The Palatka news and advertiser., 1917-01-05
and Advertiser.
"THE PRINCIPLE
INVOLVED"

We have before us a copy of Hous
Bill No. 1896, introduced in the Cor
gress of the United States by M
Randall of California. 1t reads:
A BILL to exclude alcoholic IL
quor advertising from the Unit
ed States mails.
Be it enacted by the Senate
and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in
Congress assembled, That no let
ter, package, postal card, or cir
h cular, newspaper, pamphlet, or
publication of any kind, contain
" ing any advertisement of any
spirituous, vinous, matted, fer
y mented, or other intoxicating IL
quors, shall be deposited in or
carried by the mails of the Unit
ed States, or be delivered by any
postmaster or letter carrier when
addressed to other than a law
fully licensed manufacturer or
dealer in such liquors, etc. etc
The balance of the bill has to do
with the penalties for violations,
which are stiff enough for all prac-
tical purposes.
The copy of the bill sent to US came
from the "literary department" of the
Whisky Trust, with this printed COM
ment: "This measure vitally affects
the printing industry of the United
States. The principle involved is
fundamentally dangerous and should
be actively opposed. 1t would estab-
lish precedent which, once accepted,
would curtail the freedom of the mails
and of newspapers and other publi-
cations"
Of course The News would not wish
to appear unappreciative of any eff
fort on the part of the Whisky Trust
to guard the legitimate interests of
newspapers from the establishment
by the government of any "precedent
which, once accepted, would curtail
the freedom Of the mails and of news
papers," but somehow this nublica-
ton is unable to see wherein the Ran
dali bill would establish such prece-
dent
The mails have long been denied to
other forms of fraud. Why not the
whisky fraud?
The whisky business is fraud.
In fact it is inherently crooked. The
traffic is so vicious, so palpablv mimi
cal to the welfare of the state that
already more than one-half of the
states in the union have prohibited the
sale of LIQUOR within their territory.
The highest courts in the land have
held that these prohibitorv laws are
constitutional. This view has been
upheld so unanimously by the courts
that even the whisky trust itself no
longer attacks such laws.
Since the enactment of these pro-
hibitory laws, whisky dealers in IL
cense states have been flooding pro-
1ibition territory with literature pre-
pared for the sole purpose of pushing
heir business in sections where it
has been declared an outlaw. j.,
1t is not within the power of the d,
tates to interdict this system of ,
alesmanship. The courts have held g
hat the sale is made at the place :
where the order is received. In IL =
ense states, dealers may flood the !;
nails of prohibitory states with :,
'hisky advertisements. In a local !,
ption state like Florida a wet town v
lay send its fraudulent whisky ad-
matter through the mail in
drv territory and thus practically
ullify the purpose of the dry enact
ent. a
It is time the congress of the Unit I. =
States stepped in and put an end ):
this complicitv on the part of the II II
'vernment in this fraud-this traf- y: I'd
: which the enlightened moral senti- ~ ~
ent Of the nation has declared to be te
q gioontic crime of crimes. W.
II is time newspapers should cease ~ II.
ling their space to the men engag- 81
in this fraud and thereby partici- III III
ting in the profits of trafic which "a "a
the direct cause of more than two I"
irds Of the crime, pauperism and
serv in this country. ce
The News homes the Randall bill be
Il pass, precedent or no precedent. no