The CHAIRMAN. The secretary will state to the Commission the programme for to-morrow.

The SECRETARY. The programme for to-morrow will begin with the Sunday-school Editorial Association committee, Rev. A. J. Rowland, Rev. George P. Mains, and Mr. R. E. Magill; following which will be the National Federation of Trade Press Associations, the committee of which is composed of Mr. David Williams, Mr. James H. McGraw, Mr. A. H. Lockwood, and Mr. W. L. Terhune.

The Association of National Live-stock Journals will be third in order, and will be followed by the National Fraternal Press Association, of which Mr. F. O. Van Calder, Mr. C. C. Higginbotham, and Hon. John C. Lentz are the committee.

That will be followed by the Kansas Editorial Association, of which Mr. W. E. Blackburn is president and committeeman.

The CHAIRMAN. Can the secretary give the Commission any idea as to how many more days will be occupied in this hearing?

The SECRETARY. The programme, as already prepared. Mr. Chairman, provides only for hearings, after to-morrow, on Thursday and Friday. That will complete the hearing of everybody who has made application for a hearing, and who has complied with the requirements set by the Commission itself.

It is possible also, I should add, Mr. Chairman, that the session might be concluded somewhat earlier than the close of Friday afternoon, by reason of the fact that some of the committees will not appear by more than one representative; in which case I should think it advisable for everybody intending to appear to be in attendance both Wednesday and Thursday, in advance of Friday's assignment. The CHAIRMAN. The Commission will stand adjourned until 10 o'clock to-morrow morning.

The Commission, at 5.25 o'clock p. m., adjourned until Wednesday, October 3, 1906, at 10 o'clock a. m.

NEW YORK, Wednesday, October 3, 1906.

The Commission met at 10 o'clock a. m.

Present: The vice-chairman; also Senator Carter, Representative Moon, and the secretary.

The VICE-CHAIRMAN. Mr. Secretary, who is the first person on the programme this morning?

The SECRETARY. Mr. Chairman, the first association to be heard this morning is the Sunday School Editorial Association, the committee of which consists of Rev. A. J. Rowland, Philadelphia, Pa.; Rev. George P. Mains, New York City, and R. E. Magill, Richmond, Va. I think the committee is in attendance.

The VICE-CHAIRMAN. Will one member of the committee come forward?

STATEMENT OF REV. A. J. ROWLAND, SECRETARY SUNDAY
SCHOOL EDITORIAL ASSOCIATION.

The VICE-CHAIRMAN. Will you please state your name?
Mr. ROWLAND. My name is A. J. Rowland.

The VICE-CHAIRMAN. And you speak for what organization or association?

626A-07- -14

Mr. ROWLAND. I speak for the religious publishing houses, an editorial association called the Sunday School Editorial Association. It represents religious publishing houses publishing Sunday-school papers and periodicals.

The VICE-CHAIRMAN. Who are the other members of the committe associated with you?

Mr. ROWLAND. Dr. Mains and Mr. Magill.

The VICE-CHAIRMAN. Are you the representative of the committee, or do the other members desire to be heard?

Mr. ROWLAND. I am the chairman of the committee. I have not had any conference with the other members on the subject and can not tell whether they desire to be heard or not.

The VICE-CHAIRMAN. You may proceed, and then they may be heard if they desire.

Mr. ROWLAND. We have a brief statement of the reasons why we desire the second-class rate of postage continued for our papers and periodicals. I should like to elaborate on these points. The first point is this:

These publications are an education, of course, of the highest rank. They deal not only with morals and religion, but tend directly to the promotion of good citizenship, being especially valuable because they touch and elevate all classes of the community in all parts of the land, in their formative years. Legislation which would in any way cripple this force would be a national calamity.

Senator CARTER. Have you the names of the publications represented?

Mr. ROWLAND. I have not all the names of the publications, but I have the names of the publishing houses. The following boards of publications and publishing houses engaged in issuing periodicals for use in Sunday school work are represented in the Sunday School Editorial Association:

I should also like to submit here a table of information concerning the publication of Sunday school periodicals, showing the denomination owning or directing the publication, the capital invested in publishing work, total membership, total Sunday school enrollment, number of single copies of Sunday school papers published annually, the weight of publications mailed at second-class rates, the enrollment in schools receiving help from the publishing board, and the annual appropriation of the publishing board for benevolent work. The VICE-CHAIRMAN. Your statement will be incorporated in the record.

The list

The VICE-CHAIRMAN. Proceed with your statement. Mr. ROWLAND. These publications are very numerous. which I have given comprises about 30 of these publishing houses, which, as you will see, are mainly boards of various churches and denominations engaged in the publishing of this literature for the help of Sunday-school work.

Senator CARTER. Regular publications?

Mr. ROWLAND. Oh, certainly. Some of them are weekly, some are monthly, some semimonthly, and some are quarterly publications. Senator CARTER. Now we have presented here, by the Third Assistant Postmaster-General, a list of publications in which we have quotations from Scriptural texts. Do they constitute a part of the publications?

Mr. ROWLAND. I do not know anything about that. The publications to which I refer are regular publications, entered and authorized by the Post-Oflice Department. We have been publishing them for many years. I judge that the entire number of single copies of publications would run to about 265,000,000. These publications vary according to the age of the reader. We have, for instance, what we call a primary quarterly, for very little children; then a quarterly for children a little older, another quarterly for children still older, and a senior Bible-class quarterly. Beside this we publish papers and picture lessons to illustrate the lessons. These go to all parts of the land, and especially into the hands of children.

The next point we make is that the circulation of these publications has been built up through many years, and at large expense and toil, on the basis of second-class postal rates, and in the confident expectation of the continuance of these rates. This fact constitutes, in our judgment, a strong reason, if not a moral obligation, for their further continuance.

What we mean by that is that this business has been built up on this basis; and an increase of rates, as we further state, would in all probability decrease the business.

Third, the total issue of these publications is now very large, and their distribution extends throughout the entire land. The boards of publication represent the various denominations or churches of the United States, a constituency of over 25,000,000 of the best people. The Sunday schools of this country as reported last year number 140,519, with 1,451,855 officers and teachers and 11,329,253 scholars. Of these, with insignificant exceptions, all are supplied with our publications, and these publications are necessary to the efficient prosecution of Sunday-school work. An increase of postal rates, necessitating an increase of price, would therefore affect great masses of people and would produce universal dissatisfaction, distress, and complaint. Such increase would fall most heavily on weak and mission schools, and would thus retard the progress of Sunday-school work, one of the most popular and important movements of the day.

Perhaps I may explain about that: the prices of these periodicals are very low, so as to put them within the compass of the poorest. Take the weekly paper which we publish and which most of the denominations publish. We sell it for 50 cents a year. It is a large 8-page paper. A corresponding paper, the Youths' Companion, for example, sells at $1.75. You will see, therefore, that there is not very much margin. We are not in this business for the making of money, but for the doing of good. Of course, an increase in postal rates would increase the price of these things, and would occasion distress in quarters where such distress would be most keenly felt-among the poorest of the mission schools.

Fourth. These publications are issued at very low prices, so as to be within the reach of the poorest and weakest Sunday schools. An increase in postal rates would necessarily increase the price. This would result in a large decrease of circulation, and in all probability in a diminution of revenue to the Government.

I ought to say this, also, that while this circulation is very large, it also necessarily produces a good deal of first-class matter. The correspondence about these papers and so forth is very extensive. In our own office, for example, we frequently receive from a thousand to fifteen hundred letters a day. An increase of the postal rates, and a corresponding decrease in the circulation of these periodicals, would necessarily decrease the revenue from first-class rates.

Fifth. These publications are not advertising mediums. In many of them there are no advertisements whatever. Where advertisements are taken, they occupy a small space in the columns of the regular issue.

We understand that there are periodicals which are issued as advertising mediums really, although under cover of something else. The advertisements in our periodicals are a very small item indeed.