OCR Text |
Show Y.'e ere loth to believe that tLe Pre. : .: -1 rJ;n,l tl.e weather bureau to keep tl.3 i.; its ficia tL-i IlcraU in ordor to t .:r.i li it, cr for rr.y ctLer reason, tut somebody gave tLe crJcr, and that rorneboJy blundered. If d. newsrar-er is fool enough to publish falsehoods false-hoods about tLe President or any other public cHi-tial cHi-tial it will be found out and the loss of the public's confidence it wilr suffer will be punishment enough. The Herald did not commit an act cf treason. Xo matter what fMiad done," no one in authority justly had the power to deprive it of public documents. : The whole affair was undignified and ridiculous. ? Soma . Tall Blundering. ; There has been some blundering in classic. Boston Bos-ton and iii Washington recently that is amusing. Shortly after Thanksgiving the Boston Herald, usually-a conservative- and accurate newspaper, published a dispatch from .Washington to the effect that. the junior Roosevells had amused themselves by chasing tlie 'Thanksgiving turkey while it was etill in the land' of the living and pulling out its tail feathers. -The story was too ridiculous to merit serious se-rious attention, and it is surprising that the Herald published it, but the paper was probably imposed upon by a correspondent who had weird ideas of a ioke. But the story was . taken seriously at th White House, and in a few days an official denial was issued to the effect that the Roosevelt turkey was killed and dressed befqre its arrival at Washington, Wash-ington, consequently there was no truth in the ' story.; ' .... Even-body laughed and thought no more about . - it until a few days ago the surprising news trickled out of Boston that the Herald was being punished for its crime. The weather observer at Boston was instructed from Washington to discontinue furnish- ing the Herald with weather reports. To those who have followed" the official guessing for any length - of time the punishment djd not seem over severe, but it had a t-erious aspect after all. The Herald was issued is-sued regularly,'-and doubtless had full and complete r.ews of the; weather, but the principle of disciplining disciplin-ing a great newspaper for lese majeste was almost past a joke. It savored too much of Berlin and that ardent admirer of the President, Kaiser William. . Later the ban' was lifted and the nerald.was allowed al-lowed to receive the weather reports again; but there should be some explanation of the incident. t |