sing the so-called "unjustifiable discrimination in favor of edi- tors." During the first year of the period, Postmaster-General Holt published a report for 1859. His comment was typical of the attitude of the Postal Department:
The newspapers received by the journalist is, in American parlance, his stock in trade. From their columns he gathers materials for his own, and thus makes the same business use of them as does the merchant of his goods or the manufacturer of the raw material which he proposes to manufacture into fabric. But as the government transports nothing free of charge to the farmer, merchant, or mechanic to enable them to prosecute successfully and economically their different pursuits, why should it do so for the journalist? If the latter can rightfully claim that his newspaper shall thus be delivered to him at the public expense, why may he not also claim that his stationery and type, and indeed every- thing which enters into the preparation of the sheet he issues as his means of living, be delivered to him on the same terms? It has been alleged, I am aware, that postage on newspaper exchanges would be a tax on the dissemination of knowledge. But so is the postage which the farmer, mechanic and merchant pay on the newspaper for which they subscribe; yet it is paid by them uncomplainingly. If it should be in- sisted that the publishers of newspapers, as a class, are in such a con- dition as to entitle them to demand the aid of the public funds, it may be safely answered that such an assumption is wholly unwarranted. Journalism in the United States rests upon the deepest and broadest foundation, and has here won a career far more brilliant and prosper- ous than in any other nation in the world. The exceedingly reduced rates at which its issues pass through the mails secure to it advan- tages enjoyed under no other government.
The newspapers fought bitterly any attempt to abolish this special privilege by which they secured the news. Already, however, the larger dailies had united to form press associations to share the financial burdens of gathering the news. The smaller papers then began to condense from their daily contem- poraries so that there was no longer any necessity for this whole- sale exchange. By the time all newspapers were charged by weight the exchange privilege had adjusted itself to such reason- able limits that it no longer warranted any special attention from the Postal Department.
Before the War of the States the local postmaster was very lax in collecting postage on newspapers. To a certain extent they had been corrupted by publishers who were unusually gen-
