I have previously intimated that Mr. Hitchcock is still devoting himself to forcing his ulterior motive into operation, either as law or department ruling. In evidence of this I shall here quote from his address or addresses before the Hughes Commission. This Commission was created in the closing hours of the last session of Congress—created as a sort of cushion or pad in order that his unconstitutional “rider” might take its cropper without breaking any bones or painfully lacerating the official feelings of Mr. Hitchcock. This Hughes Commission convened in New York City, August 1, 1911. Following is Mr. Hitchcock’s opening address before it, as reported by the New York Times, August 2. The italics are the writers:—
Postmaster General Hitchcock opened for the department. He said his study of the postage rate problem had led him to believe that certain fundamental principles of administration, almost new to the Postoffice Department at present, should be closely adhered to. These included the operation of the service on a self-supporting basis, maintained by imposing such charges as would yield an income equal to the expenses. They included, also, he said, such an adjustment of the postage charges as would make each class of mail matter pay for its own handling, and no more. He would further have the levying of postage rates made on the basis of the average cost of handling and carriage for the country as a whole, and, finally, postal laws should be enacted so definite in character as to be easy of interpretation and susceptible of uniform enforcement.
Mr. Hitchcock stated in this connection that when the books for the fiscal year of 1911 are closed they will show for the first time in many years a surplus of postal funds, and he hoped that this condition would become permanent. Mr. Hitchcock opposed any new classification of mail matter at this time, saying the present classification could be made to include all matter now admissible, and he doubted the expediency of attempting a revision. He then sought to set forth the large share second-class matter has in the burdens of the department, and the small percentage it pays of the total cost or even of its own cost.
“During 1910,” he said, “there were carried in the mail 8,310,164,623 pieces of first-class mail, consisting of letters, other sealed matter, and postal cards. This mail averaged in weight 0.35 of an ounce a piece, making 45.1 pieces to the pound. The cost of handling and carriage for this mail was $86,792,511.35, an average of 47 cents a pound, while the postage charge was $154,796,668.08, leaving a clear profit of $68,004,156.73.
“During the same year there were carried 4,336,259,864 pieces of second-class[182] matter, newspapers and other periodical publications, averaging 3.33 ounces a piece, or 4.8 pieces to the pound. The cost of handling and carriage was $80,791,615.03, or a little less than 9 cents a pound, while the postage return was only $10,607,271.02, leaving a total loss of $70,184,344.01.
“From a review of the rates provided for the several classes of mail, it will be observed that in comparison with the cent-a-pound charge for second-class matter the rate on third-class matter is 700 per cent. higher; that on fourth-class matter 1,500 per cent. higher, and that on letter and other first-class matter 3,100 per cent. higher. While it is true that the expense of handling and carrying second-class mail is less than for any other class, due to the size and weight of single pieces, to relief from the cancellation of stamps, and to the fact that a considerable part of the bagging, sorting, and labeling in the offices of origin is done by the publishers, nevertheless a charge of 1 cent a pound covers but a small fraction of the actual cost.[6]
“The present self-supporting condition of the service is made possible only by the fact that other classes of mail, particularly the first-class, are excessively taxed to make up the loss caused by the inadequate charge on the second-class. This will be better understood when it is noted that although first-class matter comprised during the fiscal year 1910 only 13.4 per cent. of all the revenue-producing domestic mail, it yielded a net profit of $68,004,156.73, while second-class matter, comprising 65.6 per cent. of all the revenue-producing domestic mail, yielded but $10,607,271.02, leaving the tremendous loss of $70,184,344.01. Thus the deficit caused by the heavy loss on the handling and carriage of second-class matter was greater than the profit obtained from first-class matter.”
Mr. Hitchcock here made a plea for equalization of the rate on second-class matter on the ground that it would at once make possible the reduction of letter postage from 2 cents to 1 cent an ounce. This reduction would come about from the fact, he said, that the present profit in handling first-class matter was approximately equal to the loss sustained in the transportation of second-class mail.
Mr. Hitchcock said, however, that he did not believe that the rate for second-class mail should be at once advanced to where it would cover the cost of handling and carriage, although that should be the ultimate end in view.
“For the present,” said he, “an increase of only one cent a pound is recommended, thus making a flat rate of 2 cents a pound, which should be regarded as merely tentative, however, leaving for future determination such additional increase as may be found necessary to meet the cost.”
The Postmaster General served notice on the commission that if by any chance it should see fit to recommend the continuance of the present rate—a “merely nominal postage rate,” he called it—his department could not consistently[183] do otherwise than renew its recommendation for a higher rate of postage on the advertising portions of magazines.
I need make no comment on that address beyond the comment implied in the phrases and wording I have marked for italics. That Mr. Hitchcock still purposes to “put over” the injustices covered in his Senate rider amendment to the postoffice appropriation bill is made baldly clear. That he still is working that “deficit” as a sort of “come-on” to his purpose is equally clear. And the ridiculous, if not ludicrous, feature of this talk before the commission is that it comes after he has demonstrated and publicly announced that there is no deficit in the Postoffice Department for the fiscal year, 1910-11.
As Mr. M. H. Madden states in a letter to me, printed on a previous page, Mr. Hitchcock reports a profit of one to three million dollars for the fiscal year named.
Later, if I remember rightly, he discovered a stealage—pardon me, I mean he discovered an “excess”—of from $9,000,000 to $14,000,000 in railway mail pay.
Just in this connection I wish to say that Mr. Hitchcock is deserving of the praise and commendation of every one of us American citizens for the aggressive way in which he has cut down expenditures in his department without impairing its service. Also is he deserving of equal praise and commendation from us for his vigorous and fairly successful methods of going after that railway mail haulage steal, which has been going on for a time to which the younger generation of our citizens wots not of. Although I may adversely criticise a man, as in this volume I have criticised Mr. Hitchcock, I like the man who puts up a stiff fight for a cause, even though I believe his cause is wrong. Candidly I can see no reason why Mr. Hitchcock and his predecessor postmaster generals should so worry themselves over a “deficit” in the Postoffice Department—a department in which a surplus should never be expected and never allowed to become permanent.
But our present Postmaster General has, by his aggressive action and close scrutiny of the loose, wasteful methods under which the vast business of his department is carried on, disposed of the “deficit” and found a surplus.
In this he has done what his predecessors failed to do.
For this he merits our highest praise and commendation.[184] Personally I yield it to him, untrammeled and in full meed. I object only to his attempt to saddle upon second-class mail—the one-cent-a-pound-matter—the burden of recouping the government for the losses on rural route and star route service and the railway mail pay stealage. I object because I not only believe, but I know as comprehendingly and as comprehensively as does he, that the second-class matter carried in the mails today at one cent a pound should be carried and handled at a profit at that rate.
I also know that just as second-class mail (periodicals), is cut down in distribution in just about the same proportion will the revenue from first, third and fourth class mail be cut down.
It is because of this firm belief, that I oppose Mr. Hitchcock’s, to me, absurd purpose and attempt to make “each division or class of mail pay for its carriage and handling.”
I am also opposing his manifest attempt to “play favorites” in legislation and to secure bureaucratic powers for his department—in contravention of my constitutional rights—to your constitutional rights.
I take the following from the New York Call of August 26. The Call captions it as “Hitchcock’s Sum Up.” It evidences the fact that he still follows his folly—that he is still after those “few magazine publishers” and after them, too, on his “rider” lines.
The Call reports as follows:
“The attorneys for the magazines,” said Postmaster Hitchcock in summing up the government’s case, “have presented this matter of advertising in magazines in such a way as to leave the impression that there is a controversy over it. There is none. The department knows that the advertising matter in magazines produces first-class mail and that the postoffice is benefited in that way. The important question is: What effect will a whole increase of 1 cent a pound have on the advertising? Will it be the means of stopping it?
“We feel that advertising would not be diminished by such an increase and if such is the case, all this information which we have heard today, interesting as it may be, is not to the point. Repeatedly we have heard the general argument against an increase in rates as though our recommendation is for a general increase. We don’t want that at all. What we are driving at is a readjustment. We are not trying to economize or save money. We have done that to the best of our ability already and want simply to increase the second-class rate so that the first will pay for itself, believing that in this way the greater number of people will be served.”
If Mr. Hitchcock is correctly reported in the above, it would[185] appear that something of a change has taken place in his mental landscape since he put his “rider” on the Senate speedway during the closing hours of the last session of Congress. “The department knows that the advertising matter in magazines produces first-class mail,” he now says.
Did the department know that fact when that “rider” was on the speedway? It most certainly did, if it then knew anything—that is anything about the sources of postal revenues. Did Mr. Hitchcock or any of his assistants, at the time referred to, make any vehement declaration of that knowledge—that advertising matter in magazines produces first-class revenue? If he or his assistants did so, no one has reported the fact of having heard such declaration.
In March, Mr. Hitchcock battles valiantly to have the advertising pages of magazines taxed four cents a pound for carriage and distribution. At that time he “estimated” that such increase in the mail rate on the advertising “sheets” of magazines would be equivalent to a rate of “about two cents a pound” on the entire magazine. As about one-half the full weight of our leading magazines—the magazines which Mr. Hitchcock, as previously stated, appears to be “after”—is in their advertising pages, his method of “estimating” must have been somewhat baggy at the knees last March. Any seventh or eighth grade grammar school pupil could have told him that a four-cent rate on one-half the weight and a one-cent rate on the other half is equivalent to a flat rate of two and one-half cents on the full weight.
However, we may leave that pass. It is past—has washed into the drift of time. If the Call correctly reports him, he is now willing, or was willing on August 25, 1911, to accept a flat rate of two cents a pound on all second-class matter. That shows some improvement over his “estimate” of March last. It would seem that Mr. Hitchcock is getting down nearer the tacks in this second-class mail rate question, and, as he has got rid of that annoying “deficit,” it can be hoped that he may yet see the fact—see that a one-cent-a-pound-rate is ample to cover the cost of carriage and handling of second-class mail matter.
Still, we must not be over-confident about what Mr. Hitchcock may or may not do. Regardless of what he said or may have said before the Hughes Commission at its recent session, it would appear[186] that he is still gunning for those independent magazines which have been guilty of telling the truth about both official and private corruptionists and corruption and also guilty of turning the sandblast of publicity on the veneer and varnish under which has been hiding much nastiness—political, financial and other—in this country. I say it appears that Mr. Hitchcock is still after those magazines. If such is not the fact, then why does he and the orators and exhorters of his department go junketing about the country lecturing and hectoring postmasters, instead of staying at home and attending to department affairs? If he is not on the same trail he “caught up” last March, why are he and his assistants trying so hard to work up sentiment favorable to an increase in second-class mail rates and a decrease of fifty per cent in first-class rates? Has any considerable number of our people been complaining about the first-class or letter postage rate? If there has been such complaints The Man on the Ladder has not heard of them. On the other hand, it is a known fact that millions of our people have protested and are still protesting against any raise in the second-class mail rate. Why, then, in face of these facts, is Mr. Hitchcock working so hard, so industriously and so adroitly, if not, indeed, craftily, to get the vast personnel of his department,—carriers, rural routers, star routers, railway mail clerks and postmasters—postmasters, from Hiram Hairpin at Crackerville, Ga., all the way up—fourth, third, second class postmasters to the first-class postmasters in our larger cities—why, I ask, is Mr. Hitchcock working so strenuously to get the vast political machine of his department lined up against the protest of millions of our people, unless he is still after those pestiferous, independent magazines?
Why, again, it may be asked, are he and his assistants coaching the 220,000 clerks of his department and the 60,000 postmasters, assistant postmasters, etc., on his “staff” to put up a promotion talk for a one-cent rate on first-class (letter or sealed) matter? It should be a one-cent rate. Nobody at all informed as to mail service rates and revenues will question that. But it is equally true that, up to a recent date, there have been, comparatively speaking (the comparison being with the millions protesting against an increase in the second-class rate) but few complaints and complainants against the present rate of two cents for carrying and handling a letter.
Why, then, I ask, is Mr. Hitchcock so actively cranking up his[187] departmental political machine to make neighborhood runs and do some hill climbing in advocacy of that one-cent rate for first-class matter? Yes, why?
Is it a legitimate assumption to say that the present agitation for a lowered rate on first-class matter found origin in Mr. Hitchcock? If it is, then what is he after?
To The Man on the Ladder it looks as if he was still after those magazines which have exposed—yes, even displayed—a weakness for telling the truth about men and conditions. Otherwise, why should he be arguing the postal “deficit” in March as cause and reason for his urgent efforts to make operative law out of that unconstitutional “rider” and now asking for a flat rate of two cents on second-class, and advocating a cut of fifty per cent in first-class, or letter, postage rates?
In his January-February-March talk, the “deficit” was the substructure of it all. By attending strictly to what the people understand as a Postmaster General’s business, Mr. Hitchcock faded the then $6,000,000 deficit into a few hundred thousand surplus, for the fiscal year recently ended. For this he deserves our highest commendation. He has mine. Why?
Because Mr. Hitchcock in converting that deficit into a surplus has done just what any one of his predecessors could have done in any year during the past thirty-five, if they had tried, and not been interfered with by dirty politics and dirty politicians.
Still, from the ladder top, it looks as if Mr. Hitchcock is after some one or ones. If my surmise is correct, who is it he is after, if not those publishers of magazines who are educating us as to the wrong and right of things in this government of ours?
That is for you to say, reader. That you may not think that the opinion just expressed is far fetched or an “individual” to bolster an opinion of the writer, I shall here quote a few paragraphs from an October issue of the Farm Journal of Philadelphia. The paragraphs are from an article written by Mr. Wilmer Atkinson, the Farm Journal editor and publisher.
I have on a previous page referred to and quoted Mr. Atkinson, and here I wish to emphasize, if my earlier reference did not do so, that Mr. Wilmer Atkinson is one of the best, if not the best, informed men in this country on cost of second-class mail carriage, handling[188] and distribution. Mr. Atkinson must also be credited with an acumen in watching and divining—sizing up—the purpose and intent of our Postoffice Department that is equaled by few, if any, other men in this country, Postmaster Generals not excepted. I have been studying this question for years. Mr. Atkinson has studied it for more years, and he has studied it, too, from a business man’s—a publisher’s—viewpoint, as he has been compelled to do, being the directing head of one of the most widely circulated and read farm journals in this country.
That aside, my purpose here is to reprint a few paragraph excerpts from a recent (October, 1911) issue of the Farm Journal—an editorial written by Mr. Atkinson himself and which shows that this astute student of the present federal postal affairs corroborates the position The Man on the Ladder has taken—which supports the statement previously made that Mr. Hitchcock is still gunning for those, to him, objectionable magazines.
The following is from the October issue of the Farm Journal, under the heading of “Our Monthly Talk:”
In response to invitation a number of gentlemen interested in postal questions came together for informal conference at North View, the summer residence of the undersigned, on September 20 and 21.
Those who met are the official representatives of the following associations:
The National Fraternal Press Association.
The Federation of Trades Press Association.
The Ohio Buckeye Press Association, and the Weekly Country Press of other states.
The National Catholic Editors’ Association.
The United Typothet? of America.
These gentlemen constitute a portion of the Publishers’ Commission now in process of formation. The representative of the American Medical Editors’ Association was unable to be present on account of a pressing engagement, and the member representing The Associated Advertising Clubs of America was absent in Europe.
This was the initial effort of the commission to bring the entire publishing fraternity of the country into such unity of spirit and purpose that something effective may be accomplished toward establishing not only just and honorable, but amicable and pleasant, relations with the Postoffice Department; to bring publishers of the different classes into harmony, in order that they may stand and act together for the protection and furtherance of their common interests, and for the cultivation of fraternal feelings among themselves.
There were three meetings held, two on the 20th and another on the morning of the 21st. After much earnest and harmonious discussion, it was decided that[189] the great need of publishers at this time is to have the light turned upon postal affairs, so that they may know where they are at. To best accomplish this purpose it was thought that there should be a Publishers’ bureau established at Washington, in charge of a first-class man, who would be the collector and distributor of information regarding postoffice doings, rulings, hearings and proposed postal legislation; this bureau also to publish a paper for circulation among publishers of all classes throughout the United States, which would keep them thoroughly informed as to postoffice rules, regulations, proceedings and acts of every description.
Much of the information publishers get now is fragmentary, uncertain, often considerably warped and belated cold-storage news, void of substantial life-sustaining qualities. The annual reports of the department in which publishers are most vitally interested are less complete than formerly. Many important facts do not appear in them. For instance, no statement is ever made as to the amount of first-class matter originated by the second-class, none, or very little, account is made of it. No attempt has ever been made to gather, much less publish, statistics on the subject.
Formerly a list was accessible of publications annually thrown out of the mails at second-class rates, but not in recent years.
The report of the Third Assistant Postmaster-General in 1897 comprises 97 pages of compact statements and postal information in small type; that for 1901, 133 pages; while those for 1909 and 1910 contain only 60 and 65 pages in larger type, respectively. I am not censuring Mr. Britt in this matter, but simply stating facts.
Then as to the rulings, laws and regulations, there is not a publisher living who knows what they are, or can definitely ascertain what they are, from month to month. They are liable to change without the publishers being informed directly of the change. What purported to be “The Postal Laws and Regulations Relating to the Second-class of Mail Matter” was issued in 1910, but in it the law, rulings and regulations are so jumbled up together that it is difficult for a publisher to know which is which; instead of being illuminating and helpful, this compendium is confusing and involved in obscurity. It is a well recognized legal maxim, that “where the law is uncertain there is no law.”
Publishers have not known that an active propaganda in favor of a higher rate has been in progress ever since Congress adjourned, but such is the fact. The Postmaster General went before the Hughes Commission and advocated it.
The Third Assistant Postmaster General, in the early summer, made an address before some publishers in Chicago, wherein he stated that it was the purpose of the Postmaster General “to adjust postage rates based upon the principle of the payment on each class of mail matter of a rate of postage equal to the cost of handling and carriage, and no more, and that one class of mail matter shall not be taxed to meet deficiencies caused by an inadequate rate on another class,” meaning by this that the rate must be raised on second-class matter and lowered on the first class.
General DeGraw, Fourth Assistant Postmaster General, in an address before[190] the West Virginia Association of Postmasters, stated the purpose of the Postmaster General to be exactly what Mr. Britt declared it to be; and he had the postmasters pass a resolution indorsing the Postmaster General, and even as late as September 22, at Milwaukee, he advocated “the crystalization of the proposed increase in second-class mail rates into law.”
Jesse L. Suter, representing the Postoffice Department, brought greetings from the Postmaster General, to a round-up of postmasters in Michigan in August last, and said that “the great subsidy extended the publishers in the form of a ridiculously small rate of postage is unreasonable. Were the publishers required to pay more in proportion to what it actually costs the government to transport their products, the people of the United States would be benefited. Every man, woman and child in the United States is taxed seventy-three cents by way of his letter postage over and above the cost of carrying his own letters in order to meet the deficiency of underpaid second-class matter.”[7] And then, of course, the postmasters passed a resolution thanking Mr. Suter for his “timely hints relative to second-class matter and commending the Postmaster General.”
On August 22 and 23, there was a postmasters’ convention at Toledo, Ohio, at which a resolution was proposed complimenting the Postmaster General “for his efforts to bring about a fair compensation from those enjoying the benefits of second-class rates.”
James B. Cook, Superintendent of the Division of Postoffice Supplies, Washington, D. C., also addressed a postmasters’ convention in the West, in which he said: “There is one thing I am going to ask you to do—it is a simple thing and one that should be near to your hearts. Certain publishers have attempted to create public sentiment against an increase of postage on advertising matter in magazines.… Many of us believe that the postage rate is class legislation of the rankest kind in favor of the few at the expense of the masses. Talk to your business men about it; the Postmaster General is going to win this fight because he is in the right. Tell the business men that the Postmaster General feels that he is entitled not only to their moral but their active support.”
At how many other state conventions the postmasters have been prompted to pass resolutions and have been addressed by Washington officials endorsing “the great fight” the Postmaster General is making for a higher postage rate, deponent sayeth not.
Thus it is that an energetic campaign has been carried on by the Postmaster General during the summer, postmasters being urged to pass resolutions and “talk to business men” in favor of an increase of postage rate on second-class matter in order, no doubt, to be ready when Congress meets to put the measure through.
In confirmation of the above, word comes from Washington to the effect that[191] “there has been no cessation in the activities of the department to make preparations to renew vigorously at the forthcoming Congress the fight for an increased rate. If the publishers feel that they have won their fight and are resting easily, they will have an awakening ere the year is over.”
While it would not be possible or advisable under the circumstances to circumscribe the activities of our energetic Postmaster General, certainly it would be a prudent and wise step for publishers to place themselves in position to know what is going on injurious to their own interests and that of the people of the whole country.
Now, Mr. Hitchcock is a brave and persistent fighter and as such will respect and honor those who will stand up like men and defend their cause, and can have only contempt for those who will meekly sit still while being pummeled to death.
If publishers are ever to establish honorable and just and amicable and pleasant relations with the Postoffice Department they must show that they are men with red blood in their veins.
The essential thing will be to get the right man to represent us at Washington but this ought not to be difficult.
Among his duties will be to make inquiry into postal matters of every description that in any way relate to the publishing business and to publish them; publish orders of the department; rulings and proposed rulings; attend hearings and publish the proceedings; keep abreast of measures introduced in Congress and proposed by the Postoffice Department bearing upon the publishing business; keep subscribers fully posted on everything that occurs at Washington or elsewhere that concerns them; to advocate such reforms in the postal service as the people ask for and need, and finally to rally the whole fraternity to resist any threatened or actual encroachment upon the freedom and independence of the press.
Here are some of the qualifications necessary for the person fit to take charge of the Washington office: Some experience as editor and publisher; he must be honest and just; patriotic; discreet; firm; tactful; must have power as a writer; character as a gentleman; vision, courage, one who cannot be either frightened or cajoled; and finally, one who recognizes the fact that liberty of the press is a principle that lies at the foundation of republican institutions, and must not be encroached upon, or placed in jeopardy.
I have made the above quotation from Mr. Atkinson to evidence the fact that he and others support my view of Mr. Hitchcock’s attitude now, in relation to this second-class mail rate question. Mr. Atkinson shows quite conclusively that our Postmaster General is still, and stealthily, running the trail which the Penrose-Overstreet Commission scented for him and urges publishers and the printing trades to be on their guard.
Some pages back I adverted to the fact that the deficit of $6,000,000 for the fiscal year 1909-10 was the ground-plan of Mr. Hitchcock[192] for an increase in second-class postage rates. That deficit he himself has converted into a surplus of several thousands of dollars.
Why, then, is he still trailing those independent periodicals?
Why, too, it is relevant to ask, did he so suddenly hear that the people of this country were crying for a cut of fifty per cent in first-class, or sealed, postage rates, much as the advertiser declares the children cry for Castoria? To the Man on the Ladder it appears that what Mr. Hitchcock heard must have been a “far cry”—very far. So far, indeed, that no one who did not have his ear to an ulterior motive could hear it.
You will observe that he worries a couple of years over a “deficit”—a little runabout, five H. P. deficit of $6,000,000. Then by doing a few things which common business sense imperatively dictates should be done, and which, it is well known among competents, any one of a dozen of Mr. Hitchcock’s predecessors should have done, or could have done had not dirty politics blocked them—by doing just a few of the business things which every student of the question knows could have been done and should have been done years ago, Mr. Hitchcock lost his “deficit”—his ground-plan for attack on second-class rates—and found a surplus instead.
The Man on the Ladder does not desire to appear impertinent nor even finicky in his type conversation on this point, but in simple justice to the magnitude of the question he is constrained to ask: Is a “deficit” so essentially necessary to Mr. Hitchcock in a fight to put certain independent periodicals on the financial skids that he must, losing one deficit, immediately set about creating another?
That is just what his move to cut the mail rate on first-class, or sealed, matter must lead to—lead to temporarily of course. In the end a one-cent rate per ounce or fraction thereof will win to a paying basis. That rate will mean a cut of sixteen cents a pound from thirty-two cents a pound for carriage and handling letters and other sealed matter of the first-class. Certainly the postoffice can haul and distribute such matter at a profit at that rate. However, it is equally certain that the department will not handle such matter at a profit for two, three or more years—not so handle it until numerous causes of waste, inhering in the department for years, are sloughed and the department put under strict business management,[193] and not left under partisan political management as now and as it has been for thirty-five or forty years.
With the postal and post card facilities now furnished at the one-cent rate, no considerable number of our people are complaining about the two-cent rate for letters and other sealed matter. But all will welcome a flat rate of one cent on such matter at the present weights. If they get it, either with or without Mr. Hitchcock’s assistance, the people will be getting only what they are entitled to, deficit or no deficit. However, if Mr. Hitchcock thinks a “deficit” necessary armament in his fight to increase second-class mail rates—to increase such rates, as it would appear, on a certain few periodicals which print and publish what the people want to hear and read and not what a few federal officeholders tell them to print and publish, then a cut of 50 per cent in the present first-class postage rates will most certainly create that deficit for him.
In a few years, of course, after business has adjusted itself ............