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Show THE THAW TRIAL. Th New York Timei ay: ' "The interests of public morality would not be served, they "would suffer, suf-fer, were ' the newspapers so ill advised ad-vised as to print inadequate Ind unin-forming unin-forming reports of the Thaw trial. The statutes of this State declare that 'in a criminal action the defendant is enti-tied enti-tied to a speedy and public trial' Aside from the motive of profound human interest, in-terest, which might not suffice for justification, jus-tification, the press is under aN very serious obligation to inform the public with great fullness of the course of this judicial proceeding. For the first time in the history of criminal trials in this country a man is brought to the bar under indictment for murder in the first degree who, as a resource of defense, de-fense, has at his command or at the command of his family, a fortune - of many millions of dollars. The charge is often made, and not always by the thoughtless, that rich criminals escape, those without means go to their punishment. punish-ment. It is the right of the people to know whether the proceeding tends to support or to v demolish an accusation so injurious to the reputation of the courts which is a matter of the deepest deep-est concern to the people." The World says: , 4 4 However revolting the stenographic reports of the Thaw case may be, they cannot be called 4 lewd, lascivious or obscene.' The trial has revealed an astounding condition -of immorality in high places, yet it does anything but incite those who read the evidence to immorality. On the contrary, it is as impressive warning." The Evening World comments: 4 'But for the facts being what they are. not the newspapers but this social order is responsible. Tie remedy is not the glossing over, but full publicity; not the whitewash brush, but the surgeon's knife. , 'To the extent that a newspaper fails in this respect it would be like a faint-hearted surgeon who refused to operate for fear of hurting the feelings of some of the patient's friends. What the surgeon is to the individual the newspaper should be to the community. Both should have the same unsparing judgments, the same probing to ascertain ascer-tain all the facts, the same care in diagnosis diag-nosis and the same fearlessness in operation. ' Commenting on the action of the evengelical clergymen of Providence, R. I., who voted in favor of publication publica-tion of the trial in detail the New York Globe says: "On which side lies the balance of moral advantage! On the side of suppression sup-pression or on the side of publicity? Is ignorance sometimes uplifting and knowledge sometimes corrupting! Should we shut our eyes to the facts of life, or is it better to face themt "It seems probable that on the whole morality is promoted by publicity. The popular instinct that creates the overwhelming over-whelming demand on newspapers not to garble or suppress may be assumed to have a good basis." |