Federal Auctions

Like a great pumping plant is the U. S. Postal service, pumping current periodicals from the country's publishing reservoirs to individual subscribers. Inevitably a certain amount of the flow is impeded in transit by obsolete or illegible addresses, torn wrappers, clerical stupidity. Undelivered copies of national magazines back up in central post offices like windfalls at a beaverdam. Lately the Post Office Department has authorized postmasters to sell off windfall magazines at public auction.

Kansas City. BARGAINS IN MAGAZINES, heralded Kansas City Postmaster William E. Morton's persuasive circular, which continued: "The Post Office Department realizing that much desirable reading matter was going to waste which many persons, who perhaps could not afford to subscribe to as many magazines as they would like, will welcome an opportunity to purchase copies of current magazines at a nominal cost. . . . Extreme care has been exercised in selecting or grouping these magazines, and each member of the family will find reading matter that will appeal to his or her taste."

Cleveland. Postmaster H. A. Taylor of Cleveland sold national magazines in bundles of five or six (original value 65-c- to 7-c-). Bidding at the first sale was lively, 40-c- or 50-c- a bundle, then fell away to 20-c-. Magazines sold: Cosmopolitan, Saturday Evening Post, Collier's, Ladies' Home Journal, Field & Stream, Motion Picture, American, True Story, Detective Story, Red Book, Home Beautiful, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Harper's Bazar, Arts & Decoration.

Philadelphia. Magazines packed in bundles of five averaged 25-c- the bundle. All this seemed very commonsensical from the Post Office point of view. To the indigent reading public it doubtless seemed a fine and thoughtful Federal service. But the publishers of national magazines were sore vexed when lately, they found out what was going on. Any thriving magazine has a constant demand for back numbers. Thrifty, self-respecting publishers are at pains to recover all unsold or undelivered copies. The National Publishers Association registered a sharp protest with Postmaster-General Brown, who referred the matter to slender Arch Coleman, his First Assistant. Publishers were particularly agitated by the possibility that the Post Office was offering sales competition to authorized sales agents if. as the Kansas City advertisement said, there was "opportunity to purchase copies of current magazines at nominal cost." The publishers' first protest was made in September.

Assistant Postmaster-General Coleman replied that the Department meant no harm to publishers, would watch carefully for any encroachment by the auctions on private business. The auctions continued on alternate Wednesdays through October, with publishers still vexed.