The Kemper herald. (Scooba, Miss.) 1875-1908, 1905-05-11
|OUR WASHINGTON
NEWS NOTES.
LATE NEWS ITEMS FROM OUR
NATIONS CAPITOL.
HUNTING LOTTERY AGENTS

Federal Government Determined to
Drive Them Out Of Business. Sc
cret Service Men Have Been Scour-
aging the Country for Violators.
The Secret Service Bureau coop
Grating with Department of justice, is
now in position to drive out OF bus
mess, if not into the penitentiarles,
the agents of the Panama, Honduras
and Mexican Lottery Companies,
which have been making large sales IN
one part of the country and another
in violation of the Interstate Com
merce Law, which forbids the selling
Of lottery tickets. Chief Clerk Mo-
ran, in the absence Of Chief Wilkle.
received from Boston full report
concerning the capture made there
of dress suit case, the property OF
Walter S. Roberts, Of San Francisco
who was arrested in Chicago as the
travelling agent of "Hanford & Ell
kins," who have been handling the
tickets in the United States. This
dress suit case contained very valu-
able papers, including about 5000 lot
terry tickets of various denominations.
More important than the tickets, how
ever, was a list of the agents employ
ed by Roberts to sell the tickets in
various communities.
"Robert, Estates Chief Clerk Mo
ran, "was the travelling agent who
employed the local agents in the cities
and town which he visited to handle
bhe tickets. We traced him to Bos-
ton and located his valise. When he
called at the baggage-room there to
claim 1t he was requested to wait a
moment while a message was sent to
one of our agents. Growing suspicious
he left before the agent arrived, and
took a train for Chicago without try
ing to regain his suit case. AS his
train was approaching Chicago one OF
our agents, with description which
had wired him, arrested Roberts.
Copies of all pape found in the suit
case have been sent me from Boston
and l am at work preparing cases
against those who are named as
agents. / am comforting with Assist
ant Attorney General Purdy on the
matter, and shall act on his advice be-
fore making arrests. Where it is
found that these men have been act
ing for any length of time for the
lottery companies, and they have actu-
ally sold tickets, they will be prose-
cuted. In one city we have had a
confession from an agent, but we cam
not prosecute him because he sold no
tickets, having been recently engaged
by Roberts.
"Not unless the lottery ticket per-
tains to a future drawing is the han
ding Of it contrary to law. But where
we have found tickets that were not
at the time live, and had obtained ev-
idence that theye were live when han
died, we can make out a case. But
while we may not make out good cases
in all Of the cities which we are in
yestigating, the moral effect will be
good, and I think there will be fewer
violations of the law in the future.
"Roberts has covered the New Eng
land States, and also the Middle West
but have found very few traces Of
his work in the South. At Mobile we
located an agent, but before he could
be arrested he disappeared. So far l
have found few violations in Louisi-
ana. Roberts will be taken to San
Francisco for trial, for there the Han
ford & Elkins' firm had its headquar-
ters and the strongest case can be
made out against him. However, as
ne has violated the law in Cincinnati
and Boston, he can be taken to either
place fro trial" 1nasmuch as the
lottery tickets have been sent by ex-
press and not through the mails, the
Pestoffice Inspectors are not engaged
in this investigation.
Sir Chentung Liang Cheng, the Chi
nese minister, has issued confiden-
tial circular or proclamation to all the
Chinese in the United States, request
ing that he be furnished with reports
of all cases of applicants who have
been denied admission to this country
and of all deportations on the ground
Of non-registration, which have been
decided since the expiration of the
exclusion treaty of 1894. The object
of the circular, as understood by Unit
ed States officials, is to facilitate the
collectionyof evidence on which to base
suit against the United States to
test the validity Of the existing Chi
nese exclusion laws.
The Panama Canal Commission has
allotted $634,440 for sanitation work
on the isthmus.