Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 June 1883 — Refutation of a Baseless Report. [ARTICLE]

Refutation of a Baseless Report.

The publisher of an obscure agents’ paper in Philadelphia has started the silly report that Postmaster General Gresham has “about decided that newspapers known as * * * * co-operatives ’ shall be excluded from the mails a« second-class publications.” The statement has not a particle of truth back of it, and is so ridiculous that it would deserve no notice, only for the fact that its malicious author haq used extra pains to circulate it-, by sending marked papers containing it all over the country, and thus procuring its insertion in a few respectable journals. The following letter from the Postoffice Department, addressed to Senator MoMiJlan, of Minnesota, gives the lie direct to the book agent's canard: Sir: You are advised lu reply to your favor of the Ist inst, which is herewith returned, that there is no foundation for the report as therein stated. Very respectfully, James H. Marx, For First Ase’t P. It Gfen’L Hc>n. S. J. R. McMillan, St Paul, Minn. The law relating to newspaper postage explicitly declares—i That newspapers, one copy to each actual subscriber residing within the county where the same are printed, in whole or in part , and published, shall go free through the mails This secures the mailable rights of newspapers printed on the co-operative or ready-print plan so firmly that, however much disposed the Eostoffice Department might feel like denying them the privileges of the mails, it would not dare commit such a flagrant violation of the written law. But there is the best authority for stating that Postmaster General Gresham is not only not hostile to the ready-print plan, but has a decidedly friendly feeling hi that direction, in that it gives the country more newspapers and better newspapers than it would otherwise get, and thus aids in disseminating intelligence and educating the people.