Morning journal and courier., 1884-03-14
SINGLE COPIES TWO GENTS.
Friday. March IA, 1884.
THE YNAMITE C7RCULaR.

THE DYNAMITE CIRCULAR.
 Attorney General Brewster's cir cular to all United States attorneys and marshals con- corning the shipping of explosives calls atten- tion to the fact that it is reported that certain persons are aiding in the prosecution of heinous crimes by shipping to foreign ports explosives dangerous in the highest degree to life and property. And although no proof has been adduced that this reporasis founded upon fact. and the president cannet believe its truth, the honor of the nation requires that it should not be open to the imputation, unfounded though it be, of the slightest appearance of tolerating such crimes, whether to be committed against our people or those of other countries. The attention of the attorneys and marshals is therefore called to the sections of the Revised Statutes which regulate the shipment of explosives, and the punishment of those who infringe their pro- visions, and those officers are instructed to be diligent in their efforts to prevent the offences described, and to detect and prose cute those who have or may commit them
 The laws concerning the shipment of explosives do not exactly cover the dynamite
 -~--0S' long before the English had cause to espe clally fear dynamite, and were passed simply to protect travellers by land and water. Thus, one of the sections provides that every person who knowingly transports, or delivers or causes to be delivered, nitro glycer1ne, nitroleum or blasting oil, or ni- trated oil. or powder mixed with such oil, or fibre saturated with any such substance or article, on board any vessel or vehicle what ever, employe ed in conveying passengers by land or water between any place in foreign country and any place within the United States, or between place in one State, Terri tory or district of the United States and place in any other State, Territory or district thereof, shall be punished by fine of not less than one thousand dollars nor more than ten thousand dollars; one half to the use of the informer. And another section pro- vides that when the death of any person is caused by the explosion of any quantity of such articles, or either of them, while the same is being placed upon any vessel or ve- hicfe to be transported in violation of the preceding section, or while the same is being so transported, or while the same is being
 
 removed from such vessel or vehicle, every person who knowingly placed or aided, or permitted tke placing of such articles upon such vessel or vehicle, to be SO transported, is guilty of manslaughter, and shall suffer imprisonment for period not less than two years.
 The stlictest enforcement of these laws would not do much to prevent dynamite out raees, but this government has shown it's goodwill towards England in calling for their strict enforcement. If we are going to act in this matter as England would like to have us we shall have to have more laws, and such laws as would not meet general approval in a free country. We believe, with the New York Evening Post, that this dynamite busi- ness should be handled very carefully, for. as the Post says, everything that we do will be cited hereafter as precedent, and there is no field of international activity in which it is more important to be cautious than that of recognizing the right of foreign governments to inquire into the enforcement of our do- mestic laws. As other requests may very likely follow, 1t is important to bear in mind that the right of England to require us to enforce our laws must, when it exists at all, grow out of some generally recognized inter national duty"