The San Francisco call., 1896-03-04

The letters had hardly reached Wash
ington when various members of the
Senate and House of Representatives sent
complaints to the Postoffice Department,
objecting to such missives being delivered
TO them, and asking protection for the
future.
a telegram was at once sent to San
Francisco. instructing Postmaster McCop-
pin TO stop all such letters delivered at the
Office under his charge for mailing. This
was accordingly done, and several hun
dred envelopes bearing the words to which
the department objects are now held in
Mr.. McCoppin' care.
The words printe on the envelopes of
Mayor Sutro's Enclosures to the members
of Congress were plainly Objectionable,
said Postmaster McCoppln last evening,
'and are also non-mailable under the post
Office regulations.
"a week or go ago we received word from
the Postoffice Department that Senator
Chandler and other National representa-
tlves had complained that they were re-
ceiving communications which they OBJ
jected to and the authorities at headquar-
ters were requested to prevent the delivery
scriptions. AS the rules OF the department
not only prohibit the passage of envelopes
inscribed with libelous or scurrilous
words, but give the person fer whom they
are intended the right to refuse to receive
them, We were instructed to see that no
more of the kind went through the post
office.
"That is why they were held and, fur
thermore, we shall hold any or all that
contain words equally or more objection
able.
81 do not remember now just what the
words were, except that they referred to
c. P. Huntington and stealing, but l do
remember that l considered the matter
carefully when it was brought to my at
tention and that at the time l was satisfied
that the letters were non-mailable and III
violation of the regulations"
Outside of Postmaster McCoppin and
the clerks who received the letters few of
the postoffice employees were aware that
the letters had been seized. When toll d
the nature of the inscription on the letter
last evening, however, Night Inspector
Alexander NJ. Cox at once said that enve-
lopes containing such matter were non
mailabIe, and that any person mailing
them or causing them to be mailed was
violating the postal regulations and was
liable to prosecution for the offense.
He called attention to the following Sec
ton of the postal laws and regulations
bearing on the subject:
Sec. 332. Scurrilous matter. All that mat
ter, otherwise mailable by law, upon the en-
velope or outside cover, or wrapper of which,
or any postal card upon which any delinea-
tlons, epithets, terms or language of an lnde-
cent, lewd, lascivious, obscene, libelous, sour
rilous, ,defamatory or threatening character or
calculated by the terms or manner or style of
display, and obviously intended to reflect in
juriously upon the character or conduct of
another may be written or printed, or other
wise impressed or apparent, are hereby de-
clared non-mailable, and shall not be conveyed
In the mails, nor delivered from any postoffice,
nor by any letter-carrier, and shall be with
drawn from the mails under such -egu lations
us the Postmater-General shall prescribe and
any person who shall knowingly deposit, or
cause 10 be deposited, for mailing or delivery,
anything declared by the section to be non.
mallaole matter, and any person who shall
knowingly take the same, or cause the same
to be taken from the mails, for the purpose of
circulating or dlsposing of or of aiding in the
circulation or disposition of the same shall
Tor each and every offense, upon conviction
thereof, be fined not more than $4,000. or i'm.
prisoned at hard labor not more than five
years, or both, at the discretion of the court.
(Act OF June 18, 1888, as amended September
26, 1889
Mayor Sutro had received no notifca-
tion from the Postoffice officials that bis
Enclosures 10 the members of Congress had
been seized when told of the matter last
evening.
81 am sorry the letters have not reached
their destinations, said he, ''but am
more than pleased at the reasons of the
seizure.
ut shows that we have them scared
They know tha. if people see such letters
addressed to them they will think they