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Printer and Publisher
"One of the most indefensible blunders of the Do-
minion Government was in the abrogation of the late
postal convention with the United States-a conven-
tion which made alike for the broadening of humuan
knowledge and the maintenance of good relations with
our neighbors."
LOST 85 SUBSCRIBERS.
J. E. Burns, Publisher of the Brigden, Ontario,
Progress, writes under date of January 4: "As sev-
eral newspaper publishers in Ontario have expressed
their views through the columns of your publication
re the recent postal convention between Canada and
the United States, I beg to offer you a few facts and
figures:
Before the new postal arrangement came into force
my circulation in the United States was over the one
hundred mark. To-day mny list contains not more
than fifteen United States subscribers. Juldging from
my own experience in this affair, I can only imagine
the disastrous effect of this regulation on niany of the
larger newspapers in Canada, anid especially those
situated along the border line. It is claimed that Mr.
Lemieux's action was for the ultimate benefit of Can-
ada and Canadian publishers, but I cotnfess I cannot
see how the damage already done can be remedied."
A PUBLIC LIBRARY RESOLUTION.
At a meeting of the Woodstock, Ont., Public
Library Board the following resolution was moved
by Mayor Butler, seconded by Mr. Hall:
"Resolved, that in the opinion of the members of
the Woodstock Public Library Board, the recent
changes in the postal regulations by which the rate of
postage on periodicals published in the United States,
and in consequence the cost to Canadian subscribers,
has been greatly increased, was a mistake, and that in
whatever spirit the change may have been conceived
it has not worked out to the benefit of the
Canadian people. The increase in the cost of the
periodical literature to which the people of this coun-
try have been accustomed, and which they consider
best suited, under existing conditions, to their needs
and tastes, is a serious matter to public libraries, and,
therefore, to the people by whom these libraries are
supported. In some cases the Canadian subscriber
is compelled to pay nearly, or quite, as imuch in the
forin of postage for the benefit of the United States
post office department as lie does for the publications.
If there was any noticeable compeinsation it would not
be solad: but, judging by the complaintts of the Cana-
(dian publishers, they have suffered quite as much as
the Canadian readers. We believe that the attempt
to force on the Canadian people a preference for the
literature belonging to another and far off continent
was unwise, and calculated to defeat its own purpose.
Canadian people are naturally more interested, and
must continue to be more interested, in the affairs of
the American continent than in the affairs of any
other part of the world, and they must naturally le-
pend on the literature of the North American con-
tinent for both their enlightenmsent and entertainmsent.
More than that, there is a danger that the verv at-
tempt to force British periodical literature on a free
people will have the very opposite effect to that iI-
tended.
"Resolved, that copies of this resolution be for-
warded to Prime Minister, Postmaster-General and to
the representative of North Oxford in Parliament."

January, I908
THOSE FOOLISH POSTAL RULES.
The Glace Bay Gazette says: "Canadian news-
papers, irrespective of political affiliation, continue to
protest against postal regulations governing the send-
ing of papers to the United States. Where newspapers
have a large list of subscribers there the loss annually
aiuounts to a considerable sum, in mainy cases running
up into the hundreds of dollars. Canadians in the
United States are debarred from reading their own
papers at a reasonable cost. There may be some bene-
fits in the regulations, but they are hard to see. They
lighten to some extent, it is true, the work of post
office staffs, but outside the general benefit must be
inrfinitesimal. The present session of Parliament
should see something done to remove the restrictions
existing at present with regard to despatch of ?ana-
dian papers to the United States."
THE TIME TO ACT.
The Sherbrooke Record: "This is the season
when miost magazine renewals are made, and, conse-
quently, the tirne when the effect of the postal regtla-
tions applying to American periodicals is most notice-
ably felt. It is also an appropriate juncture for bring-
ing the whole subject to the notice of Parliament,
since that body is now in session, and there is strong
reason to believe that it would receive befitting atten-
tion. The simplest method to accomplish this is for
every reader so inclined to write his or her respective
member or to the Prime Minister himself, who is ad-
ministering the Post Office Department during the ab-
sence of Mr. Lemieux. All the objections to the lmea-
sure, as an ill-advised attempt to direct and restrict
the people's reading and to deny to them a legitimate
use of the postal service, for which after all they them-
selves pay in toto, still stand, but reference to another
effect of the ruling, described in a recent letter to the
Record might accelerate attention on the part of the
Ottawa authorities. The letter, it will be recalled,
was by a man, the imesmsbers of whose family, reluctant
to do without old friends among the American maga-
zines and unwilling to pay the extra price required,
cancelled their subscriptions to the Canadian periodi-
cals in order to make tp the difference. This is a
somewhat ludicrous side of the question, but one well
worthy of careful consideration. As tinie goes on no
good points about the new regulations comie to light
and intellectual benefit to our own people would result
from their abrogation."
THE OPPOSITE VIEW.
Occasionally letters are received giving an opposite
view on the postal qutestion to that which we have been
advocating. In last issue we printed the experience
of Mr. Hale, of the Orillia Packet. Since then we have
heard from A. T. Wilgress, of the Brockville Times.
Mr. Wilgress says:
"We can give similar testimony to that of Mr.
I-ale, of the Orillia Packet, regarding the new poftal
rates of the United States. We do not think that we
liave lost one United States subscriber worth having,
and if we have lost any we are quite willing to do so
to help in checking the flood of United States litera-
ture which has been pouring into Canada for so many
years, to the detrimeniit of Canadian sentiment and
Canadian trade. We have smuch pleasure in endorsing
what Mr. Hale says."
VIEWS OF U. S. CONSUL.
U.S. Consul James H. Worman. of Three Rivers,
smakes the following report to his Government on the
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