The foregoing is taken from pages 12 and 13 of the commission’s report. I desire to quote further from page 13--four paragraphs--and I urge they be read with care. The reader, too, should remember that this is not _all_ that the publishers said on the points touched upon. It is, however, no doubt a fair epitome or summary of what they said or wrote to the commission. The reader should also keep in mind the fact that what they said and wrote was said and written in 1906, and _all_ they said and wrote is on file and easily accessible to Postmaster General Hitchcock:
Within an average radius of 500 miles the express companies and railways stand willing to transport second-class matter, in bulk packages weighing not less than 5 to 10 pounds to a single address or to be called for, at rates actually lower than the second-class postage rate. Inasmuch as the average haul of second-class matter was reported by the Wolcott commission (p. 319), to be but 438 miles, it is impossible that the government should lose anything upon the transportation of this class of matter, or if in fact it should be found to be doing so, _the loss must arise from an overpayment to the railways_.
Even if it should be found that second-class matter was being carried at a distinct loss, that loss would be entirely justified by the _educational value of the periodical press_. From the beginning of the republic it had been the policy of Congress to foster and assist the dissemination of information and intelligence among the people. Next to the great public school systems maintained by the states, the newspaper and periodical are the chief agency of social progress and enlightenment. So far from this being a subsidy to the publisher the advantage of the low postage rate had been passed on to the subscriber in the form of a better periodical and a more efficient service. Any substantial increase in the postal rates, while for the time being bearing heavily on the publisher, must eventually fall upon the subscriber, either in the form of an increased price for his reading matter or of a deterioration in the quality of that matter.
The correct method of dealing with the question of cost is to treat the service as a whole, and if the revenue for the whole service, _including allowance for government mail_, meets the cost of the whole service, it is immaterial whether each class of that service pays its own cost, or even whether the cost of one class has to be made up by a greater charge upon other classes.