let us see who really would be affected.
as just cited there necessarily would be thousands of periodical publishers affected—virtually ruined. but, let us go down to things elemental in this question—down to the stumpage.
the great educational white way of our periodical literature is builded upon wood pulp.
in an opening paragraph of this volume i adverted to that fact. the chief pulp woods are spruce of the north—even of the distant north—and the northwest. then come cottonwood, basswood and soft maple, of the south, southeast and new england. of course, there are several other kinds of pulpwoods, but they are not used extensively for the manufacture of white paper, unless chemically treated, and such treatment makes them expensive. of the pulpwoods i have named, spruce is far and away the most extensively used. from spruce is produced the best pulp. in “milling,” it shows body, fiber, strength—it gives toughness to the milled sheet or the web roll.
but that is enough. i am not an expert in pulp-wood stocks. the point i am trying to call to the reader’s attention is that any legislation which cuts down the consumption of wood pulp must necessarily “affect” some other folks besides “a few magazine publishers.”
first, a just adjudication of such a piece of legislation as that proposed in mr. hitchcock’s rider amendment would put from thirty to fifty per cent of our weaker (but excellent) periodicals on the financial rocks—put them out of business. they consume thousands of tons yearly of pulp-wood paper.
it will, i think, be freely admitted that such periodicals would be out of—forced out of—the pulp-wood market—i mean out of the wood-pulp paper market, which amounts to the same thing.
but that is not all. the strong weeklies and monthlies are not going to be put out of business by legislation of that rider character. they will continue in business. they will meet its unjust exactions[169] by readjustments. they are printing on sixty to eighty pound stock. some parts of their periodicals are printed on even heavier stock. they will go to the paper mills and demand lighter stock, of special finish—and their demands will be met—and fifty to sixty pound stock will be used. the special finish will give the reader just as presentable a magazine, typographically, as he now receives.
but you observe that the publisher will be saving from twenty to fifty per cent in stock weight.
you will also observe that the paper mills will be using twenty to fifty per cent less wood pulp than they are now using.
you will also observe that the railroads will haul twenty to fifty per cent less of pulp timber and less wood-pulp paper than they now haul.
“only a few magazine publishers will be affected,” eh?
let us “recast” as far as we have gone.
the owners of pulp wood acres or stumpage would be affected, would they not? there are probably three to five hundred of them in the country, taken at a low estimate.
they are not of the “few magazine publishers” are they?
pulp mill and other investors in pulp-wood stumpage seldom buy until they have an estimate by some skilled judge as to the probable “cut” the acreage will yield. for this purpose the prospective purchasers usually employ one or more “timber cruisers.” a timber cruiser is a man so skilled and experienced that he can look at a standing tree and tell you within a hundred feet or so how much lumber it will saw or how many cords of pulp or other wood it will cut. he “steps off” an acre, sizes up the available trees growing on the acre, averaging up the large trees with the small ones, and then estimates or calculates the average wood or lumber growth on that acre. he then goes off to some other acre. the latter may be only a few hundred yards or it may be a mile or two from the acres last measured, the estimate on which the “cruiser” has carefully noted in his “field book.”
the second acre he “works” as he did the first, and so the “cruiser” goes on with acre after acre through a forest of ten, fifty, a hundred, or it may be a million or more acres of “stumpage,” always careful to note the “light” and the “heavy” timbered sections, and marks with a sharp, shrewd and experienced eye an estimate of[170] the number of acres covered by the light and the heavy growth of timber. when he has covered the acreage his employer contemplates buying, he comes back to civilization, turns in his field book and makes a report to the boss. on that showing the boss buys or declines.
sometimes, of course, the careful, prudent boss may have two, three or a dozen cruisers, covering different fields of a vast forest section and, sometimes, virtually trailing each other. in the latter case, the buyer seeks to use one cruiser’s estimate as a check on the other. in any event, however, the purchase or investment is usually made on the showing the cruisers have made.
now, this talk about timber, cruisers, etc., may be uninteresting to the reader. i sincerely hope, though, he will read it and follow me along the same lines a little further. my object is to show how wide of the truth—how unjustly or ignorantly wide of the truth—mr. hitchcock was when making the statement, which it has been repeatedly and reputably asserted he did make, to the effect that the legislation he sought would “affect only a few magazine publishers.” i have stated, and have given what i believe to be sound, valid reasons in support of the statement, that legislation of the nature, covered by his rider amendment ultimately—and necessarily—must be either annulled by the courts or be so broadened as to remove its special or class features. of course, mr. hitchcock wanted—and he still wants—legislation of the nature indicated in that rider to become operative law. it is my belief he entertained such hope and desire when he asserted that an enactment of the character of his rider would “affect only a few magazine publishers.” at any rate, it was with such belief i introduced this division of our general subject.
as previously stated, legislation of the character sought by mr. hitchcock cannot be enacted into operative law without cutting down the consumption of wood pulp from thirty to fifty per cent.
such a cut in consumption, i am here trying to show, cannot be made without affecting the earnings and lives of men—many thousands of men and families—who cannot even be imagined as of those “few magazine publishers.”
when the stumpage owner decides to cut five, ten, fifty, a hundred or more thousand acres for milling, another gang of men—“road blazers”—is sent into the forest. if the transportation is to be by[171] water, some river or smaller stream, these latter men select suitable roll-ways and boom yardages along the stream. from each of these they “blaze” or mark the trees and smaller growths to be felled and the obstructions to be removed in order to provide a haulage roadway—usually providing for both wagons and snow sleds or sledges. if the transportation is to be by rail, corresponding work is done, the roadways branching in from the forest to the rail sidings where the loading is to be done. not infrequently “spur tracks” are blazed which sometimes run for miles into the forest away from the main line of the railway.
following these men who mark out the “haulways,” come a far more numerous body of men with axes, saws, hooks, oxen, mules and other equipment, including cooks, “grub” and other things necessary to feed and shelter them. these, also, are factors—elemental or primal factors—in the production of wood-pulp from which most of our white paper is made. numerically they, in the aggregate, number thousands.
most certainly they cannot be counted among the “few magazine publishers” referred to by mr. hitchcock.
with equal certainty it can be said that each of these thousands would be materially affected in his industrial occupation by any legislation or other influence which caused a shrinkage in the demand for wood-pulp.
in the fall and winter of the year (sometimes in other seasons as well), an army of men—not thousands, but tens of thousands in number—swarm into the pulp wood forests. they are axemen, “fiddlers” (cross-cut sawyers,) foremen, gang foremen, ox drivers, mule drivers, horse drivers. here also is again found the cook, the “pot cleaner,” the “grub slinger” and other servers of subsistence to the “timber jackies” of the various camps.
any material reduction in the consumption of wood-pulp would affect them, would it not?
none of them publish magazines, do they?
this brings us down to the pulp mill. of course each mill has a hundred or more men employed getting its wood floated down the rivers or streams during the spring floods, or “freshets,” if their transportation is by water. they are log “berlers”, “jam” breakers, shore “canters,” “boomers,” etc. if their working stock comes by rail,[172] there are “loaders,” “unloaders,” “yarders,” etc. then come in the thousands of mill men, engaged on the work of reducing the wood to pulp. if the pulp mill has not a paper mill in immediate connection, as often happens, then the railroad is immediately interested in the reduced tonnage haul, and likewise every man who works for the railroad becomes interested industrially.
even a triple-expansion brained man could not figure these thousands of industrial workers into the ranks of those “few magazine publishers” whom mr. hitchcock, it is asserted, repeatedly asserted, would alone be affected by his urgently urged amendment.
next, we reach the paper mill. how many thousands of men are employed by them, i do not know. of the many other thousands—wives and children who are dependent upon those workers for clothing, shelter and subsistence—i cannot make even a worthy guess. the reader can make as dependable an estimate as i, probably a more dependable one. but readers will unitedly agree that all these thousands of workmen, wives and children would be affected by any reduction in the consumption of wood-pulp paper.
all readers will also agree that no one of these is a magazine publisher.
thus far we have seen, in considering the “reach” of mr. hitchcock’s recommended legislation, that it would have affected the earnings and the lives of many thousands of our people—people who cannot, in even perfervid imagination, be classed among his “few magazine publishers.” in this connection, however, should be noted the fact that when the paper leaves the paper mills, with the thousands dependent upon their operation and success, the paper proper passes into the custody of the transportation companies—railroad and water—chiefly the former—and of the thousands of operatives they employ. next comes the thousands engaged in the cartage interests in cities throughout the country, wherever printing is done. in cities of the first and second classes there is usually found a division of the cartage interest which confines its service almost exclusively to the work of carting paper from car, depot, dock or warehouse to the printing plant which consumes it.
here, then, in the last two classes named, must be found several thousands more workmen who would necessarily be adversely affected by a shrinkage of thirty to fifty per cent in the pulp wood cut.[173] those thousands, mark you, do not include the thousands of women and children dependent upon the earnings of those workmen. yet they would necessarily be affected by any shrinkage in wood-pulp consumption.
and again it must be admitted by every man—and will be admitted by any man with as much brains as directs the activities of any lively angleworm—that none of the thousands here mentioned are magazine publishers. none of them could possibly be of the “few magazine publishers” referred to by mr. hitchcock.
so far we have touched upon only the elements of production. while the people employed in the several divisions of the pulp-wood industry may run, numerically, into many tens of thousands, in the great division of the printing trades, they run into the hundreds of thousands. i refer to the great printing and publishing trades—the trades which turn the pulp paper into periodicals and books—the trades whose work directly educates us.
before attempting to designate the various divisions of this class, or to indicate the vast multitude—both men and women—to whom they give employment, i desire to present a few quotations, showing that these trades and these hundreds of thousands of employes are, in the slang language of the street, “onto” not only the controlling—the ulterior—motives of mr. hitchcock but also that they know and understand and feel something of the far-reaching wreck and ruin to homes and to lives which legislation of the nature he proposed must bring to this industrial division of our general citizenship.
under date of may 20, 1911, mr. m. h. madden wrote me the following letter. while mr. madden may not be as widely known as is postmaster general hitchcock, he not having had the advantage of a federal cabinet position to broadcast his fame, there are few men better known among the personnel of the printing trades than is mr. madden, and equally few men there are who are better informed on the cost of carriage, handling and distribution of second-class mail.
in this letter mr. madden speaks particularly of the alleged postoffice department “deficit.” while this much-talked of “deficit” is made the subject of a short subsequent chapter, mr. madden’s letter presents several other points trenchantly pertinent to the subject we are now considering, to-wit: that the printing trades—all branches and classes of it, from the pressfeeder and bindery girl to[174] the shop superintendent and publisher—are alive to the dangers with which legislation of the “rider” character is fraught:
chicago, may 20, 1911.
my dear mr. gantz—for a considerable time president taft has directed attention to a supposed deficit in the postoffice department revenues, he accepting the figures of his postmaster general that the amount of the shortage for 1909 was above $17,000,000, while that for 1910 was cut down to less than $6,000,000.
an authorized statement by mr. hitchcock, sent out on may 27, 1911, declares that for the six months of 1911 there is a surplus in postal receipts ranging from $1,000,000 to $3,000,000. with the fact kept in view that there have been increases in expenses in many directions and the further fact that second-class mail tonnage, on which great losses occur—according to the hitchcock plan of keeping books—has increased, the manifest inconsistency involved in mr. hitchcock’s discovery is too transparent to permit of discussion.
factors which have been left out of the reckoning, among others might be mentioned the progressive increased amount of business of the postal department, with but slight advance in the percentage of cost for transacting the same; a general agitation for better service on the part of the public which awakened the authorities to a fuller responsibility of their duty, and the important circumstance that there has been a new alignment of the house and senate committees on postoffices and postroads, has caused a moving-up process, we might say shaking-up process, in methods that sadly needed furbishing and of ideas that required practical demonstration. the effect of improving the system of transmitting the postal funds promptly to the national treasury instead of leaving the same to accumulate in the common centers, where they were earned, is seen by the immediate wiping out of the need for a balance of $10,000,000 with which to do business. such an ancient method of conducting postal business would probably do in the period when the pyramids were built, but that system had finally to surrender, it being too archaic for even the postoffice department to adopt.
in a communication to me under date of august 9th, 1911, mr. madden gives expression to the following very informative statements:
in connection with the hughes postal inquiry i would like to inform you of the total addition to the expense of conducting the postoffice department which became effective july 1, 1911. you may avail yourself of these facts in your argument, as they are official, orders having been issued by postmaster general hitchcock for these additional expenditures.
the sum of $1,200,000 is to be devoted to increases in the salaries of postoffice clerks during the current year, while $600,000 of an increase will go to city letter carriers. the railway mail clerks will get an increase of only $175,000, making an addition to the salaries of the three groups of $1,975,000. when the rural route carriers get their increase of $4,000,000 it will mean an addition to the four groups of the stupendous sum of $5,975,000 to the annual total. the figures[175] are calculated to startle the ordinary observer, especially when there has been so much music about deficits.
on august 15th, 1911, mr. m. h. madden, as secretary of the independent postal league, wrote the hon. daniel a. campbell, postmaster of chicago, a lengthy and strong letter, in response to the latter’s request for copies of former issues of the league’s bulletins. i have a copy of that letter before me and shall take the liberty to quote a few of its relevant paragraphs.
after explaining the reasons why it was impossible for him to furnish postmaster campbell a file of the league’s bulletins, mr. madden continues:
“for myself i have given second-class postage problems some study, have written articles concerning the subject, and have addressed many organizations interested, in various portions of the country. in this connection i appeared before president taft as a representative of the printing trades with president george l. berry of the international printing pressmen’s union on feb. 23 last. we protested against the raise to 4 cents a pound on advertising pages in the magazines. as a result of our work, more than 10,000 telegrams of protest were sent to senators and members of the house from organized labor men. two weeks later a certain ‘rider’ was thrown in the senate. the hughes commission of inquiry into the cost of handling second-class matter was then created. in one way and another this movement has been kept somewhat active.
“some weeks ago the editors of union labor publications of the country met in chicago and formed an association to continue this work, the independent postal league being thereby relieved of the task of instructing working people concerning the subject, the league turning over to the editors, the data it had, consisting of documents, official reports, etc.
“president gompers of the american federation of labor and president woll of the international photo-engravers’ union were furnished with material to present before the sessions of the hughes commission. the national typothet? to convene in denver will also use data supplied by the league, as will the international typographical union at san francisco; also the american federation of labor at its annual meeting at atlanta, ga.
“in this country there are 2,000,000 organized workingmen affiliated with the american federation of labor and 500,000 who are unaffiliated. these are opposed to a raise in postage and have so declared. in the printing trades there are more than 400,000 of the best paid artisans in the world and these are working in opposition to a raise, and since they produce almost a billion dollars’ worth of printing each year their protest is worth listening to.
“as workingmen we cannot approve of the inconsistency shown by having a pressman produce a periodical in canada and sending it through the mails at ? cent a pound, while his brother pressman in the united states would be forced to pay four cents a pound for the same service. and the “canuck” can certainly[176] do it at a profit. here is where a little ‘reciprocity’ juice would taste nectar-like for the uncle sam pressman. for several years our big postoffice officials have been telling the american people it cost more than 9 cents a pound to haul second-class mail. in canada there is a population of 8,000,000 served by 25,000 miles of railway, while in our country we have 90,000,000 people and 246,000 miles of railroads. in the united states we print 500 periodicals to one printed in the dominion. the merits of the question are so obvious that there is no chance for a controversy; in fact there can be no dispute on a matter so plain.”
now, see here, i do not want to burden you—you, the reader—with quotations. i have not done so save when the quotations covered the point—our point—better than i could cover it myself. i write up to a point to the best of my ability, and then, if i have at hand some authority—some more conclusive and better told statement than i can make myself, i hand it to you.
so please do not skip the quotations in this book. the meat of it is in the quoted matter, not in what i have said or may say. that is why i desire to quote further just here.
under date of may 16, 1911, mr. hitchcock wrote over the signature of his second assistant, joseph stewart, the following letter, addressed “to publishers.” whether or not it was sent to publishers in general or only to “certain monthly and semi-monthly periodicals,” i do not know. i reprint it here as evidence for the reader in proof of the tendency, or policy, of mr. hitchcock to exercise bureaucratic powers in administering the official service of his office—powers not given him by law.
i reprint also for the purpose of showing, by two or three following quotations, how closely mr. hitchcock’s official acts are being scanned by the printing trades and how clearly and how justly they estimate the results and the trade and industrial effects of such action.
the letter signed by mr. stewart follows:
postoffice department,
second assistant postmaster general,
washington, d. c., may 16, 1911
publisher, practical engineer, chicago, ill.:
sir:—arrangements are being made by the postoffice department to transport, after june 30, 1911, certain monthly and semi-monthly periodical second-class mail matter for certain states by fast freight to a number of central distributing points, from which points distribution and delivery will be made by mail as at present.
this method of transportation necessarily being somewhat slower than the[177] present method of carriage of mail throughout, it becomes necessary for publishers to rearrange their mailing schedules to allow an earlier delivery to the postoffice of mail for the states to be so transported, in order that delivery to subscribers may be made at approximately the same time as at present.
it is believed that an advance in mailing dates of from three to six days will provide the necessary margin to offset the slower movement, and your co-operation to that extent is solicited.
specific information relative to the states affected and the time of advance mailing will be furnished at an early date. any further information desired relative to this matter will be given and any assistance in completing arrangements gladly supplied.
the favor of an early reply is requested.
very respectfully,
joseph stewart,
second assistant postmaster general.
the foregoing letter brought a flood of protests in reply. why should it not? why does mr. hitchcock, as is evidenced by the letter of his second assistant, seek to make such an unjust discrimination among periodicals—a discrimination directly contravening the basic principle of our government?
among the replies mr. stewart received was one, a copy of which follows:
chicago, may 22, 1911.
hon. joseph stewart, second assistant postmaster general, washington, d. c.
dear sir.—we acknowledge receipt of your favor of the 16th, and regret that an early reply, as requested, is but partially possible at present.
you tell us unequivocally, if we interpret your letter correctly, that our postoffice department in rendering service to subscribers will discriminate against monthly and semi-monthly periodicals after june 30th; that certain publications of a class, issued weekly, will be favored with through mail service, and that other publications of the same character and class, issued semi-monthly or monthly, shall be rendered freight service, and no differential rate provided.
it is unfortunate that a distinction directly affecting the majority of the people could not have been arbitrated, and thereby avoided a period of distress.
yours, very truly,
chicago trade press ass’n,
e. r. shaw,
president.
another reply follows. it is from the chicago printing trades, an organization which mr. madden, previously quoted, represented at washington in his conference with president taft and senators and members of the house.
[178]
to postmaster general hitchcock:—
the various branches of labor engaged in the production of printing in chicago number more than 50,000 highly skilled artisans and their annual output is more than $100,000,000. these well-paid working people declare—they knowing it to be a statement based on truth—that the contemplated change in the method of distributing their product will interfere disadvantageously with their opportunity for employment, and they respectfully appeal to the postal authorities to pause in installing a system that is calculated to work great harm to their industry. their united, emphatic protest is entered against what they feel to be an unwise and unnecessary hampering of their industry and they ask that their appeal be heard on the justice of their claim.
in distributing regular publications through the mails the factor of time is most valuable, and to inaugurate a slower schedule would greatly reduce the current value of periodicals and curtail the influence which these publications now wield. we respectfully direct attention to the injury which the owners of publications would sustain through curtailment of their earning power, as this would at once operate adversely to labor. in fact the severest effect would reach the toiler.
as well-paid, organized workingmen we respectfully call attention to the policy of protection which has enabled our country to flourish almost uninterruptedly for a half-century, and in behalf of this wise system we ask that no unnecessary interference with our trade be inaugurated by those to whom we look with expectation to forward our welfare as industrious citizens.
in common with other industries, business in the publishing lines is far from flourishing, and, while our rate of wages is conceded, we recognize that anything which interferes with the profits and success of employers will immediately react upon our opportunity for employment. it is upon this basis that we plead, and we ask you, as head of the postoffice department, that you forego instituting the system of distributing the semi-monthly and monthly publications by freight, and continue the present method of rapid-mail service.
labor’s voice is raised in earnest plea for what it considers itself competent to speak upon, and with the hope that you will aid in maintaining for us our present conditions, which we esteem necessary for our welfare and the welfare of those depending upon us, we leave the question in your hands.
michael h. madden,
secretary independent postal league.
i am presenting just here, only local protests—chicago protests. similar objections were heard from all parts of the country. the chicago protest, however, would not be complete unless we presented the resolutions adopted by typographical union no. 16, at a regular meeting held july 30, 1911. it applies both to the proposed increase in second-class postage rates and to mr. hitchcock’s unjust discrimination in distributing periodicals:
[179]
whereas, it is a fundamental economic truth that anything which tends to unduly and unjustly raise the cost of distributing the product of labor reduces the opportunity for employment of those concerned in the industry thus affected, and indirectly becomes a menace to all industry, chicago typographical union no. 16, embracing a membership of more than 4,000 skilled craftsmen, takes this method of entering its emphatic protest against any increase in the rate for second-class mail matter; and,
whereas, the proposed routing of semi-monthly and monthly publications by fast freight instead of by the regular fast mail service is manifestly unjust and is a flagrant discrimination against our product, this organization further condemns those who contemplate this pernicious innovation, and we submit that the installation of this system by the postoffice department is not only inimical to our welfare as workingmen but will work incalculable injury to the publishing interests of the entire country; and,
whereas, these propositions of the postoffice department deserve only the strongest condemnation, and as a means of making this protest effective, we hereby invite the working people of the united states to unite with us in a movement having for its purpose the overhauling and readjustment of the postal affairs of this country, to the end that the service may become one of greater convenience to our people and be an instrument of promotion to the industries of our country instead of a leaden handicap on our industrial progress and the educational improvement of all the people; therefore, be it,
resolved, that for the protection of the printing industry we hereby instruct our delegates to the next annual convention of the international typographical union to propose the following for the consideration of that body, and they are hereby instructed to support the indorsement of the same by the said international typographical union convention:
resolved, that the international typographical union emphatically opposes any advance in the rate of postage on second-class mail matter, and that it condemns the proposed method of distributing semi-monthly and monthly periodicals by fast freight instead of by the regular fast mail, to the facilities of which they are entitled under the law, because they pay for the same.
the foregoing quotations are sufficient to show that the printing trades of the nation are awake to the industrial significance of legislation of the hitchcock “rider” nature, likewise that they are equally wideawake to the purpose of mr. hitchcock—ulterior or other—in his attempt to stealth such legislation into operative law.
how many people are employed in the printing trades in this country? i do not know.
in chicago alone there are, at a safe estimate, not less than 40,000. a representative of the organized pressmen of new york before the postal commission testified that there were 12,000 pressmen in new york city and that six thousand of these were employed on presses which print monthly and weekly magazines.
[180]
i have no later statistics by me than a 1905 report touching the number of men and women employed in the printing trades in this country. from the figures given for 1905, however, it may be conservatively stated that the number of persons in this nation who today are earning their shelter, apparel and subsistence (not counting the office or clerical forces) in our great printing and publishing industries is somewheres around 400,000. if the counting-room and general office forces are included the total number—not counting owners or publishers—will reach at least 450,000.
now, if we total the people who would be affected by legislation which must force a shrinkage of from 30 to 50 per cent in the consumption of wood pulp paper, counting from the timber cruisers to the publication counting-rooms, we shall find that total to be not less than 700,000—probably 800,000. and, mark you, you fair-minded, conscientious reader, that total does not include the wives and children dependent upon the vast army of men employed in our printing industries—dependent for shelter, clothing and food. if they are counted, the figures i have just given must be doubled—probably tripled.
so, there must be not less than two, probably two and a half, millions of people,—men, women, wives and children—who would be affected by legislation of the hitchcock “rider” character.
it is needless, but i must still point out that not one of these millions of industrial earners nor their dependents who would be injuriously, if indeed not disastrously affected, by legislation of the nature mr. hitchcock is so persistently, if not unscrupulously, pressing to force into operative law, is a magazine publisher.
most certain is it that none of this vast multitude of our industrial citizens and their dependents can be thought of, nor even imagined, as being counted among those “few magazine publishers” who, mr. hitchcock is reported to have repeatedly asserted, would alone be affected by his proposed harsh, discriminating and, therefore, unjust legislation.
