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, thePostmaster General may, under such regulations as he shall prescribe, authorize postmasters and carriers on such rural routesas he shall selectto 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 containingno 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.)
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, thePostmaster General may, under such regulations as he shall prescribe, authorize postmasters and carriers on such rural routesas he shall selectto 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 containingno 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 postuntil 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 matteras 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.)
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 matteras 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 authorizepostmasters at such officesas he shall designate, under such regulations ashe 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 dayof the month of their issue, but thereafter may be paid under such regulationsas 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.)
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 authorizepostmasters at such officesas he shall designate, under such regulations ashe 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 dayof the month of their issue, but thereafter may be paid under such regulationsas 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 unusualthe 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.)
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 unusualthe 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 askingre-enactmentof legislation of this sort, legislation granting himcensorial powerswithout so much asintimatingthat fact. Maybe some of youorganized 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 includematter 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.)
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 includematter 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 shouldnotbe 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 ordersshall 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.)
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 ordersshall 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 isreachingfor power and authoritywhich 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 andconfidenthope 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 isseldom 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’slegislative 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,brochurewhich 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, underinfluenced 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 toreadthis bit of official effort,in a wrong cause. I want them to read it in theraw, 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 elegantassertivenessof Mr. Hitchcock’s “style” and to hisplanneddetermination to “put it over” on those pestiferous periodicals—weekly and monthly—in spite ofconstitutional 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 unstitchedbrochureasecondtime, and to read them more carefully thesecondtime 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, whetherulterioror other, in attacking a special class or division of periodical publications in order to recoup a deficitcreated 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-classbrochureand follow it with his humoresque legislative recommendation:
In the last annual report of the department special attention was directed to theenormous loss the government sustainsin the handling and transportation of second-class mail. Owing to the rapid increase in the volume of such mailthe loss is constantly growing. A remedy should be promptly appliedby charging more postage. In providing for the higher rates it is believed thata distinction should be madebetween advertising matter and what is termedlegitimate readingmatter. 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, includingeducational and religious periodicals, that derive little or no profit from advertising. It is the circulation of this type of publications, whichaid 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 otherlegitimate 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 onlyto 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 planfor 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 utilizefor the benefit of the entire peoplethat considerable portion of the postal revenues now expended tomeet the cost of a special privilegeenjoyed 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 thelegitimate reading matter in magazinescan 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 regulationsto 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.)
In the last annual report of the department special attention was directed to theenormous loss the government sustainsin the handling and transportation of second-class mail. Owing to the rapid increase in the volume of such mailthe loss is constantly growing. A remedy should be promptly appliedby charging more postage. In providing for the higher rates it is believed thata distinction should be madebetween advertising matter and what is termedlegitimate readingmatter. 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, includingeducational and religious periodicals, that derive little or no profit from advertising. It is the circulation of this type of publications, whichaid 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 otherlegitimate 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 onlyto 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 planfor 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 utilizefor the benefit of the entire peoplethat considerable portion of the postal revenues now expended tomeet the cost of a special privilegeenjoyed 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 thelegitimate reading matter in magazinescan 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 regulationsto 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” whoearnswhat he acquires andpaysfor 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 thatmeanssomething. 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 aplannedbad cause.
The reader who has followed me thus far and has not discovered that I am writingagainstthe men who are, I believe, tryingto 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 frequentlyasserted—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, istrying to put up another hurdle for the magazines and other periodicals to jump; that is, forsuch of them as he may not like, to jump.
This recommendation forlegislative authorityis intended to cut out the sample copy privilege of periodicals, a privilege which the government shouldencourage 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.”
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 ratefor 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 mailcosts the government 9.23 cents perpound to transport and handle. Do you see theequivocating“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 tospace-writein order to fill in about sixty pages of this 1910 report. But, as I have to take notice of Mr. Britt’sfurnisheddata 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 hisinfluences, 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 postdependent 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, likewisemysteriously, 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 Ilacked 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 oftwoRepublican 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 hispromotivemethods 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 studiouslyread 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 thelack of organization in the Postoffice Department and its antiquated, careless and inaccurate accountingleft 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 inactual 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. Inview 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 presentsallthe 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 datawhich 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 ofthose appearing before it,a great volume of evidence was presented upon all aspects of the questionfrom the standpointboth 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.
In accordance with this plan, (outlined in immediately preceding paragraphs), which operated to economize the time as well of the commission as ofthose appearing before it,a great volume of evidence was presented upon all aspects of the questionfrom the standpointboth 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 andsays 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 comenearto 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 ruinperiodicals 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 ofknown factsas 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 outallthe facts. But admitting that, the further admission must be made by any fair-minded man that most of the facts itdid dig outappear to be the very facts which Postmaster General Hitchcockignored—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 butan 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), thatif 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 whichwould be saved if second-class matter were now eliminated.
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 butan 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), thatif 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 whichwould 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 theleast expensive class of matter. With respect to the proportion so routed and separated, it was variously estimated by the publishers as from70 to 93per cent of the total weight. The assistant postmaster at New York fixed the percentage for his office at67 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 theAmerican Newspaper Publishers’ Association, speaking for the metropolitan daily press, stated that less than6 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 averaged49 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 newspapersavail themselves of express and railway transportationfor matter sent out in bulk, single copies sent to individual subscribers invariably went by mail.
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 theleast expensive class of matter. With respect to the proportion so routed and separated, it was variously estimated by the publishers as from70 to 93per cent of the total weight. The assistant postmaster at New York fixed the percentage for his office at67 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 theAmerican Newspaper Publishers’ Association, speaking for the metropolitan daily press, stated that less than6 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 averaged49 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 newspapersavail themselves of express and railway transportationfor 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 alarge producer of the revenuesreceived 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.
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 notallthat 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, andallthey 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 theeducational value of the periodical press. From the beginning of the republic it had been the policy ofCongress 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 thestockyards 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.
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 theeducational value of the periodical press. From the beginning of the republic it had been the policy ofCongress 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 thestockyards 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 havepersuadedPostmaster 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’sreport. Three of its members (Senators Carter and Clay and Representative Overstreet) havepassed—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 theworkingpolitician.”
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 andopportunityact 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 andlargethinkers. Under close scrutiny, however, most of them will show up or show down merely asdiscreet private or personal interest liars.
But I have permitted my field glass to ramble from the specific to the general. Whether the threepassedmembers 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 beenwholly 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 governmentexceed 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 apenalizingof periodicalweightfor 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: