... . . . . . ;-- ~~~~~~~~~
. . . . .” -- . . . ...º.º. s *-- ~ - --
, , . . , '* * * * * . . . . . . *, *.
JUN 1 3 1921
(Proposed Bill Offered by Postal Committee of the American Newspaper
Publishers’ Association.) -
“A BILL
To revise Section 1101 of the War Revenue Act, approved
October 3, 1917, as it pertains to the increase of the
rates of postage on publications entered as Second-class
matter, effective on and after July 1, 1921; to provide
for an investigation of postal costs and postal rates on
publications entered as second-class matter, and the
proposition of the separation of newspapers from other
classes of publications entered as second-class matter.
HOUSE OF EPRESENTATIVES OF THE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA IN CONGRESS
ASSEMBLED, That the increase in the rates of postage
on publications entered as second-class matter provided
by subdivision (4) of paragraph (b) of Section 1101 of the
War Revenue Act approved October 3, 1917, to become
effective on and after July 1, 1921, be postponed for the
period of one year.
- -, -
Sec. 2. That during such period there shall be held by
the Senate Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads a
thorough and complete investigation of the postal costs
and postal rates covering publications entered as second-
class matter, the costs of handling newspapers in the
mails to be determined apart from the cost of handling
other classes of publications entered as second-class
matter.
Sec. 3. That nothing in this Act shall affect the exist-
ing law as to rates effective prior to July 1, 1921.”



ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT HARDING
AT THE
JOINT BANQUET OF THE CONVENTIONS OF POSTAL ASSOCIATIONS
THE NEW WILLARD, WASHINGTON, D. C., OCTOBER 13, 1921.
MR. ToASTMASTER, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN OF THE CONVENTION,
YOUR GUESTs: It is very gratifying to have your cordial greeting.
It has been more than delightful to me to sit at the table during your
postprandial feast and listen to the addresses and share with you a
little wider understanding of our obligations to one another and our
common obligations to the American people.
Postmaster General Hays did not give me any new picture concern-
ing you. I enjoyed his cross-section discussion. I was thinking of
it yesterday as you called upon me, but bless you I knew about
postmasters before I came to the Presidency. I used to help pick
them in the good old days. [Laughter and applause.] I am not sure
but I named more of them 20 years ago than I do to-day. [Laughter.]
And I thought, while Mrs. Harding and I were enjoying your call
yesterday, how truly representative you were of the varied commun-
ities in American life. I suppose I am just a little partial to the
great rural community, because I began my life there, and I never
knew much of the great city except by occasional observation; and
I know the steadiness of the great current of thought in the rural
life of America, and to-day there came to me an application of it.
It was the fortune of the Postmaster General and myself and some
others to be the guests of one of your guests of the evening, Mr.
Curtis, on his yacht, and I saw for the first time in my life a gyro-
scopic stabilizer, an invention that is designed to steady a ship in
a rough sea. Mr. Curtis told me that this wonderful device had the
effect of reducing the roll from 16° to about 3°, making the yacht
very steady and comfortable in a storm. I don’t know just why it
came to me at the moment, but somehow or other there came the
thought that those who speak for the great rank and file throughout
America in the rural sections are the stabilizers of the American
Republic. [Applause.] I mean no disparagement of the great
cities. I am just as proud of the great cities of America as any
citizen of the Republic. We would not be the America we are with-
743.96–21


2
out them, but they are just a little different; they are more ephemeral
in their passions; they show a little more of the passing whims, but
out over the broad areas of this wonderful land of ours is that thought-
ful, steady, sturdy citizenship that is unmoved by the passing storms,
and it constitutes, in my humble judgment, a guaranty of the
perpetuity of this wonderful land of ours. [Applause.]
If I may speak of it now, because it is in my heart to say it, I like
the thought advanced by Mr. Smith just now. Of course it is going
to be difficult for any President to say in advance just what he is
going to do about his Postmaster General [laughter and applause],
but I like that thought of choosing from those who have grown up
in the service [applause]. I don’t mind telling you that that has
been the policy of this administration in every branch of the Govern-
ment, to call into greater responsibility the men who are trained in
service. I am glad, however, that I persuaded Will Hays to become
Postmaster General. [Applause.] There have been many great
Postmasters General serving the United States, to whom it is a fine
thing to be a successor. Most of them have had some knowledge of
politics and Hays is not lacking in that qualification. [Laughter and
applause.] I will not charge him with any great responsibility in
bringing about my nomination, but he had a lot to do with the cam-
paign which followed it, and since I say it when he is not present, I
have no hesitancy in saying it when he is present, that in all that
trying time he grew constantly in my confidence and regard. [Ap-
plause.] So, when I became President elect and was casting about
for the official family I asked him to become one of the family, and I
make the allusion in order to tell you what impelled him to come
into the cabinet. In a confidential talk he said, “Senator”—then I
had no other title—“I have an opportunity to progress and achieve
most satisfactorily to me in a professional way, but I have been
interested in this enterprise politically; our associations have been
pleasant; if I can come into your family and make a record of serv-
ice and real contribution to my country I will put aside the profes-
sional attainments to render the service you ask.” [Applause.]
I believe he will have the satisfaction of that compensation, and,
I like to say it to you servants of the Republic, that is the only
compensation worth while. [Applause.] - .
I meet a good many people nowadays who are not averse to enter-
ing the public service [laughter], and there are many people whom I
am rejoiced to recognize. I take it that we are not all of one party
here to-night, and I am not averse to postmasters being interested
in politics, I want you to know. [Applause.] If anybody ever comes
to me and tells me that a man or woman is seeking a post-office
appointment and has no party affiliations, he is going to be wiped off
the list right then and there. [Applause.] I wouldn’t give a rap for a
3
postmaster who is not interested in his Government as a participant
in a political party. [Applause.] I would rather have a hard-boiled
Democrat than an apologetic Republican. [Applause.] And when
men come to me asking for a place in the Government service, and the
first inquiry they make is the salary that goes with the appointment,
that applicant is at once stricken off the list. [Applause.] No man is
worth while who is merely seeking a place, but the man is worth while
who seeks to render a service. [Applause.] -
Maybe it will interest you—there is a popular impression through-
out the land that Government employment carries with it large and
generous compensation. There never was a more mistaken idea.
There are some men measurably well compensated in the Government
service. They are rare exceptions rather than the rule, and if this
administration achieves the success that we hope for, for our country's
good, a very large measure of it will be due to the activities of men
who are impelled only by a desire to serve and who have put aside
their private pursuits to serve their country and their fellow citizens,
essentially without compensation. [Applause..] It would be an
interesting story to tell you of the men now engaged in service who
receive no salary whatsoever. I have known nothing so gratifying
in all my experience as the manifest readiness of capable men to put
aside their own properly selfish pursuits to come and serve the
Republic in a day of great emergency. And there has been an
emergency, fellow Americans. I do not speak now in a partisan
sense; I do not speak in a sense of criticism of anything that has gone
before, but our Republic, like the other great nations of the world,
has emerged from a great trial that has put nations to the severest of
tests, and it is no small problem to put our Republic squarely on its
feet again and head it in the right direction, and it has called for the
service of every man and woman in the Republic who is interested
in the welfare of our common country. I know we are going to
succeed. We may not reach the ideal state this year or next. It
may not be reached in this administration, but as the Postmaster
General said, the heart of America is right and we can not and will not
fail. [Applause.]
You have been hearing a great deal about understanding. I have
sought to preach the gospel of understanding. You have heard
much about service, and I participate in preaching the gospel of
service, and I venture to say to you that the greatest things we will
record in the passing years of restoration and reconstruction are to
come of understanding and service. s
There has been some publicity lately—becoming publicity, let it be
said—about the reduction of the cost of government. Most of that
is coming through added efficiency of service on the one hand and
understanding between governmental departments on the other hand.
4
If there is one criticism that may be properly uttered about our
popular Government of the United States—probably of other Gov-
ernments in the world—it is that under our development of separate
departments they have had no thought of each other, and the one
thing that is being achieved nowadays is bringing these departments
into an understanding of the functions of each other and the necessity
for their coordination in serving a common purpose. I will not ven-
ture to go into figures. The Postmaster General has already stag-
gered us with figures that no one ever dreamed of. Well, I will not
say quite that. I asked him a moment ago how many letters there
were handled each day, and he sent me over a note saying there were
40,800,000. I looked at it a moment and I said, “I guess that is not
as large as I thought it was.” I believe we get half that many every
day at the White House [laughter], telling me how to conduct a con-
ference on international affairs and to cure the ills of unemployment.
[Laughter.] Which takes me back to another rather interesting
illustration of the popular thought in our land.
I returned to my home town, in Ohio, last summer a year ago, after
a certain political gathering which was held in the city of Chicago,
and a dear old crossroads blacksmith, who had been my friend from
boyhood, met me on the street one day, and he said, “Warren, I have
been taking your paper for 32 years and have rather enjoyed reading it,
and I am glad that you got the nomination for the Presidency. It will
give you a chance to show people what you can do after you have
been telling them for 32 years how to run the country.” [Laughter
and applause.] While I smiled at this shaft, he looked at me rather
pitifully, I thought, and he said, “Well, I guess they have got things
adjusted now so it isn’t very much trouble to be President anyhow.”
[Laughter.] That is the only mistake I ever knew him to make.
|Laughter.] - *
Mr. Smith said—getting back to my theme—he thought men
ought to be inspired to believe there was a chance for far greater
accomplishment. I want that to be the gospel of America. If there
is any one thing that has enabled this Republic to outstrip many
another nation in the world, it is that ours is a land of opportunity.
And I believe, as well, it is a land of reward, the greatest of which,
always, is the consciousness of things done. But I want America to
expand in this understanding, in this process of humanizing, in this
added fraternity, ever to be a better place in which to aspire and
achieve. If we can do that for our own people in the commitment to
service and the determination to understand one another, it is not at
all impossible, my countrymen, that this great Republic may point
the world to the way of understanding and a better order for all
mankind. [Applause.] And I hope that may be our fortune.
5
The Postmaster General has alluded to the forthcoming conference
among great nations in this Capital City. There has been much
discussion about the possibilities. There have been many errors as
to its intent.
I venture to say I think I know you well; you have done more
than merely perform the functions, the mechanical and business
functions, of your offices; I have seen the postal forces' of America
in the hour of great crisis leading their several communities to the
service of the Republic. I never will forget the service you rendered
throughout our anxieties amid the World War. [Applause.] I
know what you did, and it was a service impelled by loyalty and
devotion to the Republic. [Applause.] I like, Senator Townsend,
what you said about the necessity of serving only the American
Government and its people. [Applause.] If this Government can
not be fair to those who serve it, it fails. [Applause.] Sometimes
it may be tardy, but the heart of the Republic is right, as we have
said, and if we can be loyal in service to those in our own land and
establish a better order here, we will only be loyal to God Almighty
and our fellow men if we use our influence in committing the world
to those things which we have found so helpful to us.
Let me say to you, ladies and gentlemen, you are just as big a
part of this governmental machine as anybody here in Washington.
Every man and every woman can play his or her part, and no one
can do more, and, as Mr. Smith said a little while ago, if General
Hays is the greatest Postmaster General of all time it will be because
he has able assistants and the loyal devotion of these 300,000 or more
who are serving in the Postal Department. [Applause.] I am glad
you like Hays and his assistants. [Applause.] We are in accord
about that. I will say to you he is a devoted general in command.
Sometimes we think we will have to extend the period of cabinet
meetings to give Hays time enough to boost the Post Office Depart-
ment. [Laughter.] If you have confidence in General Hays, as you
deserve to have, I can add to your confidence in your Government
by saying to you that while they may vary in personality and their
manifestations of interest, the head of every department of this Gov-
ernment of yours is giving the same energy, the same enthusiasm,
the same thought, and the same devotion to his department, and
when you have an administration like that we can scarcely fail to
achieve measurably good results for this common country of ours.
|Great applause.]
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