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.