672 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. 11 



ject of the relations of publishers and their sub- 

 scribers, with instructions to report the cxislinij 

 evils, and to propose suitable renieJies, submit 

 their views in the followinir report, which, with 

 the resolutions annexed, they recommend to be 

 adopted by the convenlion. 



It has lonfj been generally understood and ad- 

 njjtted, that the arduous labors and large expen- 

 ditures requisite for publishing newspapers and 

 other periodicals, have been p'aid for by the sub- 

 scribers, on the general average, wiih less punctu- 

 ality and certainty, and with more abatement of 

 the just amount, by partial or ioTal losses of dues, 

 and by the cost of postage and of commissions 

 and other expenses of collections, than in any 

 other trade or business of importance and necessi- 

 ty to the public. The principal causes of the 

 greater losses sustained in this branch of industry, 

 are presented in the following circumstances. 



Difi'erent from every other kinci of business, the 

 furnishing of newspapers and n)agazines to those 

 wlio subscribe for them, is done (in this country) 

 almost wholly on. credit — and, moreover, the debts 

 so incurred are for very small sums, due frotn 

 hundreds or thousands of' diti'erent individuals, re- 

 motely located and widely dispersed — who are, 

 lor the fiir greater nimiber, altou-ether unknown to 

 their creditor, and who, therelbre, of com-se, are 

 finally often found to be entirely irresponsible for 

 such obligations. The magnitude of these causes 

 of loss has not been appreciated, and scarcely can 

 be properly appreciated, by any except those who 

 have sudered the consequent injuries. But, if it 

 be but supposed that any oilier business— no mat- 

 tor in what departuient of inchislr}', and though 

 now it be among the most prosperous and prolita- 

 ble — were placed o;i the like footing, ae to the 

 small amount of each customer's atmual pur- 

 chases, the great number and stnall amount of the 

 debts so made, and tiie general absence of any 

 real accountability of the debtors, or of the means 

 of enforcing payments — then it will be readily un- 

 derstood and conceded, that the previous prosper- 

 ous and safe condition of the supposed business, 

 would be speeddy and certainly changed to loss, 

 embarrassment, and finally to bankruptcy. 



Owing to such causes, tlie heretofore usual and 

 average losses of subscription money sustained in 

 conducting newspapers and other periodical publi- 

 cations, have not been less than one-fburlh of the 

 whole amounts subscribed and legally due. Many 

 publications, \vith subscription lists promising fair 

 profits, have lost much more than a fourth. But 

 this former and usual rate of loss, has been (jreat- 

 ly augmented by the recently produced, and still 

 existing, disordered state of the currency, and gen- 

 eral depreciation of bank paper, and the pecunia- 

 ry embarrassments of the country in general. 

 Every trade, and indeed everj^ individual, has 

 sustained enough of difficulty and loss, from this 

 condition of the currency, to form some concep- 

 tion of the enormous addition of loss that it must 

 make to whatever was before imposed on printers 

 and publishers of periodicals. The greater and 

 irregular depreciation, within this state, of the 

 bank paper of most other states, has opposed a 

 new and considerable difficulty in making pay- 

 ments for subscriptions, even to the most punctual 

 and conscientious of remote debtors; and it has 

 furnished a plausable excuse for delay and failure 

 of payments, which has been fidly availed of by 

 many of a different character. 



The general credit system which has been es- 

 tablished in the printing bu?:iness, and the long ex- 

 tensions of time for which debts lor subscriptions 

 have been permitted to remain unsettled, and 

 without the debtors being even heard from, have 

 served to give importance and great increase lo 

 another class of losses. Many postmasters, alike 

 disregarding the requisitions of the law and the 

 instructions under which they act, their oath of 

 office, and the filainest moral obliirations, suHer 

 publications to be sent to their respective post 

 oftices for limes of considerable length, and some- 

 times even for years together, directed to persons 

 who have moved away, or are dead, or who 

 otherwise fail or refuse to take the numbers sent 

 to them. In many cases a subscriber is thus 

 made, by the misconduct of the postmaster, to ap- 

 pear to be an unlaithflil, or fraudulent debtor, 

 when, in fact, he has been guilt}' of no fault, save 

 the carelessness of trusting to a postmaster to dis- 

 continue his subscription, who failed to do so — or 

 alicrwards to give to the publisher the proper 

 legal notice, stricily enjoined in every case of a 

 publication beino' addressed to a person who re- 

 fuses or tails to take it from tlie office. Without 

 such notice, and under the existing lax credit sys- 

 tem, in all such cases, the journal is continued to 

 be sent, and it is only, perhaps, after one or two 

 years, that the publisher learns, by chance, or by a 

 tardy notification from the delinquent postmaster, 

 or his successor in office, that he has been so long 

 defi'auded of his labor and property, and has no 

 means of redress worth resorting, to. Before the 

 discovery is made, perhaps the supposed (and un- 

 con.scious) debior has been long a resident of a 

 distant state, or is dead — and even the post office 

 directed to, may have long been discontinued, and 

 the continuation of the neglect or fraud be then 

 carrying on at some other place, and by another 

 person. 



Many of the losses incurred belong to, and are 

 inseparable from, the business of publishing jour- 

 nals on subscription. But there are many others 

 which may be mitigated, if not entirely guarded 

 against. Among the causes of loss, the most im- 

 portant and injurious is the very blameable and 

 absurd facility with which publishers have per- 

 mitted debts lor subscriptions to be contracted by 

 remote and unknown individuals, and to remain 

 due lor years before payment is made — if ever 

 made. So universal, in this trade, has become 

 this loose system of giving and continuing credits, 

 that no one publisher could adopt a different and 

 proper course, without giving ofience to, and los- 

 ing the support olj many subscribers who are both 

 honorable in conduct, and responsible in estate. 

 And as no single publisher has dared to commence 

 a reformation of the general bad usage, all have 

 aided to establish, by their excess of indulgence, 

 a mode of carrying on their business which all 

 deemed injurious to their interests, and which 

 every considerate subscriber would admit to be 

 improper and excusable, in every point of view. 

 To remedy these evils, m some measure, the fol- 

 lowing regulations are proposed: 



1. All subscriptions shall hereafter be consider- 

 ed as incurred and due in advance, and for a year's 

 publication; unless specially ordered for a shorter 

 time, and paid for in advance for that shorter time, 

 when so ordered. 



