p. 23 | “Liberty” Extra by Editor

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 2, 1916

“Liberty” Extra

By Editor

ORDERS for large quantities of the Liberty Extra are coming in by mail, telephone, and wire. The first order received for this Extra was from the Southern New England Conference. The 5,000 copies were wanted at once. Other orders for 5,000 copies followed so quickly that our folders have had to run overtime to meet the demand. The present indications are very favorable for a large circulation of this important Extra.

The Liberty Extra deals in a very complete and strong way with the bills pending in Congress for limiting the freedom of the press and the protection of Sunday sacredness. We have never had a stronger extra on any subject than this Extra is on these two important bills that dangerously threaten our special work.

The bill to amend the postal laws is strongly supported in Congress, and has a chance to pass. If we are not unusually active in the prompt circulation of the petitions furnished in each copy of the Extra, it may pass. If this bill becomes a law of the land, the Postmaster-General will have full power to decide whether a paper should be excluded from the mails or not. The existence of our papers would depend upon whether he thought they were “immoral or of a scurrilous character.” If he happened to be a Catholic, he would have to rule in favor of the decision of that church. All Protestant papers would therefore be unmailable sooner or later, because the Catholics have in their official organs already classified any paper in opposition to their church as “immoral and scurrilous.”

Whether the Postmaster-General be a Catholic, or a Protestant, or neither, the full control of the mails by one man cannot be for the best good of the nation, nor for the welfare of publishers. The bill cannot be favorable to our work. We must work hard to defeat it. Liberty Extra and the petitions will do it if we give them a chance.