The daily Nome industrial worker., 1917-09-27
pD~rUifIHE gEN-0H,HIP.


 The geusv~.as Of newspapers b. asrriug them rom the mail in sa..cs two poiuts-frst the ques- siou of censorship itself. and. second 7b4 method of applying the censor. ship. As to the first point. the espionage law provides definitions rules of procedure and penalties. Under this provision no newspaper has been adjudgcd guilty of break ing the law, and the editors and publishers retain their citizens rights and privileges. But under ,hzs same la@-aHd more especially. uaagr . .,.-recoga.zea custom and rra.,:,e-the officials Of the post o# aagar,@aat have ad5u5aad T. t. ...sus sai1ts and stripped 4Ia.r editors and publishers of th 1T e.tz-a~ rights 'o Hsc of the mails. Taaa is raised the point that while j3. branch ot goyernmeat charged with enforcing the law and re- straiu.ag and pun;shing v;oIators finds no fault committed another department ot the govern maa- charged wth the pro motion of the exchange of in telHgouca. and having no constitu- lioaal right to judge or o1Iish, does as a matter of fact. pass jldg- mear and administer punishment.
 Preposerous as such a maladiHst, Hea; mas seem. it is aot due to the r, sent crisis, but is of long stand
 It originated in the early days af thc government, when the postal deBartmeut was given power by Congress to exclude obscene matter rom the mails, Later power to ex- Clude fraudulent matter was added, and to this lottery tickets were in eluded. None of these provisions or law need have woked much hard ship had not the courts chosen to treat the postal department on the
  ments and denied appeal from It's rulings. Under this condition a practice has been built up by means of which the postmaster genCT al can and does regulate businessa as that depend upon the mails Su'h citizens as he believes are doing a Fraudulent business he can w't o't other procedure than lice io his ovl department. exc'.a. --.., .f mail privileges. B. .a.- @. .aa the Lewis banking business Of St. Louis in 1901 was wrecked Detectives Of the postoffoo department inyest1- gated the bank, declared it 10 be q fraud. and the postmaster general withdrew its mailing privilege. This threw the business into the hanfs of d receiver who found the bank solvent, paid all deposits in ruli and had left for the stotkfo le-s not only ther inv estments. but iar2c dividends The receiver and q noted banking authority declared the bank to be sound and to be run nTng on sound principles. Ye. the courts would not interfere to pr9- serve the rights and property Ot men who without due process of law. had been deprived of thosa rights by a governmental depart ment.
 This is the essence of the present situation. Under cover of author ity built up by the accumulation of accretions and precedents the post office department assumes the power to deny mailing privileges to news papers that it thinks have broken the Espionage law. It is not a question of breaking of censorship; it is only question of what the pots office department thinks. The suppression of these newspapers may or may not have been justin able; the question has not been pas sod upon by the regularly consti- 1uted authorities.
 Post office censorship is an ex- pression of an evil practice that is everywhere springing up when DO pular vigilance relaXas It is a subtle means of doing by indirec- tion what popular opinion will moi permit 10 be done by direction Ii ia to executive functions what the Q ,.a.-," ;e to l-c,is,a.iya action and