The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-10-07

State Department. Yet these Con- gressmen appeared to have violat- ed the spirit of the act for which they voted by loaning their sacred free mailing privilege to an or ganization deliberately in the bus- mess of foreign propaganda.
 Furthermore, they appeared to have violated another law passed by their own distinguished body in 1906; namely Title 39, Section 335, which provides:
 "Tt shall be unlawful to lend said frank or permit its use by any committee, organization, or association or permit its use by nay person Sor the benefit or use of any committee, organization or association"
 And yet whole truckloads of mail bearing the frank of Sena- tor Nye, Wheeler, Worth Clark of Idaho, Reynolds of North Caro- Ina, the late Senator Lundeen of Minnesota, and various Congress- men have been turned oyer to the America First Committee, the Make Europe Pay War Debts Committee, the Steuben Society and other isolationist or pro- Ger man organizations.
 HISTORY OF THANKING
 Next time you get a letter from your Congressman or any branch of the Government, it might be well to know that this right of free mail goes back to IT'S when the Continental Congress resolved "That all letters to and from the delegates of the United Colonies, during the sessions of Congress, pass and be carried free of post age, the members being engaged upon their honor not to frank or enclose my letters but their own."
 This privilege was extended to some other branches of the early American government in l782, namely the Commander-in- Chief of the Armies, the heads of the Departments of Finance, of War, and of Foreign Affairs, and mem- bers of Congress while actually attending Congress"
 The frankly privilege today has been stretched a long way since then. Tn fact Post Office author ities compare todays indiscrimin- ate farming out of Congressional franks to a similar situation in 1867 when Postmaster General Randall demanded that the frank ing privilege be withdrawn from Congress. Reporting to President Andrew Johnson, he said:
 "T am compelled again to call attention to the gross frauds perpetrated upon the Depart ment by the violation of the franking privilege in almost all parts of the country. The fac- sinlile franks of different mem bers of Congress are freely used to circulate obscene books and papers, lottery circulars, business cards, and to cover all kinds of business and domestic cOrres- pondence of perosns not author ized by law to frank mailable matter"
 As 6 result the franking privi- lege for Congressmen was reab- olished in 1873, then reinstated in 1875, and broadened again in 1906-- though at all times it has pro- vided that Q Congressman can circulate from the Congressional Record that portion of 1t written by himself.
 WISE MEN or ZION
 Despite the very clear wording of the law, the franked envelopes of Congressman Ham Fish have turned up containing an adver- tisement of the Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion, and damning the Jews. Unquestionably Ham Fish did not write this anti-Sem- itlc literature or even mail 1t. But his franked envelopes were farmed out somehow or other for this purpose.
 Again, Senator Yves frank has been used to circulate a speech by Theo IT. Hoffm ann. National National Chairman of the Steuben Society of America. Nye got e. round the provision that the speech must be written by himself, by inserting Hoffmann's speech in the Congregational Record.
 Again, when Senator Wheeler sent out hla much publicized pcst- card regarding war. which found iis wag AnkQ tho army eampa,