The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1891-06-09
THE ACTION.

THE ACTION.
| The action Of the postmaster Of E
Pase in refusing to allow the Ell PasC
Times to be transmitted through tb'
mail simply because it contained Al
news an Associated Press dispatch
giving a synopsis Of the opinion of the
Supreme Court of Louisiana compel
ling the Secretary Of State to at the
next election a constitutional amend
ment passed by the last general as
sembly extending the charter Of the
Louisiana State Lottery twenty-five
years, Is deserving Of the severest con
domination and censure, not only be-
cause Of the injustice of such arbit.
rary proceedings, but upon grounds
of public policy. The business man
ager Of the Times very properly had
this postmaster, who bears the historic
name of Smith, arrested for unlaw.
fully OBTAINING the mail matter, and
he was bound over to appear before a
commissioner for trial, but the pun
ishment whatever it will be, even
if ever melted out after many
months of delay, will not fit the
crime. Nothing short Of abso-
lutte and immediate officisl decapiia.
ton, with whstever other punishment
the law provides, would be proper for
such oficious intermeddling with the
mails. If the United States mail is
to be subjected to such scrutiny and
exclusion by the postmaster at FL
Psso, the postmasters at the various
other cities, towns, villages, hamlets
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 Ell Paso has
done. If the postmaster can stop the
Transmission of newspaper because
it has in the decision of court in re.
gard to the Louisiana lottery, be can
also stop it because it mentions the
name of the lottery in it, and if he
can do this he can stop the Post, be.
cause it incidentally mentions the
name of the Louisiana Lottery CON-
pany in criticising his official conduct.
If he can do this, however, he can
override the strongest bulwark of the
liberties of the people and violate one
Of the plainest provisions in the con.
stitution 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. 1t throws open the doors to
fraud and, if permitted, will tend to
make the service inefficient and un.
reliable. Why not detain letter sus-
pected of containing a lottery adver-
tisement, and why not open it to as
certain if the detention is legal III
its contents are legal why then of |
course it might be permitted to con-
tinue an its journey.
The great wrong done newspaper
publishers, however, is to allow a
postmaster to authoritatively detain
mail matter which in his opinion is H.
legal. He ought not to be permitted
to do this. If the publisher had com.
mitted any wrong he can be held re-
,ponsible and be made TO suffer the
penalty but postmaster may detain
IN entire edition of a newspaper, en-
.ailing . heavy loss upon the publisher
md yet when the matter comes to a
inal trial the court may decide that
he papers are mailable. The DAM
Ige has then bean done the publisher,
md there seems to be no adequate
'emedy for him. Suppose the politics
# a newspaper are Objectionable to
he postmasters generally, and
throughout the state they choose to
hold a paper because in their opinion
{ is not mailable, it would thus put it
within the power of the postal depart
nent to stop the circulation of news
paper and bankrupt it, leaving the
publisher with a lot of suits against
)ostmasters as assets. Such q state
If affairs leaves newspaper publishers
without adequate remedy, and to al
ow such arbitrary conduct on the
part of officious postmasters is con-
:rary to the institutions of this GOV
and a violation of the legal
maxim that each wrong has its ade-
Iuate remedy.-Houston Tex Post
Nay 16.