Show tnnssioKS SUPPLIED The jury have disagreed in the libel Suit against The Salt Lake Herald as to the amount in which the plaintiff was damaged but they all agreed in the opinion that the injury was not great The implication is that there was an intention oh the part of The Herald to personally attack an innocent In-nocent person what error was in the publication was Inadvertent occurred In giving the public the news and was repaired as far as possible by a subsequent subse-quent article In making his plea for the plaintiff Judge Powers as reported in the paper for which he appeared as attorney attor-ney in another libel suit read a portion por-tion of an editorial on the libel question I ques-tion from The Herald We say a portion por-tion because the gentleman with that j impartiality which so often distinguishes dis-tinguishes the special pleader carefully I care-fully omitted such sentences as were not specially suited to the purpose of his appeal to the jury If he had read the paragraphs from which he made his selections In full the effect he desired de-sired to produce might not have been so marked Discretion is said to beth be-th better part of valor and that applies ap-plies no doubt to forensic sallies ati < 3 the use of weapons in legal warfare This is what the cautious not to say cunning attorney for the plaintiff is reported to have read to the jury as an editorial from The Herald of November No-vember 25 1S94 Nothing could be more cowardly I than the assaults of a personal charac tei which have been made by the assassins as-sassins or the Quill who have lurked i behind the power press of that concern con-cern to level their Inky darts of slander at the living marked as their prey and the dead who could not re taliate When proven to be In the wrong their pretense at apology ha usually been but a repetition of their venomous abuse 0 0 Juries will I not condone groundless attacks on I citizens through the public prints If the law can be relied upon I to correct public pnd private wrongs I there will be no need for Individuals I to resort to personal effort in their own vindication And the law Is intended to protect the citizen in every civil right The law should be enforced in libel cases when it is clear that ma licious intent prompted the slander That Is I the only way to prevent breaches of the peace Anything from rhe Herald was doubtless of interest to both the court and the jury as well as to everybody in the court room And the reader evidently considered it very good authority which showed his clear judgment and legal acumen But it would have been more generous to his auditors to say nothing of The Herald if he had read the connecting sentences which in the above extract are represented I repre-sented by asterisks There wpuldhave been more light In them than 5s reflected re-flected by those stars We will here supply them It is a warning to the wess to be careful of utterances concerning personal per-sonal character and to cease the injec tion of spite against individuals officials offi-cials or otherwise Every newspaper Is liable to make mistakes and to give offense When neither is intended when it is evident that there Is no malice or design to misrepresent the spirit of libel is absent ab-sent and an endeavor to rectify a wrong to tile fullest reasonable extent ought to relieve the publishing company com-pany of the responsibility which would attach if there was a malice and libelous libel-ous design But when a paper makes scandal a I f J r1t 1 iI1 specialty and < delights in slashing and scoring and stabbing people who I are obnoxious to It1and In its vicious ferocity steps over the bounds of the lawful liberty of the press punishment ought to be meted out to it commensurate commensur-ate with Its purposes to do harm The liberty of the press must and ought to be fully maintained Some allowance al-lowance should be made for inadvertent Inadver-tent inaccuracies and unintentional Wrong when reparation is willingly 1 < rendered as far as practicable It is the intentional viperlsh cowardly assaults i as-saults on personal character that have no excuse and for the suppression of which the penalties of the civil and criminal laws ought to be exacted I It will be readily seen that these remarks i re-marks carefully eliminated by council I from The Herald editorial put the t question in a very different aspect The II alleged libel in the case was contained I in a news report without malice with no personal knowledge of the individual individ-ual referred to who was not mentioned mention-ed by name and followed by as much I reparation as a plain retraction could make The Herald does not Indulge in a desire de-sire to injure defame or malign any living being or person departed If it becomes necessary to expose the improper im-proper proceedings of any publlc officer offi-cer or body we exercise the right of a public journal but inject no spite Into our criticisms entertain no malice and indulge in no slander The publication of the alleged libel in this case occurred occur-red years ago and was not written by any person now connected with The Herald nor under the present management man-agement This paper will be found ever willing to rectify a wrong when it is pointed out and will always be ready to defend the right |