More than that, Mr. Atkinson has so long and so thoroughly studied this second-class mail rate question that both Mr. Hitchcock and myself would have to take our places in the kindergarten class where he is tutor.
I haven’t those three “Job Jobson’s” by me. I have thumbed two of them out of existence, but from the one I have I desire to quote a couple of paragraphs which I hope it will do Mr. Hitchcock as much good to read as it does me to re-read. Here they are in all their vigor:
Publishers, one and all, should take their stand upon the immutable principle that newspaper circulation is not a crime, and it is not a fault, that neither a law on the statute books, much less arbitrary power outside the law, should ever be invoked to curtail the liberty and independence of the press, which are a sacred inheritance from the fathers; or to cripple newspaper enterprises or bankrupt those engaged in this noble calling.
That to send their papers into the very confines of the republic, into every home, however rich, however humble, to brighten and to bless, is a great and beneficent work, worthy of all praise and all honor--worthy of the nurturing care, rather than the antagonism of government.
And that was written only a few years ago--written _true to the facts_. I desire here to quote a couple more paragraphs. They have been published generally throughout the country and universally indorsed. They are written by the Hon. Woodrow Wilson, Governor of New Jersey:
A tax upon the business of the more widely circulated magazines and periodicals would be a tax upon their means of living and performing their functions. They obtain their circulation by their direct appeal to the popular thought. Their circulation attracts advertisers. Their advertisements enable them to pay their writers and to enlarge their enterprise and influence.
This proposed new postal rate would be a direct tax, and a very serious one, upon the formation and expression of opinion--its most deliberate formation and expression--just at a time when opinion is concerning itself most actively and effectively with the deepest problems of our politics and our social life. To make such a change, whatever its intentions in the minds of those who proposed it, would be to attack and embarrass the free processes of opinion.