Postal service -- United States -- Second-class matter
The Evening Journal, without any of the powers of the great
United States government behind it, distributes its product for
seven-tenths of a cent a pound, and included in this average
is the 1-cent-a-pound rate paid to the government for copies
mailed. Obviously, then, the proportion of the product which is
not carried by the postoffice is delivered for much less than
seven-tenths of a cent per pound.
The New York American distributes by mail and express 303,584
pounds of daily and Sunday papers every week at a cost of
$1,655.17, or little over one-half a cent per pound. This average
includes 28,028 pounds sent by mail at 1 cent per pound, so,
obviously, the average of matter not distributed by mail is less
than one-half a cent per pound.
The New York American sends 67,268 pounds of these papers over
the Pennsylvania Railroad at one-fourth of a cent per pound,
or one-fourth the rate paid to the United States postoffice
department.
That same rate--one-fourth of a cent per pound--is exactly the
rate charged by the Canadian Government for carrying magazines by
mail through its postoffice department and for distributing them
over a thinly populated territory even greater than the United
States.
How absurd, then, to assert that the government cannot distribute
the magazines profitably at this present rate when it handles the
magazines along with all other mail distributed and without any
particular extra expense because of them.
Even if, as I said, the government were handling the magazines
at a loss, it would be doing a creditable thing. But it is not
handling the magazines at a loss. It is carrying them at a
profit, and if it taxes the magazines out of existence it will
compel the postal department to be conducted at a greater loss
than the loss at which it is now conducted.
What inconsistency, too, for the administration to advocate a
government subsidy to restore a United States merchant marine and
at the same time advocate a measure to put out of existence a
much more important American institution.
If it is a Republican policy to promote business and encourage
industry, and a proper Republican and American policy to take
money out of the United States Treasury to subsidize a private
business in order to create an industry, why is it not a proper
Republican and American policy to continue to provide a cheap
mail rate in order to maintain a great American industry and
perpetuate a mighty educational influence already existent?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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