p. 3 | A Lesson in “Reform” by Editor

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Aug 3, 1905

A Lesson in “Reform”

By Editor

In the Review of July 20 we called attention in a brief note to the questionable course of the International Reform Bureau of this city, conducted by W. F. Crafts, in sending out “reform” literature at government expense by the abuse of the franking privilege.

Since that time several influential papers have exposed the matter quite fully. In order to give to our readers a good view of these “reform” methods, we quote the following paragraphs from a Washington dispatch to the New York Herald which was published in the Pittsburg (Pa.) Times:—

What is declared to be a wholesale misuse of the United States mails and the franking privilege, is now taking place in Washington in the name of reform. The International Reform Bureau, which styles itself “The First Christian Lobby” and which has been engaged in righting everything that its manager deems to be wrong, is using the franks of Senator J. H. Gallinger, of New Hampshire, and Representative Frederick H. Gillett, of Massachusetts, to send through the mails a book about the work in Washington of Rev. Dr. Wilbur F. Crafts, superintendent and treasurer of the International Reform Bureau.

This book is called “Patriotic Studies.” It purports to be a part of the Congressional Record, and contains one document which was ordered to be printed during the second session of the Forty-seventh Congress, on motion of Senator Wellington on Dec. 20, 1902.

The book contains another document, ordered to be printed in the second session of the Fifty-eighth Congress, on motion of Senator Gallinger. On the strength of this last being a bona-fide document, the book has obtained access to the mails on the Congressional franks.

The document in question is “Senate Document No. 150.” It is simply a puff for the International Reform Bureau. It lauds Rev. Wilbur F. Crafts as the bureau’s founder, gives the address of the bureau as No. 206 Pennsylvania Avenue, S. E., and gives its telephone number. It also advertises a great many books printed by Rev. Dr. Crafts, ranging in price from $1.75 to ten cents. The book weighs more than seventeen ounces, so that if it paid postage, it would cost nine cents to send it through the mails as third-class matter.

Enclosed with each copy sent out under frank is a return envelope, also franked. Persons to whom the book is sent are asked to return the book if they do not want to purchase it, and if they do want to purchase it, to use the frank in sending back to the Reform Bureau the sum of twenty-five cents, for the good of the cause. The government is not only giving to the Reform Bureau nine cents postage on each copy of the book sent out from Washington, but also is giving nine cents postage on the return of each copy that does not find a purchaser.

Thirty-five thousand envelopes were printed for the use of the Reform Bureau with the frank of Representative Gillett, which means that thirty-five thousand copies of the book are now burdening the mails, and it is presumed that an equal number of envelopes were printed with the frank of Senator Gallinger for the same purpose. Seventy thousand copies of this book weigh about 1,260,000 ounces, or 78,750 pounds, or thirty-five tons. The postage one way that the government is giving free amounts to $6,300. The return postage would increase the bill to $12,600.

This scheme is carried on without the knowledge of Representative Gillett, who has been absent for several months on a trip to the Pacific Coast. When the scheme of making the United States a free carrier for the sale and return of “Patriotic Studies” was ready to launch, Mr. Bassett, an agent of the Reform Bureau, waited on Mr. Gibbs, Mr. Gillett’s secretary. It was explained how nicely the government could be made the agent of the book merely by enclosing another franked envelope for the return of the publication. Mr. Gibbs refused to sanction the scheme, and said he did not think the postal officials would sanction it. He said Mr. Gillett was absent, and was very careful about the use of his frank, and Mr. Gibbs cautioned the reformers to be very careful about what they did.

The next move was on the post-office of the House of Representatives. The

post-master refused to indorse the plan, and declined to handle the mail matter until it had been passed on by higher officials. Application was next made to the capitol post-office inspector, who looks after such questions. The inspector shook his head. Agents of the Reform Bureau then went to the city post-office here. They saw the superintendent of mails, who said the scheme seemed to him to be so novel and so irregular that he would not let the books go through. Application was made to another officer with the same result.

Finally the request was made to a still higher official, who, eager to help along the Reform Bureau, gave the necessary assent, and since then the mail cars have been fairly groaning beneath loads of “Patriotic Studies.” The book contains a statement covering more than five pages, made by Rev. Dr. Crafts, its superintendent and treasurer, in favor of the Loud Postal bill at a hearing on Jan. 16, 1897.

In an editorial with the heading “Reform Work as a Graft,” the Washington Post refers to this exploit of the International Reform Bureau. We quote two paragraphs:—

One of the recent flagrant cases of grafting in public printing and free mail distribution is that engineered by the Rev. Wilbur F. Crafts, of Washington, whose superhuman energy in behalf of his fellow man has sometimes received the attention of the Post. He is the head of the International Reform Bureau, and is busily engaged in sending out a document called “Patriotic Studies,” under the frank of Senator Gallinger, of New Hampshire. . . . The spectacle of the International Reform Bureau doing its purifying work by means of an insolent and offensive graft is peculiarly edifying. In the thorough reform to be undertaken by Congress, we hope the International Reform Bureau will not be overlooked.

And this is the organization which is working with might and main to make people religious by law! A congressional investigation of a Reform Bureau established on Capitol Hill for the express purpose of improving the quality of congressional legislation is certainly a remarkable turning of the tables.