Arizona republican., 1904-06-01
The Postoffice Department Looking
 for Trouble.


 such proportions that pretty soon there
 will be a howl all oyer the country at
 Uncle Sam's paternalism. A fraud
 order" is an order from the depart
 ment at Washington to a postohice
 to withhold the mail addressed to any
 man, firm CT concern that in the judg
 ment of the postofTice department is
 operating a fraudulent business. It
 is only in late years that the depart
 ment has assumed to exercise this au-
 thority, and it still remains for the
 courts to determine squarely whether
 the government has any legal power to
 interfere as it does with the mail of
 citizens.
 Heretofore, activities in this line
 have been confined chiefly to get
 rich-quick" concerns and the like-Out-
 fits that are openly heecing the public
 and against which intelligent people ought to need no protection. Whille the legality of the departments action has been questioned by disinterested persons, the swindlers have seldom made any protest; they were glad enough, apparently, to escape without prosecution from the local authorities. Scoundrels who were getting rich by taking the earnings of women for ''in- vestment" on a guaranty of several hundred per cent profit; brokers who were shearing lambs through the simple process of selling sure-thing tips on the stock market, and "high- class sports" who made a business of getting the money of suckers to be bet on the races, might have had doubts of the legality of the departments fraud order, but they did not care to go into the courts and encounter ven tilation along with vindication.
 When, however, the department goes after the patent medicine concerns. the government will not have such easy sailing. A few days ago it was an at Washington that the off cials of the postofIice department had been conducting a quiet investigation concerns throughout the country. and now it is given out that already at least a hundred of these cases have been examined and decided. It is ex- plained, however, that while the andy ses of the medicines have disclosed ble and premeditated fraud l on the part of the manufacturers and | and a careful and un- Drejudiced examination of their ad- | vertisements and literature reveals a | lepth of depravity hitherto unsuspect- ed, undue haste in the promulgation of | fraud orders will be avoided in order | hat the department may work no in- Justice in it's crusade"
 But even the most deliberate steps ! against the patent medicine manufac- urers and distributors will arouse the | re of the fraternity, certainly. And | he patent medicine people have mill ions of capital wherewith to defend | themselves. It can be taken for grant d that they will make a great uproar when the government steps upon their orns, and the country will have some 
 The officials say that the attention If newspaper publishers will be called rom time to time to the fact that cer- ain advertisements carried in their publications are not only prejudicial O public morals, but are distinct vio- ations of the law, and that their dis continuance must be insisted upon. It will be pointed out that fraud orders rave been or will be issued by the postmaster general against the manu- acturers of these spurious remedies, nd that failure to comply with the of the department will re- ut in the exclusion from the mails of and other publications arrying their advertisements. Tn this yay, it is said officials of the postoffice apartment intend gradually but per istently to aid reputable publishers in heir desire to exclude objectionable natter from their columns. uni orm official ruling will accomplish hat purpose, for, while it would be and poor business policy or publishers to decline to receive an Advertisement that did not on it's face uggest impropriety, when fortified by he results of the departments investi- .ation and ruling, there could be no uestion as to the necessity for elim- hating it from their columns. In the already made the at ention of postal officials has been di- ected to the fact that many reputable rug concerns manufacturing staple emedies also include in their output rticles which chemical analyses show re incapable of accomplishing the cures alleged for them. Ac- ording to a Washington dispatch, ome of these manufacturers have al- eady appeared before the department nd volunteered to discontinue the 1auufa ct11re sale and distribution of