OCR Text |
Show I ASubsidy and an UnfairDiscrimination There is now before the post office committee of the house a bill that is of intense and vital interest to every country community. com-munity. It is a postal rates bill introduced byEepresentative Ciriest of Pennsylvania. It provides new postage rates on i several classes of mail, but that part of it of interest to the small cities and towns of the nation is in connection with third-r third-r class mail. ' Through preferential rates on third-class mail to the large users of this class of nlail it proposes to SUBSIDISE the mail t order houses and the big city merchants in their efforts to - secure the merchandising business of the smaller cities and 'towns, by giving to these mail order houses and big city mer-f mer-f Continued on Editorial page.) J A Subsidy and an Unfair Discrimination ! (Continued from first page.) el.;. ;ils a c'liciiixr rate on their business solicitations f..,n, tliniii.uli the mails than would be ae-conJcd to Lht iiiltcIu,,,'1"'' (he smaller city or country town. ' u It proposes direct DlSCJMiMlNATlOX against tu, chrails of the smaller cities and towns in favor of the m,.,-,. ltd mail order houses of the linger cities. l,lllt' i All of this is tied up in a " JOKIOI,".' clau. in tlif; , 'piovides that if the total weiaht of the total miml,,.,. 0f ei . ' hti.s of on kind to be mailed shall be twenty pounds or lnoi. "c"' postage rate shall be one cent for each piece weighm,, ounces or less, but if the total number of copies 0f any o.'' lar to he mailed shall weiirh less than twenty pound's, the fx'! a,c-c charge on each piecef ot two ounces or less shall h'e one'' one-half cents. Any one ph ce of direct by-mail advertising of tliP riiai, onler houses or the big ci merchants is mailed to many tl'' amis of prospective buyers, ami covers very wide soctioTt.s of the country. The total number of each piece of sucl. liiH.t.)J. mail advertising would eab weigh many times tventv , and because the total weight of all of tlmse was twenty mi or more the postage rate wr'idd be one cent on each pieeH. ' ; merchant doimg business in the smaller city or the countn" town who wishes to mail a piece of direct-by mail i.-lvtrti', ! to the possibl..- purchasers in his town and irn the tra.i terviti, of that town would have a mailing list of but a few laiJ possibly one thousand, names at the most. The total veHjt f I his number of circulars or small booklets would be less tN iwenty popun.ls, and this small city or country town niercL . must pay r ne and one-half cents on each piece as a poMa'.; charge. In the case of the mail from the mail order house- or t' city merchant the government must pay for the handling: -orting of these thousands of pieces of mail at the office -which they are deposited for mailing; the government nr.-transport nr.-transport tli -m on railroad trains for which the oven.m--must pay the railroads; when they arrive at destination t; government must pay fur sorting them by individual a.blr--,. and must pay the carriers for deb-vering them to the bJir.l uals to whom they are addressed. But in the cae of the same class of mail us.-, by tL rc-r chants of the small cities and towns, practically all of it w' be d. liv.-red direct to the pi-rsi, in t,, which the pieces are id dl.'Ssed thlou-h but the one post office, and the irovcr.;! m iild save ihe est of handliitLr and sorting in one ,. and would save the cost of rail transportation. Yet it ,r.. .. i handle the mail that involves Ih.-e additional d.st attir lhird the chtirire f,- l.i.-li it will handle the mail that : not involve these additional costs. I bit in- l!i-'7 the charge for handling third-class niail :' i v.d oiiu.-es or I. ss was one and .me half cents jkt pi. tor booklets ,,f twenty .aires or moiv and wei-hinir rr ounces or h'ss, for which the charire was one cent and tL on.- cent mailin-s were a comparatively small perc.-nta.v ;.; lie- more than four billion pieces of third-class mail h.'A by the To.t ( ti,.e department. Durimr 1!7 the cost: the uoveinmiMt of haihllin-each piece of third class maiU.- -i.7:'.":ii:i - appioximat.-Iy one ,-, nt and eii:l:t mills. ( f this : l-ieeet.-tal. .::cil approximately four mills was the : I r i ce f,,r t ran n t at i, u and distribution in transit. 5 la "ther ..rds. it co-i the government a v.-rv small fr;,- i '-s " ' one half cents to handle e;u-h pim-.; ' T.nid class mail, wei-hi,,- two .unices or less, wh-n th.-r-v,-: "" fJ "-' l.it i.-M charir.-s. That is. the third-class mail dir.-; Ihriiu'di the one po.t office and to the people in t he vi, 'r that office. That is the character of the thinl da.-s ,v..v ; nse.1 by the mer.'hants of the smaller cities and the x.r '. ("WHS. x luit tor the third class mail oriirinating in the largo oi::.; ; Ihe direct by-mail ad vert isimr of the mail order hens, s f t!ie hi- city merchants- distributed over wide areas. t!u o : L ! Ihe government was better than one-quarter of a eon! :: :' I ic. c than the government received. Xow it is , reposed to cut the postage rates to those r.: : "'der houses and hi- ,.i, v merchants to a jmint where t':.o ! -will be more than three quarters of a cent on each pieee::1 "Ut erantin- the s.ame iv.m-li..u to the merchants of tho s. ' h r cittes .an, I touus whose mailings cost tho Vovenunout & ? 'I"'" '''r l a cent per pi,.c, less to handle. Thai is direct IMS( 'KM M I N'ATK ) a-.ainst the iio,i',-the iio,i',-the smaller cities and country towns, whose coinniuuith ' I"'1"' l""'r their prosperity and growth on the ma i n 1 a In i ng o? inerchaiidisimr center: it is direct DISCRIMINATION ad'-' Ihe merchants of these communities against wham won',: ! assessed a heavier sales cost in their effort to meet tho i. l',,l'i"n of the mail order houses and the large city nioivb''' -: lhan is assessed against these outside oonivt itors; it is a Jin ' IMSCIMMINATloN a- dust boll, the printer and the -P'M' -r publisher of these smaller cities and towns who u ' i ''''l"'"'1 ""-ir prosperity upon the pros)Hu'itv of tho ir- : chants and the people ,,f their eommmiities. II is a Sl'liSIDY to the m.ail order houses and thohii': I'lerrhiinls in that it proposes to render a service for ; '""I '-.ler lious-s i.nd big cilv merchtints at less than tlu-c labbshed costs of that service and char-v the deficit up I AX I'A YKI.S of (he nation. Any congressman, and especially anv eom;ressnian '; ! resenlin..;- ,a country di-lrict. who would vote for ihat bil! i-' '""led to the support of the people of such a district. 1! ' " v",ln'- s:ici ifi.v not onlv tl,e interests of tho po.", a ho have elected him. but the best interests of Ihe nation s '. "I"'1" '"'cniwe the b-s( interests of the nation dcpeml ui'-'! he prosperity of the cities alone. ifeon-n-s w ishes t ,,ilss ., ,,nv makin-a oucecut pes!-' " U.ml class mail there will be no !Vreat objeelion yv n'" l;lw "l'l'l" c.ually to all. 1 Joes not cost the '"id .;" more to Iratisport and .list , ibnte one thous.,n,l pie II "i"l''-l I'y one thousand different persons, than it " transport and distribute one thousand pieces of mail W" ty om jiersiwi. |