The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1895-03-13
FAR.REAcHTNG EFEEors


~ the New Anrl-Lottery Iaw-An ImDort
ant Ruling of Interest to Neusuaper PM
6 fishers and Readers.
WASHINGTON, Narch6 6.-AsSistan Al
'orney General Thomas, for the DOS
! once department., yesterday gave ON
One following statement regarding tn
new lottery law just passed, which pre-
vents express companies from earryin,
lottery matter:
By virtue of this act, it is made pun
ishable by Imprisonment for a term no
more than two years or fine of no
more than 81, 900 or both, to cause to bC
brought to this country from abroad O,
cause to be carried from one state tc
another in the United States, any pa
per; certificate, ticket or advertise.
ment concerning lottery"
Ihis, of course, will effectualIy Ere.
venc the conveyance of such matter be.
tween states or bringing it into the
country from other nations by express
companies or common carriers between
the states But the most important
provision OF the bill, i'm the. opinion of
the postal authorities, is the last sec
tlon thereof, which reads as follows:
Ihat the powers conferred upon the
postmaster general by the statute of
1870 are hereby extended and made ap-
plIcaole to all letters or other matter
sent by mail"
Ihe department has been transport
ing lottery and other fraudulent mat
ter and express money orders for in
vestmcnt in them and yet has been de-
prived of the revenues it would have
derived from the postal money outiers
that 1t would otherwise, have issued
me postmaster general is now clothed
WIN power to meet and eradicate this
evil 1t authorizes him to- refuse to
deliver to party who, he finds on evil
dence satisfactory to him, is conducting
a Lottery or fraud through the mails,
any letter or other mail matter wheth-
cr registered or not and to have it re-
turned to the sender, where known, or
10 the dead letter office if unknown,
marked fraudulent"
IL 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.
The assistant attorney general for
the post Office department has made an
important ruling in regard to what are
known as newspaper laws" These So
called laws provide that subscribers to
newspapers are liable for the price
thereof unless they give express notice
10 discontine, or when they give notice
to discontinue without paying arrear-
ages or refuse to take papers from the
once and that the publisher of news
paper can have anyone arrested for
fraud who takes paper and refuses to
pay for it and that it is a dangerous
'rick to allow subscription account to
run on for six months or q year and a
hait and then tell the postmaster to
mark it refused" or send the editor a
notice to discontinue the paper.
The department has time and again
informed parties making inquiries and
The public generally that there are no
such laws The ruling now made, how
ever, goes beyond this. 1t was to the
.Hcct that, publisher who makes
lemand for the payment of the sub
'eription price of his paper through
he mails accompanied by threat of
Enforcing such pretended laws in case
'he demand is not complied with, may
De prosecuted for attempting to obtain
money under false pretenses, provided
le knows that such so-called laws have
10 existence as laws or decisions of the
ourts