Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1912-09-26

er of the Federal Government. I'm
questionably the physical carriage of
newspapers from State to State is in
terstate commerce and undoubtedly
the carriage Of newspapers by the
Post Office Department Of the United
States Government is, as to such car
riage, a federol function and within
the power of the Federal Govern
ment. Undoubtedly the Federal Gov
eminent can forbid the conveyance
from State to State by the ordinary
channels of interstate commerce or
the conveyance by it's post office de-
partment, either between the States
or within the States, of any matter
which in the judgment Of Congress
is prejudicial to public morals. A
newspaper, therefore,, which contains
lottery advertisement or otherwise
immoral matter may be excluded
either from the mails or from inter-
state conveyance by means of express
companies or otherwise.
C%onceding this power Of regula-
tiOns as to the channels of interstate
commerce and of the post roads, a
more difficult question remains,
whether under the guise of such reg
ulation the Federal Government can
in effect go into the newspaper
offices and regulate the methods
Of journalism, as to which
it would otherwise be without
any constitutional power. If so, the
Federal Government can exercise an
effective censorship of the press in
matters other than those of strict
morality, by simply denying to the
newspaper publisher either the facil-
tiles of interstate m or the
instrumentality of the postal SER
vice except under condition that it
shall conform to such views as to
journalistic methods as Congress may
prescribe. Such an extension of pow
er has hitherto been undreamed of
and if ii exist, it is obviously a mat
ter of the gravest concern. The news
paper press is in theory and fact the
fourth estate" and anything that
a ffpntc itc frandnpo from undue -
ernmental interference is of vital i'm
portance to the perpetuity of our in
stitutions. If such power be now con-
coded without a contest, it may be
the entering wedge for further regu-
lation and the freedom Of the press
may thereby ultimately be jeopar-
died.
The attempt to censor the press is
not altogether novel. During the adj
ministration of Andrew Jackson an
agitation sprung up to exclude from
the United States mails all newspa-
| pers which contained anti-slavery
matter on the ground that it tended
to disturb the public peace. In 1885
President Jackson recommended to
Congress the passage of a bill to
make such an exclusion from the
federal mails. The bill was referred to
a select Committee, of which John
c. Calhoun was Chairman, and on
February a., 1886, the Committee
made a report to Congress, recon-
mending the passage Of a law which
would make 1t a penal offense to
transmit through the mails anti-sla-
very documents to any State, which
had a local law forbidding the cir
culation of such printed matter. Al
though a pro-slavery man, Calhoun
expressed the opinion in this report
that the Federal Government had no
direct power to forbid the circulation
of anti-slavery matter, except as an
auxiliary to police regulations of the
several States. James Buchanan af-
firmed the broader power of the Fed
eral Government to exclude any mat
ter from the mails, which it deemed
Objectionable. The views of Buchan-
an and Calhoun were opposed by
Daniel Webster and the proposed bill
was rejected by o vote OF % to 10.
This legislation therefore involves
two questions
4. Can the Federal Government
prohibit under the threat of impri-
sonment the insertion in a newspa-
per of paid matter unless it is plainA
ly marked as an advertisement?
2. Can the Federal Government
exclude from the mails any newspa-
per or other publication which fails
to file with the Postmaster General
semi-annually a sworn statement as
to its business and editorial man
agement and its circulation?
The first question admits of an
easy answer. That portion of the law
does not pretend to exclude from the