The Forrest City times., 1895-03-08
A NEW GIANT KILLER.


The Lottery Law Passed by the Late Con-
gress, Suppiementing the Original Act,
Expected to Greatly Cripple, IL Not
Stamp Out. the Lottery Traffic in This
Country-f How the Former Law was
Evsded.
WASHINGTON. March 6.-Assistant
Attorney-General Thomas for the post
Office department, yesterday gave out
the following statement regarding the
new lottery law just passed. which
prevents express companies fromzear-
rying lottery matter:
By virtue of this act il is made pun
ishable by imprisonm ent for a term of
not more than two years or a fine of
not more than 81, 900, OF both, TO cause
to be brought to this country from
abroad, or cause to be carried from one
state to another in the United States,
any paper, certificate, ticket or adver-
tisement concerning lottery. This,
of course, will effectually prevent the
conveyance of such matter between
states or bringing it into the country
from other nations by express COM
panies or common carriers between the
states.
But the most important provisions
of the bill, in the opinion of the postal
authorities, is the last section thereof,
which reads as follows:
THAT the powers conferred upon
the postmaster general by the. statute
of 1890, chapter COS, section .. are
hereby extended and made applicable
to all letters or other matter sent by
mail"
The second section of the act of Sep
TENDER 10, 1890, here referred to, pro-
vides that the postmaster general may,
upon evidence satisfactory to him that
anyone is conducting lottery or sim
liar enterprise or a scheme to defraud
through the mails, forbid the pay
ment of money orders or the delivery
of registered letters to him. Here the
authority given ended, and under the
act as it heretofore stood the depart
ment could not and did not interfere
with ordinary matter under seal.
though directed to a person known to
be conducting a lottery or fraud. Hence
the parties who have heretofore been
forbidden the money order and regis
try system of the post office depart
ment have correspondent with their
patrons or with their would-be pa
irons, under seal through the mails,
inclosing all their literature and Civ
ing instruction to procure express
money orders instead of postal money
orders and send them in sealed letters
by mail, all of which matter thus un-
der seal, the department was COM
PEELED to deliver to the address,
though they were known to be vio-
lating the law.
In this way the department has been
transporting lottery and fraudulent
matter and express money orders for
investment in them, and yet has been
deprived of the revenues it would have
derived from the postal money orders
that it would otherwise have issued.
The section above quoted from the
act of March 2, 1895, clothes the post
master general with power to meet
and eradicate this evil. 1t authorizes
him to refuse to deliver to party,
who he finds upon evidence satisfactory
to him is conducting lottery or fraud
through the mails, any letter or other
mail matter whether registered or not,
and to have it returned to the sender.
where known or to the dead letter of
ice If unknown, marked fraudulent"
1t is confidently predicted that this
new power conferred upon the post
master general will greatly tend to
suppress the lottery traffic in our coun-
try, which up to this time has been
scotched, but not killed.