Postal Riders and Raiders. W. H. Gantz
as the “Pigs-in-Clover” puzzle or the “How Old Is Ann” problem. He must certainly have learned some new “holds” or tricks in what Sewell Ford calls “the confidential tackle,” or he could not have secured so many “falls” in so short a time for a cause that was bad and for methods even worse, if such were possible.
Now we will take up the Postmaster General’s somewhat prolific, if not always lucid, verbiage, to prove that he knows more about the publication and distribution of publications than the most experienced and successful periodical publishers have yet learned, however experienced they are and however hard they have striven to familiarize themselves with the many intricacies which the business involves.
FOOTNOTES
[1] Now, see here, Samuel, if you have any knock to make about the liberties I may take with your Saturday Evening Post informative article, knock me, not my publisher. I may quote and even disfigure a little, but I assure you the latter will be far this side of the ambulance.
CHAPTER III.
SOME PUBLIC-BUBBLING FIGURES.
Postmaster General Hitchcock’s persistent activity in seeking to push the “rider” through the Senate was a noticeable feature in the closing hours of that session of Congress, his industry showing in his daily contact on the floor of the Senate with the members who seemed pliable or willing to harken to his wishes in the matter pertaining to the legislation he wished to have made into law. The following communications, adroit and carefully worded to Chairman Penrose, boldly justified the increase on second-class matter, and may be regarded as the dying struggle of the postoffice head to gain his point.
The italics are the writer’s and set out the controversial promiscuousness of the Postmaster General. The letters bear date February 14–15, 1911:
Washington, D. C., February 14, 1911.
My Dear Senator:—In response to your request I submit the following statement relative to the section of the postal appropriation bill, H. R. 31539, now pending in the Senate that provides for an increase in the postage rate on the advertising portions of periodical publications mailed as second-class matter.
Under the provision in the bill the postage rate on the advertising pages of magazines is increased from 1 cent to 4 cents a pound, but this increase does not apply to newspapers of any kind, nor does it affect periodical publications mailing less than 4,000 pounds each issue. By the terms of the provision the privilege of carrying advertisements is for the first time extended to several classes of periodical publications enumerated in the act of March 3, 1879, namely, the periodical publications of benevolent or fraternal organizations, of regularly incorporated institutions of learning, of trade union organizations, and of professional, literary, historical, and scientific societies, including state boards of health.
As the advertising portions of magazines comprise on an average about a third of their total weight the effect of an increase from 1 to 4 cents on the advertising pages will be to advance the postage rate for second-class matter as a whole about 1 cent, making the second-class rate 2 cents a pound instead of 1 cent, as at present. In view of the fact that it costs the government about 9 cents a pound to handle and transport this class of mail the proposed increase is an exceedingly moderate one.
In a whole page newspaper advertisement printed on the 12th instant, signed by 34 of the principal magazine and periodical publications of the country, it is stated that the increased rate “will drive a majority of the popular magazines out of existence, and with them the enormous volume of profitable first-class mail their advertising creates.” This charge is made in the face of the fact that some, if not all, of the signers of the statement are realizing tremendous profits from the vast amount of high-priced advertisements.
It has been found on investigation that one of the great periodical publications signing this protest contained in 21 of its successive issues, from January 1, 1910, to and including May 21, 1910, exclusive of cover pages, an average of 19,354 agate lines of advertising matter, which, at the same rate, would make a total of 1,006,408 lines for the year.
On October 1, 1910, the publisher of this periodical increased the rate for ordinary advertising in his publication from $5 to $6 an agate line. At the higher rate the gross value of the ordinary advertising space for one year would amount to $6,038,448. Increased rates charged for the inside and outside cover pages would bring $650,000, making a total gross value of $6,688,448. Allowing a discount of 15 per cent, or $1,003,267, there would remain as a total net value of the advertising in this publication for a single year the tremendous sum of $5,685,181. The additional income from advertising resulting from the increased rates would amount in a year to $957,107, which would be much more than sufficient to pay the proposed higher postage rate of 4 cents a pound on the advertising pages of the publication during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1910. In other words, the advance in advertising rates for this periodical will not only meet the higher postage charges, but will leave a surplus of increased revenue to swell the annual profits of the magazine.
In a printed statement recently issued by the president of one of the leading magazine-publishing companies of New York City, the exceedingly profitable nature of the magazine business was clearly set forth. According to his statement the profits of his own magazine for the month of October, 1910, showed an increase over the corresponding month for 1909 of 100 per cent on advertisements and 151 per cent on subscriptions, making a net annual profit for dividends and surplus, based on a circulation of 500,000 copies monthly, of $348,980. Regarding the periodical-publishing business in general, the same gentleman says in his statement that “magazine publishers receive gross incomes as high as $6,000,000 in a single year. Dividends amounting approximately to $1,000,000 yearly have been made.” Speaking of the publishers of some of the magazines joining in the protest against the proposed legislation, he says that one of them, according to his own statement, realizes a net profit of $1,000,000 annually; of another, the principal owner of two great publications, that his gross income is more than $6,000,000 annually, and that his net profits for the same period exceed $1,000,000; of another, that his magazine yields more than 10 per cent on a capital of $10,000,000; of another, that his net profits are $600,000; of another, that the value of his advertising space alone is $1,500,000 a year; of another, that his advertising receipts are $75,000 per month and his profits are from $600,000 to $800,000 per year; of still another, that his publishing business represents a profit of 100 per cent a year to its stockholders.
My Dear Senator:—On February 13, 1911, Everybody’s Magazine published in the local newspapers a full page advertisement attacking the proposed increase in second-class postage carried by the postal bill now pending in the Senate. In their statement the publishers claimed to have a circulation of 650,000 copies per issue and asserted that “the postal measure now before Congress increases the cost of handling Everybody’s Magazine $150,000 a year.” They further stated that in view of the fact that the magazine makes “each year for its stockholders about $100,000,” the proposed increase would “actually exclude the magazine from the mails.”
The department’s figures for the calendar year 1910 show that Everybody’s Magazine mailed at the New York City postoffice 2,898,372 pounds of its issues as second-class matter, on which the postage at the cent-a-pound rate was $28,983.72. As an average of one-half of the pages is devoted to advertising, the proposed increase of 3 cents per pound on such matter would make the additional postage $43,475.58 per annum instead of $150,000, as stated by the publishers of the magazine.
Based on the publishers’ statement of 650,000 circulation, the gross income of Everybody’s would be about $1,550,000 annually,