Chicago Tribune
PUTS VICE REPORT UP TO
UNCLE SAM
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Chicago Commission Protests by Wire Against Its Exclusion from Mails.
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POSTOFFICE BENIGHTED?
The Chicago vice commission sent a vigorous telegram last night to the postmaster general in Washington protesting against the action of the Chicago postoffice in refusing to allow the vice report to go through the mails.
This telegram is expected to bring to a sharp issue the question whether the volume containing this report is to be treated by Uncle Sam as obscene matter or as a valuable contribution to the work of suppressing the social evil.
Books "Held Up" in Postoffice
Ten days ago 800 copies of the vice report were addressed to the responsible authorities of 800 American colleges and universities and taken into the postoffice for mailing. The local postal officials "held up" the whole consignment as unmailable under the obscene matter statute.
Last evening the Chicago vice commission held a meeting at which Dean Walter T. Sumner of the Cathedral SS. Peter and Paul presided.
It was made clear that the purpose of sending the report to the college was to get it into the hands of students of sociology and social hygiene — if the college authorities, on receiving it, should deem this wise. It was believed that the influence of the report would be for the direct moral aid and physical benefit of students.
Protest Sent by Wire
The commission accordingly prepared its protest to Postmaster General Hitchcock and forwarded it by wire. It recited that the commission is an authorized municipal body; that the purpose of the work was to spread knowledge of the evil of vice in this city and through enlightenment to correct or abate these evils, and that to bar the mails to this work would be a benighted policy on the part of the government.
The commission has practically concluded its labors and probably will so report to the council on Monday evening, disbanding as soon as this question of the use of the mails for its report is settled.
