p. 24 | A “Liberty” Free Press Extra by C. S. LONGACRE

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 24, 1916

A “Liberty” Free Press Extra

By C. S. LONGACRE

What are you doing to assist in the battle for the defense of free speech, a free press, and religious liberty in America? The battle is waging. According to the Catholic press, Roman Catholic organizations are sending out a form letter to every Catholic family in America, urging them to sign the same and forward it to their Congressmen, asking favorable action upon bills, which if enacted into law, would empower the Postmaster-General to shut out of the mails any book, pamphlet, or other kind of publication offensive to the Catholic Church, or as expressed in one bill, any publication having “any article therein which tends to expose any race, creed, or religion to either hatred, contempt, ridicule, or obloquy.”

The two Sunday bills which have been introduced, one in the Senate and the other in the House of Representatives, would make it a penal offense of twenty dollars fine, or sixty days imprisonment, for a person to make a “business of shaving, hair cutting, shampooing, or the like on Sunday in the District of Columbia;” and if he were to do it a second time, he would have no option but to go to prison for sixty days.

Hearings are soon to be held on these bills. We have inserted petition blanks in the Liberty Extra, which appear on the last two pages. These petition blanks should be cut out and signed, and then be sent by our people to their respective Congressmen, in reference to both the press bills and the compulsory Sunday-observance bills.

Now is the time to work. These sixteen-page Extras will be supplied at $3 a hundred, or $8 a thousand. They contain just the stirring material upon these important subjects that the public ought to have. While these bills are a live national issue, our people ought to scatter these Extras like the leaves of autumn, get all the signatures to the petitions possible, and forward them to their Senators and Representatives in Congress. They should urge other people to use the petitions as well. Missionary societies ought to order the Liberty Extra in thousand lots at once. A single mail recently brought from the Southern New England Conference an order for 5,000 copies. This looks good. After you read this Extra, you will agree with the writer that it ought to be put into every home in your neighborhood. It is fairly bristling with stirring items and valuable information. Help us to put this Extra into the hands of your neighbors, so that they may join our forces in achieving another victory for free American institutions and the liberty of conscience. Order at once, and do not fail to send the petitions, duly signed, to your Congressmen.

C. S. LONGACRE