Evening star., 1941-03-05
Mailed Propaganda

RuSSia's protest, through her Am
bassador here, against the seizure by
the Post Office Department of tons
of what Postmaster General Frank
Walker has described as foreign
propaganda" was not unexpected, in
view of the fact that Soviet publicists
were among the first to discover the
advantages that lie in letting the
prospective recipients of alien propa-
ganda pay the delivery bill. Ameri-
cans have been paying all the costs
of distributing by mail huge quanti-
ties of un-American CommuniStic,
Fascist and Nazi literature because of
the one-sided operation of a pro-
vision of the International Postal
Convention. Under this convention,
the United States has agreed to de-
liver in this country, free of charge,
all matter on which postage has been
paid in the foreign country of origin.
The foreign signatories of the con-
vention have agreed to reciprocate.
That arrangement works satisfac-
torily for routine mail. But in recent
years the official or quasi-official
propaganda machines in Russia, Ger
many, Italy and Japan, to mention
the chief offenders, have taken un-
fair advantage of the plan. Whereas
the United States has not seen fit to
direct a propaganda barrage against
any foreign government, the nations
referred to, according to the Dies
Committee, have required the United
States Post Office Department to
deliver, at the expense of American
taxpayers, many thousands of
pounds OF printed material of totali-
tartan nature. This material, the
committee asserts. is designed to stir
up religious, racial and class hatreds.
to arouse opposition to national de-
Tense measures, to extol totalitarian
ways of life, to justify totalitarian
conquests, to engender animosity to-
ward democratic nations and peo-
Piles and, in general, to create ma
tional disunity"
The Dies Committee has proposed
that this influx of mailed propa-
ganda be shut off by drastic legisla-
ton excluding from the benefits of
International Postal Convention
reciprocity all postal matter "that Is
directed against the United States"
and otherwise restricting use of the
mails in the distribution of foreign
literature. Postmaster General Wal
ker meanwhile has found tempo
rary means of blocking the postal
blitzkrieg. With the backing of At
torney General Robert Jackson, Mr..
Walker last December ruled that
propaganda sent to this country by
foreign agents abroad who have not
registered with the State Department
is "unmailables" Since the issuance
of this ruling, postal authorities have
confiscated more than fifteen tons
of mail shipped here from Russia,
Germany, italy and Japan. Most of
the mail arrived at Pacific ports. 1t
was these seizures that prompted the
Russian Ambassadors protest to the
State Department.
If the Ambassadors representa-
tions to the Secretary Of State serve
to bring this whole matter to head,
that is all to the good, for the situa-
ton is one about which American
citizens have just as much right to
be disturbed as the Russians. Mr..
Walker agrees with the Dies Commit
tee that Congress should take legis-
lative action, but he prefers regula-
tion and exposure of mailed propa-
ganda to the committees censorship
like proposals. Some congressional
action must be taken quickly, or for
eign agents will circumvent the pres
ent postal ruling by the simple ex-
pedient of registering their names
with the State Department.