Postal Riders and Raiders

by W. H. Gantz

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.”