St. Paul daily globe., 1891-06-07

The action of the postmaster of Ell
Paso in refusing to allow the Ell Paso
Times TO be transmitted through the
mail, simply because it contained as
news an Associated Press dispatch CIV
ing synopsis of the opinion of the su-
preme court of Louisiana compelling
the secretary of state to submit at the
next election constitutional amend
ment passed by the last general assem-
bly, extending the charter of the Louisi-
ana State Lottery twenty-five years. is
deserving of the SevereSt condemnation
and censure, not only because of the in
justice of such an arbitrary proceeding,
but upon grounds of public policy. The
business manager of the Times very
properly had this postmaster. who
bears the historic name of Smith, ar
rested for unlawfully OBTAINING mail
matter, and he was bound over to ap-
pear before commissioner for
trial; but the punishment, whatever it
will be, even if ever m eted out after
many months of delay, will not fit the
crime. Nothing short of absolute and
immediate official decapitation, with
whatever other punishment the law pro-
vides, would be proper for such officious
intermeddling with the mails. If the
United States mail is to be subjected to
CuCL ny luc pOSI-
master at Ell PasO, the postmasters at
the various other cities, towns, villages,
bamlets and crossroads in the state and
throughout the United States have the
same right, power and authority, and
are of course at liberty to do just as the
postmaster at FL Paso has done. If the
postmaster can stop the transmission of
newspaper because it has in it the de-
ciSiOn of court in regard to the Louis
lana lottery. he can also stop it because it
mentions the name of the lottery in it;
and il he can do this he can stop the
Post, because it incidentally mentions
the name of the Louisiana Lottery COM
pany in criticising his official conduct.
Ii he can do this, however, he can over
ride the strongest bulwark of the liber-
ties of the people and violate one of the
plainest provisions IN the constitution of
the United States, thereby completely
thrOttling the press.
Upon grounds of public policy, the
United States government should not
tolerate such tampering with the mail.
it throws open the doors to fraud, and,
if permitted, will tend to make the
service inefficient and unreliable. Why
not detain letter suspected of contain
ing lottery advertisement, and why
not open it to ascertain if the detention
is legal? If its contents are legal, why
then of course it might be permitted to
continue OH its journey.
The great wrong done newspaper pub
fishers, however, is TO allow postmas-
ter to authOritatiyely detain mail matter
which in his opinion is illegal. de
ought not to be permitted to do this. If
the publisher has committed any wrong
he can be held responsible and be made
to suffer the penalty; but postmaster
may detain an entire edition of news
paper, entailing heavy loss upon the
publisher. and yet when the matter
comes to final trial the court may de-
eide that the papers are mailable. The
damage has then been done the pub
Usher, and there seems to be no ade-
quate remedy for him. Suppose the
politics of a newspaper are objection
able to the postmaSterS generally, and
throughout the state they choose 10 hold
a paper because in their opinion it is
not mailable, it would thus put it within
the power of the postal department to
stop the circulation of a newspaper and
bankrupt it, leaving the publisher with
a lot of suits against pOstmaSters as as
sets. Such a state of affairs leaves
newspaper publishers without adequate
remedy, and to allow such arbitrary
conduct on the part of Offieious postmas-
ters is contrary to the institutions of this
government, and violation of the legal
maxim that each wrong has its adequate
remedy.-Houston (Tex.) Post, May 16.