Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 April 1884 — ASKING FOR LOWER POSTAGE. [ARTICLE]

ASKING FOR LOWER POSTAGE.

Two Chicago Editors Make Arguments In Favor of Reduced Newspaper Rates. [Washington Dispatch.] Joseph Medill, of the Chicago Tribune, argued before the Senate Postofflce Committee in favor of reducing the present postage rates on newspapers. He claimed that the law laid an oppressive tax on publishers, and those who were not making money were compelled to borrow money to pay the postage in advance. At the present rate »he postage per year on one copy of a paper the Size of the New York Herald or Chicago Tribune was from SI to 51.60 per year. In many carei such postage i ates represented the entire profit of the paper. The press, Mr. Medill said, did not think it fair that they should be compelled to bear the burden of the present rate. At present express companies were doing the best of the business, but if the rate was reduced to $1 per 100 pounds nearly all, newspapers would be carried tn the mails. -He was satisfied that anything that increased the circulation of papers multiplied the letter postage. He thought newspaper publishers, having borne a heavy burden for ten years, were entitled to some relief. The result of the reduction would be such an increase in the number of papers sent as would give tho Postoffice Department a larger revenue than ever. Mr. Hesing, of jthe Chicago StaatsZettung, declared that he' had found it to be a fact that the people who did not read the papers made but little use of the mails. If the (.price of postage should be reduced it would materially help small papers now barely able to struggle along.