The publishers made a further allegation. At that time the express companies cut even the very low existing cent-a-pound rate on second-class mail matter for short distances, and if that rate were raised the range of their competition would be extended. With a 2-cent rate a much greater proportion of the traffic would inevitably fall to them. This would, of course, be very advantageous to the companies, to whom, as to railways, any increase in the volume of traffic handled would be welcome. These express companies had for many years been faithful supporters of the Republican party, and behind the suggestion to increase second-class rates the publishers were convinced there was a desire on the part of the leaders of the party to reward their faithful allies.[352] But perhaps the chief contentions of the publishers, which the Post Office was bound to some extent to admit, and would in any case find it difficult to meet, were the claim that newspapers create a vast quantity of first-class mail; and the claim that since the payment made to the railway companies in respect of the transportation of the mail is based on a sliding scale, decreasing as the volume of traffic increases, the weight of second-class matter brings down appreciably the rate actually to be paid. Some who appeared before the Commission of 1911 were inclined to go beyond these general contentions as to the relative claims of second-class matter, and to assail the whole administration of the department from the economic standpoint; challenging especially the relations with the railway companies, and arguing that the payment made for the conveyance of mails was not equitable when compared with the charges made by the companies for similar services performed for the express companies. Notwithstanding these contentions, there can be no question that the transmission of the second-class mail at the present rates involves the department in heavy loss; and that Congress, not unaware of this, attaches importance to the advantages which a low rate for such matter confers. The Commission were satisfied on both points. It is, however, doubted by many whether the effect of this privilege has been altogether salutary from the educational point of view. It has encouraged to an almost incredible extent the publication of periodical magazines, and many of these magazines are of a high order of merit as periodical publications. The United States leads the world in the publication of this kind of matter.[353] But the reading matter which is found in these publications is to a large extent light and trivial. The publication of serious intellectual works has shown little advance in recent years,[354] and there is a fairly widespread feeling in America that the two developments are connected. But that is a matter difficult to determine.