The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, August 5, 1918, Page 6

,%% % YU '/%//4 vy /% wy Nl Z 'Ié//ll// rZ// T ’ v 7 %y, WAL e W | » %‘ oY IIA%6 'léllll// G “ L ON I The New Postage Rate and Tax on Advertising months in an organized effort to get congress to repeal the recent increase in second class postage rates and the war tax placed on advertising in publicatigns. This opposition has taken the form of everything from plaintive appeals to the public to make congress reverse itself, to bitter denunciation and billings- gate directed against the members of congress who had leading parts in framing and passing the legislation. One publication of national circulation denounces the tax as an “aid to German propaganda,” and makes an ingenious argu- ment (of a kind frequent among ° patrioteers) in an effort to capi- talize the patriotism of the peo- ple and make it appear that con- gress, in deciding on the tax, has played into the hands of Ger- many. Most of the leading magazines, to line up readers in the fight, have openly declared they will hand the tax down to their readers, making them pay it in increased subscription rates. The publishers have in- terested the big-salaried maga- zine writers in the fight by in- timating that contributors would be paid less if the government collected the war tax, and many of the best-known writers have come out with statements scor- ing congress. : Throughout the discussion of the new rates and tax on adver- tising, the self-interested publications have made an attempt to conceal the real nature of the new law. Much has been said about the “zone rate” feature of the tax on advertising, but it has been made to appear that this ‘“zone rate” applies to reading matter, which it does not. So far as reading matter is concerned, there has been a flat raise in the second class rate, with no question of zones involved. The “zone” proposition applies only to the WAR TAX ON ADVERTISING, an entirely different matter. No maga- zine has explained that congress merely desired to tax, under the zone system, the ADVERTISING WHICH FORMS THE PRIN- CIPAL REVENUE OF THE BIG PUBLISHERS. On reading mat- ter there has been a flat increase of one-quarter of a cent a pound, until July 1, 1919, and one-half of a cent a pound thereafter, with no question about zones whatever. This is contrary to the im- pression that publishers have given their readers. IN ADDITION to the increased second class rate for reading THE big magazines and newspapers have been engaged for matter, there is the war tax on advertising, f extra postage ON THAT PART OF PUBLICATIONS DE- VOTED TO ADVERTISING. Publications devoting 5 per cent or less of their space to advertis- THE SWAG& BONS Gt WE'LlL, RALLY ROUND TISING. Other publications, TH SWAG ¢ £ however, that is, publications that devote more than 5 per cent of their space to advertise- - ments, must pay the advertis- ing tax, which is graduated ac- cording to the distance the ad- vertisements are mailed, under a zone system. : There is no issue of free- dom of press or speech. The zone tax, on which the publish- ers have tried to center the at- tention .of their readers, does not affect READING MATTER, and therefore can not shackle : or restrict OPINION. . There are features of the war tax on advertising that may: have to be altered in the light of experience, the zone system charge being one feature open to criticism. A flat charge for all distances would probably have been better. advertising, by making it pay more postage than reading matter, seems to be sound. The reading public is familiar with the great magazines and newspapers. are more than half devoted to advertising, and that -a majority of them devote from 60 to 80 per cent of their space to advertisements, and only from 20 to 40 per cent to reading matter. 2 The reader subscribes to a publication to get. the reading mat- — PROFITEERS in the form of But the plan to tax ' It knows that practically all of them- PAGE SIX . ter, not to get the advertising. The publisher sends him the ad- vertising along with- the reading, and gets paid handsomely by advertisers for placing the ads before the readers. This practice has grown until today most of the big magazines and newspapers are thoroughly commercialized and are issued primarily to get advertising revenue. Attention is paid to reading matter by editors simply to keep readers interested and subscribing for the publi- cations, so.that the circulation can be capitalized for advertising purposes. DVERTISERS pay rates for space in the big publications A that would stagger the average reader. The readers, of course, pay for this advertising, and more. Advertisers use magazine and newspaper space to get business, and unless they got enough business from readers to pay the cost of the ads—and big profits besides—they would not advertise. Besides the advertising space used to sell goods, a new class of advertising is increasing in importance to publishers. This is the advertising of big business enterprises calculated to get the “good will” of the public and head off legislation or governmental policy that would affect these enterprises adversely. Examples are the advertising of the big packers, the steel trust and the railroads and other monopolies, calculated to influence public opin- ion in favor of these enterprises, rather than to sell goods. The packers are now using millions of dollars worth of space to offset the effect among the people of the recent federal trade commission report on profiteering. The Bell telephone companies have a mo- nopoly practically everywhere, and the public must deal with them because there is no one else to deal with in this line, yet the Bell people are big advertisers, using practically all the publications with a view of getting the “good will” of ‘the public. The Pullman car trust advertises for the same reason. If a person travels by night he must ride in a Pullman “regardless,” and advertising gets the company little if any new business, but it gets the company “good will.” ) ; And many of these monopolies advertise primarily TO GET THE “GOOD WILL” OF THE PUBLISHERS, rather than of the reading public. How many times have you seen the big newspapers and magazines advocating political or economic measures opposed by big advertisers? The effect of making advertising the primary incentive of pub- lishers has been effectively to destroy a free press of national cir- culation in America. There are still publications issued-in the in- terests of their readers rather than in the interests of advertisers, but none of the big magazines and newspapers of national circu- lation and reputation are in this class. T WOULD seem, therefore, that a tax on advertising matter, I the prime revenue-getter of publishers, is sound economics, especially in war times, when the government is badly in need of all the revenue it can get. If, under the new zone tax on adver- tising, the publishers decline to cut down their advertising columns, the handing down of the new tax to readers will be unfair. Read- ers should discontinue at once all publications which attempt to raise subscription prices and thus collect the new tax from GIVE U3 THIS their readers, WITHOUT AT THE SAME TIME GIVING [\©AY OULR DAH-Y THE READER A GREATER L LIE = PROPORTION. OF READING MATTER THAN HERETO- FORE. If the big magazines and newspapers continue to get their chief revenue and support - from advertisers, the advertis- ers should pay the new tax in increased advertising rates, or the publishers should stand it by taking less profit out of the business. The public will not object, however, to paying more for its , magazines under certain conditions. If they have to pay more for them, they will be more careful in selecting them and pub-. lishers consequently will have to pay more attention to reading matter and less to advertising. The public will be willing to pay ~more for a magazine containing less advertising and more and better reading matter, and this will tend to make revenue from readers more important to publishers—and revenue from advei-- tisers less important—thus tending to force the big publications . more and more into'the policy of editing in the interests of read- ers rather than advertisers. o A - Besides the justice of a tax on advertising from a standpoint: R