Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1914-02-06
OWEN EXCHANGE
BILL CALLED
TYRANN|CAL
Forbes Denounces Measure That
Would Exclude Daily News
papers From Mails.
ey 3. c. FORBES.

l. is becoming difficult to live and
move "A hours in any American city
without breaking one or a dozen I'M
enforced laws.
Americans have more contempt for
laws than any nation on earth. And
me lawmakers are chiefly to blame.
They rush through crazy bills to ap-
nease passing whims and outbursts.
The excitement subsidies, the laws be-
come a dead letter, and nobody trou-
bles any more about them.
tn moral effect of passing every
wear thousands-yes, thousands-of
statutes and letting half of them be
rampled upon with impunity is very
had 1t vitiates respect for law. It
drags the functions of government in
the mire.
With that by way OF INTRODUCED 1n
LET me bring to public notice-and,
hone. Indignant condemnation bill
under discussion at Washington,
which, in principle, ) as n-Ameri-
can as tyrannical and as repugnant
to our national spirit of freedom as
any proposal ever propounded by a
Federal legislator.
refer to the So called Owen bill,
dealing, ostensibly, only with stock
exchanges, but involving the rudi-
mentary liberties of every citizen.
The bill. among other things, would
make it a crime, punishable by i'm
prisonment, for you to mail a news
paper containing the regular record of
stock exchange transactions such as
every daily paper carries!
Only under extraordinary and
pressing circumstances should Ameri-
can citizens permit even Government
officials to tamper with their right to
communicate with one another by
mail
Almost as soon let US encourage ar
bitrarily abolishing our birthright of
free speech.
Here is how the bill starts off aft
er the preliminary be it enacted"
That no letter, package, circu-
lar pamphlet, postcard, newspaper
or other form of printed or writ
ten statement, or partly printed
and partly written, and no quo
tation of any prices or any other
adVices, report, Information or
representation concerning trans
actions in securities sold or Of
ferad for SALE or executed or to
l- tod Ip4 1ietA
quoted on any stock exchange,
and no statement, account or
memorandum of purchase or sale
or other information, notice or
demand regarding any purchase
or sale upon or on any stock ex-
change of any security shall be
delivered or deposited or. carried
in the mail or at or through any
pOStCfiCe or branch thereof or by
any letter carrier, unless such
EXCHANGE has been Incorporated
under the laws of the State or
Territory in which it's business is
conducted, or unless the charter
and bylaws of such exchange or
the law under which it is organ
lied shall contain regulations and
prohibitions satisfactory to the
Postmaster General safeguarding
the transactions OF SUCH exchange,
the character of the securities
dealt in thereon, the ,nuineness
of the quotations thereof and all
other information concerning such
transactions that is to be carried
through the mails and by tele-
graph and telephone beyond the
limits of the State of the organi-
cation of said exchange.
Were | addressing a purely finan-
cal audience l would specify a score
OF pertinent objections to the provi-
slons of this revolutionary measu-'-.
But it is not for financial reasons that
! would urge very citizen to rebel
against it; it is for the one ample,
aI-embracine reason that it seeks to
OBTAIN for Government officials-not
popularity elected at that-such pow
ers over their liberty of action that
even the Gar or the Sultan of Fan.
2ioar would hesitate to ask. The
right of every citizen, the right of
every human being, to use the mail IS
100 sacred to be tempered with save
Tor the most urgent and exceptional
cause