Oregon Exchanges
For the Newspapermen of the State of Oregon
New Federal Laws and Taxes as they Affect Oregon
By Edgar B. Piper, Editor of The Oregonian
The increase in second class postal rates, particularly the application of the zone system to second class mail matter, which is proposed by the war revenue bill of the House, involves a revolutionary change in the policy which governs the Postal Service. That policy has hitherto been to treat the mail system as a means of serving the people as nearly at cost as possible, not as a source of revenue; to provide cheap means of written and printed communication be tween the people at an equal price for all parts of American territory; to promote the distribution of newspapers and magazines at minimum cost for the spread of information and in aid of discussion of public affairs. This policy is a corollary of that other American policy of universal education, which aims to qualify every man for intelligent use of the ballot and which is powerfully aided by wide circulation of newspapers and magazines. It is directly opposed to the policy of the late government of Russia, which kept the people in ignorance, denied them information and stifled discussion, lest they learn too much of its vices and of democracy as a remedy for them. The American policy has been to unify the people by encouraging publications of nation-wide circulation, to inform them of their Government's doings and to promote its constant reform by stimulating intelligent criticism.
In place of the present uniform rate of one cent a pound for second class matter, the House proposes a graduated rate of 1 1-6 cent for the first parcel zone ranging up to 6 cents for the eighth zone. Its purpose is frankly to compel publishers to pay the full cost of carriage without regard to the profitable postal business of other kinds which they develop. These rates would prohibit sale of publications beyond the first or second zone, except those which have large circulation. These could evade payment of the high rate by shipping in bulk by freight or express to the principal centers and by using the mails for distribution thence in the first zone. This device could not be used by many publications of small circulation. Their field would be reduced to the first two or three zones around the place of issue. From nation-wide publications they would be transformed into sectional publications, and a large number of new sectional publications would rise to occupy the field which they had been forced to abandon. Having a sectional field, they would take a sectional view of public affairs, that too at a crisis in our National affairs which demands cultivation of patriotism as broad as the republic. The few strong publications of large National circulation would occupy much of the field abandoned by their weaker brethren, and there would be a strong tendency toward
Application for entry as second class mail matter at the postoffice at Eugene, Oregon
