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298 NATIONAL POLITICS I918-I922
"Yessir. But the Republicans has got a good come-back. They say that when the Democrats was runnin' things the robbers never knew when the mails was goin' to arrive!"
Postal rates, in reference to certain classes of mail, may have important significance beyond mere costs. In 1921 the department had to cope with a situation involving a civil liberty which found its establishment in our American tradition when Andrew Hamilton courageously upheld the right of Peter Zenger to expose in print a corrupt New York governor. The situation in 1921 was far less spectacular, but important in preventing a precedent limiting freedom of the press. Certain "radical" newspapers had been denied the second-class privilege but were admitted to the mails at a higher rate of postage.
I granted second-class privileges to the New York Call, the New York Liberator, and the Milwaukee Leader on the theory that if these publications were permitted to use the mails at all they should be given the same privileges granted other similar, publications. To deny second-class privileges to a publication would be, in effect, to declare that publication non-mailable. In the case of the Liberator, a monthlv magazine published in New York, the application for the second-class privilege had been on file since the date of its founding, February 11, 191 8. Every issue since that time had been accepted at third-class rates, considerably higher. As a result of admission to second-class, the Post Office refunded to the Liberator $11,277, tne difference which the magazine had been charged over second-class rates.
In connection with the granting of these privileges, certain points in question were made clear. One was that applications for second class would be granted if found to comply with the law— that is, if they were mailable at all. Another was that if there were on foot a conspiracy to destroy our established government by force or violence, heretofore claimed by the department as a reason for not granting permits, the Department of Justice would deal with any conspirators as prescribed by law. We had no hesitancy in suppressing any publications that fell within the prohibitions of public law, including the Espionage Act of 1 91 7, but there were laws in this country safeguarding the integrity of the freedom of the press, and these laws also had to be scrupulously observed.
Not directly related to press freedom, but involving a type of censorship, was H.R. 8508, to which I objected early in January 1922. The bill was primarily designed to prevent the transportation of lottery and betting devices through the mails, but Section 5 made it an abuse for newspapers to publish racing news. I was in favor of the bill but opposed to Section 5. The tendency toward curbing public morals through legislation was growing; but as witnessed by the failure of the prohibition amendment, a whole people cannot be legislated into a given pattern of