The Jersey City news., 1892-03-15
An Iniquitous Pos Office Measure.

An Iniquitous Pos Office Measure.
Under the guise of Comstockian
prevention of cruelty to the squeam-
ish modesty of filthy minded persons,
it is proposed by a bill now pending
in Congress to endow the Postmaster
General with a sort of supreme GER
sorship over the press. The bill EN-
powers the P. M. G. to decide accord
ing to his own code what advertise
ments or notices newspapers may or
may not publish, and in virtue OF his
own opinion to render any paper he
chooses non-mailable not only as to
one but as to all succeeding issues.
1t is so easy to see the abuses TO
which this proposition not only might
but ould inevitably lead, that it is
amazing that it should have made
any progress whatever in Congress 1t
is one of those crank proposals which
will be made by fools and rogues to
the end of time, but which one never
expects to see taken up seriously by
honest and sensible men. Yet strange
as it is, this outrageous measure has
been favorably reported by the House
Committee on Post Offices. and it is
now on the calendar awaiting action.
This is doubly strange in view OF
the present situation of affairs. That
a Democratic House of Representa-
tives should propose to give such
sweeping and arbitrary power to such
a Postmaster General as John Wana-
maker is one of those miracles of
laundering that are past accounting
for. One would think it plain enough
that, this law once passed, the publ
cation of any Democratic newspaper,
unless indeed it were printed on the
now infamous Philadelphia plan,
would be an impossibility until there
was a change of administration. In
the case of the Voice, Mr.. Wanamaker
and his political postmasters have al
ready abused their powers under the
law to the most scandalous extent.
They have strained the statutes to
interpretations which they were never
meant to bear for the purpose Of
keeping the organ of the Prohibition
ists-so injurious to the Republican
cause-from the farmers of New York
and other States. With larger pow
ers, can there be any doubt but they
would be guilty OF more extensive
tyrannies?
1t is very probable that the pro-
posed law is unconstitutional on dual
grounds. 1t not only contemplates an
outrageous censorship of the press.
one which transcends all reasonable
police powers, it also assumes to in
fiict penalty, a most serious one, the
absolute ruin of business, for an Of
~e-..ce, without indictment or trial by
jury, or indeed any trial, judgment or
decree whatever except the say-so OF a
non-judicial officer of the government.
But the fact that it may be over
thrown by the courts, is no reason
why the House of Representatives
should allow this bill to pass. A litiga-
tion to contest the validity of it would
cost an enormous sum of money and
would take up years Of time. Mean
time the oppression would go on, and
small and weak papers might be
ruined by exclusion from the mails.
We hope New Jerseys representa-
tives in Congress will pay their par
ticuiar respects to this bill. We hope
the Democratic members in particu-
lar will not only vote against it, but
use their utmost influence to procure
votes against it and secure its utter
defeat. There is quite law enough
now to punish every publisher of Of
fensive matter.