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Show GIVE THE PEOPLE THE TRUTH. In its issue of February 14 the Saturday Sat-urday Evening Post announces an increase in-crease in subscriptions rates "to subscribers sub-scribers west of the Mississippi river" to $2.50 a year, while east of the Mississippi Mis-sissippi the price is to remain at $2 a year. This increase is based on the increased in-creased postage cost under the zone system and provides that the subscriber sub-scriber living west of the Mississippi must pay for the longer haul on his "reading matter." The publishers of the Post express their;.regert that they are compelled to make a higher rate to one class of subscribers than to another class simply sim-ply because they live in a different part of the country, but they say they have no alternative so long as the postal laws impose zone rates on second sec-ond class matter. This annoucement of the Saturday Evening Post is an insult to the people peo-ple of the United States, and especially espe-cially to Utah and the Intermountain country who, by their patronage, have made the Evening Post the great periodical that it is. The publishers of the Post deliberately state that the subscriber is required 'to pay increasingly higher rates of postage on his reading matter, and that the average maximum rate will in 1921 be about four times what It has been for 3 2 years. The publishers of the Post know that there is nothing in the zone law that makes it cost them one cent more to mail the reading matter in the post to a subscriber whether he lives east or west of the Mississippi, or whether wheth-er he lives in Trenton, N. J., or San Francisco. They know that the sec ond class rate on reading matter is 1 -2 cents a pound regardless of the zone in which the subscriber lives. THEY KNOW THAT THE ZONE RATES DO NOT IN ANY WAY APPLY AP-PLY TO TIIE READING MATTER, BUT APPLY ONLY TO THE ADVERTISING AD-VERTISING WHICH THE POST CARRIES. The publishers of the Post know ,-tateniciits they have made are misleading, mis-leading, and whether deUbertate or not. is a misstatement of fact that may create in the minds of the public a wrong- impression as to the operations opera-tions of the zone law. and so create a public demand for its repeal. The readers of the Saturday Evening Even-ing Post do rwt buy the publication because of the advertising which it contains, and the publishers of the Post know this, and it is on the ad-ertising ad-ertising pages only that the zone postage rates are paid. The advertiser advertis-er wants his business announcement to reach the public, and he uses the columns of the Saturday Evening Post for that purpose, and because it is to his interest to do so. When the publishers of the post force the readers to pay any or the extra postage collected because of the carrying of this advertising they are pi'ssiug along to the readers an expense ex-pense which the advertisers should pay, and which the government expected ex-pected the advertisers to pay. The issue of the Post of February 14 contains 196 pages including the cover. Of these 196 pages 11S. or 60 per cent of the total, are advertising matter. The postage charge on the TS pages of reading matter is tne same on every copy of the Post mailed mail-ed to any point in the United States, and. whether that point be as close to Philadelphia as Camden. N. J.. or as f:r away as Nome. Alaska. It is lit the US pages of advertising that the zone postage rates applies, and the publishers of the Post are charging charg-ing the advertisers for circulating ; these pages, not on the theory that the readers buy these pages or want them, but on the correct theory that the advertisers want the readers to have them. That being the case, IF ANY" ASIDE FROM THE PUBLISHERS PUB-LISHERS OF THE PERIODICAL IS TO PAY THE EXTRA POSTAGE ON THESE PAGES IT SHOULD BE THE ADVERTISERS WHO ARE THE ONES THAT ARE BENEFITED BY THE POST'S CIRCULATION. The publishers of the Post propose to penalize the readers of the periodical periodi-cal living west of the Mississippi river for the benefit of the big business concerns that are their advertising customers. The Saturday Evening Post is a good periodical. It is undoubtedly worth the $2.50 the subscribers west of the Mississippi are asked to pay. The increased cost of labor and materials mate-rials entitle its publishers to a larger subscription price than they have been receiving, but to attempt to differentiate dif-ferentiate between subscribers In different dif-ferent sections of the nation, and to attempt this on the ground that the government is charging these western subscribers a higher postage rate on the reading matter they buy is absolutely abso-lutely misleading and a reflection on the intelligence of the people of the West. It is to be hoped the people will show a proper resentment of this unfair un-fair and uncalled for discrimination. |