The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-05-10
Have Had to Hack Down


The department of justice and the post
Office department have had to back down
from their position regarding the seizure
of the alleged reasonable documents which
were being sent out from the senate docu-
ment room. The postmaster-general now
denies that such an order to stop these
pamphlets from going through the senate
was ever issued. He says that it was APP
plieable only to the packages mailed under
a government stamp for Manila.
Such was not the case, however. Colonel
Bright received the order and it was TO
stop all the Atkinson pamphlets from go
ing through the senate mailing room. Sew
eral correspondents tested the matter by
asking for the pamphlets. These were de-
MED them for the reason given that an
embargo had been put upon them. The
senate is ticklish body where its dignity
is concerned. There was not democratic
nor anti-expansionist senator in the city,
only one or two senator's who agree thor
ough1y with the administration in its for
egn policy. But between the president
and the senate 1t did not take them long to
decide They hurried to the white house
and told the president what they had
learned of the order to stop the senate
mall They denounced the order as mon
archical and that the senate would be
united in it's denunciation of such an act.
In less than an hour the order was revoked
and the postoffice department began ex-
planning its mistake to the clerks in the
document room. This is the inwardness or
the much talked of order to seize the sem
ate mail. The president is still getting
protests from senators who have seen that
such an order was given
Internal Imperialism
It is q very serious question if the step
taken by the government In stopping the
mails does not mark a step toward Internal
Imperialism. Ten years ago such thing
would not have been dreamed of and GER
tainly not approved by any one.
Now it has the endorsement of fully half
of the country The pamphlet which was
seized in San Francisco and which Sena-
tors Jones and Caffrey had printed in the
Congressional Record Is not as vicious as
the expansionists would have one TO be-
lieve. 1t has ben read here, and those who
have seen it are surprised at the dlspiay Oh
patriotic pyrotechnics from the postmaster
general and the attorney general. 1t does
not begin to be as severe as the editorial
attacks upon the imper alistic policy IN
many of the papers, and is mild by the side
sof The attacks upon General Grant In the
SAN Domingo affair. 1t does not begin TO
be as bitter as the attacks upon grover
Cleveland at the time he vetoed the depen-
dent pension bill.
m looks very much as If Postmaster Gen.
efal Smith,, being in a department which,
iii the language of the Bowery, was not
exactly in the push" determined to get
there by some grand stand play He mas
possibly done more harm to the cause he
espoused than If he had not interfered at
all. The people are very jealous OF thelr
mailing privileges, and do not like to see
the government stopping anything save of
an immoral nature
To stop political matter going through
the mails is only step from surpressing
the papers of the country. A. w. b.