Postal service -- United States -- Second-class matter
Much of the information publishers get now is fragmentary,
uncertain, often considerably warped and belated cold-storage
news, void of substantial life-sustaining qualities. _The annual
reports_ of the department in which publishers are most vitally
interested _are less complete than formerly_. Many important
facts do not appear in them. For instance, no statement is
ever made as to the amount of first-class matter originated by
the second-class, none, or very little, account is made of it.
No attempt has ever been made to gather, much less publish,
statistics on the subject.
Formerly a list was accessible of publications annually thrown
out of the mails at second-class rates, but not in recent years.
The report of the Third Assistant Postmaster-General in 1897
comprises 97 pages of compact statements and postal information
in small type; that for 1901, 133 pages; while those for 1909 and
1910 contain only 60 and 65 pages in larger type, respectively.
I am not censuring Mr. Britt in this matter, but simply stating
facts.
Then as to the rulings, laws and regulations, there is not a
publisher living who knows what they are, or can definitely
ascertain what they are, from month to month. They are liable
to change without the publishers being informed directly of the
change. What purported to be “The Postal Laws and Regulations
Relating to the Second-class of Mail Matter” was issued in 1910,
but in it the law, rulings and regulations are so jumbled up
together that it is difficult for a publisher to know which is
which; instead of being illuminating and helpful, this compendium
is confusing and involved in obscurity. It is a well recognized
legal maxim, that “where the law is uncertain there is no law.”
Publishers have not known that an active propaganda in favor of a
higher rate has been in progress ever since Congress adjourned,
but such is the fact. The Postmaster General went before the
Hughes Commission and advocated it.
The Third Assistant Postmaster General, in the early summer,
made an address before some publishers in Chicago, wherein he
stated that it was the purpose of the Postmaster General “to
adjust postage rates based upon the principle of the payment on
each class of mail matter of a rate of postage equal to the cost
of handling and carriage, and no more, and that one class of
mail matter shall not be taxed to meet deficiencies caused by an
inadequate rate on another class,” meaning by this that the rate
must be raised on second-class matter and lowered on the first
class.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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