more than two years, or both; and for any subsequent offense shall be imprisoned not more than five years. Any person violating any provision of this section may be tried and punished either in the district in which the unlawful matter or publication was mailed, or to which it was carried by mail for delivery according to the direction thereon, or in which it was caused to be delivered by mail to the person to whom it was addressed." Senator MCKELLAR. I am going to put into the record at this place a letter from Mr. John H. Bartlett, Acting Postmaster General, and á letter from Mr. W. Irving Glover, Acting Postmaster General, to Senator Sheppard, dated January 27, 1928. (The correspondence referred to and submitted by Senator McKellar is as follows:) Mrs. MARTHA R. GOLD, OFFICE OF THE POSTMASTER GENERAL, Clerk Special Joint Subcommittee on Postal Rates, Congress of the United States, Washington, D. C. MY DEAR MRS. GOLD: Referring to your letter of the 25th instant, transmitting a copy of bill S. 2751, to amend section 213 of the act of March 4, 1909 (Criminal Code, title 18, section 336, United States Code), I beg to inclose herewith for your information a copy of a letter addressed to Hon. Morris Sheppard, United States Senate, under date of January 27, 1927, from which it will be noted that this proposed legislation has the favorable recommendation of this department. A separate reply is being made with reference to bill S. 2643, which also accompanied your communication. Sincerely yours, JOHN H. BARTLETT, Hon. MORRIS SHEPPARD, United States Senate. JANUARY 27, 1928. MY DEAR SENATOR SHEPPARD: I have your letter of the 26th instant, transmitting copies of bill S. 2751, to amend section 213 of the act of March 4, 1909 (Criminal Code, title 18, sec. 336, U. S. Code), and in reply beg to state that the bill as drawn appears to be in proper form for accomplishing the purposes desired. Section 213 declares unmailable all matter relating to any lottery or similar scheme and makes it a criminal offense to deposit such matter in the mails. The proposed legislation amends this section by including therein any article, device or thing intended for the conduct of a lottery or matter relating thereto. The department has received many complaints from time to time against the use of the mails for advertising and selling "raffle cards," "punch boards," and similar lottery paraphernalia. These cards or boards have attached thereto concealed numbers or names, some of which are designated as lucky and entitle the adventurers who draw them to certain prizes displayed with the card or board. A large number of dealers and others are engaged in advertising and sending these cards and boards through the mails, together with the prizes to be drawn by means thereof. While these outfits are manifestly designed for the purpose of conducting lotteries, they do not become lotteries until they are set up and put into operation, and under existing law the department has been unable to exclude from the mails the outfits themselves, or matter offering them for sale. These devices are equally as vicious as any other form of lottery, and perhaps more so, in that they not infrequently incite the gambling spirit in the young and inexperienced. Appeals have frequently been made to this department for action looking toward the suppression of the advertisement and sale through the mails of "unfair" or cheating gambling devices, such as marked playing cards, loaded dice, etc. The advertisements and literature accompanying the devices clearly show that they are intended for use in defrauding unsuspecting persons engaged in playing games of chance for money or other things of value by giving the possessors of such devices an unfair advantage over others. Efforts to prosecute persons engaged in the sale of such commodities through the mails have been ineffective. In order to make the statute uniform in language throughout, the words "scheme of any kind" have been submitted in the fore part of the section in place of the words "similar scheme," which would serve to remove doubt that the parts of the statute relating to letters, etc., tickets, etc., are as broad as that part which relates to newspapers, etc. The experience of the department is that the public interest demands this legislation, and it has my favorable recommendation. The copies of the bills, with the proposed changes in the law noted thereon, are returned herewith in accordance with your request. Sincerely yours, W. IRVING GLOVER, Acting Postmaster General. Senator MCKELLAR. Senator Sheppard? Senator SHEPPARD. Representatives of the department are here, and perhaps they can cover the situation satisfactorily. Permit me to say, Mr. Chairman, that the Post Office Department has been requesting this legislation for 12 or 15 years. (Senator Frazier entered the hearing room and, at the request of Senator McKellar, took the chair.) Senator SHEPPARD. This legislation is desired in order to enable the department more effectively to enforce the existing law against the use of the mails in connection with fraudulent devices and lottery paraphernalia. I am going to ask the representatives of the department who are here to present the case in detail, and also request that Mr. H. N. Pringle, of the International Reform Federation, be heard. Senator MCKELLAR. Which one do you want to offer first? Senator SHEPPARD. I will ask that Mr. Hassell be heard at this time. STATEMENT OF CALVIN W. HASSELL, ATTORNEY, POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C. Mr. HASSELL. Mr. Chairman, this bill is designed to amend section 213 in two particulars so as to cover, in addition to the matter that the existing law covers, lottery devices, punch boards and similar devices that are designed for no other purpose than to conduct a lottery. Under existing law and the interpretation of the Supreme Court of the United States in United States versus France a good many years ago the department has for years taken the position that these devices, consisting of punch boards and prizes to be awarded by means of the punch board, are not unmailable, since they are not in fact lotteries until they are set up for operation. The other particular in which the law is proposed to be amended is designed to cover cheating gambling devices, such as marked playing cards, loaded dice, and such. The promoters of these articles were formerly proceeded against under section 216 of the Penal Code, the penal postal fraud statute, until the decision of the Circuit Court of Appeals of the sixth circuit, in the case of Stockton v. United States, in which it was held that the postal fraud statute did not cover the sale of these articles through the mails. Since the decision in that case the department has been powerless to take any action against the promoters of these schemes. In connection with these articles, the punch boards and similar devices, and the cheating gamblimg devices, the department has received many inquiries from people all over the country as to why such matter is allowed in the mails. Persons making the inquiries respecting the punch boards are at a loss to understand why a complete lottery device, the board and the articles to be awarded by means of the drawing, may be transmitted through the mails, and yet, after the device is set up for operation if one letter in furtherance or with reference to it is deposited in the mails, that letter is in violation of section 213 of the Penal Code. They point to the inconsistency of that. Under the decisions of the courts the department has long held that we can not exclude those things from the mails. I have here some of the punch boards and catalogues of these cheating gambling devices, if the committee would like to look at them. Senator FRAZIER. Yes; I think it would be interesting to see those. Mr. HASSELL. These [exhibiting] are the punch boards with concealed numbers, and a list of the articles to be awarded according to the numbers punched. That is one variety. Here [exhibiting] is another one somewhat similar. These can be used for no other purpose than to operate a lottery. That board and the articles to be awarded are mailable. Senator MCMASTER. Every number brings a prize, does it? Senator MCMASTER. A package of chewing gum? Mr. HASSELL. You get a collar button or a package of chewing gum, for instance. Senator FRAZIER. In some States it is required that they give something with every payment made. Mr. HASSELL. Under the decision of the Supreme Court in Horner v. United States divided consideration as embodied in that sort of a proposition does not make the scheme in violation of law. Senator FRAZIER. But you state that under the present conditions this paraphernalia can be sent through the mails without violation of law? Mr. HASSELL. Yes, sir. Senator FRAZIER. And this bill will correct that and debar it from the mails? Mr. HASSELL. Yes, sir. These [exhibiting] are catalogs of cheating gambling devices, loaded dice, marked playing cards, and other things of that character; and there is literature concerning it. Senator MCMASTER. In a good many States those are not permitted. Mr. HASSELL. I think in most of the States lottery statutes cover them. They have a very strict lottery statute in Maryland, but these punch-board schemes are operated and they expect the Post Office Department to prevent them from getting in there. Senator STECK. Practically every candy house in the country handles those things. Senator SHEPPARD. Mr. Gregory, is there anything that you want to present to the committee? Mr. GREGORY. I do not know that there is anything that I can add to what Mr. Hassell said. Senator FRAZIER. Give your name for the record, please. Mr. GREGORY. John J. Gregory, attorney for the Post Office Department. I think Mr. Hassell has covered the situation pretty well as far as concerns the amendment to the law contemplated by this bill. Senator FRAZIER. Do you think this bill will meet with the approval of the department? Mr. GREGORY. Yes, sir. Senator SHEPPARD. The department has made a favorable report, and the favorable report has been made a part of this record. With the committee's permission I will ask Mr. H. N. Pringle, of the International Reform Federation, to make a statement to the committee. STATEMENT OF HENRY M. PRINGLE, REPRESENTING THE INTERNATIONAL reforM FEDERATION, 206 PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE, WASHINGTON, D. C. Senator FRAZIER. You represent what organization? Mr. PRINGLE. The International Reform Federation, incorporated 32 years ago in the District of Columbia at the location which I have given, and having a membership of upward of 15,000, represented, I think, in every State and Territory-which gives to my words no more significance than as though I was not connected with such an organization. I mention it only as explaining what observation I have had over a period of 16 years in the eastern half of the United States, and by correspondence more widely over the country. The purpose of this bill, it seems to me, is to bring the Federal laws up to the ethical level of the State laws. No State now legalizes punch boards, so called, slot gambling machines, lotteries, etc.; and almost all of the States have explicitly by law banned such devices. I think there are one or two whereby not by statute but under common law or under some process like injunction abatement, the end is arrived at. I have a list of manufacturers of gambling paraphernalia, which swells the list to about 115 men who, singly or in groups of two or three, load dice and mark cards. That is the kind of manual labor they do in the smaller establishments, up to the great establishments in a single city like Chicago, where are located the Mills Novelty Co., C. H. Evans Co., Kernan Manufacturing Co., and others, and a single large firm in Detroit, Caille Bros. Eighty per cent or more of all gambling devices in North America, Canada, Central America, and Mexico, including our own country, come from the city of Chicago. (The list of manufacturers and jobbers of gambling devices referred to and submitted by the witness is as follows:) MANUFACTURERS AND JOBBERS OF GAMBLING DEVICES Approximately 4,200 persons in the United States are employed in the manufacture of unlawful gaming devices; 2,300 are engaged as traveling salesmen in selling such goods, while about 140,600 persons act as keepers of gambling houses, book makers, pool sellers, and in other positions, as professional gamblers who derive a livelihood by exploiting the human propensity for wagering. My investigations disclosed the following manufacturers of gambling devices, to which list many additions doubtless might be made. The abbreviations in the last column are: D for device and cards, which usually go together and |