1837] 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



578 



ing the existiiijj impediments to frt'e comiminicalinn ol" 

 information, it is plain eiioiigli that such relief vvouki 

 be worth more to those journals, and to the agricul- 

 tural interest, so far as they subserve that interest, 

 than five-fold the amount of money now paid lor post- 

 age by the publishers. Thcr.' is not the slijhtest 

 hope, however, of any such favor being conferred on 

 agricultural journals; and for our part, we would be 

 content if the work we publish, and other periodical 

 magazines, could receive bare justice from the post- 

 office law, and usage, by being made to pay no greater 

 tax than other publications. We beg attention to the 

 •exposition which will be here offered of the grievance 

 complained of, and its effects. 



By the existing law of the United States, each 

 newspaper is charged one cent per sheet postage, for 

 carriage by mail, any distance within the state where 

 it is printed — or to any distance without the stale, not 

 exceeding 100 miles from the place of publication. 

 " When the mode of conveyance and the size of the 

 mail will admit of it, such magazhies and pamphlets as 

 are published periodically may be transported in the 

 mail, to subscribers, at one and a half cents the sheet, 

 for any distance not exceeding 100 miles, and two and 

 a half cents for any greater distance." (Section 39 J 

 The rates, tor these distances, on magazines and 

 pamphlets not published periodically, are, respectively, 

 four and six cents. 



Pamphlets and magazines, to be executed as neatly 

 as required for " book-work," must be printed on 

 small sheets ; the largest convenient size, under usual 

 circumstances, being that used for the 'Farmers' Reg- 

 ister.' Smaller sized sheets, would, of course, be 

 charged so much the more, in proportion to size, for 

 postage. 



The ' Instructions to Postmasters' from the Post- 

 master General, define "a newspaper" to be " a print- 

 ed paper, giriV;^ an account of political and other oc- 

 carrences, published in numbers, once a iveekor oftcner, 

 and regularly." Under this interpretation, and by fa- 

 vor of the decision of the Postmaster General, (as is 

 stated on every number of the publication,) the ' Cul- 

 tivator' of New York has found shelter, and thus has 

 been enabled to avoid at least haif the tax of postage 

 to which it would have been subjected as a monthly 

 periodical, though issued in a single sheet of sixteen 

 pages. We do not grudge our brother editor of the 

 ' Cultivator' the benefit of this very liberal construc- 

 tion ; but we may be pardoned for wishing that the 

 'Farmers' Register' had as much the favor of con- 

 struction, as its postage would thereby be lessened 

 some eight or nine hundred dollars a year. 



The evident object of the law is especially to facili- 

 tate, by less charges, and give a preference to, the 

 conveyance of newspapers — though their contents are 

 principally advertisements of mere local interest — of 

 political disputation, and party wrangles and calumny — 

 and, but for the smaller part, of news, and other arti- 

 cles furnishing something to truly inform, or properly 

 entertain, the minds of readers. It may be safely as- 

 sumed, that, on an average, one-half of the amount of 

 matter printed in every mailed newspaper, is of no 

 interest whatever to the reader who receives it, and 

 that one-half of the remainder is calculated to spread 



error, or foster evil passions — thus leaving, (and we 

 believe it to be a very liberal allowance,) only one- 

 fourth of the contents of each sheet to be of any va- 

 lue. It is to publications of this character, that the 

 law gives a marked and unjust preference over maga- 

 zines and periodicals — which may be useful, or 

 worthless — entertaining, or dull — but of which the 

 contents are at least free from the objections stated 

 above to newspapers, and fully as much deserve the 

 favor and bounty of government. 



But, besides the diflerence of the rate of ))osfage 

 per sheet, between newspapeis and periodical maga- 

 zines, and the still greater difference caused by the 

 far greater size of the former — tiiere is yet another 

 difference, in the universal usage, though an abuse of 

 the law, in putting up and mailing newspapers as wet 

 as they come from the printing press, and thereby hav- 

 ing about one-third added to their dry weight. The 

 ' Instructions,' it is true, (as well as the law) require 

 th :t all " newspapers are to be well dried by the print- 

 ers" before being wrapped for mailing — and that if the 

 requisition be not complied with, the papers are to be 

 returned to the printer, by the postmaster in whose of- 

 fice they are deposited for mailing. But these requi- 

 sitions are never complied with, either by printer or 

 postmaster ; and it is notorious, that papers which are 

 carried 500 miles in the mails, or more, are opened 

 still quite damp. 



The carriage of this additional weight of water, 

 thus enclosed in every newspaper mail, is, by no 

 means, its greatest evil. The wet packages rub 

 against and injure each other, and also moisten, and 

 then, in like manner, rub and injure the packages of 

 magazines, which are necessarily dried perfectly be- 

 fore being wrapped ; and in this manner is the great- 

 est part of the damage in the mails caused, on routes 

 where the contractors do not expose them to be soak- 

 ed by rains and floods, as is the usage in the south and 

 south-west. 



It would be greatly to the advantage of printers 

 themselves, if they were strictly compelled to obey 

 the order to dry their papers. But unless obedience 

 was general, there is no inducement for any one printer 

 to dry his own, merely that they may absorb moisture 

 from the other packages ; and there would be caused, 

 by that care, some delay, and much more trouble, in 

 mailing his papers, both of which every printer is 

 most solicitous to avoid. If any postmaster, in one 

 of our large cities, were to attempt to obey this 

 positive but obsolete instruction of the head of the 

 department, he would bring the corps editorial, 

 like a roused community of hornets, about his un- 

 lucky head; and the city which was the scene of ac- 

 tion, would be thrown into a state of uproar and con- 

 fusion, seldom surpassed by the excitement of the 

 greatest political wrongs, or calamities. 



Newspapers are received, either with or without lim- 

 it as to number, free of postage by numerous func- 

 tionaries of the government, including the 800 post- 

 masters ; and each of the publishers of all the news- 

 papers in the United States, which it is said are not less 

 than 1200, may receive by mail, free of postage, as 

 many othernewspapers as he chooses, in exchange for 



