The Cape Girardeau Democrat. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1876-1909, 1895-10-19
AFFAIRS.

Thomas on the Operations of His Office
for the Last FiscRl Year-LOrtery Bust
ness Badly CrippIed-Drafts of Bills Cow
ering Needed Legislation.
WASHINGTON. Oct. 14.-Judge John
L. Thomas, assistant attorney general
for the post Office department, has sub
mitted to the postmaster general a re-
port of the operations of his Office for
the fiscal year ended June 80, 1895.
During the year 213 fraud orders
We're issued, SIS of which were against
lottery companies operated by So
called bond Investment" companies;
~ against avowed lottery companies.
and 81 against miscellaneous games of
chance. The remainder were various
schemes to defraud.
Judge Thomas says hat the bond in
yestment schemes have been aban-
doned by all the companies except a
very few.
In reviewing the lottery question,
he says it may be confidently asserted
that the death-knell of the avowed
lotteries in this country has been
sounded and their business has been
vastly crippled, if not ruined; but he
is sorry to note the fact hat many
business men think they must, in order
to succeed, resort to schemes to appeal
to the gambling spirit of their people,
and they accordingly sugar-coat their
legitimate enterprises with lottery at
tachments and thus create a desire for
other and more pernicious modes of
obtaining something for nothing by
hazard or chance.
The number of claims allowed for
losses by burglary, fire, etc, during
the year was 1906, ~aggregatiug $685.
Csc. This amount does not represent
the actual monetary loss to the gov
eminent, as about S23, GIT worth of
stamps and other material was de-
stroyed by fire. At the end of the
year there were $50 claims not dis
posed of.
Judge Thomas renews his recon-
mendation for the passage of a law
making postmasters and their sureties
liable for the defalcations and acts Of
their subordinates, and submits that
1.-THE failure of the government to take
security from subordinates in post
offices, who number thousands, and
handle millions of dollars of public
money annually, or to hold the post
masters liable for the acts of their
s~ubordinates is not only anomalous in
practice but dangerous to the public
interest" In this connection he has
prepared a bill to be introduced in the
next congress to remedy this defect in
the law.
Judge Thomas says that his atten-
ton has several times during the
year been called to dangerous and in
furious matter deposited in the mails,
and upon investigation it was dis
covered that there is now no penalty
prescribed for depOsiting such matter
in the mails, and indeed, there is NO
statute forbidding its being mailed.
He has accordingly drawn up a bill
which covers two classes of articles:
First-Those which are dangerous to
life, health, comfort and body of the
employee or addresse, such as poisons,
live animals, reptils or insects, ex-
plosives, etc; and,
Second-Those articles which,
though liable to injure employees r
damage other mail matter when loose
in the mails, when properly packed
may be safely handled, such as oils,
liquids not poisonous or explosive:
sharp instruments, dyestuffs and the
like, which may be mailed if properly
packed.
No one is by this bill permitted to
mail the articles of the first-class I'M
der a penalty of imprisonment or fine
or both at the discretion of the court, |
nor to mail the articles of the second
class if not packed according to the
regulations prescribed by the postmas.
ter-general.