Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/229/288/case.html
Timestamp: 2017-06-23 06:48:20
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Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 9', '§ 14', '§ 396', '§ 99', '§ 5', '§ 15', '§ 7']

Lewis Publishing Co. v. Morgan (full text) :: 229 U.S. 288 (1913) :: Justia US Supreme Court Center Log In
U.S. Supreme CourtLewis Publishing Co. v. Morgan, 229 U.S. 288 (1913)Lewis Publishing Company v. MorganNos. 819, 818Argued December 2, 3, 1912Decided June 10, 1913229 U.S. 288APPEALS FROM THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
"SEC. 2. . . . That it shall be the duty of the editor, publisher, business manager, or owner of every newspaper, magazine, periodical, or other publication, to file with the Postmaster General and the postmaster at the office at which said publication is entered, not later than the first day of April and the first day of October of each year, on blanks furnished by the Post Office Department, a sworn statement setting forth the names and post office addresses of the editor and managing editor, publisher, business managers, and owners, and, in addition, the stockholders, if the publication be owned by a corporation, and also the names of known bondholders, mortgagees, or other security holders, and also, in the case of daily newspapers, there shall be included in such statement the average of the number of copies of each issue of such publication sold or distributed to paid subscribers during the preceding six months: Provided, That the provisions of this paragraph shall not apply to religious, fraternal, temperance, and scientific or other similar publications: Provided, further, That it shall not be necessary to include in such statement the names of persons owning less than one percentum of the total amount of stock, bonds, mortgages, or other securities. A copy of such sworn statement shall be published in the second issue of such newspaper, magazine, or other publication printed Page 229 U. S. 297 next after the filing of such statement. Any such publication shall be denied the privileges of the mail if it shall fail to comply with the provisions of this paragraph within ten days after notice by registered letter of such failure."
The two appellants, publishers of newspapers in the City of New York, complaining that this legislation abridged the freedom of the press protected by the First, and constituted a denial of the due process of law guaranteed by the Fifth, Amendment to the Constitution, filed their bills against designated officials of the United States to prevent the enforcement of the provision in question. The bills were dismissed for want of equity, and this appeal was taken directly to this Court because of the rights asserted under the Constitution. Coming to define the controversy in order to appreciate and restrict the issues, to the end that we may pass on none but the questions which are necessary to be decided, it is to be observed that there are some differences in the mode in which the cases are stated in the pleadings and in the argument. But, after all, these divergences give rise to no real distinction between the two cases, and we hence treat them as one. At the outset, in order to state in the most direct way the grievances which the publishers deem they have suffered, we reproduce, retaining the italics, the statement made on that subject in the opening passages of the argument of the counsel for the Lewis Publishing Company: Page 229 U. S. 298
"The newspaper law whose constitutionality is in this suit called into question is neither in form nor substance a law to regulate the carriage of the mails, but to regulate journalism."
"The law in question makes no reference to the mails, except that it uses exclusion therefrom as a means of enforcing this censorship of the press."
"This will be hereafter referred to as the inquisitorial provision."
"This will be hereafter referred to as the publicity provision."
And thus interpreting the assailed provision not as a Page 229 U. S. 299 mere exertion of legislative power to additionally prescribe the conditions by which publishers might continue to enjoy the right to participate in the large pecuniary advantages and other privileges created in their favor through the classification of mail matter, but, on the contrary, treating the provision as a substantive exercise of a legislative authority not possessed, and which unduly restricted the freedom of the press, thinly disguised as a regulation of the mails and enforceable by an absolute exclusion from the right to all mail service, the legal propositions advanced are as follows:
On the other hand, putting aside what we deem to be minor subdivisions, broadly stated, all the contentions of the government are reducible to the following: (a) that the assailed provision in no sense can be considered as an attempted exertion of power to regulate the freedom of the press, or even as the exercise of the legislative authority to regulate the mails in the larger or general sense of that term, since, when rightly construed, the provision only deals with what is known as second-class mail matter, and imposes conditions necessary to be complied with to Page 229 U. S. 300 enable publishers to participate in the great and exclusive privileges and advantages which arise from the right to use the second-class mail; (b) that the precedent conditions thus imposed are relevant to the purpose which was intended to be accomplished by Congress in creating the second-class mail privilege, and are either directly or incidentally embraced in the power to regulate the mails, and, in doing so, to confer the second-class privilege; (c) that even if these propositions be not well founded, and the provision be given the significance attributed to it by the publishers, nevertheless it is valid as an exertion by Congress of its power to establish post offices and post roads -- a power which conveys an absolute right of legislative selection as to what shall be carried in the mails, and which therefore is not in any wise subject to judicial control, even although in a given case it may be manifest that a particular exclusion is but arbitrary, because resting on no discernible distinction, nor coming within any discoverable principle of justice or public policy.
An abstract of the laws relating to the postal service from early Colonial times (1639) and under the Constitution down to and including the year 1888 will be found in the report of the Postmaster General for the year 1888. A condensed yet comprehensive statement of the general Page 229 U. S. 301 results of the legislation from the first statute on the subject, February 20, 1792, 1 Stat. 235, c. 7, to the Act of May 12, 1910, 36 Stat. 366, c. 230, is contained in the report of the Commission on Second-class Mail Matter, communicated by the President to Congress on February 22, 1912, pp. 13-18.
"Under that six-word grant of power, the great postal system of this country has been built up, involving an annual revenue and expenditure of over five hundred millions of dollars, the maintenance of 60,000 post offices, with hundreds of thousands of employees, the carriage of more than fifteen billions of pieces of mail matter per year, weighing over two billion of pounds, the incorporation of railroads, the establishment of the rural free delivery system, the money order system, by which more than half Page 229 U. S. 302 a billion of dollars a year is transmitted from person to person, the postal savings bank, the parcels post, an aeroplane mail service, the suppression of lotteries, and a most efficient suppression of fraudulent and criminal schemes, impossible to be reached in any other way."
Only particularly concerned, as we are, with the legislation relating to the carriage of newspapers in the mails, we need not stop to generally demonstrate the accuracy of the statements we have made. An abstract from and reference to the statutes, chronologically arranged, relating particularly to discriminations in favor of the carriage of newspapers in the mail, will be found in a statement made by W. A. Glasgow, Jr., Esq., before the Postal Commission of 1906-07, forming part of House Document, Vol. 98, beginning at 541. And a consideration of the statutes referred to in this abstract will demonstrate the legislative inauguration of and persistent adhesion to what is aptly described in the report of the Commission on Second-class Mail Matter as "the historic policy of encouraging by low postal rates the dissemination of current intelligence." Indeed, we think also that it is not open to controversy that a review of these statutes will demonstrate that it was always conceived not only that Congress might so exert its power as to favor the circulation of newspapers by giving special mail advantages, but that it also possessed the authority to fix a general standard to which publishers seeking to obtain the proffered privileges must conform in order to obtain them. Nothing affords a more apt illustration of the assumed existence of the power in Congress to discriminate on the subject than was shown as early as 1845 by the Act of March 3 of that year, 5 Stat. 735, § 9, c. 43, by which, although there was secured to the government a virtual monopoly in the transportation "of any letters, packets, or packages of letters" by forbidding the establishment of "any private express or expresses" for their conveyance on mail routes, it was declared that the Page 229 U. S. 303 restrictions should not apply to the transportation of newspapers, pamphlets, magazines, and periodicals.
But it is useless to pursue the subject in detail, since, as the result of legislation, beginning with the Act of March 3, 1863, c. 71, 12 Stat. pp. 704 et seq., and embracing statutes which are noted in the margin, [Footnote 1] it had come to pass on August 24, 1912, when the provision here assailed was enacted, that mail matter, disregarding mere subordinate subdivisions, was divided into four general classes -- the first class embracing letters and printed matter, the second-class covering newspapers and periodicals, the third, books and pamphlets, and the fourth merchandise. And it is obvious and is not disputed that the classification thus adopted was based not upon merely inherent distinctions or differences in the nature and character of the articles as mailable matter and the cost of their carriage, but rested upon broad principles of public policy -- in other words, upon the conceptions of Congress as to how far it was wise for the general welfare to give advantages to one class not enjoyed by another. It is not necessary to stop to enumerate the exceptional privileges and great advantages which were offered to publishers of newspapers by the classification thus adopted, since it is not questioned that, as a result of giving them the benefits of the second-class rates, pecuniary advantages of great consequence to them resulted which, when conjoined with the exceptional administrative and other privileges which were accorded under that classification, undoubtedly operated a very great discrimination in Page 229 U. S. 304 their favor. It was obviously this result of the legislation which caused the Postmaster General, at page 6 of his report to Congress for the year 1907, to say that, "by acts of Congress passed in 1874, 1879, 1885, and 1894, a privileged class has been created." And, without going into detail or intending by citing them to treat the figures as being other than illustrative, the subject is illumined by a statement made in the brief for the government that the rate for first-class or letter mail is of such a character as to produce a profit of seventy millions a year to the government, while for the second or newspaper class, the rates are such as to entail upon the government a loss of seventy millions of dollars each year -- a result which it is moreover stated is brought about by the fact that letter mail under the classification is subjected to a rate eighty times higher than that given newspapers under the second-class, and that, while not so large, a very great discrimination also exists against the other classes and in favor of the second-class.
But the mere distinction between the classes is not the only measure of the exceptional privileges accorded to publishers, for within the second-class under which they are placed, advantages are given them not possessed by others in that class. For instance, the postage on a newspaper coming under the second-class rate when mailed by an individual is higher than is the rate of postage exacted for the mailing of the same newspaper by publishers or news agents. While it cannot be questioned that the conferring of the special privileges above stated was, at least in form, a discrimination against the public generally, beyond doubt, however, in the legislative mind they were deemed not to be of that character because the purpose of their bestowal was to secure to the public the benefits to result from "the wide dissemination of intelligence as to current events." Certain, however, as is this view, it is equally also certain that, for the purpose of securing the Page 229 U. S. 305 public benefits which it was conceived would result from the giving of the privilege, it was deemed that the power and duty existed to fix a standard which should be complied with by those who wished to enjoy the privilege -- a result manifested by the following provisions of § 14 of the Act of March 3, 1879, c. 180, 20 Stat. 359:
"Fourth. It must be originated and published for the dissemination of information of a public character, or devoted to literature, the sciences, arts, or some special industry, and having a legitimate list of subscribers; Provided, however, That nothing herein contained shall be so construed as to admit to the second-class rate regular publications designed primarily for advertising purposes, or for free circulation, or for circulation at nominal rates."
And the long settled administrative practice in enforcing these conditions serves to show what was deemed to be their importance and the necessity for applying them to the end that the results intended to be accomplished by Congress might be realized. Prior to 1887, the enforcement of the conditions exacted as a prerequisite to the enjoyment of second-class mail privileges depended upon the action of postmasters throughout the United States, and although in the discharge of their duty they were governed by regulations and instructions promulgated by the Post Office Department, there was certainly laxity Page 229 U. S. 306 and possible confusion. In 1887, to remedy this condition, under the authority conferred upon him by Rev.Stat. § 396, the Postmaster General promulgated new rules and regulations. It suffices briefly to point out the means by which uniformity in administration was secured. Those desiring to obtain the second-class privileges were compelled to make written application for entry of their publications at the local post office, to file copies of the publications, to make affidavit to the essential facts, and to make written answers to questions propounded which were deemed to be essential to show the existence of the conditions precedent imposed by the statute. A copy of the questions required to be answered are in the margin. [Footnote 2] Page 229 U. S. 307 One controlling authority for passing upon all applications for entry was provided by vesting the Third Assistant Postmaster General with power to that end, that officer being authorized in case of approval of the application to empower the postmaster at the proper office to issue a certificate of entry. Upon the issue of the certificate, it was made the duty of the publisher to print upon each copy of the publication, so entered, the following: Page 229 U. S. 308 "Entered at the post office at _________ as second-class matter under the act of ____."
The reasons which cause us to think this to be the case are these: (a) because the provision is part of a Post Office Appropriation Act, and naturally therefore gives rise to the inference that it concerns the general subject of the mails, there being an entire absence of anything justifying even a surmise, if such a point of view could be indulged in under any circumstances, that Congress was intentionally exerting power not delegated to it, and consciously Page 229 U. S. 309 violating an express prohibition of the Constitution, and for that reason clothed its exertion of power in the disguise of postal legislation; (b) because the text makes clear the fact that the legislation was exclusively addressed to the regulation of second-class mail, and was shaped in contemplation of the long established law and regulations governing that class. This result becomes apparent when it is observed that the provision makes it the duty of the publisher to "enter" his publication, since, by practice and regulation prevailing during a long period of time, it had come to pass that the word "to enter" had exclusive relation to a duty to be performed in order to obtain the benefits of the second-class classification. In the absence, therefore, of some express indication to the contrary, no other conclusion is possible than that the word was used with reference to its received official and administrative significance. In fact, in view of the history which we have given of the development of the second-class classification and the reasons which led to the system of entry, unless the settled significance of the word be given to it, it would have no meaning whatever.
Further, we think that because, as finally enacted, the provision which was in one paragraph as it passed the House of Representatives, in the Senate was divided into two paragraphs affords no ground for contending that the requirement as to advertisements contained in the second printed paragraph is not embraced within and controlled by the conclusion we have stated. We say this because the second printed paragraph by reference clearly manifests that its provision applied to "such" newspapers, periodicals, etc. -- that is, the newspapers or periodicals covered by the first paragraph, and which, by its terms, are submitted to the duty of entry in order to enjoy the privileges conferred. Nor do we think there is in reason ground to support the proposition that, because the provision sanctioned the duty to make entry by an exclusion from Page 229 U. S. 310 the mails, it hence is a general regulation, and not simply conferring the right of availing of the second-class privileges. The proposition assumes that the command is that, for failure to comply with the conditions imposed, there shall be a denial of the use of the mails, while in fact the provision is there shall be a denial of the "privileges" of the mail -- a qualification which, in view of the great advantages given by the second-class mail classification and of the fact that, in the reports made to Congress concerning that classification, attention was directed to the circumstance that a privileged class was thereby created goes to show the conscious purpose to provide only for the exceptional privileges with which the provision was dealing.
Equally wanting in force is the further contention that, because the regulation in the second paragraph to the effect that paid matter shall be marked as advertisement is sanctioned by a penalty, therefore, at least as to such provision, an independent regulation of the press was intended, divorced from the requirements as to entry contained in the first paragraph. We reach this conclusion because when the paragraph referred to is accurately considered, it makes more cogent the view we have taken, and additionally demonstrates that the legislative mind, in enacting it, was sensitively alive to the fact that the provision alone concerned the privileges of second-class mail, and the administrative rule which for so many years prevailed on the subject. In other words, that as, under existing administrative regulations, the exactions as to entry contemplated conditions existing at the time of the application for entry, and the condition as to advertisements concerned conduct of a publisher after entry, which could not therefore be a condition precedent to entry, a penalty for the latter was devised in order to harmonize with the requirements as to admission to the second-class mail. Page 229 U. S. 311
But even if we were to omit the word "privilege" which qualifies the exclusion from the mails as provided in the first paragraph, so as to cause the provision to read "shall be denied the (privileges of the) mails," there would be nevertheless no room for doubt. As we have seen, coeval with the establishment of the system of entry, as the means of securing the privileges of the second-class mail, and presumably because of the overshadowing advantages and benefits which were conferred by that system upon those entitled to participate in them, the right to such admission came to be indifferently described as "the entry to the mails of newspapers," etc., the "publications admitted to the mails," etc., and the duty which was cast upon the Third Assistant Postmaster General, in passing upon such subjects, as "the responsibility of finally admitting such matters to the mail," etc. See the report of the Third Assistant Postmaster General, contained in the report of the Department for the year 1887 at 699, where, after referring to the regulations concerning entry, the quoted expressions are employed. Moreover, when it is considered that the provision was dealing only with the second-class privilege, it cannot in reason be assumed that conditions were imposed dealing with a subject with which the statute was not concerned in order thereby to afford ground for asserting it to be unconstitutional, when the elementary rule is that every reasonable intendment to avoid such a result must be indulged in. United States v. Delaware & Hudson Co., 213 U. S. 366, 213 U. S. 407. Without stopping, however, to review the subjects in detail, we content ourselves with saying that we think neither the reference to expressions in debate, upon the concession for the sake of argument that they are competent to be looked at, nor an opinion of the Attorney General upon which reliance is placed, are adequate to control or modify the conclusion we have reached as to the meaning of the provision. Page 229 U. S. 312
As, therefore, the assailed provision, when rightly construed, only affixes additional conditions for admission to a privileged class of mail, and it was merely designed to provide for the continuance on compliance with designated conditions of a system under which vast sums of public Page 229 U. S. 313 money were expended, to the end that the power and influence of the press might be expanded, it results that there was no foundation for the meaning attributed to the provision in question by the complainants, and on which the grievances upon which they relied rested.
We come, then, to determine whether the provision as thus construed is valid. That Congress, in exerting its power concerning the mails, has the comprehensive right to classify which it has exerted from the beginning, and therefore may exercise its discretion for the purpose of furthering the public welfare as it understands it we think it too clear for anything but statement; the exertion of the power, of course at all times and under all conditions, being subject to the express or necessarily implied limitations of the Constitution. From this it results that it was and is in the power of Congress, in "the interest of the dissemination of current intelligence," to so legislate as to the mails, by classification or otherwise, as to favor the widespread circulation of newspapers, periodicals, etc., even although the legislation on that subject, when considered intrinsically, apparently seriously discriminates against the public and in favor of newspapers, periodicals, etc., and their publishers. Although in the form in which the contentions here made by the publishers which we have at the outset reproduced, as literally stated, seem to challenge this proposition by suggesting that the power of Congress to classify is controlled and limited by conditions intrinsically inhering in the carriage of the mails, we assume that such apparent contention was merely the result of an unguarded form of statement, since we cannot bring our minds to the conclusion that it was intended on behalf of the publishers to generally assail as an infringement of the constitutional prohibition against the invasion of the freedom of the press the legislation which, for a long series of years, has favored the press by discriminating so as to secure to it great pecuniary and other concessions, Page 229 U. S. 314 and a wider circulation and consequently a greater sphere of influence. If, however, we are mistaken in this view, then we think it suffices to say that the contention is obviously without merit. This being true, the attack on the provision in question as a violation of the Constitution because infringing the freedom of the press and depriving of property without due process of law rests only upon the illegality of the conditions which the provision exacts in return for the right to enjoy the privileges and advantages of the second-class mail classification. The question therefore is only this: are the conditions which were exacted incidental to the power exerted of conferring on the publishers of newspapers, periodicals, etc., the privileges of the second-class classification, or are they so beyond the scope of the exercise of that power as to cause the conditions to be repugnant to the Constitution? We say this is the question, since necessarily if the power exists to legislate by discriminating in favor of publishers, the right to exercise that power carries with it the authority to do those things which are incidental to the power itself or which are plainly necessary to make effective the principal authority when exerted. In other words, from this point of view, the illuminating rule announced in M'Culloch v. Maryland, 4 Wheat. 316, and Gibbons v. Ogden, 9 Wheat. 1, governs here as it does in every other case where an exertion of power under the Constitution comes under consideration. The ultimate and narrow question, therefore, is are the requirements of the provision in question incidental to the purpose intended to be secured by the second-class classification?
Let us consider the matter from the historical and from the inherent standpoint. Under the statute, as we have seen, for a long series of years, a publication primarily devoted to advertisements was not entitled to the benefit of the second-class classification, and by a long administrative construction, embodied in the regulations, the disclosure of the names of the proprietors as well as of the Page 229 U. S. 315 editors of a publication which has sought to be entered as second-class matter was required. The new conditions imposed are first, that, where there is matter the publication for which is paid for, the fact of such payment shall be disclosed by marking the matter as an advertisement, and second, the disclosure as to ownership, etc., previously exacted, is enlarged by making it necessary in the case of a corporation to furnish the names of the stockholders, and also requiring that the names of the principal creditors, etc., be given. As the right to consider the character of the publication as an advertising medium was previously deemed to be incidental to the exercise of the power to classify for the purpose of the second-class mail, it is impossible in reason to perceive why the new condition as to marking matter which is paid for as an advertisement is not equally incidental to the right to classify. And the additional exactions as to disclosure of stockholders, principal creditors, etc., also are as clearly incidental to the power to classify as are the requirements as to disclosure of ownership, editors, etc., which for so many years formed the basis of the right of admission to the classification. We say this because of the intimate relation which exists between ownership and debt, since debt, in its ultimate conception, is a dismemberment of ownership, and the power which it confers over an owner is, by the common knowledge of mankind, often the equivalent of the control which would result from ownership itself. Considered intrinsically, no completer statement of the relation which the newly exacted conditions bear to the great public purpose which induced Congress to continue in favor of the publishers of newspapers at vast public expense the low postal rate as well as other privileges accorded by the second-class mail classification can be made than was expressed in the report of the Senate committee, stating the intent of the legislation which we have already excerpted -- that is, to secure to the public in Page 229 U. S. 316 "the dissemination of knowledge of current events," by means of newspapers, the names not only of the apparent, but of what might prove to be the real and substantial, owners of the publications, and to enable the public to know whether matter which was published was what it purported to be, or was in substance a paid advertisement. We repeat that, in considering this subject, we are concerned not with any general regulation of what should be published in newspapers, not with any condition excluding from the right to resort to the mails, but we are concerned solely and exclusively with the right on behalf of the publishers to continue to enjoy great privileges and advantages at the public expense -- a right given to them by Congress upon condition of compliance with regulations deemed by that body incidental and necessary to the complete fruition of the public policy lying at the foundation of the privileges accorded.
Act of June 8, 1872, c. 335, §§ 99 et seq., 17 Stat. 296; June 23, 1874, c. 456, §§ 5 et seq., 18 Stat. 232; July 12, 1876, c. 179, § 15, 19 Stat. 82; March 3, 1879, c. 180, §§ 7 et seq., 20 Stat. 358; June 9, 1884, c. 73, 23 Stat. 40; March 3, 1885, c. 342, 23 Stat. 387; July 16, 1894, c. 137, 28 Stat. 105; June 6, 1900, c. 801, 31 Stat. 660; May 12, 1910, c. 230, 36 Stat. 366. See also Act of August 24, 1912, c. 389, 37 Stat. p. 551.
"V. APPLICATIONS FOR ENTRY OF PUBLICATIONS AS SECOND CLASS MATTER."
"(14) What number of bona fide subscribers have you for the next issue of your paper, made up as follows:"
"i. Bona fide exchanges, one copy for another, with existing second-class publications?"