Show FREEDOM OF TilE THE PRESS PRESSA A A D JUDGING The Tho and several of its to bo be boin boin bein in contempt of court for foe publishing the confession of Harry Ham Thome Thorne to the murder of George W Tassel in March last Judge Thomas D Lewis yesterday fined this paper in each of two cases the limit of tho the law fined the general manager of the th corporation and sentenced him to the tho county jail for thirty days the limit of the law and fined three members of the editorial department 10 each Upon tho the application of counsel for The Tho Hel and its em a stay of judgment was granted to permit taking the case to the su I premo prem court of the state which will be done at once The question of free freedom freedom I dom of the tho press in Utah will be settled finally and absolutely by the tho highest court of the state before the dictum of Judge Lewis will be accepted When Thomas Riley Eiley was waa placed on trial for murder The publican in giving a resume of tho the case when it was called for trial printed the confession of Thorne Thome who had implicated Riley Judge Lewis said it was contempt and ordered the district attorney to draw an affidavit to cite this paper for contempt of court When Thorne was called for trial The published the confession of Thorne in its resume of the tho case ca e For this The Tho lican was cited for contempt together with three of its and the judgment yesterday was in pursuance of such citation citati n The believes that Judge Lewis is wrong and will not accept his view as binding until the supreme court of the state reviews the case If Judge Lewis attitude in this case were carried to its logical conclusion conclusion conclusion sion it would be possible for a district judge to suppress every item of news in a newspaper Half of Salt Lake might be murdered in an afternoon and if Judge Lewis is in the right it would be possible for a district judge to pre prevent prevent prevent vent the publication of this news A state or county officer might embezzle every dollar of funds in the state or county treasury and an order from a dis district district district judge could prevent publication of the tho fact and thus prevent the knowl knowledge knowledge knowledge edge from being given to the people It would be unnecessary even to arrest tha editor and confiscate tho the plant as they do occasionally in Russia An or order orde orde der de from the district court would bo be all that would be necessary In the correction of evils every intelligent man knows that publicity is tho the most powerful agency that can be employed Just as disease germs die when the tho glare of the noonday sun falls upon them so do evils pass away when the great white light of publicity is turned their way If Judge Lewis position is tenable vice and corruption will have little to fear I Suppose a public officer should embezzle the funds of the state bankrupt bankrupting ing it Suppose some friend an influential attorney should go to a district i judge and apply for an order to the various newspapers not to publish the fact I under the plea that a jury must be secured cured s sometime to try the case and that such publication would impede the task of securing a jury Suppose this judge intolerant steeped in arrogance and inflated with brief authority sh issue the order If Judge Lewis position is tenable this could and would happen Would the people of Utah endure this Do th the people of Utah want the newspapers muzzled Do the taxpayers ers of this state propose to rally to the tho support of a doctrine that would set at naught the tIle constitution of the state and of the United States Do the people of Utah want the newspapers in the commonwealth placed on a par with the press of Russia Do they propose to permit the judiciary to be become become become come the censors of what facts the people shall read and what they shall not read Do the tho people of Utah want to submit to a ruling that would permit an irascible and arrogant judge to establish himself in the editors office of their favorite newspaper and say what shall and what shall not be published 1 Porter Charlton has baa been arrested in New York and has confessed tho the murder of his wife Every newspaper in the United States has published that confession Should Charlton be placed on trial in this country for mur murder murder murder der every newspaper in the district in which the trial is held could be pun punished punished punished for contempt of court if Judge Lewis ruling is correct The does not believe that this state wants anything of the tho sort This paper does docs not believe that Judge Lewis is right It does not believe that his ruling is in accord with the constitution of tho state of Utah or the constitution of the United States It rests upon its constitutional right and proposes to exercise what it believes to be that right until the supreme court of Utah says that it does not have that right In the early days of the republic an attempt was W 13 made mado to curtail the rights of the press under the sedition act which provided punishment by fine and imprisonment of any ar person who shall write print utter or publish or oraid oraid oraid aid in so doing any false scandalous and malicious writing or writings against the government of the United States or either house of Congress or orthe orthe orthe the President of the United States John Adams testy and with abnormally developed opinions of his individual indi individual individual vidual importance e was President during d ring the time the sedition act was in in force Criticism of his sacred person in a newspaper meant imprisonment nt for the editor and several such sentences were actually imposed and earned carried out and the tho articles printed were not true at that Naturally when whon tho the liberty of the press p ess was attacked excitement throughout the country became intense and history tells us that this act and the attempt at its enforcement did more than anything else elso to cause the downfall down downfall fall of the tho Federalist party There Thero are arc libel laws in Utah and the other othor states of the Union to keep unscrupulous newspapers within bounds If any man has been wronged by a newspaper publication he has his redress at law The libel libell laws ws of o Utah are sufficiently to deter scoundrel newspapers and their thelI editors from making unwarranted attacks upon men whether in public or private life If any man is wronged he can invoke the aid of these laws and secure redress The is always mindful of these laws and of the rights of the people It is just as mindful of its own rights however and will not I submit to any arbitrary attempt to curtail them This contempt case probably is the tho first of its kind on record Certainly a search of the decisions of courts in other states of the Union does not reveal roveal any such case The action of The in the Thorne Thome and Riley cases was in harmony with what has been the right of newspapers and was exorcised ex by them even before the amendment was made to the constitution of the United States prohibiting any legislation abridging the tho freedom of speech or of the press pr ss When Dr B C O Hyde was called to trial in Kansas City for the murder of Colonel Swope the Associated Press sent out in advance a resume of the case and it was printed in every newspaper of prominence in the country Kansas City not excepted the day the task of selecting a jury began The circumstances were practically the tho same samo as those of the Thorne Thome case caso in Utah Utan This was true tree of the celebrated Thaw case and of or scores of or murder cases that have aye been b en tried ried in tho the United States during the past few fow years Judge Lewis has framed tho the issue and The is will willing willing willing ing to meet him on that ground pound As was said by this paper several weeks ago if tho the press of Utah is to be censored by a district judge this is an excellent ex excellent excellent time to learn it If tho the public is not to know concerning crimes com committed committed in Utah nor the actions of the men who commit crimes thero there is no notime notime notime time like tho the present to get got this information In lu passing judgment yesterday Judge Lewis said from the bench that in his seven years Y ars of experience as a judge in Utah ho he had never before seen Been a newspaper follow the policy followed by The when it printed the Thorne Thome confession If that is tho the case Judge Lewis has not been reading the tho newspapers during those seven years There has not been beena a case on trial in the courts in this county of any interest since there were newspapers in Utah that the newspapers for the tho information of their readers read readers readers ers did not print a resume of or the case when the trial was called As a matter of fact no real newspaper considers its announcement of the fact that the trial is about to begin in an important case complete completo un unless unless unless less it carries with it a resume of the tho case in order that its it readers may understand the reports of the trial as they appear from day to day And it is also a fact that no trial judge ever before saw fit to question this right or practice These contempt cases will go to the supreme court of the state There will be a decision there The is willing to submit its rights and those of the other newspapers of Utah to the higher tribunal |