OCR Text |
Show THE SQUARE DEAL. B A DETERMINED effort li being made by cer- B tain government officiate and a number of H congressmen to very materially increase the rates H of postage on newspapers and magazines, under H pretext of its being a war measure, but with the H ultimate object of dealing a fill blow at one ot H our greatest American institutions for education H and enlightenment- a tree press. H To us it does not appear that the newipapen H are getting a square deal from the administra- H tion and congress. While they are loading the H mails with free material for the jmpers to pub- H lish, for tin1 purpose of aiding their war plans, and are continually asking the pap is for favors H and generous contributions of free spare, for the H publication of what in many instances are more HH valuable as political advertisements than any- H thing else, and at the same time thev plan 1'' in BH flict a hardship upon these same papers, which H will result in putting a great many of them out of H business. H Early in the history of this country our .states- H men saw the value of the newspapers of the couu- B tr.v from an educational standpoint, and as the H protectors of the lacred rights of the people, and H sought to encourage them and secure cheap papers R for the public by fixing the rates of postage on I' this class of mail at a low rate. These rates have Continued up to the present time, though being the objed of several attacks by would-be great politicians. Now it seems that the wise legislation legisla-tion of former congresses is to be overthrown, and the papers will have to pay a rate, probably several sev-eral times the amount they are now paving. This will have the effect of causing the papers particularly par-ticularly those of national circulation -to increase their subscription rates and will put them out of the reach of a great many of the people who now enjoy this advantage. It seems to us that the proposed law, if en-acted, en-acted, will not only be a very short-sighted piece of legislation, but will be double crossing the papers pa-pers which are so frequently being called upon to contribute free service in the form of publicity for the promotion of this or that pet measure. |