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 officeswere 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, receivedonly 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 thatno proper spirit of co-ordination with the department existed in the railway mail service.
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 officeswere 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, receivedonly 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 thatno 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,thegreatest 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 tomaintainfor 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 originalintenthas been lost sight of by many of our people.
As a result of the struggle for subsistence on the one hand andcorrupt political practiceon 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 sonscan be happyif we manage to steal and loot enough from the government, or from our fellow citizens throughgovernmental favor and protection, to build for thosesons 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 yearshave 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 offact. Think them over.Studythem. If, after, you think I am wrong or overstate the facts, then—well, then, that is your affair, not mine. Remember, I write with aclub—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 arerich 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 Generalan unrestrained censor of the country’s periodical literature——
Those periodicals, I started to say, have given morerealeducational benefit to the adult population of this country during thepast ten yearsthan 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?â€
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,seethings,hearthings,feelthings, andreadthings. They are beginning tounderstandmuch of what theysee,hear,feelandread.
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 peculiarrecentaction 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.â€
As before stated, this attempt to muzzle the press of the country, for that appears to be the ultimate, likewise theulterior, purpose of Mr. Hitchcock and his coterie of senatorial and other abettors in their recent attempt to outrage theconstitutionalrights of our people, theconstitutionalrights 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 PostmasterGeneral Hitchcock is an “influenced†man or a densely ignorant one. That heisdensely 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 theresultof 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 collatedependableinformation, 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 itscrooksandcrookedness—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 inthree yearsthan 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 andgrowingcompany 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 andwiselythan he has thus far talked and written, to convince them that he has accumulatedmore 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,frailtiesin 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 tomake 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 knewlesswhen 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 Taftcovered 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.â€
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[1]Samuel G. Blythe. With no thought of discriminating praise I can positively say that Samuel G. Blythestands 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.â€
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 yourlocalfields of interest and activity as you have done to enlighten us as to Washington’s politics, policies andtangential peculiarities.
With this explanation for my taking our “Sam†instead of you other boys for quotation, maybemutilation, 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 sofitsthe point I am now considering—whether Postmaster General Hitchcock was “influenced†or “influencingâ€â€”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 andanimus.
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 aheap†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 wasonhis 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 thatdeficit. 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 andcleanlyrecognize the fact thatthe 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 “deficitâ€â€”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 tounderstand how so much information got to the public), to keep hisschemeto remove the Postoffice Department’s deficit by shunting thewhole 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.â€
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.
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 againstinvestigation. 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 anAdministration measureto 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 givehim the greatestpowers 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 whatit should costthe 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 Generalhe was political paymasterfor 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 theSenate 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.
The Postmaster General had enlisted the President. He had put it up to the Republicans on the Senate Postoffice committee as anAdministration measureto 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 givehim the greatestpowers 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 whatit should costthe 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 Generalhe was political paymasterfor 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 theSenate 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 theindustrious 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.
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 commissionasked 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.
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 commissionasked 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—Imay 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 andknowthe facts, likewise, who have both the ability and the courage to tell what they know—agree with me? Why, I ask, if Iammistaken 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 thejudgment 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 thatnight“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, Chairmanof 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:â€
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.â€
That is plain enough, is it not, as to the Senate’s lack of right or power tooriginaterevenue-producing measures either by bill oramendment? 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, wouldoriginate revenue.
Mr. Hitchcocktalked, 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 adiscriminating classificationwould require.
The reader will note (line 18 of the “riderâ€), that “newspapers†are exempted from the increased tax. The reader should likewise note that under both this “rider†and the present law, newspapers are carriedfreeto 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.â€
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 acensor 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,abrogativelegislation 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 “enteredâ€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, getcogently briskwith that Senator or Congressman of yours. At least, let him know that you are on the job as well as he and that youunderstand 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 meflatthat the man—any man—who hands you that sort of talk is eitherhiredto talk it or he is mentally unsound.
The “interests†arealreadyin 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 whoreads 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 aggregatehundredsof millions, of circular letters and circular matter, under seal and open circular-matter sheets, pamphlets, etc., first and third class, at a cost ofeight 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 conspiratorsbacking 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.â€
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.â€
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, advertiseits own interests, save asnews matter, and that each “Interest†canand willadvertise the others—the mutual interests—and do it, too, at thecent-a-pound rateand 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 amquoting 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 haulâ€), 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 renderedby 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 bewatered 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 soabsurd 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-classmail matterand carrying itat 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 thatthousands of tonsof periodicals are now carried by the railroads and express companies at a ratelowerthan 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 prominentpublishers 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.
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: