An Alarming Tendency by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jan 24, 1911

An Alarming Tendency

By Editor

In an opinion of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals, eighth circuit, delivered by Judge William C. Hook, of Kansas, Nov. 21, 1910, is one utterance which shows a dangerous tendency. The court says:

The power of Congress extends to the regulation of the entire postal system of the country. It may prescribe what can be carried in the mails and what shall be excluded. It may in its wisdom confine the use of the mails to sealed letters, excluding everything else, or it may extend it to papers, periodicals, and books, and to large packages of merchandise, as in the parcel-post systems of other countries. It may even prescribe the size, shape, weight, and character of contents of every mailable packet, and limit the superscription to the bare name and address of the person for whom intended; and it may also declare a violation of its regulations a public offense, and fix the punishment therefor.

Congress, we presume, can do all this; but the opinion shows the growing tendency in some circles toward the censorship of publicity. The Government of the United States kidnapped miners in Colorado, and transported them to Idaho, and put them on trial for murder. Warren, editor of "Appeal to Reason," offered a reward for the kidnapping of Ex-Governor Taylor of Kentucky, a fugitive from justice, and sent this offer broadcast on postal cards. The courts seem to have evaded the true issue, and turned the whole matter over the wrong use of the mails. The above is from the opinion in his case.

Now a crime in the sight of the law includes not only the act, but the INTENT. That Warren's intent was not criminal appears from the fact that he submitted the post-card to the local postmaster, a regularly constituted United States officer, who approved it. The Springfield "Republican" aptly asks what the Federal Government would have done if the State of Kentucky had sent out such a notice through the mails. It is not even thinkable that Kentucky would have been prosecuted. Why Warren, then? We are not a Socialist, but we do believe that they are entitled to the same rights as other men.

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