Letter from W. Van Benthuysen to the Honorable Henry H. Bingham, Chairman, Post Offices and Post Roads Committee
Record Group 233: Records of the U.S. House of RepresentativesSeries: Petitions and Memorials of the Committee on Post Office and Civil ServiceFile Unit: Petitions and Memorials, Resolutions of State Legislatures, and Related Documents Which Were Referred to the Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads during the 51st Congress
Reproduced at the National Archives
FROM SENDING ITS MATTER BY EXPRESS WHICH IT WILL DO AS SOON AS
THE AMENDMENT TO SEC 3894 IS ADOPTED BECAUSE IT APPEARS THAT
THE POSTAL LAW IS DEFECTIVE IN NOT MENTIONING A REGULAR EXPRES
CO AMONG THOSE CARRIERS THAT ARE MENTIONED. YOU WILL FIND
THAT PRIVATE EXPRESS COS ARE MENTIONED BUT NOT REGULAR EXPRESS
COS AND THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE HAS RULED A LETTER TO
ME THAT "A PRIVATE EXPRESS IS IN NO WISE A REGULAR EXPRESS."
YOU WILL SEE BY THIS THAT THE AMENDED SEC 3894 WILL NOT
STOP THE BUSINESS AS THE EXPRESS COS WILL BE USED.
TO COVER THIS DEFECT SECTIONS 3983 3984 3985 MUST BE
AMENDED SO AS TO INCLUDE REGULAR EXPRESS COS OR ANY OTHER
KIND OF CARRIER.
A VERY EFFECTUAL REMEDY WOULD BE TO AMEND THE
INTERSTATE COMMERCE ACT MAKING IT A MISDEMEANOR TO CARRY
LOTTERY MATTER FROM A FOREIGN STATE OR ONE OF OUR STATES INTO
ANOTHER WITH A HEVY FINE AND IMPRISONMENT PENALTY.
SEC 3929 AS AMENDED READS ASF FOLLOWS
[handwritten with arrows pointing where it should go] or other
**SEC. 2. That section 3,929 of the Re-
vised Statues be and the same is hereby
amended to read as follows :
"The Postmaster-General may, upon
evidence satisfactory to him that any per-
son or company is engaged in conducting
any lottery, gift enterprise or scheme for
the distribution of money or of any real or
personal property by lot, chance or drawing
of any kind, or that any person or company
is conducting any other scheme or device
for obtaining money or property of any
kind through the mails by means of false
or fraudulent pretenses, representations
or promises, instruct postmasters at any
post-office at which registered letters arrive
directed to any such person or company, or
to the agent or representative of any such
person or company, whether such agent or
representative is acting as an individual or
as a firm, bank, corporation or association
of any kind, to return all such registered
letters to the postmaster at the office at
which they were originally mailed,
with: the word 'Fraudulent' plainly
written or stamped upon the out-
side thereof, and all such letters so
returned to such postmasters shall be
by them returned to the writers there-
of under such regulations as the Post-
master-General may prescribe. But nothing
contained in this section shall be so construed
as to authorize any postmaster or other
person to open any letter not addressed to
himself. The public advertisement by such
person or company so conducting such lot-
tery, gift enterprise, scheme or device, that
remittances for the same may be made by
registered letters to any other person, firm,
bank, corporation or association named
therein, shall be held to be an acknowledg-
ment of the existence of said agency by all
the parties named therein."
NO LETTERS WILL BE REGISTERED UNDER THIS SECTION. ALL
REMITTANCES WILL BE SENT IN LETTERS NOT REGISTERED AS MONEY
ORDERS CHECKS ETC ARE MADE TO ORDER AND ARE JUST AS SAFE AS
IN REGISTERED LETTERS. IF YOU WILL ADD "OR OTHER" AFTER
THE WORD "REGISTERED" AS ABOVE INDICATED YOU WILL PULL THE BUS-
INESS UP BY THE ROOTS.
IF YOU CAN STOP THE DELIVERYOOF REGIS-
TERED LETTERS YOU CAN STOP ORDINARY LETTERS.
DO NOT UNDERSTAND ME AS CONDEMNING THESE SECTIONS. ON
THE CONTRARY THEY ARE ALL GOOD BUT TO KILL THE VICE WE MUST
HAVE MORE AND LEAVE NO LOOPHOLE FOR THE CO TO CRAWL THROUGH.
I KNOW THAT YOU WILL REALIZE THE IMPORTANCE OF MAKIG THE
CONTEMPLATED LEGISLATION EFFECTIVE FOR IF IT TURNS OUT OTHER- [complete transcript at link]
