f 68 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
February, 1911 
FROM THE PUBLISHER’S DESK 
Do You Want To Pay More For Your Magazinesf 
L VST year about this time, you may remember, there 
was a great cry from Washington that the postal 
I deficit had become alarmingly great. Mr. Hitch¬ 
cock, the Postmaster-General, blamed the second- 
class mail matter department for most of this, and urged 
mail matter department for most of this, and urged 
the raising of the rate. The great body of magazine read¬ 
ers objected strenuously, for the additional burden must 
necessarily fall upon them — in any business the delivery 
charges fall eventually upon the consumer. So the Post¬ 
master-General began to look a bit further into the mat¬ 
ter. As a result of his first year’s “looking,” he saved 
about eleven millions of that deficit, bringing it down to 
about seven millions for the past year. And that with¬ 
out tampering with the existing postal rates on magazines ! 
Eleven million dollars — about ten cents for every man, 
woman and child in the Union. If the deficit could be 
more than cut in two by merely “looking into the matter,” 
it could be wiped out completely by an intelligent sys¬ 
tematizing of the Post Office business without making the 
magazines bear the burden. 
Mr. Hitchcock comes forward again with a new scheme 
of raising the price of delivering magazines. He says: 
Let us charge a higher rate of postage on the advertising 
pages of the magazines | letting the newspapers continue 
at the old flat rate of one cent a pound, advertising and 
all | but let us retain the existing rate on the text pages. 
Was there ever such a thoroughly ridiculous proposi¬ 
tion put forth by a business man? It is as if your grocer 
came to you anil said, “Now I can no longer afford to 
send home your groceries at the price you are paying 
me for the various items ; I'll not charge you for carrying 
them home, though ; there will merely be a charge of 
twenty-five cents for the basket each time.” According 
to the Postmaster-General’s scheme, a copy of each issue 
of each magazine would have to be taken to the local post¬ 
master before the date of publication and there cut apart, 
advertising pages on one scale, text pages on another, to 
determine the price of mailing. Can you imagine a more 
effective stick to thrust in the revolving wheels of the 
publishing and post-office business? 
When a business man finds that his business, although 
large in volume, is showing a deficit, what is his first 
move? Does he immediately raise his prices, thereby 
scaring off a large part of his trade? Or does he look to 
his cost of production, to his contracts with supply houses, 
to his transportation cost? 
Now Mr. Hitchcock knows very little indeed about his 
costs — he says so himself. Any Congressman can frank 
a piano or a white elephant through the mails — and does, 
but Mr. Hitchcock doesn't know just how much that 
costs the Government. He can, however, see with half 
an eye that an effectual method of wiping out that de¬ 
ficit is to raise his prices, which, in the absence of all com¬ 
petition, would have to be paid. 
How many thousands of copies of the Congressional 
Record are distributed to people who drop them regularly, 
without removing the wrappers, into the waste-basket? 
How many tons of seeds are received by the constituents 
of Congressmen — seeds that in many cases are useless 
to the recipient and do not advance in any way the agri¬ 
cultural prosperity of the country? Why shouldn't these 
articles be taxed for postage instead of making the pub¬ 
lisher — the magazine publisher — pay the cost? If a 
man really wants the Congressional Record, let him pay 
the postage — it might amount to twenty-five cents a year. 
If there is any reason why the Congressman should be 
able to oblige his friends with flower seeds, let him dig 
down into his pocket for the cent or two necessary to send 
them. 
What are you going to do about it? You have the 
power to say to this manager of a corporation in which 
you are a stockholder and a director: “I must insist on 
a thorough investigation into your cost of production be¬ 
fore you raise a rate that I myself will eventually have 
to pay.” 
Had you not better say it — now? Write to your Con¬ 
gressman today; get your neighbor and your neighbor’s 
wife to write tomorrow. Tell your Senator what you 
think of this matter; use a dozen stamps on Congress this 
week. Congress sits up and listens when the public 
speaks. 
In writing to advertisers please mention House AND Garden. 
