The Portland daily press., 1874-09-30
Our New York Letter.
The Poland Gag LAVA Newspaper
Myth.

restricting the liberty of the press. Judge Po-
land of the House, and Mr.. Frelinghuysen of
the Senate have been credited with the heaviest
share of responsibility for this daring attempt
to shackle the palladium" What the act is,
nobody seems ever to have had the curiosity to
ascertain. 1t has been denounced in a general
way as a 'sgag law and terrible anathemas
have been hurled at its concocters by editors,
stump orators, and "any thing to beat Grant
conventions.
A more senseless and idiotic cry has never
deafened the public ear, even in this age of
cant and Misrepresentation. 1t hasn't the
shadow Of a shade of foundation in fact. If
anybody had taken the trouble to discover
what all this fuss was about, it would have
been seen that there was no basis for it nor rea-
son in it.
Congress did pass an act on the Odd of June
the day of the MISUNDERSTANDING juris-
diction upon the criminal court of the District
of Columbia, in the words following, to wit:
"Be it enacted by the Senate and House OF
Repres entotiUes IN Congress assembled, That
the cri minal court of the District of Columbia
shall have jurisdiction of all crimes and misde-
meanors committed in said district not lawful
ly triable in any other court, and which are re-
quired by law to be prosecuted by indictment
or information.
Sec. 2. That The prov ,ions of the thirty
third section of the judiciary act of 1889 shall
apply to courts created by act of Congress in
the District of Columbia.
The thirty-third section of the act of 1889,
authorizes the arrest and imprisonment any,
where within federal jurisdiction of any often
RI Gov cd ia
and for the removal of the offender and wit
nesses to the district in which the offense was
committed and the Indictment found.
The effect and intent of t1is amendment, is
simply to confer upon the federal court in the
district the same jurisdiction as already belongs
to every other square inch of territory within
the authority of the United States. The only
possible bearing it can have upon the press, is
that it does not except editors from the penal
ties for crime, to which all the inhabitants of
the country are liable. If an editor goes to the
capital and there commits murder, bur-
glary, a larceny or any other indictable offensc,
and is arrested and indicted therefor, he may,
in the event of his escape out of the five miles
square, which constitute the District Of Colum-
bia, be captured and brought back for trial.
precisely as any other citizen may be.
Now the only possible ground upon which
this measure can be found fault with, is that it
does not provide that editors shall be held to be
above law, and not answerable for its violation.
AS there are no privileged classes in the Re-
public such an exemption would be inadmissi-
p1r, even I wGre ueSIraU1e.- The only by
pothesis upon which 1 can account for the ri
L. IL /.
perfectly sensible and proper enlargement of
the functions of the criminal court in the Dis
trict of Columbia, is that some knight of the
quill, accustomed to deal in atrocious libel, and
conscious of deserving punishment, has been
filled with apprehension that he might in some
way be brought within the provisions of the
amended statute, On that assumption the
nervousness of guilt has exaggerated the dam
ger of chastisement. Editors can continue to
assail character with IMMUNITY. Perhaps it will
be safer to do so outside of Washington, but
thore will be no greater peril even there, than
there was before the law was passed. The GRIM
inal court there has no larger powers than ev-
cry other federal court possesses. The same
penalties attach to crime wherever the flag
floats.
Incredible as it appears, there has evidently
been very general misconception concerning
the purport and scope of this law. A great
many well meaning people have been utterly
deuded in regard to it, and probably much
larger number have wilfulIy misrepresented 1t
for partisan purposes. The tore of public discus.
sion has grown very low of late years. and ex-
tremely gross falsehoods drift into wide circuIa-
ton without provoking any emphatic censure.
If an individual amuses himself by calling his
neighbors thieves and rascas he very soon dis
covers that that sort Of license of speech can
not be INDUCED in with impunty. But an edi-
tor may scatter such charges broadcast ali over
the land against the purest men in official sta
ton, and that is called the liberty of the press.
The metropolitan journals are the worst Offend
ers in this matter, and the most clamorous
against being interfered with. But the ISLANDERS
they originate are copied into the more decent
papers which circulate in smaller communities
and thereby get extensive currency.
l have no doubtSh large majority of the
men engaged in the editorial profession through
out the country are honorable and conscientious
Even in this city we have some influential pa
~.
But, on the other hand, we are afflicted with
sheets which disseminate sufficient quantity
of literary poison every day to contaminate a
whole community. If one reader in an hun
dred believed what they say their effect would
be far more baleful than it u.s. But in spite of
the distrust of their veracity which is growing
more and more prevalent, they do vast deal
of mischief. They teach the young that integ-
rity is practically extinct, and thus familarize
them with the idea that knavery is altogether
tooscommon to involve those who practice it
cunningly, in hopeless ruin.
am not believer in the practicabiity or
expediency of trying to remedy moral evils by
legislation. The wrong will work its own cure
in time. Perhaps it will get worse before it is
better, if that is possible. The power of the
press is perceptibly diminishing, because of its
extreme license, and will naturally continue to
decrease until it establishes its claim to popu-
lar confidence by an accession of dignity and
consideration for personal rights.
The attack on the Vermont Representative
was probably conceived in malice, but it owes
its great publicity to the carelessness rather
than the sptefulness of the newsmakers. 1t
got started on its rounds and was picked I'D
and sent along as an item, nobody taking the
pains to find out whether it was true or false.
1t would not have been a difficult matter to
have examined the record. There really was
no excuse for lifting SO bald fabrication into
so much prominence and thereby infictinc a
grieyous injury upon the name and fame of
gentleman, who, in this matter at all events, is
entirely blameess. 1 do not imagine Judge
Poland's defeat is attributable to this canard
because he represents highly intelligent con-
sttuency, but the way in which his name has
been banded about in connection with such an
absurd myth as the ''gag law must have
caused suffering to himself, his family and his
kindred. independently of its effect on his po-
litical fortune.
Hundreds of other men in public life are
treated in the same way with just % little
cause. Some enemy inyents an insinuation or
calnmny against prominent individual and
sets 1t going. If it is couched in readable
language and has the right snap to make it
attractive, it is morally certain to be copied