The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1890-05-18
A QUESTION OF PEoPRlErY.

With the course of the administration of
justice in the case of Arnold. who is on
tIial for murder, ii is neither the right nor
tie wish of THE CALL TO interfere. But
the testimony. as thus far adduced, appears
to involve Il question of proDriety, and on
that it Is always and at all stages the privi-
lege and the duty of newspaper to COM
ment.
That Garness was shot by Arnold is ad-
mitted The slayer justifes the act on the
plea that he was crRzed by the circulation
Of circulars which had a tendency to wreck
his home, and that he imputed the author
ship Of those circulars to the man who is
dead. This belief Of his appears mainly to
have rested on what he learned from a
member of the staff Of the Examiner news
paper. This person testifies that Garness
brought him one Of the circulars; that at
his (Garness) request he mailed 1t to
Arnold, concealing Garness' share in the
matter by stating falsely that he had re-
ceiyed it by mail; that Garness afterward
brought him another of the circulars, stat
ing that it would make very interesting
reading; that Garness asked him TO find
him a reporter to write Up the affair; that
when the article was written up he (the
Examiner NAM inclosed it in an envelope
10 the city editor of the EreHing Post, and
handed it to Garnes5; that it did appear, in
fHll or in part, in the next issue of the
EreHing Post
Il is unfortunate that this story cannot be
fully substantiated. Garness is dead. II is
the i'll fortune of the Examiner man that he
cannot put his Iago on the stand and make
him tell the facts. And he can hardly be
surprised that incredulous people ar. in
oli 20, e holf h.
- ffsye that Carness, whatever he may have
done Or said elsewhere, never took any cir
culars to the Eraminer Office, never tried
TO have them published, never smacked
lis lips in that office over the scandals they
disclosed, and that the grains of truth in
his testimony are his admission that one
circular was sent to Arnold from the Exam
iper Office, with a note on the official office
ietteT-papeT, and that the substance of an
other was transmitted from the Examiner
Office to The Office of the EueniRg Post for
publication in that sheet. The case has not
progressed far enough to shed any light on
the authorship of the circulars; that may
come hereafter. Meanwhile, assuming that
the Examiner story is true, it appears to In
dictate that tits the practice Of the Examiner
when a scandal0us story is brought to it
aspersing the character of private indiyid-
nals, If it does not publish the story itself.
to circulate it IN the quarters where it will
do the most mischief, and to hand it over
Tor publication to other journals. 1t can
not for moment be admitted that this is
correct journalism. 1t happens every day
that persons who quarrel bring the nara
tive of their controversies to newspaper Of
fees and try to get it published so as to in
jure their adversaries. In all well-con-
Quoted offices such stuff finds a short cut to
the waste-paper basket. In the Examiner
office it seems the relish for scandal is so
keen that when it departs from its usual
practice of reproducing in its own columns
it cannot resist the temptation to give il
circulation in quarters where il viii wound,
and to hand it over for publication in sheets
even less careful Of the prophecies than
itself