Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-12-22
SANTA CLAUS LETTERS.
Decision of Attorney General as to
Rights to Omen Them.

The Post Office Department annually re-
ceives a large number of requests from
postmasters and from various plilanthropic
persons and associat ions to have letters ad-
dressed to Santa Claus or Kris kringle"
delivered to them, SO that they can respon1 l
to the needs and desires of the children in
connection with the observance OF tae
Christmas holiday. Thousands of such let
tiers a-e posted by the little ones each year.
and of course they remain undelivered,
most of them finding their way to the divf-
sion of dead letters in Washington. So ur-
gent were the appeals from those beaev-
olent individuals and associations, and 50
strongly was il the desire of the depart
ment to answer them favorably, that in
1876; the assistant attorney general for the
Post Office Department was asked for an
opinion as to the legality of granting the
requests. But the departments legal ad-
WISER considering the matter from the
practical and unsentimental standpoint of
law. on December 16, 1903. rendered an
authority, which compelled the department
regretfully to decline all applications fo-
the Santa Claus letters.
The laws and regulations relative to the
postal service provide that all undelivere
mail matter shall be sent to the division of
dead letters for disposition, and that letters
which do not contain valuable Enclosures
shall be returned to writers when add esses
general in the decision referred to was
strongly opposed to the modification Of the
laws involved so as to permit delivery Of
those letters to persons applying therefor.
either by local poStmaSterS through the
division of dead letters, citing among other
objections the danger of CHASING important
communications Santa Claus letters,
as the little folks often address him as Mr..
Chris Kingle, Mr.. S. Claus" or similar
names which actually appear in the direc-
tories of some of the larger cities If post
masters wore granted authority to open all
such letters and select those which they
thought proper to deliver to persons apply
ing for them. there would be temptation
and opportunity for postmasters and other
employees to open letters indiscriminately.
some of which contain Enclosures of value,
and give as excuse for such action the
authority granted by the department. The
assistant attorney general further holds
that If discretion were given to the division
of dead letters to select such Of these let
ters as could be properly turned over to the
applicants, there would be the same danger
of the exercise OF faulty or irregular judg-
ment on the part of the employees Of that
division and the giving away of secrets
contained in letters would be made easier
by such vesting Of Official discretion"
which is now-withheld from all.
The department. law officer was also of
the opinion that il permission were granted
to deliver such letters to benevolent socie-
ties and individuals, 1t would be difficult
for the department to draw the line where
benevolence ends and commercialism be-
gins Many persons desire such letters for
use in newspaper and magazine stories.
the name of the child of some prominent
public man attached to such a letter max
ing 1t especially valuable for that purpose
and often correspondingly embarrassing to
the parent of the child. Even IL the line
could be perfectly drawn. after the delivery
of letters TO persons indicated they would
be beyond the control of the department
and such commercial uses could and would
be made of them. Furthermore, the opinion
states, such practice would violate the
principle of the sanctity of the seal, which
is one of the best features of our postal
system, and the department would contin-
ually be open to serious suspicion.