to this advertisement was $409.90; postage paid at 1 cent a pound, $44.41; loss to postoffice, $365.49.
THE POSTOFFICE’S GROSS AND NET GAIN FROM FIRST-CLASS POSTAGE CREATED.
3,700 inquiries were received by the Review of Reviews.
3,700 2-cent stamps for inquiries $74.00
3,700 acknowledgments under 2-cent stamp 74.00
Six follow-ups to 3,700 inquiries under 2-cent stamps 444.00
1,776 inquiries sent 10 cents in stamps 177.60
740 sales are made, each involving 12 bills and 12 remittances, under 2-cent stamp 355.00
The 3,700 names of inquiries will be circulated at least three times a year for five years, under 2-cent stamps (a practical certainty of twice as many circularizations) 1,110.00
Total gross direct sales of 2-cent stamps from advertisement $2,234.60
Profit of 40 per cent, according to profit percentage of Postmaster General on first-class postage $893.84
Direct loss in transporting and handling advertisement, cost figured at 9.23 cents a pound, income at 1 cent 365.49
Ultimate minimum net gain to postoffice in having carried this advertisement $528.35
MORE SPECIFIC EXAMPLES OF PROFITABLE POSTAGE ORIGINATED BY MAGAZINE ADVERTISING.
Names of concerns are withheld here. The original documents on which these statements rest are in the possession of the postal committee of the Periodical Publishers’ Association, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York City. These are only a few samples of hundreds that have come, and are printed to suggest the details of the methods by which national magazine advertising far more than pays its way when sent out through America at 1 cent a pound second-class postal rate.
“Mr. E. W. Hazen, Advertising Director.
“Dear Mr. Hazen: During the year 1910 we paid the Postoffice Department for carrying our first, third and fourth class mail matter the sum of $496,749.88. We shipped during the year 1910, 1,717,514 packages. Of these 809,781 were sent by mail and 907,733 by express. All of these would have been sent by parcels post if the postal rates and regulations permitted. We paid the express companies for the transportation of the packages referred to above $347,392.30.”
The above statement covers only mail matter sent out of this house. The figures given are accurate. Any statement of the number of pieces of mail matter which we receive would be approximate, but we can safely state that it was in excess of 4,500,000 pieces of first-class mail matter. This estimate is entirely conservative.
Here is another postal bill of one of the many great “mail order” magazine advertisers—a company which sells excellent clothing to women who can not come to the great cities and their department stores. The president of the company writes:
“As we are a mail-order concern, our business is derived entirely, either directly or indirectly, from our magazine advertising. During the year 1909 we paid the Postoffice Department for carrying our first, third and fourth class mail matter the sum of $433,242.”
What an advertisement in one issue of one magazine did for another women’s “wearing apparel” house is recorded in their books as follows:
The postage required to answer the 15,000 replies from the one-column insertion in the magazine, also to send the merchandise required by 2,000 of the inquirers, also to “follow up” other inquirers, etc., amounted to $5,460.
The government charge for carrying this advertisement through the second-class mails was $38.83.
That $5,460, by the way, did not include the several hundred dollars spent on postage by the inquirers themselves.
The president of a concern which publishes encyclopedias, natural histories, classics, etc., investigated the relations with the postoffice of a recent page of his advertising inserted in a single magazine, and the correspondence which resulted.
The stamps and money orders bought by the inquirers and by the publishing company, as the result of the 4,000 answers to this one advertisement, amounted to $884.
The publishers paid the postoffice to carry that page, at second-class rate, $12.
Thus, even if it had not already been disproved that the second-class rate is insufficient, it would still have been mightily unfortunate for the department’s business if that page advertisement had not appeared. A good business man would be willing to lose several times $12 in order to do $884 worth of business as profitable to himself as first-class mail is to the government.
Scores of apparently small advertisers are found in any issue of any popular magazine. They are just as good customers to the postoffice, in proportion, as the big concerns using columns or pages.
ONE INCH—$5,492 STAMPS A YEAR.
A modest 1-inch magazine advertisement is printed by a company, which reports that its yearly postage account from that cause is $5,132. Adding the approximate postage on the 1,500 letters a month sent to the company, the yearly total of postage created by this inconspicuous concern through the magazine is found to be $5,492.
ONE-HALF INCH—$590 A MONTH.
A half-inch magazine space is used each month by a certain electric manufacturing company in the Middle West, but its postage records show stamp purchases for a single month (November, 1909), resulting from that half-inch advertisement of $590.
Two quarter-column announcements of a dress fabric, appealing to women, in a single magazine, brought 7,000 replies, involving postage stamps worth $230.00
Pretty good business getters for the department? These “ads” cost the publishers to mail, at second-class rates 19.40
Even better, in proportion, was a one-fifth-column appeal to mothers in one issue of the same magazine. It produced postage to the amount of 240.00
To carry the little advertisement at second-class rates the government charged 7.76
A single-column magazine “ad” of a Chicago clothing firm, with a number of retail stores over the country, brought 4,000 inquiries which, with the following up, etc., caused postage of 380.00
That column cost the publisher to mail, at second-class rates 38.67
The Woman’s Home Companion sent a letter to the advertisers in its November issue, asking for a memorandum of the letter postage on the inquiries from their November advertising and the answers to these inquiries. Seventy-five advertisers reported, with definite figures, an aggregate letter-postage expenditure of $3,385.90
The Woman’s Home Companion paid the government just $583 for carrying that portion of the magazine on which these 75 advertisements were printed.
Any advertising man can point to hundreds of “mail-order firms” like the above. These firms can trace directly to their magazine advertising, every year, purchases of millions of dollars’ worth of the stamps that make big profits for the postoffice.
It is even more surprising to learn the enormous postage bills caused by an entirely different class of magazine advertisers—the “general publicity,” or “national” advertisers—who wish the reader to ask for their fine soaps, or mattresses, or silks, or stationery at his local store. These firms do not depend on direct replies, yet they receive so many that thousands of dollars are spent for stamps per year in scores of cases—even per month in many.
EVEN THE “GENERAL” OR “PUBLICITY” MAGAZINE ADVERTISING CREATES ENORMOUS STAMP SALES.
A moderate-priced shoe is sold through a number of retail stores in different cities. The manufacturers advertise in magazines for national “publicity,” to bring buyers into these stores. Incidentally they mention their department to fill orders by mail. Thus an enormous correspondence has been built up, of which the average annual increase alone during the last three years has involved 264,000 first-class letters—a minimum postage of $5,280. This is simply one yearly addition to the company’s already first-class business, of which it writes that “all but a nominal percentage” has been “induced by our magazine advertisements.”
More than $15,000 was spent for postage by a mattress manufacturer last year, “following up” inquiries received from his magazine advertising, though it is designed to create a demand for the mattress at local furniture stores.
This $15,000 is over and above his steady correspondence with dealers, etc., which was built up in the first place by magazine advertising.
One of the many recent “contests” conducted by magazine advertisers was that of a stationery company. Theirs is also “publicity,” not mail-order advertising. It is designed to create a demand for their paper over the stationery store counters. But their “contest” awhile ago, announced exclusively in the magazines, brought 59,000 replies, which, with follow-up, etc., averaged 12 cents first-class postage—a total of $7,080 in one month.
Here is still another “publicity” experience. In the course of familiarizing women with a new trade-mark for silk by means of magazine advertising, the manufacturers incurred postage bills, during the first 11 months of 1909, amounting to $7,979.75. About $2,000 more ought to be added to represent the stamps purchased by the prospective silk-dress wearers themselves.
Another “contest,” held by a national advertiser, brought 12,089 replies from a single insertion in one magazine, to handle which postage stamps had to be bought for more than $600.00
The publishers paid to have that page carried through the mails, at second-class rates 97.66
A half page in one issue of another magazine brought 4,000 letters from inquirers, which, with “follow-up,” etc., meant stamp purchases 200.00
The carriage of that half page at second-class rates was 25.62
Magazine advertisements of a popular cold cream brought 170,000 letters to the manufacturers last year, though the controlling purpose of the campaign was to get the public to ask for that kind of cold cream at the drug stores.
Not including postal orders, special-delivery stamps, etc., the stamp revenue to the government from these letters was $8,500. And, of course, that does not include the profuse correspondence between the manufacturers, the jobbers, the drug stores all over the country, and so on.
For another toilet preparation a single advertisement in a leading weekly magazine brought more than 13,000 replies. The stamps involved here add up to $990.00
The publishers paid the postoffice to carry this advertisement, at the second-class rate 48.83
A household remedy, seen in most drug stores, was mentioned to the extent of one-quarter page in a single issue of one magazine. The requests for samples numbered 1,685. The postage involved was 202.20
Another “drug store” preparation frequently brings the manufacturer 2,000 to 6,000 letters each month from their magazine advertising of it, though that is, of course, for “publicity,” first of all. A single insertion last fall brought 12,000 inquiries, which created, first and last, the purchase of $750 in stamps.
A system of physical culture for women put quarter pages in several magazines during the month of November, from which 3,905 letters were received. In this case, the total postage, including follow-up and correspondence back and forth, was $1,104.09 for that month of November alone.
Narrow limits would be expected in the demand for expensive silverage. Yet a silversmith’s two advertisements in the November and December magazines brought 45,000 requests for catalogues. These had already involved by January 13, with the following up, etc., a postage bill of $5,510.
Another big postage bill was also incurred, incidentally, by a company which uses magazine advertising to bring buyers into drug stores, etc., asking for certain shaving soaps and the like. Still their postage bill during 1909, as a result of inquiries from their advertising, was $3,656.08. This does not include the stamps bought by the inquirers—probably $1,000 more.
A similar soap was described in a page advertisement which, printed in one magazine one time, brought more than 30,000 letters. First-class postage on them and the answers to them aggregated more than $900.00
The charge for carrying that page, at the second-class rate, was about 120.00
THE LARGE STAMP PURCHASES OF ENTIRE BUSINESSES DEPEND ON MAGAZINE ADVERTISING.
All the above examples are of postage sales caused by magazine advertising directly, in point of time. Just as directly caused are the sales for correspondence between manufacturer, jobber, retailer, agent, etc., in the many businesses that have been built up by magazine advertising.
A camera company writes: “There is a magnificent revenue to the government through our correspondence with these dealers, through their correspondence with their customers, and through their sending our printed matter, furnished by us, at a postage cost of $100, and such dealer could not afford to go to this expense were it not for the fact that this local advertising which he does is backed up by our general magazine publicity.”
This one result of magazine work is figured by the company at tens of thousands of dollars every year in postage.
The postage-stamp revenue created by magazine advertising keeps on for months, and years even, between the advertiser and the consumer, in cases like correspondence schools, for instance.
One prominent company writes that it not only spends $429 per month in postage, answering inquiries which themselves account for about $100 more, but that it enrolls per month more than 2,200 new scholars—and every scholar, by the time he has received all his numerous “lessons,” etc., costs the school about $3.50 more in postage. Thus each month creates about $7,700 more in postage bills for this school, not counting nearly as much again which the scholars must spend.
“Our advertising,” writes a leading investment banker, “by reason of names being placed on our mailing list for circulation, etc., costs us several thousand dollars a year for postage, which would not be the case if we were not doing and had done advertising.”
In fact, there would be little left of the department’s profitable postage stamp sales were the big magazine houses crippled. The publishers are the largest buyers of lists of names used for circulation. To circularize these lists many millions of 2-cent stamps are bought every year.
“Our entire mail order book business,” writes a Western firm, “has been built up through magazine advertising. Last year our postal bill amounted to $12,298.57. This was used on circular matter and letters. If the circulation of the magazines should be reduced, and it is our opinion that it would be if the postage rate should be increased, our postage bill would be reduced proportionately.”
There is much more to be said in support of my contention that the advertising pages of our periodicals are their revenue-producing pages, but it cannot now here be said, as I must pass to another division of our general subject.
We have devoted most of our previous space to Mr. Hitchcock’s “rider,” to the influences and influencers that originated it and tried to push it—by methods adroit and scrupulously unscrupulous—into federal enactment—into operative law. At this point of our presentation of the general subject of Postal Riders and Raiders, it was my original intention to take up generally the raider features or elements as planned for discussion in this volume. I intended to start just here to discuss the Postoffice Department “deficit,” of which Mr. Hitchcock has had so much to say—and of which he made voluminous and eloquent use during his efforts to bring his “rider” a safe winner under the wire. I intended, as just said, to begin to write about the postal “deficit” just here—a deficit which never had real existence, since the days of the “pony post” and “mail coach,” save in quasi form—in methods covering political lootage and looters.
Well, I have changed my original plan a little. I’ll run a few lines through that “deficit”—twaddle-talk, a little further on. Here I will merely repeat what I have already said, in substance at least.
There never has been a postal deficit since the period I have indicated, save deficits created by official crooks and crookedness, by “interests” which hired the official crooks and bought the crookedness, and by department accounting methods which would put Standard Oil or a Western cow ranch on the financial blink inside of thirty-six months, or even in twelve.
We will discuss this artistic “deficit” later. Here I now desire to advert to, and animadvert on, another point which has been brought forcibly to my attention recently—weeks, some two months, after I climbed up here to take a look over the general situation, and then chanced, through the aid of a Congressman friend, to get my distance glasses focused on this postoffice foolery.
Foolery, I have written. I was wrong. There was no foolery about it. It was a calculated, a studied, a cold-blooded partisan stab at one of the greatest and most helpful—most up-building—industries in this country.
But we will let that point and the “deficit” rest for the present. It appears that one of Mr. Hitchcock’s much-worked arguments to harvest or glean votes for his rider amendment was that the amendment would “affect only a few magazine publishers,” or that “only a few magazine publishers, at most, would be affected by the amendment and that they had enriched themselves by the special privilege granted by the second-class mail rate statute of 1885,” etc., etc.
Various newspapers quoted Mr. Hitchcock variously on the same point or to the same end, and two Congressmen acquaintances reported that he had personally talked to them along the same lines.
Only a “few magazine publishers” would be affected by legislation of the character recommended in the rider amendment? That is the point I desire here and now to consider. I hope the reader will go carefully and thoughtfully through the consideration with me.
First it may be said, and safely admitted, that no such legislation as that recommended in the “rider” previously discussed, would be sustained by any court in this country, unless its wording was so modified as to make its requirements and restrictions apply to all periodicals, or at least to all monthly and weekly periodicals. Even then, it is doubtful if any court could be found to sustain such a piece of class or special legislation unless its terms were broadened to cover newspapers, so numerously and so aggressively are the latter trenching upon what is generally recognized as the weekly and monthly periodical field of effort, influence and usefulness.
I think that any informed, fair-minded reader will agree that that statement is a fair statement of governing facts, unless we question the honesty of our courts in the discharge of their judicial duties or question the juridic honesty of some member or members of the ruling court.
That may read like a blunt or offensive way of putting it. But we are not writing of a Palm Beach twilight party nor of a Newport frolic. We are writing of and to a serious subject—a subject which vitally touches and trenches into the vital interests of ninety millions of people—the ninety millions who are the blood and bone and sinew of this nation of ours. It is a subject of such grave import as to make it necessary that we call a spade a spade, a thief a thief, a scoundrel a scoundrel, and judicial weakness, judicial treachery.
That is why I put, plain and strong, the point that no court could be found in this country to sustain legislation of the character covered in Mr. Hitchcock’s “rider” amendment to the 1911 postoffice appropriation bill, and that every informed, fair-minded man must concur in the statements that I have made in the three or four preceding paragraphs.
That “rider” amendment would “affect only a few magazine publishers,” says Mr. Hitchcock, or as he is reported to have said.
Now, let us look over the field a little. Let us make an honest, intelligent effort—an effort not warped by political hopes and aspirations nor by personal prejudices and interests—to see who or whom would be affected by such special or class legislation.
First, the reader must get a mental hip-lock or strangle-hold on the fact that the second-class mail business of this country—the output of periodical publishers—in marketed values, is somewhere around one billion dollars a year.
As has previously been stated, and I believe well sustained by the facts, no business, however well established, can stand an increase of 300 per cent in the haulage and delivery cost of its output without sustaining great financial loss. The fair-minded reader will, I believe, agree that the publishers in presenting their case to Mr. Hitchcock, to the Penrose-Overstreet and other commissions, proved the truth of that statement quite conclusively.
Well, if that be true, legislation of the sort proposed in the Hitchcock “rider” must necessarily, after adjudication, put all the lesser weeklies and monthlies (those not financially strong) out of business. Likewise hundreds of the smaller newspapers must discontinue issue. Of course, Mr. Hitchcock prattled about the newspapers not being affected by his proposed amendment. But, as previously stated, no court of justice in this country would sustain such a biased, prejudiced piece of class legislation as that proposed in the “rider.”
Let us see who really would be affected.
As just cited there necessarily would be thousands of periodical publishers affected—virtually ruined. But, let us go down to things elemental in this question—down to the stumpage.
The great educational white way of our periodical literature is builded upon wood pulp.
In an opening paragraph of this volume I adverted to that fact. The chief pulp woods are spruce of the North—even of the distant North—and the Northwest. Then come cottonwood, basswood and soft maple, of the South, Southeast and New England. Of course, there are several other kinds of pulpwoods, but they are not used extensively for the manufacture of white paper, unless chemically treated, and such treatment makes them expensive. Of the pulpwoods I have named, spruce is far and away the most extensively used. From spruce is produced the best pulp. In “milling,” it shows body, fiber, strength—it gives toughness to the milled sheet or the Web roll.
But that is enough. I am not an expert in pulp-wood stocks. The point I am trying to call to the reader’s attention is that any legislation which cuts down the consumption of wood pulp must necessarily “affect” some other folks besides “a few magazine publishers.”
First, a just adjudication of such a piece of legislation as that proposed in Mr. Hitchcock’s rider amendment would put from thirty to fifty per cent of our weaker (but excellent) periodicals on the financial rocks—put them out of business. They consume thousands of tons yearly of pulp-wood paper.
It will, I think, be freely admitted that such periodicals would be out of—forced out of—the pulp-wood market—I mean out of the wood-pulp paper market, which amounts to the same thing.
But that is not all. The strong weeklies and monthlies are not going to be put out of business by legislation of that rider character. They will continue in business. They will meet its unjust exactions by readjustments. They are printing on sixty to eighty pound stock. Some parts of their periodicals are printed on even heavier stock. They will go to the paper mills and demand lighter stock, of special finish—and their demands will be met—and fifty to sixty pound stock will be used. The special finish will give the reader just as presentable a magazine, typographically, as he now receives.
But you observe that the publisher will be saving from twenty to fifty per cent in stock weight.
You will also observe that the paper mills will be using twenty to fifty per cent less wood pulp than they are now using.
You will also observe that the railroads will haul twenty to fifty per cent less of pulp timber and less wood-pulp paper than they now haul.
“Only a few magazine publishers will be affected,” eh?
Let us “recast” as far as we have gone.
The owners of pulp wood acres or stumpage would be affected, would they not? There are probably three to five hundred of them in the country, taken at a low estimate.
They are not of the “few magazine publishers” are they?
Pulp mill and other investors in pulp-wood stumpage seldom buy until they have an estimate by some skilled judge as to the probable “cut” the acreage will yield. For this purpose the prospective purchasers usually employ one or more “timber cruisers.” A timber cruiser is a man so skilled and experienced that he can look at a standing tree and tell you within a hundred feet or so how much lumber it will saw or how many cords of pulp or other wood it will cut. He “steps off” an acre, sizes up the available trees growing on the acre, averaging up the large trees with the small ones, and then estimates or calculates the average wood or lumber growth on that acre. He then goes off to some other acre. The latter may be only a few hundred yards or it may be a mile or two from the acres last measured, the estimate on which the “cruiser” has carefully noted in his “field book.”
The second acre he “works” as he did the first, and so the “cruiser” goes on with acre after acre through a forest of ten, fifty, a hundred, or it may be a million or more acres of “stumpage,” always careful to note the “light” and the “heavy” timbered sections, and marks with a sharp, shrewd and experienced eye an estimate of the number of acres covered by the light and the heavy growth of timber. When he has covered the acreage his employer contemplates buying, he comes back to civilization, turns in his field book and makes a report to the boss. On that showing the boss buys or declines.
Sometimes, of course, the careful, prudent boss may have two, three or a dozen cruisers, covering different fields of a vast forest section and, sometimes, virtually trailing each other. In the latter case, the buyer seeks to use one cruiser’s estimate as a check on the other. In any event, however, the purchase or investment is usually made on the showing the cruisers have made.
Now, this talk about timber, cruisers, etc., may be uninteresting to the reader. I sincerely hope, though, he will read it and follow me along the same lines a little further. My object is to show how wide of the truth—how unjustly or ignorantly wide of the truth—Mr. Hitchcock was when making the statement, which it has been repeatedly and reputably asserted he did make, to the effect that the legislation he sought would “affect only a few magazine publishers.” I have stated, and have given what I believe to be sound, valid reasons in support of the statement, that legislation of the nature, covered by his rider amendment ultimately—and necessarily—must be either annulled by the courts or be so broadened as to remove its special or class features. Of course, Mr. Hitchcock wanted—and he still wants—legislation of the nature indicated in that rider to become operative law. It is my belief he entertained such hope and desire when he asserted that an enactment of the character of his rider would “affect only a few magazine publishers.” At any rate, it was with such belief I introduced this division of our general subject.
As previously stated, legislation of the character sought by Mr. Hitchcock cannot be enacted into operative law without cutting down the consumption of wood pulp from thirty to fifty per cent.
Such a cut in consumption, I am here trying to show, cannot be made without affecting the earnings and lives of men—many thousands of men and families—who cannot even be imagined as of those “few magazine publishers.”
When the stumpage owner decides to cut five, ten, fifty, a hundred or more thousand acres for milling, another gang of men—“road blazers”—is sent into the forest. If the transportation is to be by water, some river or smaller stream, these latter men select suitable roll-ways and boom yardages along the stream. From each of these they “blaze” or mark the trees and smaller growths to be felled and the obstructions to be removed in order to provide a haulage roadway—usually providing for both wagons and snow sleds or sledges. If the transportation is to be by rail, corresponding work is done, the roadways branching in from the forest to the rail sidings where the loading is to be done. Not infrequently “spur tracks” are blazed which sometimes run for miles into the forest away from the main line of the railway.
Following these men who mark out the “haulways,” come a far more numerous body of men with axes, saws, hooks, oxen, mules and other equipment, including cooks, “grub” and other things necessary to feed and shelter them. These, also, are factors—elemental or primal factors—in the production of wood-pulp from which most of our white paper is made. Numerically they, in the aggregate, number thousands.
Most certainly they cannot be counted among the “few magazine publishers” referred to by Mr. Hitchcock.
With equal certainty it can be said that each of these thousands would be materially affected in his industrial occupation by any legislation or other influence which caused a shrinkage in the demand for wood-pulp.
In the fall and winter of the year (sometimes in other seasons as well), an army of men—not thousands, but tens of thousands in number—swarm into the pulp wood forests. They are axemen, “fiddlers” (cross-cut sawyers,) foremen, gang foremen, ox drivers, mule drivers, horse drivers. Here also is again found the cook, the “pot cleaner,” the “grub slinger” and other servers of subsistence to the “timber jackies” of the various camps.
Any material reduction in the consumption of wood-pulp would affect them, would it not?
None of them publish magazines, do they?
This brings us down to the pulp mill. Of course each mill has a hundred or more men employed getting its wood floated down the rivers or streams during the spring floods, or “freshets,” if their transportation is by water. They are log “berlers”, “jam” breakers, shore “canters,” “boomers,” etc. If their working stock comes by rail, there are “loaders,” “unloaders,” “yarders,” etc. Then come in the thousands of mill men, engaged on the work of reducing the wood to pulp. If the pulp mill has not a paper mill in immediate connection, as often happens, then the railroad is immediately interested in the reduced tonnage haul, and likewise every man who works for the railroad becomes interested industrially.
Even a triple-expansion brained man could not figure these thousands of industrial workers into the ranks of those “few magazine publishers” whom Mr. Hitchcock, it is asserted, repeatedly asserted, would alone be affected by his urgently urged amendment.
Next, we reach the paper mill. How many thousands of men are employed by them, I do not know. Of the many other thousands—wives and children who are dependent upon those workers for clothing, shelter and subsistence—I cannot make even a worthy guess. The reader can make as dependable an estimate as I, probably a more dependable one. But readers will unitedly agree that all these thousands of workmen, wives and children would be affected by any reduction in the consumption of wood-pulp paper.
All readers will also agree that no one of these is a magazine publisher.
Thus far we have seen, in considering the “reach” of Mr. Hitchcock’s recommended legislation, that it would have affected the earnings and the lives of many thousands of our people—people who cannot, in even perfervid imagination, be classed among his “few magazine publishers.” In this connection, however, should be noted the fact that when the paper leaves the paper mills, with the thousands dependent upon their operation and success, the paper proper passes into the custody of the transportation companies—railroad and water—chiefly the former—and of the thousands of operatives they employ. Next comes the thousands engaged in the cartage interests in cities throughout the country, wherever printing is done. In cities of the first and second classes there is usually found a division of the cartage interest which confines its service almost exclusively to the work of carting paper from car, depot, dock or warehouse to the printing plant which consumes it.
Here, then, in the last two classes named, must be found several thousands more workmen who would necessarily be adversely affected by a shrinkage of thirty to fifty per cent in the pulp wood cut. Those thousands, mark you, do not include the thousands of women and children dependent upon the earnings of those workmen. Yet they would necessarily be affected by any shrinkage in wood-pulp consumption.
And again it must be admitted by every man—and will be admitted by any man with as much brains as directs the activities of any lively angleworm—that none of the thousands here mentioned are magazine publishers. None of them could possibly be of the “few magazine publishers” referred to by Mr. Hitchcock.
So far we have touched upon only the elements of production. While the people employed in the several divisions of the pulp-wood industry may run, numerically, into many tens of thousands, in the great division of the printing trades, they run into the hundreds of thousands. I refer to the great printing and publishing trades—the trades which turn the pulp paper into periodicals and books—the trades whose work directly educates us.
Before attempting to designate the various divisions of this class, or to indicate the vast multitude—both men and women—to whom they give employment, I desire to present a few quotations, showing that these trades and these hundreds of thousands of employes are, in the slang language of the street, “onto” not only the controlling—the ulterior—motives of Mr. Hitchcock but also that they know and understand and feel something of the far-reaching wreck and ruin to homes and to lives which legislation of the nature he proposed must bring to this industrial division of our general citizenship.
Under date of May 20, 1911, Mr. M. H. Madden wrote me the following letter. While Mr. Madden may not be as widely known as is Postmaster General Hitchcock, he not having had the advantage of a federal cabinet position to broadcast his fame, there are few men better known among the personnel of the printing trades than is Mr. Madden, and equally few men there are who are better informed on the cost of carriage, handling and distribution of second-class mail.
In this letter Mr. Madden speaks particularly of the alleged Postoffice Department “deficit.” While this much-talked of “deficit” is made the subject of a short subsequent chapter, Mr. Madden’s letter presents several other points trenchantly pertinent to the subject we are now considering, to-wit: that the printing trades—all branches and classes of it, from the pressfeeder and bindery girl to the shop superintendent and publisher—are alive to the dangers with which legislation of the “rider” character is fraught:
Chicago, May 20, 1911.
My Dear Mr. Gantz—For a considerable time President Taft has directed attention to a supposed deficit in the Postoffice Department revenues, he accepting the figures of his Postmaster General that the amount of the shortage for 1909 was above $17,000,000, while that for 1910 was cut down to less than $6,000,000.
An authorized statement by Mr. Hitchcock, sent out on May 27, 1911, declares that for the six months of 1911 there is a surplus in postal receipts ranging from $1,000,000 to $3,000,000. With the fact kept in view that there have been increases in expenses in many directions and the further fact that second-class mail tonnage, on which great losses occur—according to the Hitchcock plan of keeping books—has increased, the manifest inconsistency involved in Mr. Hitchcock’s discovery is too transparent to permit of discussion.
Factors which have been left out of the reckoning, among others might be mentioned the progressive increased amount of business of the postal department, with but slight advance in the percentage of cost for transacting the same; a general agitation for better service on the part of the public which awakened the authorities to a fuller responsibility of their duty, and the important circumstance that there has been a new alignment of the House and Senate Committees on Postoffices and Postroads, has caused a moving-up process, we might say shaking-up process, in methods that sadly needed furbishing and of ideas that required practical demonstration. The effect of improving the system of transmitting the postal funds promptly to the national treasury instead of leaving the same to accumulate in the common centers, where they were earned, is seen by the immediate wiping out of the need for a balance of $10,000,000 with which to do business. Such an ancient method of conducting postal business would probably do in the period when the pyramids were built, but that system had finally to surrender, it being too archaic for even the Postoffice Department to adopt.
In a communication to me under date of August 9th, 1911, Mr. Madden gives expression to the following very informative statements:
In connection with the Hughes postal inquiry I would like to inform you of the total addition to the expense of conducting the Postoffice Department which became effective July 1, 1911. You may avail yourself of these facts in your argument, as they are official, orders having been issued by Postmaster General Hitchcock for these additional expenditures.
The sum of $1,200,000 is to be devoted to increases in the salaries of postoffice clerks during the current year, while $600,000 of an increase will go to city letter carriers. The railway mail clerks will get an increase of only $175,000, making an addition to the salaries of the three groups of $1,975,000. When the rural route carriers get their increase of $4,000,000 it will mean an addition to the four groups of the stupendous sum of $5,975,000 to the annual total. The figures are calculated to startle the ordinary observer, especially when there has been so much music about deficits.
On August 15th, 1911, Mr. M. H. Madden, as Secretary of the Independent Postal League, wrote the Hon. Daniel A. Campbell, Postmaster of Chicago, a lengthy and strong letter, in response to the latter’s request for copies of former issues of the league’s bulletins. I have a copy of that letter before me and shall take the liberty to quote a few of its relevant paragraphs.
After explaining the reasons why it was impossible for him to furnish Postmaster Campbell a file of the league’s bulletins, Mr. Madden continues:
“For myself I have given second-class postage problems some study, have written articles concerning the subject, and have addressed many organizations interested, in various portions of the country. In this connection I appeared before President Taft as a representative of the printing trades with President George L. Berry of the International Printing Pressmen’s union on Feb. 23 last. We protested against the raise to 4 cents a pound on advertising pages in the magazines. As a result of our work, more than 10,000 telegrams of protest were sent to Senators and members of the House from organized labor men. Two weeks later a certain ‘rider’ was thrown in the Senate. The Hughes commission of inquiry into the cost of handling second-class matter was then created. In one way and another this movement has been kept somewhat active.
“Some weeks ago the editors of union labor publications of the country met in Chicago and formed an association to continue this work, the Independent Postal League being thereby relieved of the task of instructing working people concerning the subject, the League turning over to the editors, the data it had, consisting of documents, official reports, etc.
“President Gompers of the American Federation of Labor and President Woll of the International Photo-Engravers’ union were furnished with material to present before the sessions of the Hughes Commission. The National Typothet? to convene in Denver will also use data supplied by the League, as will the International Typographical union at San Francisco; also the American Federation of Labor at its annual meeting at Atlanta, Ga.
“In this country there are 2,000,000 organized workingmen affiliated with the American Federation of Labor and 500,000 who are unaffiliated. These are opposed to a raise in postage and have so declared. In the printing trades there are more than 400,000 of the best paid artisans in the world and these are working in opposition to a raise, and since they produce almost a billion dollars’ worth of printing each year their protest is worth listening to.
“As workingmen we cannot approve of the inconsistency shown by having a pressman produce a periodical in Canada and sending it through the mails at ? cent a pound, while his brother pressman in the United States would be forced to pay four cents a pound for the same service. And the “Canuck” can certainly do it at a profit. Here is where a little ‘reciprocity’ juice would taste nectar-like for the Uncle Sam pressman. For several years our big postoffice officials have been telling the American people it cost more than 9 cents a pound to haul second-class mail. In Canada there is a population of 8,000,000 served by 25,000 miles of railway, while in our country we have 90,000,000 people and 246,000 miles of railroads. In the United States we print 500 periodicals to one printed in the Dominion. The merits of the question are so obvious that there is no chance for a controversy; in fact there can be no dispute on a matter so plain.”
Now, see here, I do not want to burden you—you, the reader—with quotations. I have not done so save when the quotations covered the point—our point—better than I could cover it myself. I write up to a point to the best of my ability, and then, if I have at hand some authority—some more conclusive and better told statement than I can make myself, I hand it to you.
So please do not skip the quotations in this book. The meat of it is in the quoted matter, not in what I have said or may say. That is why I desire to quote further just here.
Under date of May 16, 1911, Mr. Hitchcock wrote over the signature of his Second Assistant, Joseph Stewart, the following letter, addressed “To Publishers.” Whether or not it was sent to publishers in general or only to “certain monthly and semi-monthly periodicals,” I do not know. I reprint it here as evidence for the reader in proof of the tendency, or policy, of Mr. Hitchcock to exercise bureaucratic powers in administering the official service of his office—powers not given him by law.
I reprint also for the purpose of showing, by two or three following quotations, how closely Mr. Hitchcock’s official acts are being scanned by the printing trades and how clearly and how justly they estimate the results and the trade and industrial effects of such action.
The letter signed by Mr. Stewart follows:
POSTOFFICE DEPARTMENT,
Second Assistant Postmaster General,
Washington, D. C., May 16, 1911
Publisher, Practical Engineer, Chicago, Ill.:
Sir:—Arrangements are being made by the Postoffice Department to transport, after June 30, 1911, certain monthly and semi-monthly periodical second-class mail matter for certain states by fast freight to a number of central distributing points, from which points distribution and delivery will be made by mail as at present.
This method of transportation necessarily being somewhat slower than the present method of carriage of mail throughout, it becomes necessary for publishers to rearrange their mailing schedules to allow an earlier delivery to the postoffice of mail for the states to be so transported, in order that delivery to subscribers may be made at approximately the same time as at present.
It is believed that an advance in mailing dates of from three to six days will provide the necessary margin to offset the slower movement, and your co-operation to that extent is solicited.
Specific information relative to the states affected and the time of advance mailing will be furnished at an early date. Any further information desired relative to this matter will be given and any assistance in completing arrangements gladly supplied.
The favor of an early reply is requested.
Very respectfully,
Joseph Stewart,
Second Assistant Postmaster General.
The foregoing letter brought a flood of protests in reply. Why should it not? Why does Mr. Hitchcock, as is evidenced by the letter of his Second Assistant, seek to make such an unjust discrimination among periodicals—a discrimination directly contravening the basic principle of our government?
Among the replies Mr. Stewart received was one, a copy of which follows:
Chicago, May 22, 1911.
Hon. Joseph Stewart, Second Assistant Postmaster General, Washington, D. C.
Dear Sir.—We acknowledge receipt of your favor of the 16th, and regret that an early reply, as requested, is but partially possible at present.
You tell us unequivocally, if we interpret your letter correctly, that our Postoffice Department in rendering service to subscribers will discriminate against monthly and semi-monthly periodicals after June 30th; that certain publications of a class, issued weekly, will be favored with through mail service, and that other publications of the same character and class, issued semi-monthly or monthly, shall be rendered freight service, and no differential rate provided.
It is unfortunate that a distinction directly affecting the majority of the people could not have been arbitrated, and thereby avoided a period of distress.
Yours, very truly,
CHICAGO TRADE PRESS ASS’N,
E. R. Shaw,
President.
Another reply follows. It is from the Chicago Printing Trades, an organization which Mr. Madden, previously quoted, represented at Washington in his conference with President Taft and senators and members of the House.
To Postmaster General Hitchcock:—
The various branches of labor engaged in the production of printing in Chicago number more than 50,000 highly skilled artisans and their annual output is more than $100,000,000. These well-paid working people declare—they knowing it to be a statement based on truth—that the contemplated change in the method of distributing their product will interfere disadvantageously with their opportunity for employment, and they respectfully appeal to the postal authorities to pause in installing a system that is calculated to work great harm to their industry. Their united, emphatic protest is entered against what they feel to be an unwise and unnecessary hampering of their industry and they ask that their appeal be heard on the justice of their claim.
In distributing regular publications through the mails the factor of time is most valuable, and to inaugurate a slower schedule would greatly reduce the current value of periodicals and curtail the influence which these publications now wield. We respectfully direct attention to the injury which the owners of publications would sustain through curtailment of their earning power, as this would at once operate adversely to labor. In fact the severest effect would reach the toiler.
As well-paid, organized workingmen we respectfully call attention to the policy of protection which has enabled our country to flourish almost uninterruptedly for a half-century, and in behalf of this wise system we ask that no unnecessary interference with our trade be inaugurated by those to whom we look with expectation to forward our welfare as industrious citizens.
In common with other industries, business in the publishing lines is far from flourishing, and, while our rate of wages is conceded, we recognize that anything which interferes with the profits and success of employers will immediately react upon our opportunity for employment. It is upon this basis that we plead, and we ask you, as head of the Postoffice Department, that you forego instituting the system of distributing the semi-monthly and monthly publications by freight, and continue the present method of rapid-mail service.
Labor’s voice is raised in earnest plea for what it considers itself competent to speak upon, and with the hope that you will aid in maintaining for us our present conditions, which we esteem necessary for our welfare and the welfare of those depending upon us, we leave the question in your hands.
Michael H. Madden,
Secretary Independent Postal League.
I am presenting just here, only local protests—Chicago protests. Similar objections were heard from all parts of the country. The Chicago protest, however, would not be complete unless we presented the resolutions adopted by Typographical union No. 16, at a regular meeting held July 30, 1911. It applies both to the proposed increase in second-class postage rates and to Mr. Hitchcock’s unjust discrimination in distributing periodicals:
Whereas, It is a fundamental economic truth that anything which tends to unduly and unjustly raise the cost of distributing the product of labor reduces the opportunity for employment of those concerned in the industry thus affected, and indirectly becomes a menace to all industry, Chicago Typographical union No. 16, embracing a membership of more than 4,000 skilled craftsmen, takes this method of entering its emphatic protest against any increase in the rate for second-class mail matter; and,
Whereas, The proposed routing of semi-monthly and monthly publications by fast freight instead of by the regular fast mail service is manifestly unjust and is a flagrant discrimination against our product, this organization further condemns those who contemplate this pernicious innovation, and we submit that the installation of this system by the Postoffice Department is not only inimical to our welfare as workingmen but will work incalculable injury to the publishing interests of the entire country; and,
Whereas, These propositions of the Postoffice Department deserve only the strongest condemnation, and as a means of making this protest effective, we hereby invite the working people of the United States to unite with us in a movement having for its purpose the overhauling and readjustment of the postal affairs of this country, to the end that the service may become one of greater convenience to our people and be an instrument of promotion to the industries of our country instead of a leaden handicap on our industrial progress and the educational improvement of all the people; therefore, be it,
Resolved, That for the protection of the printing industry we hereby instruct our delegates to the next annual convention of the International Typographical union to propose the following for the consideration of that body, and they are hereby instructed to support the indorsement of the same by the said International Typographical union convention:
Resolved, That the International Typographical union emphatically opposes any advance in the rate of postage on second-class mail matter, and that it condemns the proposed method of distributing semi-monthly and monthly periodicals by fast freight instead of by the regular fast mail, to the facilities of which they are entitled under the law, because they pay for the same.
The foregoing quotations are sufficient to show that the printing trades of the nation are awake to the industrial significance of legislation of the Hitchcock “rider” nature, likewise that they are equally wideawake to the purpose of Mr. Hitchcock—ulterior or other—in his attempt to stealth such legislation into operative law.
How many people are employed in the printing trades in this country? I do not know.
In Chicago alone there are, at a safe estimate, not less than 40,000. A representative of the organized pressmen of New York before the Postal Commission testified that there were 12,000 pressmen in New York City and that six thousand of these were employed on presses which print monthly and weekly magazines.
I have no later statistics by me than a 1905 report touching the number of men and women employed in the printing trades in this country. From the figures given for 1905, however, it may be conservatively stated that the number of persons in this nation who today are earning their shelter, apparel and subsistence (not counting the office or clerical forces) in our great printing and publishing industries is somewheres around 400,000. If the counting-room and general office forces are included the total number—not counting owners or publishers—will reach at least 450,000.
Now, if we total the people who would be affected by legislation which must force a shrinkage of from 30 to 50 per cent in the consumption of wood pulp paper, counting from the timber cruisers to the publication counting-rooms, we shall find that total to be not less than 700,000—probably 800,000. And, mark you, you fair-minded, conscientious reader, that total does not include the wives and children dependent upon the vast army of men employed in our printing industries—dependent for shelter, clothing and food. If they are counted, the figures I have just given must be doubled—probably tripled.
So, there must be not less than two, probably two and a half, millions of people,—men, women, wives and children—who would be affected by legislation of the Hitchcock “rider” character.
It is needless, but I must still point out that not one of these millions of industrial earners nor their dependents who would be injuriously, if indeed not disastrously affected, by legislation of the nature Mr. Hitchcock is so persistently, if not unscrupulously, pressing to force into operative law, is a magazine publisher.
Most certain is it that none of this vast multitude of our industrial citizens and their dependents can be thought of, nor even imagined, as being counted among those “few magazine publishers” who, Mr. Hitchcock is reported to have repeatedly asserted, would alone be affected by his proposed harsh, discriminating and, therefore, unjust legislation.
I have previously intimated that Mr. Hitchcock is still devoting himself to forcing his ulterior motive into operation, either as law or department ruling. In evidence of this I shall here quote from his address or addresses before the Hughes Commission. This Commission was created in the closing hours of the last session of Congress—created as a sort of cushion or pad in order that his unconstitutional “rider” might take its cropper without breaking any bones or painfully lacerating the official feelings of Mr. Hitchcock. This Hughes Commission convened in New York City, August 1, 1911. Following is Mr. Hitchcock’s opening address before it, as reported by the New York Times, August 2. The italics are the writers:—
Postmaster General Hitchcock opened for the department. He said his study of the postage rate problem had led him to believe that certain fundamental principles of administration, almost new to the Postoffice Department at present, should be closely adhered to. These included the operation of the service on a self-supporting basis, maintained by imposing such charges as would yield an income equal to the expenses. They included, also, he said, such an adjustment of the postage charges as would make each class of mail matter pay for its own handling, and no more. He would further have the levying of postage rates made on the basis of the average cost of handling and carriage for the country as a whole, and, finally, postal laws should be enacted so definite in character as to be easy of interpretation and susceptible of uniform enforcement.
Mr. Hitchcock stated in this connection that when the books for the fiscal year of 1911 are closed they will show for the first time in many years a surplus of postal funds, and he hoped that this condition would become permanent. Mr. Hitchcock opposed any new classification of mail matter at this time, saying the present classification could be made to include all matter now admissible, and he doubted the expediency of attempting a revision. He then sought to set forth the large share second-class matter has in the burdens of the department, and the small percentage it pays of the total cost or even of its own cost.
“During 1910,” he said, “there were carried in the mail 8,310,164,623 pieces of first-class mail, consisting of letters, other sealed matter, and postal cards. This mail averaged in weight 0.35 of an ounce a piece, making 45.1 pieces to the pound. The cost of handling and carriage for this mail was $86,792,511.35, an average of 47 cents a pound, while the postage charge was $154,796,668.08, leaving a clear profit of $68,004,156.73.
“During the same year there were carried 4,336,259,864 pieces of second-class matter, newspapers and other periodical publications, averaging 3.33 ounces a piece, or 4.8 pieces to the pound. The cost of handling and carriage was $80,791,615.03, or a little less than 9 cents a pound, while the postage return was only $10,607,271.02, leaving a total loss of $70,184,344.01.
“From a review of the rates provided for the several classes of mail, it will be observed that in comparison with the cent-a-pound charge for second-class matter the rate on third-class matter is 700 per cent. higher; that on fourth-class matter 1,500 per cent. higher, and that on letter and other first-class matter 3,100 per cent. higher. While it is true that the expense of handling and carrying second-class mail is less than for any other class, due to the size and weight of single pieces, to relief from the cancellation of stamps, and to the fact that a considerable part of the bagging, sorting, and labeling in the offices of origin is done by the publishers, nevertheless a charge of 1 cent a pound covers but a small fraction of the actual cost.
“The present self-supporting condition of the service is made possible only by the fact that other classes of mail, particularly the first-class, are excessively taxed to make up the loss caused by the inadequate charge on the second-class. This will be better understood when it is noted that although first-class matter comprised during the fiscal year 1910 only 13.4 per cent. of all the revenue-producing domestic mail, it yielded a net profit of $68,004,156.73, while second-class matter, comprising 65.6 per cent. of all the revenue-producing domestic mail, yielded but $10,607,271.02, leaving the tremendous loss of $70,184,344.01. Thus the deficit caused by the heavy loss on the handling and carriage of second-class matter was greater than the profit obtained from first-class matter.”
Mr. Hitchcock here made a plea for equalization of the rate on second-class matter on the ground that it would at once make possible the reduction of letter postage from 2 cents to 1 cent an ounce. This reduction would come about from the fact, he said, that the present profit in handling first-class matter was approximately equal to the loss sustained in the transportation of second-class mail.
Mr. Hitchcock said, however, that he did not believe that the rate for second-class mail should be at once advanced to where it would cover the cost of handling and carriage, although that should be the ultimate end in view.
“For the present,” said he, “an increase of only one cent a pound is recommended, thus making a flat rate of 2 cents a pound, which should be regarded as merely tentative, however, leaving for future determination such additional increase as may be found necessary to meet the cost.”
The Postmaster General served notice on the commission that if by any chance it should see fit to recommend the continuance of the present rate—a “merely nominal postage rate,” he called it—his department could not consistently do otherwise than renew its recommendation for a higher rate of postage on the advertising portions of magazines.
I need make no comment on that address beyond the comment implied in the phrases and wording I have marked for italics. That Mr. Hitchcock still purposes to “put over” the injustices covered in his Senate rider amendment to the postoffice appropriation bill is made baldly clear. That he still is working that “deficit” as a sort of “come-on” to his purpose is equally clear. And the ridiculous, if not ludicrous, feature of this talk before the commission is that it comes after he has demonstrated and publicly announced that there is no deficit in the Postoffice Department for the fiscal year, 1910-11.
As Mr. M. H. Madden states in a letter to me, printed on a previous page, Mr. Hitchcock reports a profit of one to three million dollars for the fiscal year named.
Later, if I remember rightly, he discovered a stealage—pardon me, I mean he discovered an “excess”—of from $9,000,000 to $14,000,000 in railway mail pay.
Just in this connection I wish to say that Mr. Hitchcock is deserving of the praise and commendation of every one of us American citizens for the aggressive way in which he has cut down expenditures in his department without impairing its service. Also is he deserving of equal praise and commendation from us for his vigorous and fairly successful methods of going after that railway mail haulage steal, which has been going on for a time to which the younger generation of our citizens wots not of. Although I may adversely criticise a man, as in this volume I have criticised Mr. Hitchcock, I like the man who puts up a stiff fight for a cause, even though I believe his cause is wrong. Candidly I can see no reason why Mr. Hitchcock and his predecessor postmaster generals should so worry themselves over a “deficit” in the Postoffice Department—a department in which a surplus should never be expected and never allowed to become permanent.
But our present Postmaster General has, by his aggressive action and close scrutiny of the loose, wasteful methods under which the vast business of his department is carried on, disposed of the “deficit” and found a surplus.
In this he has done what his predecessors failed to do.
For this he merits our highest praise and commendation. Personally I yield it to him, untrammeled and in full meed. I object only to his attempt to saddle upon second-class mail—the one-cent-a-pound-matter—the burden of recouping the government for the losses on rural route and star route service and the railway mail pay stealage. I object because I not only believe, but I know as comprehendingly and as comprehensively as does he, that the second-class matter carried in the mails today at one cent a pound should be carried and handled at a profit at that rate.
I also know that just as second-class mail (periodicals), is cut down in distribution in just about the same proportion will the revenue from first, third and fourth class mail be cut down.
It is because of this firm belief, that I oppose Mr. Hitchcock’s, to me, absurd purpose and attempt to make “each division or class of mail pay for its carriage and handling.”
I am also opposing his manifest attempt to “play favorites” in legislation and to secure bureaucratic powers for his department—in contravention of my constitutional rights—to your constitutional rights.
I take the following from the New York Call of August 26. The Call captions it as “Hitchcock’s Sum Up.” It evidences the fact that he still follows his folly—that he is still after those “few magazine publishers” and after them, too, on his “rider” lines.
The Call reports as follows:
“The attorneys for the magazines,” said Postmaster Hitchcock in summing up the government’s case, “have presented this matter of advertising in magazines in such a way as to leave the impression that there is a controversy over it. There is none. The department knows that the advertising matter in magazines produces first-class mail and that the postoffice is benefited in that way. The important question is: What effect will a whole increase of 1 cent a pound have on the advertising? Will it be the means of stopping it?
“We feel that advertising would not be diminished by such an increase and if such is the case, all this information which we have heard today, interesting as it may be, is not to the point. Repeatedly we have heard the general argument against an increase in rates as though our recommendation is for a general increase. We don’t want that at all. What we are driving at is a readjustment. We are not trying to economize or save money. We have done that to the best of our ability already and want simply to increase the second-class rate so that the first will pay for itself, believing that in this way the greater number of people will be served.”
If Mr. Hitchcock is correctly reported in the above, it would appear that something of a change has taken place in his mental landscape since he put his “rider” on the Senate speedway during the closing hours of the last session of Congress. “The department knows that the advertising matter in magazines produces first-class mail,” he now says.
Did the department know that fact when that “rider” was on the speedway? It most certainly did, if it then knew anything—that is anything about the sources of postal revenues. Did Mr. Hitchcock or any of his assistants, at the time referred to, make any vehement declaration of that knowledge—that advertising matter in magazines produces first-class revenue? If he or his assistants did so, no one has reported the fact of having heard such declaration.
In March, Mr. Hitchcock battles valiantly to have the advertising pages of magazines taxed four cents a pound for carriage and distribution. At that time he “estimated” that such increase in the mail rate on the advertising “sheets” of magazines would be equivalent to a rate of “about two cents a pound” on the entire magazine. As about one-half the full weight of our leading magazines—the magazines which Mr. Hitchcock, as previously stated, appears to be “after”—is in their advertising pages, his method of “estimating” must have been somewhat baggy at the knees last March. Any seventh or eighth grade grammar school pupil could have told him that a four-cent rate on one-half the weight and a one-cent rate on the other half is equivalent to a flat rate of two and one-half cents on the full weight.
However, we may leave that pass. It is past—has washed into the drift of time. If the Call correctly reports him, he is now willing, or was willing on August 25, 1911, to accept a flat rate of two cents a pound on all second-class matter. That shows some improvement over his “estimate” of March last. It would seem that Mr. Hitchcock is getting down nearer the tacks in this second-class mail rate question, and, as he has got rid of that annoying “deficit,” it can be hoped that he may yet see the fact—see that a one-cent-a-pound-rate is ample to cover the cost of carriage and handling of second-class mail matter.
Still, we must not be over-confident about what Mr. Hitchcock may or may not do. Regardless of what he said or may have said before the Hughes Commission at its recent session, it would appear that he is still gunning for those independent magazines which have been guilty of telling the truth about both official and private corruptionists and corruption and also guilty of turning the sandblast of publicity on the veneer and varnish under which has been hiding much nastiness—political, financial and other—in this country. I say it appears that Mr. Hitchcock is still after those magazines. If such is not the fact, then why does he and the orators and exhorters of his department go junketing about the country lecturing and hectoring postmasters, instead of staying at home and attending to department affairs? If he is not on the same trail he “caught up” last March, why are he and his assistants trying so hard to work up sentiment favorable to an increase in second-class mail rates and a decrease of fifty per cent in first-class rates? Has any considerable number of our people been complaining about the first-class or letter postage rate? If there has been such complaints The Man on the Ladder has not heard of them. On the other hand, it is a known fact that millions of our people have protested and are still protesting against any raise in the second-class mail rate. Why, then, in face of these facts, is Mr. Hitchcock working so hard, so industriously and so adroitly, if not, indeed, craftily, to get the vast personnel of his department,—carriers, rural routers, star routers, railway mail clerks and postmasters—postmasters, from Hiram Hairpin at Crackerville, Ga., all the way up—fourth, third, second class postmasters to the first-class postmasters in our larger cities—why, I ask, is Mr. Hitchcock working so strenuously to get the vast political machine of his department lined up against the protest of millions of our people, unless he is still after those pestiferous, independent magazines?
Why, again, it may be asked, are he and his assistants coaching the 220,000 clerks of his department and the 60,000 postmasters, assistant postmasters, etc., on his “staff” to put up a promotion talk for a one-cent rate on first-class (letter or sealed) matter? It should be a one-cent rate. Nobody at all informed as to mail service rates and revenues will question that. But it is equally true that, up to a recent date, there have been, comparatively speaking (the comparison being with the millions protesting against an increase in the second-class rate) but few complaints and complainants against the present rate of two cents for carrying and handling a letter.
Why, then, I ask, is Mr. Hitchcock so actively cranking up his departmental political machine to make neighborhood runs and do some hill climbing in advocacy of that one-cent rate for first-class matter? Yes, why?
Is it a legitimate assumption to say that the present agitation for a lowered rate on first-class matter found origin in Mr. Hitchcock? If it is, then what is he after?
To The Man on the Ladder it looks as if he was still after those magazines which have exposed—yes, even displayed—a weakness for telling the truth about men and conditions. Otherwise, why should he be arguing the postal “deficit” in March as cause and reason for his urgent efforts to make operative law out of that unconstitutional “rider” and now asking for a flat rate of two cents on second-class, and advocating a cut of fifty per cent in first-class, or letter, postage rates?
In his January-February-March talk, the “deficit” was the substructure of it all. By attending strictly to what the people understand as a Postmaster General’s business, Mr. Hitchcock faded the then $6,000,000 deficit into a few hundred thousand surplus, for the fiscal year recently ended. For this he deserves our highest commendation. He has mine. Why?
Because Mr. Hitchcock in converting that deficit into a surplus has done just what any one of his predecessors could have done in any year during the past thirty-five, if they had tried, and not been interfered with by dirty politics and dirty politicians.
Still, from the ladder top, it looks as if Mr. Hitchcock is after some one or ones. If my surmise is correct, who is it he is after, if not those publishers of magazines who are educating us as to the wrong and right of things in this government of ours?
That is for you to say, reader. That you may not think that the opinion just expressed is far fetched or an “individual” to bolster an opinion of the writer, I shall here quote a few paragraphs from an October issue of the Farm Journal of Philadelphia. The paragraphs are from an article written by Mr. Wilmer Atkinson, the Farm Journal editor and publisher.
I have on a previous page referred to and quoted Mr. Atkinson, and here I wish to emphasize, if my earlier reference did not do so, that Mr. Wilmer Atkinson is one of the best, if not the best, informed men in this country on cost of second-class mail carriage, handling and distribution. Mr. Atkinson must also be credited with an acumen in watching and divining—sizing up—the purpose and intent of our Postoffice Department that is equaled by few, if any, other men in this country, Postmaster Generals not excepted. I have been studying this question for years. Mr. Atkinson has studied it for more years, and he has studied it, too, from a business man’s—a publisher’s—viewpoint, as he has been compelled to do, being the directing head of one of the most widely circulated and read farm journals in this country.
That aside, my purpose here is to reprint a few paragraph excerpts from a recent (October, 1911) issue of the Farm Journal—an editorial written by Mr. Atkinson himself and which shows that this astute student of the present federal postal affairs corroborates the position The Man on the Ladder has taken—which supports the statement previously made that Mr. Hitchcock is still gunning for those, to him, objectionable magazines.
The following is from the October issue of the Farm Journal, under the heading of “Our Monthly Talk:”
In response to invitation a number of gentlemen interested in postal questions came together for informal conference at North View, the summer residence of the undersigned, on September 20 and 21.
Those who met are the official representatives of the following associations:
The National Fraternal Press Association.
The Federation of Trades Press Association.
The Ohio Buckeye Press Association, and the Weekly Country Press of other states.
The National Catholic Editors’ Association.
The United Typothet? of America.
These gentlemen constitute a portion of the Publishers’ Commission now in process of formation. The representative of the American Medical Editors’ Association was unable to be present on account of a pressing engagement, and the member representing The Associated Advertising Clubs of America was absent in Europe.
This was the initial effort of the commission to bring the entire publishing fraternity of the country into such unity of spirit and purpose that something effective may be accomplished toward establishing not only just and honorable, but amicable and pleasant, relations with the Postoffice Department; to bring publishers of the different classes into harmony, in order that they may stand and act together for the protection and furtherance of their common interests, and for the cultivation of fraternal feelings among themselves.
There were three meetings held, two on the 20th and another on the morning of the 21st. After much earnest and harmonious discussion, it was decided that the great need of publishers at this time is to have the light turned upon postal affairs, so that they may know where they are at. To best accomplish this purpose it was thought that there should be a Publishers’ bureau established at Washington, in charge of a first-class man, who would be the collector and distributor of information regarding postoffice doings, rulings, hearings and proposed postal legislation; this bureau also to publish a paper for circulation among publishers of all classes throughout the United States, which would keep them thoroughly informed as to postoffice rules, regulations, proceedings and acts of every description.
Much of the information publishers get now is fragmentary, uncertain, often considerably warped and belated cold-storage news, void of substantial life-sustaining qualities. The annual reports of the department in which publishers are most vitally interested are less complete than formerly. Many important facts do not appear in them. For instance, no statement is ever made as to the amount of first-class matter originated by the second-class, none, or very little, account is made of it. No attempt has ever been made to gather, much less publish, statistics on the subject.
Formerly a list was accessible of publications annually thrown out of the mails at second-class rates, but not in recent years.
The report of the Third Assistant Postmaster-General in 1897 comprises 97 pages of compact statements and postal information in small type; that for 1901, 133 pages; while those for 1909 and 1910 contain only 60 and 65 pages in larger type, respectively. I am not censuring Mr. Britt in this matter, but simply stating facts.
Then as to the rulings, laws and regulations, there is not a publisher living who knows what they are, or can definitely ascertain what they are, from month to month. They are liable to change without the publishers being informed directly of the change. What purported to be “The Postal Laws and Regulations Relating to the Second-class of Mail Matter” was issued in 1910, but in it the law, rulings and regulations are so jumbled up together that it is difficult for a publisher to know which is which; instead of being illuminating and helpful, this compendium is confusing and involved in obscurity. It is a well recognized legal maxim, that “where the law is uncertain there is no law.”
Publishers have not known that an active propaganda in favor of a higher rate has been in progress ever since Congress adjourned, but such is the fact. The Postmaster General went before the Hughes Commission and advocated it.
The Third Assistant Postmaster General, in the early summer, made an address before some publishers in Chicago, wherein he stated that it was the purpose of the Postmaster General “to adjust postage rates based upon the principle of the payment on each class of mail matter of a rate of postage equal to the cost of handling and carriage, and no more, and that one class of mail matter shall not be taxed to meet deficiencies caused by an inadequate rate on another class,” meaning by this that the rate must be raised on second-class matter and lowered on the first class.
General DeGraw, Fourth Assistant Postmaster General, in an address before the West Virginia Association of Postmasters, stated the purpose of the Postmaster General to be exactly what Mr. Britt declared it to be; and he had the postmasters pass a resolution indorsing the Postmaster General, and even as late as September 22, at Milwaukee, he advocated “the crystalization of the proposed increase in second-class mail rates into law.”
Jesse L. Suter, representing the Postoffice Department, brought greetings from the Postmaster General, to a round-up of postmasters in Michigan in August last, and said that “the great subsidy extended the publishers in the form of a ridiculously small rate of postage is unreasonable. Were the publishers required to pay more in proportion to what it actually costs the government to transport their products, the people of the United States would be benefited. Every man, woman and child in the United States is taxed seventy-three cents by way of his letter postage over and above the cost of carrying his own letters in order to meet the deficiency of underpaid second-class matter.” And then, of course, the postmasters passed a resolution thanking Mr. Suter for his “timely hints relative to second-class matter and commending the Postmaster General.”
On August 22 and 23, there was a postmasters’ convention at Toledo, Ohio, at which a resolution was proposed complimenting the Postmaster General “for his efforts to bring about a fair compensation from those enjoying the benefits of second-class rates.”
James B. Cook, Superintendent of the Division of Postoffice Supplies, Washington, D. C., also addressed a postmasters’ convention in the West, in which he said: “There is one thing I am going to ask you to do—it is a simple thing and one that should be near to your hearts. Certain publishers have attempted to create public sentiment against an increase of postage on advertising matter in magazines.… Many of us believe that the postage rate is class legislation of the rankest kind in favor of the few at the expense of the masses. Talk to your business men about it; the Postmaster General is going to win this fight because he is in the right. Tell the business men that the Postmaster General feels that he is entitled not only to their moral but their active support.”
At how many other state conventions the postmasters have been prompted to pass resolutions and have been addressed by Washington officials endorsing “the great fight” the Postmaster General is making for a higher postage rate, deponent sayeth not.
Thus it is that an energetic campaign has been carried on by the Postmaster General during the summer, postmasters being urged to pass resolutions and “talk to business men” in favor of an increase of postage rate on second-class matter in order, no doubt, to be ready when Congress meets to put the measure through.
In confirmation of the above, word comes from Washington to the effect that “there has been no cessation in the activities of the department to make preparations to renew vigorously at the forthcoming Congress the fight for an increased rate. If the publishers feel that they have won their fight and are resting easily, they will have an awakening ere the year is over.”
While it would not be possible or advisable under the circumstances to circumscribe the activities of our energetic Postmaster General, certainly it would be a prudent and wise step for publishers to place themselves in position to know what is going on injurious to their own interests and that of the people of the whole country.
Now, Mr. Hitchcock is a brave and persistent fighter and as such will respect and honor those who will stand up like men and defend their cause, and can have only contempt for those who will meekly sit still while being pummeled to death.
If publishers are ever to establish honorable and just and amicable and pleasant relations with the Postoffice Department they must show that they are men with red blood in their veins.
The essential thing will be to get the right man to represent us at Washington but this ought not to be difficult.
Among his duties will be to make inquiry into postal matters of every description that in any way relate to the publishing business and to publish them; publish orders of the department; rulings and proposed rulings; attend hearings and publish the proceedings; keep abreast of measures introduced in Congress and proposed by the Postoffice Department bearing upon the publishing business; keep subscribers fully posted on everything that occurs at Washington or elsewhere that concerns them; to advocate such reforms in the postal service as the people ask for and need, and finally to rally the whole fraternity to resist any threatened or actual encroachment upon the freedom and independence of the press.
Here are some of the qualifications necessary for the person fit to take charge of the Washington office: Some experience as editor and publisher; he must be honest and just; patriotic; discreet; firm; tactful; must have power as a writer; character as a gentleman; vision, courage, one who cannot be either frightened or cajoled; and finally, one who recognizes the fact that liberty of the press is a principle that lies at the foundation of republican institutions, and must not be encroached upon, or placed in jeopardy.
I have made the above quotation from Mr. Atkinson to evidence the fact that he and others support my view of Mr. Hitchcock’s attitude now, in relation to this second-class mail rate question. Mr. Atkinson shows quite conclusively that our Postmaster General is still, and stealthily, running the trail which the Penrose-Overstreet Commission scented for him and urges publishers and the printing trades to be on their guard.
Some pages back I adverted to the fact that the deficit of $6,000,000 for the fiscal year 1909-10 was the ground-plan of Mr. Hitchcock for an increase in second-class postage rates. That deficit he himself has converted into a surplus of several thousands of dollars.
Why, then, is he still trailing those independent periodicals?
Why, too, it is relevant to ask, did he so suddenly hear that the people of this country were crying for a cut of fifty per cent in first-class, or sealed, postage rates, much as the advertiser declares the children cry for Castoria? To the Man on the Ladder it appears that what Mr. Hitchcock heard must have been a “far cry”—very far. So far, indeed, that no one who did not have his ear to an ulterior motive could hear it.
You will observe that he worries a couple of years over a “deficit”—a little runabout, five H. P. deficit of $6,000,000. Then by doing a few things which common business sense imperatively dictates should be done, and which, it is well known among competents, any one of a dozen of Mr. Hitchcock’s predecessors should have done, or could have done had not dirty politics blocked them—by doing just a few of the business things which every student of the question knows could have been done and should have been done years ago, Mr. Hitchcock lost his “deficit”—his ground-plan for attack on second-class rates—and found a surplus instead.
The Man on the Ladder does not desire to appear impertinent nor even finicky in his type conversation on this point, but in simple justice to the magnitude of the question he is constrained to ask: Is a “deficit” so essentially necessary to Mr. Hitchcock in a fight to put certain independent periodicals on the financial skids that he must, losing one deficit, immediately set about creating another?
That is just what his move to cut the mail rate on first-class, or sealed, matter must lead to—lead to temporarily of course. In the end a one-cent rate per ounce or fraction thereof will win to a paying basis. That rate will mean a cut of sixteen cents a pound from thirty-two cents a pound for carriage and handling letters and other sealed matter of the first-class. Certainly the postoffice can haul and distribute such matter at a profit at that rate. However, it is equally certain that the department will not handle such matter at a profit for two, three or more years—not so handle it until numerous causes of waste, inhering in the department for years, are sloughed and the department put under strict business management, and not left under partisan political management as now and as it has been for thirty-five or forty years.
With the postal and post card facilities now furnished at the one-cent rate, no considerable number of our people are complaining about the two-cent rate for letters and other sealed matter. But all will welcome a flat rate of one cent on such matter at the present weights. If they get it, either with or without Mr. Hitchcock’s assistance, the people will be getting only what they are entitled to, deficit or no deficit. However, if Mr. Hitchcock thinks a “deficit” necessary armament in his fight to increase second-class mail rates—to increase such rates, as it would appear, on a certain few periodicals which print and publish what the people want to hear and read and not what a few federal officeholders tell them to print and publish, then a cut of 50 per cent in the present first-class postage rates will most certainly create that deficit for him.
In a few years, of course, after business has adjusted itself to the lower rate and the fathers, mothers and sweethearts of the country have learned that they can write a letter to John, Mary, Thomas or Lucy and have it delivered for one cent, whereas it now costs two cents, then Mr. Hitchcock’s created deficit will fade away—will again fade into a surplus.
In the meantime, however, Mr. Hitchcock and associate coterie who apparently are gunning for periodicals which dare tell the truth, will have a “deficit” to use as wadding in their verbal, oratorical and franked ordnance.
The 1910 report of the Postoffice Department sets up something over $202,000,000 as receipts from cancellation of stamps, or stamp sales. Of course, millions of dollars’ worth of those stamps were bought for and canceled in third and fourth class service, catalogues, books, etc.—in third-class carriage and handling, and merchandise parcels in fourth class. One has no data—nor can he obtain such data from the Postoffice Department records—to show what sum or portion of that $202,000,000 worth of stamps was canceled in the transmission of letters and other sealed matter of the first-class. But it may be conservatively stated that if Mr. Hitchcock succeeds in cutting down or curtailing the circulation of weekly and monthly periodicals—especially their advertising pages—he will have no trouble in finding, for two or three years at least, a shrinkage of from $50,000,000 to $75,000,000 in that stamp account.
That, with the falling away in paid second-class matter, will provide him a “deficit” which should make him jubilant—should furnish wadding for his embrasured guns for two or three years in his attack on those recalcitrant periodicals which attend to their own business in a clean, truthful way and expect nothing of a Postmaster General other than that he attend strictly and efficiently to his business, to the business of the Postoffice Department—to the business of collecting, transporting and distributing the federal mails.
I have probably discussed Mr. Hitchcock, his faults and his excellencies sufficiently. I will therefore, pass to another phase of our general subject.
THE HUGHES COMMISSION.
First, however, I must introduce a few paragraphs here in summary of the work done by the Hughes Commission at its August session in New York City. The commission comprised Associate Justice Hughes, President Lowell of Harvard University, and H. A. Wheeler, President of the Chicago Association of Commerce. That this triumvirate of gentlemen will act disinterestedly and fairly, so far as their knowledge and the evidence relating to postal affairs extends, there is here no question.
That they have not and will not dig up and uncover facts and data relating to the haulage and handling of second-class mail matter, beyond that already known to and on file with government officials, is equally certain. No finer trinity of men could well have been selected by President Taft, but the fact is none of the three has had any opportunity to make a study of the federal mail service, second-class or other. Or if they have had such opportunity, the press of official and private business in other lines and directions preventing, in large extent, their study of postal service costs and affairs. No doubt, these three gentlemen will do the very best and fairest they can—or know how to do—with the evidence presented to them. Still, I am of the opinion that they will discover little which has not already been discovered—which, as Congressman Moon said on the floor of the House last March (1911), “has already been discovered and filed for departmental and official reference.” Each of them is a man of high academic training but neither of them, so far as The Man on the Ladder has been able to learn, had made, as previously stated, any qualifying study of federal postal affairs. So the best we have a right to expect from them is that they will tell the story, draped in new or different verbiage, told by predecessor commissions on second-class postal rates, costs of haulage and handling the same, etc.
Incidentally it may be said with all due courtesy and respect that the Hughes Commission will probably succeed in spending the $50,000 appropriated for its expenses, subsistence, incidentals, etc. The present commission would not be loyal to precedent if it permitted any of that $50,000 to return to the general fund as an “unexpended balance.”
Just here I desire to introduce a few items from the testimony of Mr. Wilmer Atkinson before the Hughes Commission, which, in August last began strenuous efforts to spend $50,000 and to discover and report upon facts anent the cost of hauling and handling second-class mail matter—which facts have already been collected, collated and filed with labored, likewise expensive, care somewheres in the government’s archives. I have quoted from Mr. Atkinson several times in forward pages. I desire to quote here from his testimony before this Hughes Commission, because the Hughes Commission is the latest and “best seller” on the second class mail shelf and because I recognize in Mr. Atkinson one of the first and most dependable authorities in the country on the cost of carriage, handling and distribution of mail—whether of the second or any other class. Especially do I desire to quote part of his testimony before the Hughes Commission because I am of the opinion that the reader, as well as the Commission, must necessarily gather forcefully pertinent facts from it:
To ascertain what second-class matter costs has been found to be a puzzling proposition. Many have tried to solve the puzzle and all have failed.
The Joint Congressional Commission consisting of Penrose, Carter and Clay for the Senate, and Overstreet, Moon and Gardner for the House, with the aid of numerous expert accountants, at a cost of a quarter of a million dollars (according to the President’s statement), attempted it and gave it up. All these gentlemen are on record as declaring that it is a task impossible of accomplishment.
Senator Bristow, a former Assistant Postmaster General, who has given postal questions much careful study, said in a recent speech that “It does not cost nine cents a pound, nor can the Department ascertain with even approximate accuracy what is the cost of handling any special class of mail. It would be just as easy for the Pennsylvania Railroad to state in dollars and cents what it costs to haul a ton of coal from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh, or 100 pounds of silk from Pittsburgh to Indianapolis, as for the Postoffice Department to state what it costs the Department to handle newspapers or magazines. Anyone familiar with transportation knows that such calculations cannot be made with accuracy, because there are so many unassignable expenses that must be considered—expenditures that cannot be subdivided and assigned to the different classes of freight. The same is true as to the different classes of mail.”
Postal officials have exhausted conjecture as a basis for a correct solution of this problem. Nearly every year there has been a new guess. Mr. Madden, Third Assistant Postmaster-General for seven years up to 1907, guessed that it cost 4 cents a pound. His successor, Mr. Lawshe, guessed 2? cents and then the next year 4 cents. For the last two years the Department’s guess has been 9 cents.
The Penrose-Overstreet Commission declared, while it is impossible to ascertain with certainty what the cost is, the members of the Commission gave it as their opinion that “One cent a pound is approximately adequate compensation for handling and transporting second-class matter.”
I am confident that there is a better way of solving the problem than has heretofore been tried. This consists in the direct application of plain, old-fashioned common sense to it. A little gumption in such a matter as this is far better than fanciful guessing or astute figuring by experts, who are bent on finding something that is not there.
In working out this problem I have adopted a method quite different and have obtained results quite unlike the foregoing. I show the relation of second-class mail to stamp mail extending over a period of 25 years, from 1885 to 1910. This covers the entire period since the institution of the cent a pound rate.
I go back still further to 1876 when the postage rate on newspapers was 4 times greater than now, when the sale of stamps was less than one-eleventh what it is now, and while deficits were larger.
The highest point reached in the weight of second-class matter previous to the institution of the present rate, was 101,057,963 pounds.
It has been repeatedly declared officially that second-class matter originates large quantities of other classes of mail, and in the official figures we have the proof.
While population increased from 1885 to 1910 only a little more than double, the revenue from the sale of stamps, etc., and the weight of second-class matter, each increased over 5 times. No other possible reason can be assigned for the increase in stamp mail, and the tremendous development of every branch of the postal business 5 times faster than the growth of population, than the increased circulation and influence of the newspaper and periodical press, brought about by the reduced postage rate.
Second-Class matter would have long ago wiped out all deficits and created an enormous annual surplus had it not been for the great burdens which weighed the service down.
There would have been a surplus, instead of a deficit, every year since 1901, had allowance been made for the extraordinary cost of free rural delivery, and in 1910, the surplus would have been $31,075,170.12.
If also allowance had been made for free government matter, other than the Postoffice Department’s own free matter, being sent stamped as first-class matter is, the surplus for 1910 would have been $51,075,470.12 and these figures like all others here given, are from official reports.
A VAST INCREASE OF EXPENDITURES.
Not only did stamp mail, under the stimulus of the steady and enormous increase of second-class matter, enable the Department to meet the cost of rural delivery while reducing the deficit, but it also met and overcame the immense increase of the annual expenditures for railroad transportation which grew from $33,523,902.18 in 1901 to $44,654,515.97 in 1910: of salaries to postmasters, assistants and clerks which grew from $32,790,253.39 in 1901 to $65,582,533.57 in 1910, of the railway mail service which grew from $9,675,436.52 to $19,385,096.97 in 1910, and of the city delivery service which grew from $15,752,600 in 1901 to $36,841,407.40 in 1910. In these four items alone there was an increase in annual expenditures in the last ten years of $74,721,361.82, for which second-class matter was only in a very limited way responsible.
Entirely too much stress has been placed upon the cost of second-class matter, for it makes little difference whether it costs 2? cents or 4 cents or 9 cents, or even more, if it produce results commensurate with its cost, and this it would do if the cost were double the highest guess yet made. The Government could afford to carry it free rather than not carry it at all, for without it the bottom would drop out of the Postal Establishment. As long as the people get the benefit of the low rate, as they are doing now, for which we have official testimony, it matters not what the rate is except that it should be kept at the very bottom notch.
WHY THE POSTAGE RATE WAS MADE LOW.
Even if the cost of second-class matter should be declared to be more than one cent per pound, it would not be good public policy for Congress to increase it, because much reading matter would be placed out of the reach of many who now are receiving the benefit of it.
Postmaster-General Meyer said in his report for 1908: “The charge for carrying second-class mail matter was intentionally fixed below cost for the purpose of encouraging the dissemination of information of educational value to the people, and the benefit of the cheap rate of postage is passed on to the subscriber in a lower subscription price than would otherwise be possible.”
The Hon. Charles Emory Smith truly declared: “Our free institutions rest on popular intelligence, and it has from the beginning been our fixed and enlightened policy to foster and promote the general diffusion of public information. Congress has wisely framed the postal laws with this just and liberal conception.
“It has uniformly sought to encourage intercommunication and the exchange of intelligence. As facilities have cheapened, it has gradually lowered all postage rates. It has never aimed to make the postal service a source of profit, but simply to make it pay its own way and to give the people the benefit of all possible advancement.
“In harmony with this sound and judicious policy, it has deliberately established a low rate of postage for genuine newspapers and periodicals, with the express design of encouraging and aiding the distribution of the recognized means and agencies of public information.
“It is not a matter of favor, but of approved judgment. It is not for the publishers, but for the people.”
The testimony of Senator Bristow is that, “I am glad we have got a one-cent rate of postage for the legitimate newspapers and magazines of the country, and I would rather decrease it than raise it. The beneficiaries are the poor people themselves, who now get daily papers at from $2 to $4 a year, when they used to pay from $10 to $12. They now get magazines from $1 to $1.50, when they used to pay $4 to $6 per year for magazines of no higher grade.” …
And I would remind the Commission that there are millions of laboring men and women who cannot afford to add to their living expenses the cost of any but the very cheapest reading matter, and many not even that. After buying food and clothing and providing shelter there is scarcely anything left in the home for cultivating the intellect and informing the mind.
When sickness intervenes, then comes the stress of debt, and if death follow, the future has to be drawn upon to give the dead a burial such as love would provide. Are these people, the bone and sinew of the land, those in the humble walks of life, not to be considered when it is proposed to add to the cost of the family reading?
It surely should not be made more difficult for the poor to obtain that which is so essential to their welfare and that of the Republic of which they form an important part.…
“But here I cannot forbear to recommend,” said George Washington, in his message to Congress, on November 6, 1792, “a repeal of the tax on the transportation of public prints. There is no resource so firm for the government of the United States as the affections of the people, guided by an enlightened policy; and to this primary good, nothing can conduce more than a faithful representation of public proceedings diffused without restraint throughout the United States.”
NEWSPAPERS AND PERIODICALS.—THE DIFFERENCE.
An effort was made in the closing hours of the 61st Congress to increase the postage rate on magazines. It is my opinion that the postage rate should remain uniform as it is now upon all classes of publications. There should be no partiality shown, there should be no discrimination. A proposal to increase the rate on magazines alone, is not one that should have the endorsement of this Commission nor the approval of Congress, as I shall endeavor to show.
Under Section 432 of the Postal Laws and Regulations, “A newspaper is held to be a publication regularly issued at stated intervals of not longer than one week; a periodical is held to be a publication regularly issued at stated intervals less frequently than weekly.”
A magazine is nowhere defined in the Postal Laws and Regulations. A law that would increase the postage rate on “magazines,” without an explicit definition of the word, would apply to just such publications as the Postmaster-General might select in the administration of the law, and none others. No such power of discrimination should be vested in any official. The Postmaster-General is an executive, not a judicial officer, nor a lawmaker.
It has been wisely and aptly said that this is a government of laws and not of men; that there is no arbitrary power located in any individual or body of individuals; but that all in authority are guided and limited by those provisions which the people have, through the organic law, declared shall be the measure and scope of all control exercised over them.
There seems to be no good reason why a newspaper, which is carried in the mails once a day or once a week, should pay a less rate than a monthly or quarterly. If the Government really loses money in handling and transporting second-class matter, the loss would be greater on the former than on the latter, because a daily goes through the mails 365 times a year, a weekly 52 times, while a monthly only goes 12 times, and a quarterly 4 times.
We learn from official records that daily newspapers comprise 40.50 per cent. of all second-class matter, weeklies 15.23 per cent., papers devoted to science 1.30, to education .64, religious 5.91, trade 4.94, agriculture 5, magazines 20.23, and miscellaneous 6.25. Note that it is stated that 20.23 of the whole consists of magazines; but what is a magazine? We are nowhere told, and the percentage quoted has the appearance of being founded upon conjecture.…
This Commission may not be aware of the fact that the Pennsylvania Railroad will take, and does take, packages of papers for all of the great newspapers that are published along its lines, and transports them in the baggage cars for one-quarter of a cent per pound, to any station on the line, whether it is ten miles from the place of origin, or 1,000 miles from the place of origin. And yet the Department is paying the railroads approximately two cents a pound for hauling the newspapers of the country.
The papers are delivered by the publishers to the train just the same as the publisher delivers his newspapers to the train when they are sent by mail. These packages are delivered to the depots of the railroads, and the parties to whom they are sent call at the depots for the packages. If they are sent by mail the publisher delivers them at the train, and the parties to whom they are addressed call at the postoffice for the packages. The postoffice Department does not go to the newspaper office and get the mail. The publisher delivers the newspapers to the mail trains, the same as he delivers them to baggage cars for the railroad company.
And possibly the Commission has not been informed that the express companies have a contract with the American Publishers’ Association whereby they agree to receive newspaper packages of any size, and deliver them to their destination within a limit of 500 miles, for one-half cent per pound. The express company does not call at the newspaper office for the papers. The publisher delivers them to the express car, the same as he delivers his papers to the mail car. The express company then takes these newspapers, consisting of packages of any size, from a single wrapper to a 100-pound bundle, and delivers them at the other end of the line to the addresses, if the distance is not greater than 500 miles, for half a cent a pound, and by its contract with the railroad the express company pays the railroad only a quarter of a cent a pound.
The Department figures show that the average distance which newspapers are hauled is less than 300 miles. Yet the Department is paying about two cents a pound to the railroad for that which the express companies pay but a quarter of a cent a pound. The express companies only charge the publisher one-half cent a pound, while the Government charges him one cent a pound. The express companies pay the railways one-fourth a cent a pound, while the Government pays about two cents—eight times as much—for exactly the same service. The express companies are glad to get the business, and render more service than the Postoffice Department, because they deliver the packages of any size at the other end, which the Department does not do.
Senator Bristow is authority for the above statements concerning the railroad and express contracts.
…
Now I would not have this (class) newspaper and its annexes deprived of the low postage rate, but as the Postoffice Department has within the past ten years denied admission to the mails of 11,563 of other publications, and 32,000 others have been ruled out or died from the hard conditions imposed, I would respectfully request this Commission to ascertain and report to the President for transmission to Congress why there has never been a single publication of this class shut out or even molested in the slightest degree?
I do not say it is, but is it, because such papers are politically powerful, that they have the ear of the public, that they hold a monopoly of the news, and that they can make or unmake the reputation of public officials at will, and that therefore they are immune from interference?…
I have here a copy of the Police Gazette, which I take to be a superior paper of its class. It is held to be a newspaper, entitled to transmission through the mails at a cent a pound. It has never been proposed to raise the postage rate on this paper.…
This Commission should endeavor to find out and report to the President for transmission to Congress, why the postage rate on one-half of the periodicals devoted to agriculture should be increased from one cent to three cents, and the postage rate on the Police Gazette should remain at one cent.
HEARINGS BEFORE THE HUGHES POSTAL COMMISSION.
I intended to follow the hearings before this commission personally. Ill health prevented my doing so. Under this stress, I asked my friend, Mr. M. H. Madden, quoted on a previous page in connection with other phases of our general subject, to summarize for me the hearings of the commission in August. Mr. Madden kindly consented to do so. Following is what he writes me relating to the commission’s proceedings and hearings:
The first meeting of the commission took place on August 1, and it continued its hearings in New York City, with occasional adjournments during the greater part of the month.
Postmaster General Hitchcock represented his department before the commission, Second Assistant Stewart and Third Assistant Britt were also present, each in turn occupying the stand. Hitchcock outlined his position concerning a demand for an increase for the first time, although the same idea was expressed by Third Assistant Britt some months ago, when Britt made an address before a convention of newspaper circulation managers in Chicago. Hitchcock and his two assistants held to the view that each schedule in the postal service should be made self-sustaining, the credit for this idea being given to Hitchcock, and in order to justify his position concerning a raise in second-class rates an arbitrary figure has been placed on the cost of handling the same, the total “deficit” from this schedule being placed at about $70,000,000 annually. This amount was arrived at by what Second Assistant Postmaster General Stewart states was a complete record of the weighing of all mail handled by the Postoffice Department of matter originating in every postoffice and railway postoffice in the country for a period of six months from July 1 to December 1, 1907, together with the amount of mail carried in every railway car. The department in many instances has admitted the unreliability of the figures used, there having been many estimates employed.
Publishers of the country were represented by several attorneys who examined into the testimony given by Hitchcock, Stewart and Britt, and by a series of questions they showed that the conclusions of the three as to cost of handling second-class mail were made on a guesswork plan and not on a scientific or reasonably accurate basis of fact. Third Assistant Postmaster General Britt made the startling statement that “if all the magazines and newspapers were excluded from the second-class rates because of a circulation gained, not on the merits of the publication, but because of some voting contest or offer of premiums as a bait, not 10 per cent. of the total would remain undisturbed.”
This declaration was looked upon as an argument by the magazine publishers as favoring their contention that the advertising portions of their periodicals are justified by legitimate business reasons, as an increased volume of advertising enables publishers to issue periodicals of much higher literary excellence. The postal authorities held with firmness to the conviction that advertising matter in publications is primarily for the advantage of the publisher, and therefore should be charged a higher rate than reading matter. Postmaster General Hitchcock went on record before the commission as declaring that he would recommend to Congress an increase on the advertising portion of magazines and newspapers of a cent a pound additional. Assuming that the postoffice officials are prompted by a legitimate purpose in their desire to increase rates on second-class matter, their arguments before the commission have been transparently weak, and an unbiased mind they would fail in convincing, but the feeling is that the commission will accept the conclusions of the postal authorities that the government rate of one cent a pound is inadequate for transporting second-class matter. To justify the position taken by the government that each schedule should maintain itself, the Postmaster General intends to press with vigor a reduction of first-class postage from two-cents to one cent a letter, he citing the profit on first-class mail and the alleged loss on second-class matter as his reason for the change of rate.
Religious and denominational publications were represented before the commission, the contention being made by these that the doubling of the rate on second-class matter would work very serious injury to the religious press, forcing many publications out of business. This statement was made by E. R. Graham, representing the Methodist Book Concern publications in Cincinnati and New York, and seemingly it made an impression on the members of the commission. The attorneys representing the publishers were much interested in Mr. Graham’s statement, he being considered a competent authority on the matter.
One of the strongest arguments of the hearings, because of the experience which he has had as a postal official, was made by Mr. W. S. Shallenberger, who had served several years in Congress as a member of the Committee on Postoffice and Postroads. Mr. Shallenberger was for a number of years Second Assistant Postmaster General, and now represents the Interdenominational Publishers who issue Sunday school literature throughout the United States. This witness gave it as his opinion that an increase in the rate on second-class matter would cause magazines and newspapers to avail themselves of the facilities now offered by the express companies which are becoming active competitors of the government in transporting second-class matter, these corporations obtaining better rates from the railroads than is given to the government. Mr. Shallenberger expressed the view that since every civilized nation was cheapening the cost of postal service the fact that our country was seeking to increase the rate seemed to be reactionary.
Mr. Shallenberger served under six Postmaster Generals and all of these held that the government was carrying second-class matter at a loss. But his opinion was that there was a substantial profit in the present rate, at the same time condemning the idea that each particular schedule should be made to pay its own way, the stimulus toward encouraging other schedule receipts not being given its proper consideration. Mr. Shallenberger gave a hint concerning hidden influences seeking to have the second-class rate increased but did not enter deeply into this phase of the subject. The controversy between Mr. Shallenberger and Second Assistant Stewart was animated and prolonged, and touched on features connected with the compensation paid railroads for hauling the mail, the express companies getting better terms than the government, this statement being made by a representative of the Postal Progress League.
The strongest point the publishing interests made was when the superintendent of the railway mail service, Chas. H. McBride, testified that a considerable part of the estimate upon which the department’s figures are based is guesswork and assumption, he admitting that if this were so the result would not be greatly different from what the officials first claimed. On the whole Superintendent McBride’s testimony was calculated to show that the Postoffice Department was desirous of making out a case against the second-class schedule, however necessary it was to twist figures and conceal facts in order to do so.
Mr. Wilmer Atkinson, publisher of Farm Journal, Philadelphia, combated the contention of the postoffice officials, as shown in their statements and tables, and declared with much emphasis that second-class matter stimulated first-class postage receipts. The statement of the cost of carrying second-class matter, placing it at nine cents a pound, is, according to him, “only a stereotyped guess that goes into the postoffice department report, each year,” experts having repeatedly stated that there is no possible way of fixing the cost of carrying second-class mail. In the opinion of Mr. Atkinson the government could better afford to carry it free than not to carry it at all. “Gumption and common sense,” declared Mr. Atkinson, “should rather be applied than indulging in worthless guessing.”
Representatives of scientific publications, college journals, fashion papers, fraternal societies and trade periodicals appeared before the members of the commission during the sessions, and all entered emphatic protests against the increase. In numerous instances these interests made the statement that serious reverses would be encountered if the postage rate should be doubled, and that many publications would be forced to suspend.
The labor union press, an interest representing about 250 weekly and monthly publications, with a circulation approximating 1,250,000 copies was officially represented by President Samuel Gompers of the American Federation of Labor, and President Matthew Woll, of the Photo-Engravers’ union. Mr. Gompers entered vigorous protests against discriminations against labor publications and registered a severe censure of the method by which the Postoffice Department had hampered the official journals of the labor people. Mr. Gompers stated that the publications of the American Federation of Labor and its auxiliaries were all highly educational in their character and, in the event of an increase in the item of postage to the extent of 100 per cent additional, many of the best would be driven out of business with corresponding loss to the men individually and to the nation as a whole. Mr. Gompers’ declaration was listened to with much interest.
President Woll dwelt on the far-reaching effect which the hampering of the labor press would have on the manifold business relationships involved in the printing industry, primarily directing attention to the more than a third of a million of workers in the printing trades alone. He then advanced to the foundation of the paper and machinery features of the proposition, viz., from the ore in the mine, from which the machinery was made, to the forest tree from which the pulp is ground. The tonnage of the transportation service of the country would at once be doubly interfered with, first in a reduced demand for material with which to make the paper and, secondly, the corresponding decrease in the weight of the finished product of the publications. In many features Mr. Woll made prominent the ideas which the “Postal Riders and Raiders” is promoting, including the educational features of the immense volume of printing which comes from the printing press in all sections of the country.
The commission adjourned, subject to the call of Justice Hughes. However, it is understood that it will be called together in time to prepare its report to President Taft and to Congress when the session opens in December, 1911.
FOOTNOTES
Mr. Hitchcock, it should be noted, is careful in giving the higher per cent. of rate which the third and fourth classes show above the second class rate. Beyond the bare statement that the expense of handling second class matter “is less” than for other classes, he says nothing of cost of carriage and handling. His own figures show (see preceding paragraph), that the cost of carriage and handling first-class matter is 422 per cent. higher than his own absurd cost-figure of 9 cents a pound (cost) for carriage and handling second-class and 4600 per cent. higher than the present second class rate.
Mr. Suter must certainly have been wind-jamming a little. “Every man, woman and child” pays at a maximum rate of 2 cents an ounce or fraction thereof. That is at the rate of 32 cents a pound. Mr. Hitchcock’s figures assert, that it costs “47 cents a pound” to carry and handle the letters for “every man, woman and child”—that is, presuming they all write letters. The letter writers, it appears then, pay only 2 cents for a service which costs nearly 3 cents.