CHARGES AGAINST THE REFORM BUREAU.
By Editor
At last the International Reform Bureau at Washington has met a practical opposition to its methods of procedure. Major Duncan B. Harrison has brought charges before the House Judiciary Committee against the Bureau, of which Rev. Wilbur F. Crafts is chief, together with other associations that affiliate more or less, of illegally using congressmen's franked envelopes for other than official business. We have often wondered how they could be allowed such an extensive use of this official privilege for private work, but supposed there was some way by which the law could be evaded. The bureau has for years been sending out its matter at government expense. Some good measures have been advocated, especially in the temperance line, but that does not excuse illegal methods. But the ultimate purpose of the Reform Bureau is religious legislation, and these other measures are simply stepping-stones to sufficient influence to eventually carry that point. It is well that the illegal use of the franking privilege is being looked after by somebody. It is a dangerous abuse of congressional prerogative. It is worthy of note also that the chief manipulator of this fraud upon the governmental postal revenues is also prominent in endeavoring to have certain legitimate libraries shut off from periodical postage rates, while himself sending one or more that are of a doubtful class. Another charge that Major Harrison brings against the Reform Bureau is that of fraud in continually assuming to represent 27,000,000 Christians—practically all the professed Christians in the country—in all of their petitions to Congress. We know this fraudulent representative petition scheme has been in vogue for many years. It has been several times exposed, but it still goes on, and its manipulators have boasted that it frightens a goodly number of congressmen.