The Lancaster news. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1905-current, 1919-04-29
CONDUCT or BURLESON
IS SEVERELY CRITICISED
Director of Publishers Advisory
Board Calls His Statement in
Defense Amazing.

New York. April 2S.-Replying in
statement to the charge of Post
master General Burleson that he is
the victim OF an organized propa-
ganda." Charles Johnson Post. dI-
rector of the publishers advisory
board, declared that it was not the
publishers Of the country who need
ed defense but the postmaster gen.
eral himself. He asserted that de-
mOralization of the postal service
was a fact which every business man
and American home was able to
Judge out of their own experience.
The publishers advisory board
consists of the Periodical Publishers
Association of America. the Asso-
ciated Business Papers. Inc, the
American Medical Editors associa-
tion, the New York Medical Pub
fishers association, the Agricultural
Publishers association, the Associa-
tion of Religious Press, the Allied
Printing Trades council and the
"a.
The amazing official statement
by Postmaster General Burleson in
his own defense. following his re
fusal to transmit the news dispatch
such dispatch reflected upon his in
capacity, is challenge to every Sc
rious thinking man even though
he rCscindod such order the follow
a Prussian and vicious One-man cen
sorShip can be established in the
postotfice department by Mr. Burle.
son or any one else reveals a menace
far beyond Mr.. Burleson's point that
he thinks he has been criticised too
harshly.
Whether the postal service ia
good or bad is not a matter Of ar
gument or of Mr.. Burleson's per
soma! opinion The pubic knows
from its own experiences. suffered
day by day. from the camps in
France to the commerce of Frisco
ard rs evidenced hv The impartial in
vesti@ations and The resolutions of
the most reliable business organiza-
tic"s OF the country
What MIR. Burloson calls crgan-
izcd propaganda is The expression Of
sentiment of hundreds ard hundreds
of RESPONSIBLE business organizations
with their many thousands of bus
ness members. chambers Of com
mer"e. educational institutions. la
ho" ORGANIZATIONS, religious ore.n-
izatio0S and cultural organizations
that have formally condemned the
various inefficient postal methods
and principles which he champions.
He specifically upholds the vi
cious and un-American postal zone
law with its unfair postage increases
against distant American communi-
ties. and alleges that the publishes
of the country. newspapers and n
riodicais are in a conspiracy 10 ruin
him Those whom Postmaster Cen
eral Burleson is attacking by means
OF the zone law are not publishers
but they are reading men and wO-
men, the reading homes OF this ma
tion. For by this postal zone law he
demands that any periodical shall
cost more in postage to an Ameri-
can reader because of, and in pro-
portion to. that readers accidental
remoteness from any point of publ
cation. And when public spirited
and representative organizations.
such as the American Federation OF
Labor. the Merchants Association
OF New York. the General Fedora
tion OF Women's clubs. the National
range. the National Education as
sOCiation and hundreds of others
protest against this vicious and un-
American law, he says that such eX-
preston of opinion does not have
for its real purpose any desire for
Improvement In the postal or wire
service, but Is intended to aid in ac-
complishing a reduction of the rates
OF postage on second class mail
newspapers and magazines).