AS Burleson to Woodrow Wilson

Referring to the communication of Mr. A. W. Ricker, Publisher of Pearson's Magazine, addressed to you and dated the 3d instant, I wish to say:First, that no complaint has been made to me against Pearson's Magazine and it has not been the subject of investigation by this Department. I can see no reason why any one connected with the postal service should have tampered with the mail of that Magazine or the mail of any one connected with it.

The law makes it an offense to open sealed letters, and this law is rigidly enforced by this Department against every one connected with the service. An investigation has been ordered upon the complaint made by Mr. Ricker to you, and if there has been a violation of the law, as asserted by him, every effort will be made to ascertain and punish the guilty party.

Second. The Act of June 15, 1917, (Espionage Law), provides that matter therein declared to be nonmailable "shall not be conveyed in the mails or delivered from any post office or by any letter carrier." As a result, immediately upon the passage of that Act, this Department became flooded with specimens of matter thought by the various postmasters to be nonmailable, with a request for instructions with respect thereto.

The classification and treatment of these complaints, and the consideration necessarily given as to the scope of the law, which is still being tested in the courts, caused some delay in the handling of certain classes of matter submitted to the Department, including the literature being sent out by the People's Council at New York, and I assume that the delayed matter addressed to Pearson's Magazine was a part of that which was held in the New York City post office under the circumstances stated.

I will say in this connection that I think the postmaster at New York was fully justified in asking for instructions with respect to the literature of the People's Council, and while it is at present being permitted to go through the mails on account of the questions raised as to the effect of the law, it is doing much harm to the Government in the present crisis of the country. The decisions of the courts may make it clear that such matter comes within the class made nonmailable by the Espionage Law.

Third. As to the delay complained of by Mr. George Savage of Aguanga, California, to Mr. Ricker, of a letter addressed by the latter to the former, I can see no reason for this occurrence, and have ordered the matter investigated to ascertain the cause of the delay.