The astonishing record contained in (Exhibit E), of the absolutely unvarying coincidence of decreases in postoffice deficits with increases in second-class mail is square up against the Postmaster General’s statements that the department loses 8.23 cents on every pound of second-class mail and loses over $60,000,000 a year as a whole, on second-class mail.What is the explanation? How can the phenomenon of constantly decreasing deficits, coincident with increasing second-class mail, be reconciled? To be sure, the Postmaster General has been trying for two years to make out a case against the magazines, and nothing is better understood than that,under orders, he is using all the figures and the infinite opportunities of such a complex mass of figures as those of the postoffice, to make the case for the magazines as bad as possible. Of course, it does not cost the department 9.23 cents a pound for second-class matter; but also, of course, in all probability, the cost must be more than one-ninth Postmaster General Hitchcock’s figures. Then why is it thatthe more second-class matter there is mailed the more money the Postoffice Department has?The answer is that the advertising in the periodicals, the very advertising the Administration is trying to drive out of existence,is far and away the most important creator of profitable first-class postage that exists. That, furthermore,the varied and constant efforts of publishers to extend the circulation of their periodicals by sending out tens of millions of circulars,each making for a 2-cent reply, and the great and complex business that has been built up aroundthe originating and handling of advertisinghave made this national market for reputable wares—a market where the purchasing is done by mail with 2-cent stamps—the stamps that pay the Postoffice Department’s bills and give it $23,000,000 a year to spend over and above receipts from rural free delivery, in advancing that splendid service for the country dweller.There were published in 1909 in fifty American magazines 12,859,138 lines of advertising, for over 5,000 advertisers, who used over 25,000 different advertisements, and it is obviously impossible physically to tabulate complete results. But let us nail down certain specific examples of advertisements inserted in magazines,and follow the record right through, of the work they did for the postoffice, the expense they put the postoffice to, and the profit they brought it.These score or more of specific instances tell the whole story. Read, especially, the first instance—the complete bookkeeping transaction of one magazine advertisement in account with the United States postoffice:A MAGAZINE ADVERTISEMENT IN ACCOUNT WITH THE UNITED STATES POST OFFICE.In the Saturday Evening Post of November 26, 1910, was published a 224-line advertisement of the Review of Reviews.Three thousand seven hundred replies were received, 1,776 of them inclosing each 10 cents in first-class postage.The paper on which this advertisement was printed weighed 0.132815 ounce. The half of it printed with the advertisement weighed 0.06640625 ounce.One million seventy thousand copies of the Saturday Evening Post were sent through the United States mails, so that the postoffice transported 4,440.9 pounds of this advertisement. At 9.23 cents per pound—the pound cost of transporting and handling second-class matter given by the Postoffice Department—the total cost of giving the postoffice services to this advertisement was $409.90; postage paid at 1 cent a pound, $44.41; loss to postoffice, $365.49.THE POSTOFFICE’S GROSS AND NET GAIN FROM FIRST-CLASS POSTAGE CREATED.3,700 inquiries were received by the Review of Reviews.3,700 2-cent stamps for inquiries$74.003,700 acknowledgments under 2-cent stamp74.00Six follow-ups to 3,700 inquiries under 2-cent stamps444.001,776 inquiries sent 10 cents in stamps177.60740 sales are made, each involving 12 bills and 12 remittances, under 2-cent stamp355.00The 3,700 names of inquiries will be circulated at least three times a year for five years, under 2-cent stamps (a practical certainty of twice as many circularizations)1,110.00Total gross direct sales of 2-cent stamps from advertisement$2,234.60Profit of 40 per cent, according to profit percentage of Postmaster General on first-class postage$893.84Direct loss in transporting and handling advertisement, cost figured at 9.23 cents a pound, income at 1 cent365.49Ultimate minimum net gain to postoffice in having carried this advertisement$528.35MORE SPECIFIC EXAMPLES OF PROFITABLE POSTAGE ORIGINATED BY MAGAZINE ADVERTISING.Names of concerns are withheld here. The original documents on which these statements rest are in the possession of the postal committee of the Periodical Publishers’ Association, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York City. These are only a few samples of hundreds that have come, and are printed to suggest the details of the methods by which national magazine advertising far more than pays its way when sent out through America at 1 cent a pound second-class postal rate.“Mr. E. W. Hazen,Advertising Director.“Dear Mr. Hazen: During the year 1910 we paid the Postoffice Department for carrying our first, third and fourth class mail matter the sum of $496,749.88. We shipped during the year 1910, 1,717,514 packages. Of these 809,781 were sent by mail and 907,733 by express. All of these would have been sent by parcels post if the postal rates and regulations permitted. We paid the express companies for the transportation of the packages referred to above $347,392.30.”The above statement covers only mail matter sent out of this house. The figures given are accurate. Any statement of the number of pieces of mail matter which we receive would be approximate, but we can safely state that it was in excess of 4,500,000 pieces of first-class mail matter. This estimate is entirely conservative.Here is another postal bill of one of the many great “mail order” magazine advertisers—a company which sells excellent clothing to women who can not come to the great cities and their department stores. The president of the company writes:“As we are a mail-order concern, our business is derived entirely, either directly or indirectly, from our magazine advertising. During the year 1909 we paid the Postoffice Department for carrying our first, third and fourth class mail matter the sum of $433,242.”What an advertisement in one issue of one magazine did for another women’s “wearing apparel” house is recorded in their books as follows:The postage required to answer the 15,000 replies from the one-column insertion in the magazine, also to send the merchandise required by 2,000 of the inquirers, also to “follow up” other inquirers, etc., amounted to $5,460.The government charge for carrying this advertisement through the second-class mails was $38.83.That $5,460, by the way, did not include the several hundred dollars spent on postage by the inquirers themselves.The president of a concern which publishes encyclopedias, natural histories,classics, etc., investigated the relations with the postoffice of a recent page of his advertising inserted in a single magazine, and the correspondence which resulted.The stamps and money orders bought by the inquirers and by the publishing company, as the result of the 4,000 answers to this one advertisement, amounted to $884.The publishers paid the postoffice to carry that page, at second-class rate, $12.Thus, even if it had not already been disproved that the second-class rate is insufficient, it would still have been mightily unfortunate for the department’s business if that page advertisement had not appeared. A good business man would be willing to lose several times $12 in order to do $884 worth of business as profitable to himself as first-class mail is to the government.Scores of apparently small advertisers are found in any issue of any popular magazine. They are just as good customers to the postoffice, in proportion, as the big concerns using columns or pages.ONE INCH—$5,492 STAMPS A YEAR.A modest 1-inch magazine advertisement is printed by a company, which reports that its yearly postage account from that cause is $5,132. Adding the approximate postage on the 1,500 letters a month sent to the company, the yearly total of postage created by this inconspicuous concern through the magazine is found to be $5,492.ONE-HALF INCH—$590 A MONTH.A half-inch magazine space is used each month by a certain electric manufacturing company in the Middle West, but its postage records show stamp purchases for a single month (November, 1909), resulting from that half-inch advertisement of $590.Two quarter-column announcements of a dress fabric, appealing to women, in a single magazine, brought 7,000 replies, involving postage stamps worth$230.00Pretty good business getters for the department? These “ads” cost the publishers to mail, at second-class rates19.40Even better, in proportion, was a one-fifth-column appeal to mothers in one issue of the same magazine. It produced postage to the amount of240.00To carry the little advertisement at second-class rates the government charged7.76A single-column magazine “ad” of a Chicago clothing firm, with a number of retail stores over the country, brought 4,000 inquiries which, with the following up, etc., caused postage of380.00That column cost the publisher to mail, at second-class rates38.67The Woman’s Home Companion sent a letter to the advertisers in its November issue, asking for a memorandum of the letter postage on the inquiries from their November advertising and the answers to these inquiries. Seventy-five advertisers reported, with definite figures, an aggregate letter-postage expenditure of$3,385.90The Woman’s Home Companion paid the government just $583 for carrying that portion of the magazine on which these 75 advertisements were printed.Any advertising man can point to hundreds of “mail-order firms” like the above. These firms can trace directly to their magazine advertising, every year, purchases of millions of dollars’ worth of the stamps that make big profits for the postoffice.It is even more surprising to learn the enormous postage bills caused by an entirely different class of magazine advertisers—the “general publicity,” or “national” advertisers—who wish the reader to ask for their fine soaps, or mattresses, or silks, or stationery at his local store. These firms do not depend on direct replies, yet they receive so many that thousands of dollars are spent for stamps per year in scores of cases—even per month in many.EVEN THE “GENERAL” OR “PUBLICITY” MAGAZINE ADVERTISING CREATES ENORMOUS STAMP SALES.A moderate-priced shoe is sold through a number of retail stores in different cities. The manufacturers advertise in magazines for national “publicity,” to bring buyers into these stores. Incidentally they mention their department to fill orders by mail. Thus an enormous correspondence has been built up, of which the average annual increase alone during the last three years has involved 264,000 first-class letters—a minimum postage of $5,280. This is simply one yearly addition to the company’s already first-class business, of which it writes that “all but a nominal percentage” has been “induced by our magazine advertisements.”More than $15,000 was spent for postage by a mattress manufacturer last year, “following up” inquiries received from his magazine advertising, though it is designed to create a demand for the mattress at local furniture stores.This $15,000 is over and above his steady correspondence with dealers, etc., which was built up in the first place by magazine advertising.One of the many recent “contests” conducted by magazine advertisers was that of a stationery company. Theirs is also “publicity,” not mail-order advertising. It is designed to create a demand for their paper over the stationery store counters. But their “contest” awhile ago, announced exclusively in the magazines, brought 59,000 replies, which, with follow-up, etc., averaged 12 cents first-class postage—a total of $7,080 in one month.Here is still another “publicity” experience. In the course of familiarizing women with a new trade-mark for silk by means of magazine advertising, the manufacturers incurred postage bills, during the first 11 months of 1909, amounting to $7,979.75. About $2,000 more ought to be added to represent the stamps purchased by the prospective silk-dress wearers themselves.Another “contest,” held by a national advertiser, brought 12,089 replies from a single insertion in one magazine, to handle which postage stamps had to be bought for more than$600.00The publishers paid to have that page carried through the mails, at second-class rates97.66A half page in one issue of another magazine brought 4,000 letters from inquirers, which, with “follow-up,” etc., meant stamp purchases200.00The carriage of that half page at second-class rates was25.62Magazine advertisements of a popular cold cream brought 170,000 letters to the manufacturers last year, though the controlling purpose of the campaign was to get the public to ask for that kind of cold cream at the drug stores.Not including postal orders, special-delivery stamps, etc., the stamp revenue to the government from these letters was $8,500. And, of course, that does not include the profuse correspondence between the manufacturers, the jobbers, the drug stores all over the country, and so on.For another toilet preparation a single advertisement in a leading weekly magazine brought more than 13,000 replies. The stamps involved here add up to$990.00The publishers paid the postoffice to carry this advertisement, at the second-class rate48.83A household remedy, seen in most drug stores, was mentioned to the extent of one-quarter page in a single issue of one magazine. The requests for samples numbered 1,685. The postage involved was202.20Another “drug store” preparation frequently brings the manufacturer 2,000 to 6,000 letters each month from their magazine advertising of it, though that is, of course, for “publicity,” first of all. A single insertion last fall brought 12,000 inquiries, which created, first and last, the purchase of $750 in stamps.A system of physical culture for women put quarter pages in several magazines during the month of November, from which 3,905 letters were received. In this case, the total postage, including follow-up and correspondence back and forth, was $1,104.09 for that month of November alone.Narrow limits would be expected in the demand for expensive silverage. Yet a silversmith’s two advertisements in the November and December magazines brought 45,000 requests for catalogues. These had already involved by January 13, with the following up, etc., a postage bill of $5,510.Another big postage bill was also incurred, incidentally, by a company which uses magazine advertising to bring buyers into drug stores, etc., asking for certain shaving soaps and the like. Still their postage bill during 1909, as a result of inquiries from their advertising, was $3,656.08. This does not include the stamps bought by the inquirers—probably $1,000 more.A similar soap was described in a page advertisement which, printed in one magazine one time, brought more than 30,000 letters. First-class postage on them and the answers to them aggregated more than$900.00The charge for carrying that page, at the second-class rate, was about120.00THE LARGE STAMP PURCHASES OF ENTIRE BUSINESSES DEPEND ON MAGAZINE ADVERTISING.All the above examples are of postage sales caused by magazine advertising directly, in point of time. Just as directly caused are the sales for correspondencebetween manufacturer, jobber, retailer, agent, etc., in the many businesses that have been built up by magazine advertising.A camera company writes: “There is a magnificent revenue to the government through our correspondence with these dealers, through their correspondence with their customers, and through their sending our printed matter, furnished by us, at a postage cost of $100, and such dealer could not afford to go to this expense were it not for the fact that this local advertising which he does is backed up by our general magazine publicity.”This one result of magazine work is figured by the company at tens of thousands of dollars every year in postage.The postage-stamp revenue created by magazine advertising keeps on for months, and years even, between the advertiser and the consumer, in cases like correspondence schools, for instance.One prominent company writes that it not only spends $429 per month in postage, answering inquiries which themselves account for about $100 more, but that it enrolls per month more than 2,200 new scholars—and every scholar, by the time he has received all his numerous “lessons,” etc., costs the school about $3.50 more in postage. Thus each month creates about $7,700 more in postage bills for this school, not counting nearly as much again which the scholars must spend.“Our advertising,” writes a leading investment banker, “by reason of names being placed on our mailing list for circulation, etc., costs us several thousand dollars a year for postage, which would not be the case if we were not doing and had done advertising.”In fact, there would be little left of the department’s profitable postage stamp sales were the big magazine houses crippled. The publishers are the largest buyers of lists of names used for circulation. To circularize these lists many millions of 2-cent stamps are bought every year.“Our entire mail order book business,” writes a Western firm, “has been built up through magazine advertising. Last year our postal bill amounted to $12,298.57. This was used on circular matter and letters. If the circulation of the magazines should be reduced, and it is our opinion that it would be if the postage rate should be increased, our postage bill would be reduced proportionately.”
The astonishing record contained in (Exhibit E), of the absolutely unvarying coincidence of decreases in postoffice deficits with increases in second-class mail is square up against the Postmaster General’s statements that the department loses 8.23 cents on every pound of second-class mail and loses over $60,000,000 a year as a whole, on second-class mail.
What is the explanation? How can the phenomenon of constantly decreasing deficits, coincident with increasing second-class mail, be reconciled? To be sure, the Postmaster General has been trying for two years to make out a case against the magazines, and nothing is better understood than that,under orders, he is using all the figures and the infinite opportunities of such a complex mass of figures as those of the postoffice, to make the case for the magazines as bad as possible. Of course, it does not cost the department 9.23 cents a pound for second-class matter; but also, of course, in all probability, the cost must be more than one-ninth Postmaster General Hitchcock’s figures. Then why is it thatthe more second-class matter there is mailed the more money the Postoffice Department has?
The answer is that the advertising in the periodicals, the very advertising the Administration is trying to drive out of existence,is far and away the most important creator of profitable first-class postage that exists. That, furthermore,the varied and constant efforts of publishers to extend the circulation of their periodicals by sending out tens of millions of circulars,each making for a 2-cent reply, and the great and complex business that has been built up aroundthe originating and handling of advertisinghave made this national market for reputable wares—a market where the purchasing is done by mail with 2-cent stamps—the stamps that pay the Postoffice Department’s bills and give it $23,000,000 a year to spend over and above receipts from rural free delivery, in advancing that splendid service for the country dweller.
There were published in 1909 in fifty American magazines 12,859,138 lines of advertising, for over 5,000 advertisers, who used over 25,000 different advertisements, and it is obviously impossible physically to tabulate complete results. But let us nail down certain specific examples of advertisements inserted in magazines,and follow the record right through, of the work they did for the postoffice, the expense they put the postoffice to, and the profit they brought it.
These score or more of specific instances tell the whole story. Read, especially, the first instance—the complete bookkeeping transaction of one magazine advertisement in account with the United States postoffice:
A MAGAZINE ADVERTISEMENT IN ACCOUNT WITH THE UNITED STATES POST OFFICE.
In the Saturday Evening Post of November 26, 1910, was published a 224-line advertisement of the Review of Reviews.
Three thousand seven hundred replies were received, 1,776 of them inclosing each 10 cents in first-class postage.
The paper on which this advertisement was printed weighed 0.132815 ounce. The half of it printed with the advertisement weighed 0.06640625 ounce.
One million seventy thousand copies of the Saturday Evening Post were sent through the United States mails, so that the postoffice transported 4,440.9 pounds of this advertisement. At 9.23 cents per pound—the pound cost of transporting and handling second-class matter given by the Postoffice Department—the total cost of giving the postoffice services to this advertisement was $409.90; postage paid at 1 cent a pound, $44.41; loss to postoffice, $365.49.
THE POSTOFFICE’S GROSS AND NET GAIN FROM FIRST-CLASS POSTAGE CREATED.
MORE SPECIFIC EXAMPLES OF PROFITABLE POSTAGE ORIGINATED BY MAGAZINE ADVERTISING.
Names of concerns are withheld here. The original documents on which these statements rest are in the possession of the postal committee of the Periodical Publishers’ Association, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York City. These are only a few samples of hundreds that have come, and are printed to suggest the details of the methods by which national magazine advertising far more than pays its way when sent out through America at 1 cent a pound second-class postal rate.
“Mr. E. W. Hazen,Advertising Director.“Dear Mr. Hazen: During the year 1910 we paid the Postoffice Department for carrying our first, third and fourth class mail matter the sum of $496,749.88. We shipped during the year 1910, 1,717,514 packages. Of these 809,781 were sent by mail and 907,733 by express. All of these would have been sent by parcels post if the postal rates and regulations permitted. We paid the express companies for the transportation of the packages referred to above $347,392.30.”
“Mr. E. W. Hazen,Advertising Director.
“Dear Mr. Hazen: During the year 1910 we paid the Postoffice Department for carrying our first, third and fourth class mail matter the sum of $496,749.88. We shipped during the year 1910, 1,717,514 packages. Of these 809,781 were sent by mail and 907,733 by express. All of these would have been sent by parcels post if the postal rates and regulations permitted. We paid the express companies for the transportation of the packages referred to above $347,392.30.”
The above statement covers only mail matter sent out of this house. The figures given are accurate. Any statement of the number of pieces of mail matter which we receive would be approximate, but we can safely state that it was in excess of 4,500,000 pieces of first-class mail matter. This estimate is entirely conservative.
Here is another postal bill of one of the many great “mail order” magazine advertisers—a company which sells excellent clothing to women who can not come to the great cities and their department stores. The president of the company writes:
“As we are a mail-order concern, our business is derived entirely, either directly or indirectly, from our magazine advertising. During the year 1909 we paid the Postoffice Department for carrying our first, third and fourth class mail matter the sum of $433,242.”
What an advertisement in one issue of one magazine did for another women’s “wearing apparel” house is recorded in their books as follows:
The postage required to answer the 15,000 replies from the one-column insertion in the magazine, also to send the merchandise required by 2,000 of the inquirers, also to “follow up” other inquirers, etc., amounted to $5,460.
The government charge for carrying this advertisement through the second-class mails was $38.83.
That $5,460, by the way, did not include the several hundred dollars spent on postage by the inquirers themselves.
The president of a concern which publishes encyclopedias, natural histories,classics, etc., investigated the relations with the postoffice of a recent page of his advertising inserted in a single magazine, and the correspondence which resulted.
The stamps and money orders bought by the inquirers and by the publishing company, as the result of the 4,000 answers to this one advertisement, amounted to $884.
The publishers paid the postoffice to carry that page, at second-class rate, $12.
Thus, even if it had not already been disproved that the second-class rate is insufficient, it would still have been mightily unfortunate for the department’s business if that page advertisement had not appeared. A good business man would be willing to lose several times $12 in order to do $884 worth of business as profitable to himself as first-class mail is to the government.
Scores of apparently small advertisers are found in any issue of any popular magazine. They are just as good customers to the postoffice, in proportion, as the big concerns using columns or pages.
ONE INCH—$5,492 STAMPS A YEAR.
A modest 1-inch magazine advertisement is printed by a company, which reports that its yearly postage account from that cause is $5,132. Adding the approximate postage on the 1,500 letters a month sent to the company, the yearly total of postage created by this inconspicuous concern through the magazine is found to be $5,492.
ONE-HALF INCH—$590 A MONTH.
A half-inch magazine space is used each month by a certain electric manufacturing company in the Middle West, but its postage records show stamp purchases for a single month (November, 1909), resulting from that half-inch advertisement of $590.
The Woman’s Home Companion paid the government just $583 for carrying that portion of the magazine on which these 75 advertisements were printed.
Any advertising man can point to hundreds of “mail-order firms” like the above. These firms can trace directly to their magazine advertising, every year, purchases of millions of dollars’ worth of the stamps that make big profits for the postoffice.
It is even more surprising to learn the enormous postage bills caused by an entirely different class of magazine advertisers—the “general publicity,” or “national” advertisers—who wish the reader to ask for their fine soaps, or mattresses, or silks, or stationery at his local store. These firms do not depend on direct replies, yet they receive so many that thousands of dollars are spent for stamps per year in scores of cases—even per month in many.
EVEN THE “GENERAL” OR “PUBLICITY” MAGAZINE ADVERTISING CREATES ENORMOUS STAMP SALES.
A moderate-priced shoe is sold through a number of retail stores in different cities. The manufacturers advertise in magazines for national “publicity,” to bring buyers into these stores. Incidentally they mention their department to fill orders by mail. Thus an enormous correspondence has been built up, of which the average annual increase alone during the last three years has involved 264,000 first-class letters—a minimum postage of $5,280. This is simply one yearly addition to the company’s already first-class business, of which it writes that “all but a nominal percentage” has been “induced by our magazine advertisements.”
More than $15,000 was spent for postage by a mattress manufacturer last year, “following up” inquiries received from his magazine advertising, though it is designed to create a demand for the mattress at local furniture stores.
This $15,000 is over and above his steady correspondence with dealers, etc., which was built up in the first place by magazine advertising.
One of the many recent “contests” conducted by magazine advertisers was that of a stationery company. Theirs is also “publicity,” not mail-order advertising. It is designed to create a demand for their paper over the stationery store counters. But their “contest” awhile ago, announced exclusively in the magazines, brought 59,000 replies, which, with follow-up, etc., averaged 12 cents first-class postage—a total of $7,080 in one month.
Here is still another “publicity” experience. In the course of familiarizing women with a new trade-mark for silk by means of magazine advertising, the manufacturers incurred postage bills, during the first 11 months of 1909, amounting to $7,979.75. About $2,000 more ought to be added to represent the stamps purchased by the prospective silk-dress wearers themselves.
Magazine advertisements of a popular cold cream brought 170,000 letters to the manufacturers last year, though the controlling purpose of the campaign was to get the public to ask for that kind of cold cream at the drug stores.
Not including postal orders, special-delivery stamps, etc., the stamp revenue to the government from these letters was $8,500. And, of course, that does not include the profuse correspondence between the manufacturers, the jobbers, the drug stores all over the country, and so on.
Another “drug store” preparation frequently brings the manufacturer 2,000 to 6,000 letters each month from their magazine advertising of it, though that is, of course, for “publicity,” first of all. A single insertion last fall brought 12,000 inquiries, which created, first and last, the purchase of $750 in stamps.
A system of physical culture for women put quarter pages in several magazines during the month of November, from which 3,905 letters were received. In this case, the total postage, including follow-up and correspondence back and forth, was $1,104.09 for that month of November alone.
Narrow limits would be expected in the demand for expensive silverage. Yet a silversmith’s two advertisements in the November and December magazines brought 45,000 requests for catalogues. These had already involved by January 13, with the following up, etc., a postage bill of $5,510.
Another big postage bill was also incurred, incidentally, by a company which uses magazine advertising to bring buyers into drug stores, etc., asking for certain shaving soaps and the like. Still their postage bill during 1909, as a result of inquiries from their advertising, was $3,656.08. This does not include the stamps bought by the inquirers—probably $1,000 more.
THE LARGE STAMP PURCHASES OF ENTIRE BUSINESSES DEPEND ON MAGAZINE ADVERTISING.
All the above examples are of postage sales caused by magazine advertising directly, in point of time. Just as directly caused are the sales for correspondencebetween manufacturer, jobber, retailer, agent, etc., in the many businesses that have been built up by magazine advertising.
A camera company writes: “There is a magnificent revenue to the government through our correspondence with these dealers, through their correspondence with their customers, and through their sending our printed matter, furnished by us, at a postage cost of $100, and such dealer could not afford to go to this expense were it not for the fact that this local advertising which he does is backed up by our general magazine publicity.”
This one result of magazine work is figured by the company at tens of thousands of dollars every year in postage.
The postage-stamp revenue created by magazine advertising keeps on for months, and years even, between the advertiser and the consumer, in cases like correspondence schools, for instance.
One prominent company writes that it not only spends $429 per month in postage, answering inquiries which themselves account for about $100 more, but that it enrolls per month more than 2,200 new scholars—and every scholar, by the time he has received all his numerous “lessons,” etc., costs the school about $3.50 more in postage. Thus each month creates about $7,700 more in postage bills for this school, not counting nearly as much again which the scholars must spend.
“Our advertising,” writes a leading investment banker, “by reason of names being placed on our mailing list for circulation, etc., costs us several thousand dollars a year for postage, which would not be the case if we were not doing and had done advertising.”
In fact, there would be little left of the department’s profitable postage stamp sales were the big magazine houses crippled. The publishers are the largest buyers of lists of names used for circulation. To circularize these lists many millions of 2-cent stamps are bought every year.
“Our entire mail order book business,” writes a Western firm, “has been built up through magazine advertising. Last year our postal bill amounted to $12,298.57. This was used on circular matter and letters. If the circulation of the magazines should be reduced, and it is our opinion that it would be if the postage rate should be increased, our postage bill would be reduced proportionately.”
There is much more to be said in support of my contention that the advertising pages of our periodicals are theirrevenue-producing pages, but it cannot now here be said, as I must pass to another division of our general subject.
We have devoted most of our previous space to Mr. Hitchcock’s “rider,” to the influences andinfluencersthat originated it and tried to push it—by methods adroit and scrupulously unscrupulous—into federal enactment—into operative law. At this point of our presentation of the general subject of Postal Riders and Raiders, it wasmy original intention to take up generally theraiderfeatures or elements as planned for discussion in this volume. I intended to start just here to discuss the Postoffice Department “deficit,” of which Mr. Hitchcock has had so much to say—and of which he made voluminous and eloquent use during his efforts to bring his “rider” a safe winner under the wire. I intended, as just said, to begin to write about the postal “deficit” just here—a deficitwhich never had real existence, since the days of the “pony post” and “mail coach,” save in quasi form—in methods covering political lootage and looters.
Well, I have changed my original plan a little. I’ll run a few lines through that “deficit”—twaddle-talk, a little further on. Here I will merely repeat what I have already said, in substance at least.
There never has been a postal deficit since the period I have indicated, save deficits created by official crooks and crookedness, by “interests” whichhiredthe official crooks and bought the crookedness, and by department accounting methods which would put Standard Oil or a Western cow ranch on the financial blink inside of thirty-six months, or even in twelve.
We will discuss this artistic “deficit” later. Here I now desire to advert to, and animadvert on, another point which has been brought forcibly to my attention recently—weeks, some two months, after I climbed up here to take a look over the general situation, and then chanced, through the aid of a Congressman friend, to get my distance glasses focused on this postoffice foolery.
Foolery, I have written. I was wrong. There was no foolery about it. It was acalculated, a studied, a cold-blooded partisan stab at one of the greatest and most helpful—most up-building—industries in this country.
But we will let that point and the “deficit” rest for the present. It appears that one of Mr. Hitchcock’s much-worked arguments to harvest or glean votes for his rider amendment was that the amendment would “affect only a few magazine publishers,” or that “only a few magazine publishers, at most, would be affected by the amendment and that they hadenrichedthemselves by the special privilege granted by the second-class mail rate statute of 1885,” etc., etc.
Various newspapers quoted Mr. Hitchcock variously on the same point or to the same end, and two Congressmen acquaintances reported that he had personally talked to them along the same lines.
Only a “few magazine publishers” would be affected by legislation of the character recommended in the rider amendment? That is the point I desire here and now to consider. I hope the reader will go carefully and thoughtfully through the consideration with me.
First it may be said, and safely admitted, that no such legislation as that recommended in the “rider” previously discussed, would be sustainedby any court in this country, unless its wording was so modified as to make its requirements and restrictions applyto all periodicals, or at least to all monthly and weekly periodicals. Even then, it is doubtful if any court could be found to sustain such a piece of class or special legislation unless its terms were broadened to cover newspapers, so numerously and so aggressively are the latter trenching upon what is generally recognized as the weekly and monthly periodical field of effort, influence and usefulness.
I think that any informed, fair-minded reader will agree that that statement is a fair statement of governing facts, unless we question the honesty of our courts in the discharge of their judicial duties or question the juridic honesty of some member or members of the ruling court.
That may read like a blunt or offensive way of putting it. But we are not writing of a Palm Beach twilight party nor of a Newport frolic. We are writing of andtoa serious subject—a subject which vitally touches and trenches into the vital interests of ninety millions of people—the ninety millions who are the blood and bone and sinew of this nation of ours. It is a subject of such grave import as to make it necessary that we call a spade a spade, a thief a thief, a scoundrel a scoundrel, and judicial weakness, judicialtreachery.
That is why I put, plain and strong, the point thatno courtcould be found in this country to sustain legislation of the character covered in Mr. Hitchcock’s “rider” amendment to the 1911 postoffice appropriation bill, and that every informed, fair-minded man must concur in the statements that I have made in the three or four preceding paragraphs.
That “rider” amendment would “affect only a few magazine publishers,” says Mr. Hitchcock, or as he is reported to have said.
Now, let us look over the field a little. Let us make an honest, intelligent effort—an effort not warped by political hopes andaspirations nor bypersonal prejudices and interests—to see who or whom would be affected by such special or class legislation.
First, the reader must get a mental hip-lock or strangle-hold on the fact that the second-class mailbusinessof this country—the output of periodical publishers—in marketed values, is somewhere aroundone billion dollars a year.
As has previously been stated, and I believe well sustained by the facts, no business, however well established, can stand an increase of 300 per cent in the haulage and delivery cost of its output without sustaining great financial loss. The fair-minded reader will, I believe, agree that the publishers in presenting their case to Mr. Hitchcock, to the Penrose-Overstreet and other commissions, proved the truth of that statement quite conclusively.
Well, if that be true, legislation of the sort proposed in the Hitchcock “rider” must necessarily, after adjudication, put all the lesser weeklies and monthlies (those not financially strong) out of business. Likewise hundreds of the smaller newspapers must discontinue issue. Of course, Mr. Hitchcock prattled about the newspapers not being affected by his proposed amendment. But, as previously stated, no court of justice in this country would sustain such a biased, prejudiced piece of class legislation as that proposed in the “rider.”
Let us see who really would be affected.
As just cited there necessarily would be thousands of periodical publishers affected—virtually ruined. But, let us go down to things elemental in this question—down to the stumpage.
The great educational white way of our periodical literature is builded uponwood pulp.
In an opening paragraph of this volume I adverted to that fact. The chief pulp woods are spruce of the North—even of the distant North—and the Northwest. Then come cottonwood, basswood and soft maple, of the South, Southeast and New England. Of course, there are several other kinds of pulpwoods, but they are not used extensively for the manufacture of white paper, unless chemically treated, and such treatment makes them expensive. Of the pulpwoods I have named, spruce is far and away the most extensively used. From spruce is produced the best pulp. In “milling,” it shows body, fiber, strength—it gives toughness to the milled sheet or the Web roll.
But that is enough. I am not an expert in pulp-wood stocks. The point I am trying to call to the reader’s attention is thatany legislationwhich cuts down the consumption of wood pulp must necessarily “affect” some other folks besides “a few magazine publishers.”
First, a just adjudication of such a piece of legislation as that proposed in Mr. Hitchcock’s rider amendment would put from thirty to fifty per cent of our weaker (but excellent) periodicals on the financial rocks—put them out of business. They consume thousands of tons yearly of pulp-wood paper.
It will, I think, be freely admitted that such periodicals would be out of—forced out of—the pulp-wood market—I mean out of the wood-pulp paper market, which amounts to the same thing.
But that is not all. The strong weeklies and monthlies are not going to be put out of business by legislation of that rider character. They will continue in business. They will meet its unjust exactionsby readjustments. They are printing on sixty to eighty pound stock. Some parts of their periodicals are printed on even heavier stock. They will go to the paper mills and demandlighterstock, of special finish—and their demands will be met—and fifty to sixty pound stock will be used. The special finish will give the reader just as presentable a magazine, typographically, as he now receives.
But you observe that thepublisherwill be saving from twenty to fifty per cent instock weight.
You will also observe that the paper mills will be using twenty to fifty per cent less wood pulp than they are now using.
You will also observe that the railroads will haul twenty to fifty per cent less of pulp timber and less wood-pulp paper than they now haul.
“Only a few magazine publishers will be affected,” eh?
Let us “recast” as far as we have gone.
The owners of pulp wood acres or stumpage would be affected, would they not? There are probably three to five hundred of them in the country, taken at a low estimate.
They are not of the “few magazine publishers” are they?
Pulp mill and other investors in pulp-wood stumpage seldom buy until they have an estimate by some skilled judge as to the probable “cut” the acreage will yield. For this purpose the prospective purchasers usually employ one or more “timber cruisers.” A timber cruiser is a man so skilled and experienced that he can look at a standing tree and tell you within a hundred feet or so how much lumber it will saw or how many cords of pulp or other wood it will cut. He “steps off” an acre, sizes up the available trees growing on the acre, averaging up the large trees with the small ones, and then estimates or calculates theaveragewood or lumber growth on that acre. He then goes off to some other acre. The latter may be only a few hundred yards or it may be a mile or two from the acres last measured, the estimate on which the “cruiser” has carefully noted in his “field book.”
The second acre he “works” as he did the first, and so the “cruiser” goes on with acre after acre through a forest of ten, fifty, a hundred, or it may be a million or more acres of “stumpage,” always careful to note the “light” and the “heavy” timbered sections, and marks with a sharp, shrewd and experienced eye an estimate ofthe number of acres covered by the light and the heavy growth of timber. When he has covered the acreage his employer contemplates buying, he comes back to civilization, turns in his field book and makes a report to the boss. On that showing the boss buys or declines.
Sometimes, of course, the careful, prudent boss may have two, three or a dozen cruisers, covering different fields of a vast forest section and, sometimes, virtuallytrailingeach other. In the latter case, the buyer seeks to use one cruiser’s estimate as a check on the other. In any event, however, the purchase or investment is usually made on the showing the cruisers have made.
Now, this talk about timber, cruisers, etc., may be uninteresting to the reader. I sincerely hope, though, he will read it and follow me along the same lines a little further. My object is to show how wide of the truth—how unjustly or ignorantly wide of the truth—Mr. Hitchcock was when making the statement, which it has been repeatedly and reputably asserted he did make, to the effect that the legislation he sought would “affect only a few magazine publishers.” I have stated, and have given what I believe to be sound, valid reasons in support of the statement, that legislation of the nature, covered by his rider amendment ultimately—and necessarily—must be either annulled by the courts or be so broadened as to remove its special or class features. Of course, Mr. Hitchcock wanted—and he still wants—legislation of the nature indicated in that rider to becomeoperative law. It is my belief he entertained such hope and desire when he asserted that an enactment of the character of his rider would “affect only a few magazine publishers.” At any rate, it was with such belief I introduced this division of our general subject.
As previously stated, legislation of the character sought by Mr. Hitchcock cannot be enacted into operative lawwithout cutting down the consumption of wood pulp from thirty to fifty per cent.
Such a cut in consumption, I am here trying to show, cannot be made without affecting the earnings and lives of men—many thousands of men and families—who cannot even be imagined as of those “few magazine publishers.”
When the stumpage owner decides to cut five, ten, fifty, a hundred or more thousand acres for milling, another gang of men—“road blazers”—is sent into the forest. If the transportation is to be bywater, some river or smaller stream, these latter men select suitable roll-ways and boom yardages along the stream. From each of these they “blaze” or mark the trees and smaller growths to be felled and the obstructions to be removed in order to provide a haulage roadway—usually providing for both wagons and snow sleds or sledges. If the transportation is to be by rail, corresponding work is done, the roadways branching in from the forest to the rail sidings where the loading is to be done. Not infrequently “spur tracks” are blazed which sometimes run for miles into the forest away from the main line of the railway.
Following these men who mark out the “haulways,” come a far more numerous body of men with axes, saws, hooks, oxen, mules and other equipment, including cooks, “grub” and other things necessary to feed and shelter them. These, also, are factors—elemental or primal factors—in the production of wood-pulp from which most of our white paper is made. Numerically they, in the aggregate, number thousands.
Most certainly they cannot be counted among the “few magazine publishers” referred to by Mr. Hitchcock.
With equal certainty it can be said thateachof these thousands would be materially affected in his industrial occupation by any legislation or other influence which caused a shrinkage in the demand for wood-pulp.
In the fall and winter of the year (sometimes in other seasons as well), an army of men—not thousands, but tens of thousands in number—swarm into the pulp wood forests. They are axemen, “fiddlers” (cross-cut sawyers,) foremen, gang foremen, ox drivers, mule drivers, horse drivers. Here also is again found the cook, the “pot cleaner,” the “grub slinger” and other servers of subsistence to the “timber jackies” of the various camps.
Any material reduction in the consumption of wood-pulp would affect them, would it not?
None of them publish magazines, do they?
This brings us down to the pulp mill. Of course each mill has a hundred or more men employed getting its wood floated down the rivers or streams during the spring floods, or “freshets,” if their transportation is by water. They are log “berlers”, “jam” breakers, shore “canters,” “boomers,” etc. If their working stock comes by rail,there are “loaders,” “unloaders,” “yarders,” etc. Then come in the thousands of mill men, engaged on the work of reducing the wood to pulp. If the pulp mill has not a paper mill in immediate connection, as often happens, then the railroad is immediately interested in the reduced tonnage haul, and likewise every man who works for the railroad becomes interested industrially.
Even a triple-expansion brained man could not figure these thousands of industrial workers into the ranks of those “few magazine publishers” whom Mr. Hitchcock, it is asserted,repeatedlyasserted, would alone be affected by his urgently urged amendment.
Next, we reach the paper mill. How many thousands of men are employed by them, I do not know. Of the many other thousands—wives and children who are dependent upon those workers for clothing, shelter and subsistence—I cannot make even a worthy guess. The reader can make as dependable an estimate as I, probably a more dependable one. But readers will unitedly agree that all these thousands of workmen, wives and children would be affected byanyreduction in the consumption of wood-pulp paper.
All readers will also agree that no one of these is a magazine publisher.
Thus far we have seen, in considering the “reach” of Mr. Hitchcock’s recommended legislation, that it would have affected the earnings and the lives of many thousands of our people—people who cannot, in even perfervid imagination, be classed among his “few magazine publishers.” In this connection, however, should be noted the fact that when the paper leaves the paper mills, with the thousands dependent upon their operation and success, the paper proper passes into the custody of the transportation companies—railroad and water—chiefly the former—and of the thousands of operatives they employ. Next comes the thousands engaged in the cartage interests in cities throughout the country, wherever printing is done. In cities of the first and second classes there is usually found a division of the cartage interest which confines its service almost exclusively to the work of carting paper from car, depot, dock or warehouse to the printing plant which consumes it.
Here, then, in the last two classes named, must be found several thousands more workmen who would necessarily be adversely affected by a shrinkage of thirty to fifty per cent in the pulp wood cut.Those thousands, mark you, do not include the thousands of women and children dependent upon the earnings of those workmen. Yet they would necessarily be affected by any shrinkage in wood-pulp consumption.
And again it must be admitted by every man—andwillbe admitted by any man with as much brains as directs the activities of any lively angleworm—that none of the thousands here mentioned are magazine publishers. None of them could possibly be of the “few magazine publishers” referred to by Mr. Hitchcock.
So far we have touched upon only theelements of production. While the people employed in the several divisions of the pulp-wood industry may run, numerically, into many tens of thousands, in the great division of the printing trades, they run intothe hundreds of thousands. I refer to the great printing and publishing trades—the trades which turn the pulp paper into periodicals and books—the trades whose work directly educates us.
Before attempting to designate the various divisions of this class, or to indicate the vast multitude—both men and women—to whom they give employment, I desire to present a few quotations, showing that these trades and these hundreds of thousands of employes are, in the slang language of the street, “onto” not only the controlling—theulterior—motives of Mr. Hitchcock but also that they know and understand andfeelsomething of thefar-reaching wreck and ruin to homes and to lives which legislation of the nature he proposed must bring to this industrial division of our general citizenship.
Under date of May 20, 1911, Mr. M. H. Madden wrote me the following letter. While Mr. Madden may not be as widely known as is Postmaster General Hitchcock, he not having had the advantage of a federal cabinet position to broadcast his fame, there are few men better known among the personnel of the printing trades than is Mr. Madden, and equally few men there are who are better informed on the cost of carriage, handling and distribution of second-class mail.
In this letter Mr. Madden speaks particularly of theallegedPostoffice Department “deficit.” While this much-talked of “deficit” is made the subject of a short subsequent chapter, Mr. Madden’s letter presents several other points trenchantly pertinent to the subject we are now considering, to-wit: that the printing trades—all branches and classes of it, from the pressfeeder and bindery girl tothe shop superintendent and publisher—are alive to the dangers with which legislation of the “rider” character is fraught:
Chicago, May 20, 1911.My Dear Mr. Gantz—For a considerable time President Taft has directed attention to a supposed deficit in the Postoffice Department revenues, he accepting the figures of his Postmaster General that the amount of the shortage for 1909 was above $17,000,000, while that for 1910 was cut down to less than $6,000,000.An authorized statement by Mr. Hitchcock, sent out on May 27, 1911, declares that for the six months of 1911 there is a surplus in postal receipts ranging from $1,000,000 to $3,000,000. With the fact kept in view that there have been increases in expenses in many directions and the further fact that second-class mail tonnage, on which great losses occur—according to the Hitchcock plan of keeping books—has increased, the manifest inconsistency involved in Mr. Hitchcock’s discovery is too transparent to permit of discussion.Factors which have been left out of the reckoning, among others might be mentioned the progressive increased amount of business of the postal department, with but slight advance in the percentage of cost for transacting the same; a general agitation for better service on the part of the public which awakened the authorities to a fuller responsibility of their duty, and the important circumstance that there has been a new alignment of the House and Senate Committees on Postoffices and Postroads, has caused a moving-up process, we might say shaking-up process, in methods that sadly needed furbishing and of ideas that required practical demonstration. The effect of improving the system of transmitting the postal funds promptly to the national treasury instead of leaving the same to accumulate in the common centers, where they were earned, is seen by the immediate wiping out of the need for a balance of $10,000,000 with which to do business. Such an ancient method of conducting postal business would probably do in the period when the pyramids were built, but that system had finally to surrender, it being too archaic for even the Postoffice Department to adopt.
Chicago, May 20, 1911.
My Dear Mr. Gantz—For a considerable time President Taft has directed attention to a supposed deficit in the Postoffice Department revenues, he accepting the figures of his Postmaster General that the amount of the shortage for 1909 was above $17,000,000, while that for 1910 was cut down to less than $6,000,000.
An authorized statement by Mr. Hitchcock, sent out on May 27, 1911, declares that for the six months of 1911 there is a surplus in postal receipts ranging from $1,000,000 to $3,000,000. With the fact kept in view that there have been increases in expenses in many directions and the further fact that second-class mail tonnage, on which great losses occur—according to the Hitchcock plan of keeping books—has increased, the manifest inconsistency involved in Mr. Hitchcock’s discovery is too transparent to permit of discussion.
Factors which have been left out of the reckoning, among others might be mentioned the progressive increased amount of business of the postal department, with but slight advance in the percentage of cost for transacting the same; a general agitation for better service on the part of the public which awakened the authorities to a fuller responsibility of their duty, and the important circumstance that there has been a new alignment of the House and Senate Committees on Postoffices and Postroads, has caused a moving-up process, we might say shaking-up process, in methods that sadly needed furbishing and of ideas that required practical demonstration. The effect of improving the system of transmitting the postal funds promptly to the national treasury instead of leaving the same to accumulate in the common centers, where they were earned, is seen by the immediate wiping out of the need for a balance of $10,000,000 with which to do business. Such an ancient method of conducting postal business would probably do in the period when the pyramids were built, but that system had finally to surrender, it being too archaic for even the Postoffice Department to adopt.
In a communication to me under date of August 9th, 1911, Mr. Madden gives expression to the following very informative statements:
In connection with the Hughes postal inquiry I would like to inform you of thetotal additionto the expense of conducting the Postoffice Department which became effective July 1, 1911. You may avail yourself of these facts in your argument, as they are official, orders having been issued by Postmaster General Hitchcock for these additional expenditures.The sum of $1,200,000 is to be devoted to increases in the salaries of postoffice clerks during the current year, while $600,000 of an increase will go to city letter carriers. The railway mail clerks will get an increase of only $175,000, making an addition to the salaries of the three groups of $1,975,000. When the rural route carriers get their increase of $4,000,000 it will meanan additionto the four groups of the stupendous sum of $5,975,000 to the annual total. The figuresare calculated to startle the ordinary observer, especially when there has been so much music about deficits.
In connection with the Hughes postal inquiry I would like to inform you of thetotal additionto the expense of conducting the Postoffice Department which became effective July 1, 1911. You may avail yourself of these facts in your argument, as they are official, orders having been issued by Postmaster General Hitchcock for these additional expenditures.
The sum of $1,200,000 is to be devoted to increases in the salaries of postoffice clerks during the current year, while $600,000 of an increase will go to city letter carriers. The railway mail clerks will get an increase of only $175,000, making an addition to the salaries of the three groups of $1,975,000. When the rural route carriers get their increase of $4,000,000 it will meanan additionto the four groups of the stupendous sum of $5,975,000 to the annual total. The figuresare calculated to startle the ordinary observer, especially when there has been so much music about deficits.
On August 15th, 1911, Mr. M. H. Madden, as Secretary of the Independent Postal League, wrote the Hon. Daniel A. Campbell, Postmaster of Chicago, a lengthy and strong letter, in response to the latter’s request for copies of former issues of the league’s bulletins. I have a copy of that letter before me and shall take the liberty to quote a few of its relevant paragraphs.
After explaining the reasons why it was impossible for him to furnish Postmaster Campbell a file of the league’s bulletins, Mr. Madden continues:
“For myself I have given second-class postage problems some study, have written articles concerning the subject, and have addressed many organizations interested, in various portions of the country. In this connection I appeared before President Taft as a representative of the printing trades with President George L. Berry of the International Printing Pressmen’s Union on Feb. 23 last. We protested against the raise to 4 cents a pound on advertising pages in the magazines. As a result of our work, more than 10,000 telegrams of protest were sent to Senators and members of the House from organized labor men. Two weeks later a certain ‘rider’ was thrown in the Senate. The Hughes commission of inquiry into the cost of handling second-class matter was then created. In one way and another this movement has been kept somewhat active.“Some weeks ago the editors of union labor publications of the country met in Chicago and formed an association to continue this work, the Independent Postal League being thereby relieved of the task of instructing working people concerning the subject, the League turning over to the editors, the data it had, consisting of documents, official reports, etc.“President Gompers of the American Federation of Labor and President Woll of the International Photo-Engravers’ Union were furnished with material to present before the sessions of the Hughes Commission. The National Typothetæ to convene in Denver will also use data supplied by the League, as will the International Typographical Union at San Francisco; also the American Federation of Labor at its annual meeting at Atlanta, Ga.“In this country there are 2,000,000 organized workingmen affiliated with the American Federation of Labor and 500,000 who are unaffiliated. These are opposed to a raise in postage and have so declared. In the printing trades there are more than 400,000 of the best paid artisans in the world and these are working in opposition to a raise, and since they produce almost a billion dollars’ worth of printing each year their protest is worth listening to.“As workingmen we cannot approve of the inconsistency shown by having a pressman produce a periodical in Canada and sending it through the mails at ¼ cent a pound, while his brother pressman in the United States would be forced to pay four cents a pound for the same service. And the “Canuck” can certainlydo it at a profit. Here is where a little ‘reciprocity’ juice would taste nectar-like for the Uncle Sam pressman. For several years our big postoffice officials have been telling the American people it cost more than 9 cents a pound to haul second-class mail. In Canada there is a population of 8,000,000 served by 25,000 miles of railway, while in our country we have 90,000,000 people and 246,000 miles of railroads. In the United States we print 500 periodicals to one printed in the Dominion. The merits of the question are so obvious that there is no chance for a controversy; in fact there can be no dispute on a matter so plain.”
“For myself I have given second-class postage problems some study, have written articles concerning the subject, and have addressed many organizations interested, in various portions of the country. In this connection I appeared before President Taft as a representative of the printing trades with President George L. Berry of the International Printing Pressmen’s Union on Feb. 23 last. We protested against the raise to 4 cents a pound on advertising pages in the magazines. As a result of our work, more than 10,000 telegrams of protest were sent to Senators and members of the House from organized labor men. Two weeks later a certain ‘rider’ was thrown in the Senate. The Hughes commission of inquiry into the cost of handling second-class matter was then created. In one way and another this movement has been kept somewhat active.
“Some weeks ago the editors of union labor publications of the country met in Chicago and formed an association to continue this work, the Independent Postal League being thereby relieved of the task of instructing working people concerning the subject, the League turning over to the editors, the data it had, consisting of documents, official reports, etc.
“President Gompers of the American Federation of Labor and President Woll of the International Photo-Engravers’ Union were furnished with material to present before the sessions of the Hughes Commission. The National Typothetæ to convene in Denver will also use data supplied by the League, as will the International Typographical Union at San Francisco; also the American Federation of Labor at its annual meeting at Atlanta, Ga.
“In this country there are 2,000,000 organized workingmen affiliated with the American Federation of Labor and 500,000 who are unaffiliated. These are opposed to a raise in postage and have so declared. In the printing trades there are more than 400,000 of the best paid artisans in the world and these are working in opposition to a raise, and since they produce almost a billion dollars’ worth of printing each year their protest is worth listening to.
“As workingmen we cannot approve of the inconsistency shown by having a pressman produce a periodical in Canada and sending it through the mails at ¼ cent a pound, while his brother pressman in the United States would be forced to pay four cents a pound for the same service. And the “Canuck” can certainlydo it at a profit. Here is where a little ‘reciprocity’ juice would taste nectar-like for the Uncle Sam pressman. For several years our big postoffice officials have been telling the American people it cost more than 9 cents a pound to haul second-class mail. In Canada there is a population of 8,000,000 served by 25,000 miles of railway, while in our country we have 90,000,000 people and 246,000 miles of railroads. In the United States we print 500 periodicals to one printed in the Dominion. The merits of the question are so obvious that there is no chance for a controversy; in fact there can be no dispute on a matter so plain.”
Now, see here, I do not want to burden you—you, the reader—with quotations. I have not done so save when the quotations covered the point—our point—better than I could cover it myself. I write up to a point to the best of my ability, and then, if I have at hand some authority—some moreconclusiveand better told statement than I can make myself, I hand it to you.
So please do not skip the quotations in this book. Themeatof it is in thequotedmatter, not in what I have said or may say. That is why I desire to quote further just here.
Under date of May 16, 1911, Mr. Hitchcock wrote over the signature of his Second Assistant, Joseph Stewart, the following letter, addressed “To Publishers.” Whether or not it was sent to publishers in general or only to “certain monthly and semi-monthly periodicals,” I do not know. I reprint it here as evidence for the reader in proof of the tendency, or policy, of Mr. Hitchcock to exercise bureaucratic powers in administering the official service of his office—powers not given him by law.
I reprint also for the purpose of showing, by two or three following quotations, how closely Mr. Hitchcock’s official acts are being scanned by the printing trades and how clearly and howjustlythey estimate the results and the trade and industrial effects of such action.
The letter signed by Mr. Stewart follows: