238 



CONGRESS. (LOTTERIES, MISCELLANEOUS, UNCOMPLETED LEGISLATION.) 



through any State be obstructed except in the neces- 

 sary enforcement of the health laws of such State. 



This measure differed from the Senate bill in 

 making its provisions apply to any article of com- 

 merce. The Senate non-concurred in the House 

 amendment, and a conference committee reported 

 Aug. 6, in favor of withdrawing that amend- 

 ment and adopting the measure as originally 

 passed by the Senate. Aug. 8, the President ap- 

 proved the bill. 



Lotteries. The following measure " to amend 

 certain sections of the Revised Statutes relating 

 to lotteries, and for other purposes," was passed 

 by the House of Representatives Aug. 16, 1890 : 



Be it enacted, etc., That section 3894 of the Revised 

 Statutes be, and the same is hereby, amended to read 

 as follows : 



" SEC. 3894. No letter, postal card, or circular con- 

 cerning any lottery, so-called gift concert, or other sim- 

 ilar enterprise offering prizes dependent upon lot or 

 chance, or concerning schemes devised for the purpose 

 of obtaining money or property under false pretenses, 

 and no list of the' drawings at any lottery or similar 

 scheme, and no lottery ticket or part thereof, and no 

 check, draft, bill, money, postal note, or money order 

 for the purchase of any ticket, tickets, or part thereof, 

 or of any share of any chance in any such lottery or 

 gift enterprise, shall be carried in the mail or delivered 

 at or through any post-office or branch thereof, or by 

 any letter carrier ; nor shall any newspaper, circular, 

 pamphlet, or publication of any kind containing any 

 advertisement of any lottery or gift enterprise of any 

 kind offering prizes dependent upon lot or chance, or 

 containing any list of prizes awarded at the drawings 

 of any such lottery or gift enterprise, whether said 

 list is of any part or of all the drawing, be carried in 

 the mail or delivered by any postmaster or letter car- 

 rier. Any person who shall knowingly deposit or 

 cause to be deposited, or who shall knowingly send or 

 cause to be sent, anything to be conveyed or delivered 

 by mail in violation of this section, or who shall know- 

 ingly cause to be delivered by mail anything herein 

 forbidden to be carried by mail, shall be deemed guilty 

 of a misdemeanor, and on conviction shall be pun- 

 ished by a fine of not more than $500 or by imprison- 

 ment for not more than one year, or by both such fine 

 and imprisonment for each offense. Any person vio- 

 lating any of the provisions of this section may be 

 proceeded against oy information or indictment, and 

 tried and punished either in the district at which the 

 unlawful publication was mailed or to which it is car- 

 ried by mail for delivery according to the direction 

 thereon, or at which it is caused to be delivered by 

 mail to the person to whom it is addressed." 



SEC. 2. That section 3929 of the Revised Statutes be, 

 and the same is hereby, amended to read as follow? : 



" SEC. 3929. The Postmaster-General may, upon 

 evidence satisfactory to him that any person or com- 

 pany is engaged in conducting any lottery, girt enter- 

 prise, or scheme for the distribution of money, or of 

 any real or personal property by lot, chance, or draw- 

 ing of any kind, or that any person or company is con- 

 ducting 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 re- 

 turn 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 outside thereof; and all such letters so returned to 



such postmasters shall be by them returned to the 

 writers thereof, 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 lottery, gift 

 enterprise, scheme, or device, that remittances tor the 

 same may be made by registered letters to any other 

 person, firm, bank, corporation ^ or association named 

 therein shall be held to be pmma facie evidence of 

 the existence of said agency by all the parties named 

 therein. But the Postmaster-General shall not be 

 precluded from ascertaining the existence of such 

 agency inany other legal way satisfactory to himself" 



SEC. 3. That section 4041 of the Revised Statutes 

 be, and the same is hereby, amended to read as fol- 

 lows: 



'^ SEO. 4041. The Postmaster-General may, upon 

 evidence satisfactory to him that any person or com- 

 pany is engaged in conducting any lottery, gilt enter- 

 prise, or scheme for the distribution of money, or of 

 any real or personal property by lot, chance, or draw- 

 ing of any kind, or that any person or company is 

 conducting any other scheme tor obtaining money or 



Eroperty of any kind through the mails by means of 

 dse or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or prom- 

 ises, forbid the payment by any postmaster to said 

 person or company of any postal money orders drawn 

 to his or its order, or in nis or its favor, or to the 

 agent of any such person or company, whether such 

 agent is acting as an individual or as a firm, bank, cor- 

 poration, or association of any kind, and may provide 

 by regulation for the return to the remitters of the 

 sums named in such money orders. But this shall 

 not authorize any person to open any letter not ad- 

 dressed to himself. The public advertisement by 

 such person or company so conducting any such lot- 

 tery, gift enterprise, scheme, or device, that remit- 

 tances for the same may be made by means of postal 

 money orders to any other person, firm, bank, corpo- 

 ration, or association named therein shall be held to be 

 acknowledgment of the existence of said agency by 

 all the parties named therein." 



The Senate passed the measure Sept. 16, and 

 the President approved it Sept. 27. 



Miscellaneous. The extradition treaty with 

 Great Britian and the Samoan treaty were rati- 

 fied by the Senate. 



Laws were passed selecting Chicago as the site 

 of the World's Fair and providing for a national 

 commission ; requiring the superintendent of the 

 census to collect statistics of farms and mort- 

 gage indebtedness ; increasing the pension of 

 those totally disabled and permanently helpless 

 to $72 a month ; providing for assistant secreta- 

 ries of the war and navy ; authorizing the Presi- 

 dent to make regulations for the prevention of 

 the spread of contagious diseases from one State 

 to another ; granting certificates of discharge to 

 persons enlisted under assumed names during the 

 civil war ; providing for the exportation of fer- 

 mented liquor in bond without payment of in- 

 ternal-revenue tax ; extending the criminal juris- 

 diction of the Federal courts to the Great Lakes ; 

 to provide for the inspection, under the direction 

 of the Secretary of Agriculture, of meats entered 

 for export ; prohibiting the exportation of adul- 

 terated articles of food and drink ; and enabling 

 the President to prevent the importation of im- 

 pure or adulterated articles of food. 



Uncompleted Legislation. Various impor- j 

 tant measures were passed by either house, but 

 failed to come up for final action in the other, and 

 await their fate in the second session. The most 

 conspicuous of these was the measure for regulat- 

 ing Federal elections, which took up much of the 

 attention of the Congress, and was more earestly, 

 debated and possibly regarded with greater par- 

 tisan interest than even the tariff measure. 



