it practicable. And apparently he was not of a mind to leave his plan behind him as a recommendation to his successor, Dr. Hubert Work, former President of the American Medical Association. Judging by later developments, it would have been futile for him to have done so. When Dr. Work took office, he lost no time in making his gesture about the enforcement of the obscenity laws; for only a few days after he became Post Master General, the following official Bulletin was conspicuously posted in all the Post Offices of the Country: IT IS A CRIMINAL OFFENSE TO SEND OR RECEIVE OBSCENE OR INDECENT MATTER BY MAIL OR EXPRESS The forbidden matter includes anything printed or written, or any indecent pictures, or any directions, drugs or articles for the prevention of conception, etc. The offense is punishable by a _Five Thousand Dollar Fine or Five Years in the Penitentiary or Both_. Ignorance of the law is no excuse. For more detailed information on this subject read Sections 480 and 1078 of the Postal Laws and Regulations, which may be consulted at any post office. The Birth Control Herald of July, 1922, commented as follows on this Bulletin: If Dr. Work intends to enforce the laws, it does him credit. But suppose he undertakes to prosecute all infringements? The relatively low birth-rate in well-to-do families indicates wholesale breaking of this law. How is he going to enforce it? Will he trail these several million respectable, influential parents till it is discovered how they learned the science of family limitation? There are about twenty-five million families in the country and, roughly speaking, ten million of these are the well-to-do—those above the income tax exemption. Suppose a tenth of these can be convicted of having secured by mail or express the contraceptive information on which their own family limitation is based. The authorities would hardly imprison a whole million. It would mean “standing room only in the jails.” An alternative would be to fine them. One million law breakers, fined $5000 each would provide Uncle Sam with a handy five billion in these days, when the national debt stands at about eight billion. But, like the jail idea, this might be a bit impracticable! What alternative is there then? The million malefactors might be _acquitted_,—but that would make the officers of the law look silly. So,—there it is, a large problem staring at the new Postmaster-General. How will he meet it? Dr. Work’s Bulletin says “Ignorance of the law is no excuse.” Similarly also, difficulty of enforcement is no excuse for him. So long as the law stands he and the Department of Justice must carry it out, or else be unfaithful and inefficient public servants.