Divine Schadenfreude

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

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