Postal Riders and Raiders

by W. H. Gantz

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.

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