Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1894-07-06

COu4uulILe0 uuO Luo CUTIE
spondents who refused to answer ques-
lions as to the sources of their stories
about the operations of sundry public
men and the sugar trust, does not fol-
low precedent. The contrast between
the present case and that OF White and
Ramsdell, the predecessor which most
resembles it in its general features, is all
the more striking in view of the fact
that the act Of 1857, under which the
senate turned the whole matter over to
the criminal law authorities of the Dis
trict of Columbia, was brought TO the
committees notice by reading over the
record of the White Ramsdell incident,
an account of which is interestingly
given by Kate Fields Washington. It is
that OIL May II, 1871, the New York
Tribune published the text of the treaty
OF Washington, which was then absorb
ing the attention of the senate in it's exc
cutive sessions, and which had been
guarded with com zeal. A COM
mittee Of investigation was appointed,
with Senator Matt Carpenter of Wis
%consin, at it's head, to discover, if posi-
BILE, how the leak occurred. On May II,
MI. Carpenter having vainly %endeavored
10 induce z. L. White, the Tribune CORE
spondent, and H. J. Ramsdeli, his assist
ant, to tell the committee who gave
them their copy of the treaty, a resolu-
ton was offered that the two correspond
ents be arraigned at the bar OF the senate
and asked: /.
From whom did you obtain the printed
copy OF what purports to be the treaty
spoken Of by you, which you transmitted
to the New York Tribune, and which you
have stated you received and transmitted
at about 10 O'Clock p. III. of Wednesday,,
May 10, 1871.
Each witness stated that he refused TO
answer, not because he was unable to
answer, but because, whenever he re-
ceived an item of news, unless he had
the permission of the person who fur
nished it to him, he considered it an
honorable thing that he should not
divulge the source of such news. He
added that he came to the examination
with a fixed purpose not to divulge the
source from which he obtained the
treaty. The two correspondents were
/ brought into the chamber and assigned
chairs without the bar of the senate, near
the main doors. A long debate Of the
question followed, senators taking both
sides. The Tribune, upon the .imprison-
ing of its correspondents, stated editor
tally that it would double their salaries
during the Imprisonment. The CORE
spondents were finally asked why they
refused to answer the questions put to
them, and they answered that it was
owing to their sense of honor, by which
they were bound not to reveal what
was impaired to them in confidence.
There ensued another long debate
of the matter, in which some noted
speeches we're made on both sides. eff
the investigation is to be Abandoned
said Senator Carpenter, "then this senate
ought to enter at nee into negotiations
with Fourteenth Street (the home of
newspaper correspondence for a treaty
which shall definitely express our re-
spective powers and privileges. No
time should be lost. England lost her
American colonies by an obstinate re-
fusal to repeal the stamp act. Louis
XVI might have saved his crown and
his head by timely concessions still pres
CRYING more prerogatives than the kings
OF England ever exercised. Let us pro-
tit by these examples. If we agree to
abandon a portion of our constitutional
powers it may be that the press will per-
nit us to exercise what is left to us.
But, should we persist in claiming all
! the powers conferred upon the senate by
the Constitution, it may be that these
jolly boys in Fourteenth Street may be-
come exasperated, and who can foresee
the extent to which their demands may
reach? If they can compel the senate
to pass the resolution under the circum-
stances OF the case, l doubt not, if they
SO resolve, and really uncork their ink
pots in earnest, they can drive the whole
senate into the Potomac within ten days."
On the following day, however, the senate
adopted a resolution to release the cor
respondents. All Of the men principally
concerned, both Senator Carpenter and
the correspondents are dead. Whitelaw
Reid was editor of the Tribune at the
time, and it is said he afterward fought
Carpenter, editoriaily, with such zeal as
to be largely instrumental in driving him
out Of the senate.
.1H
In the July issue of the Forum, Ru-
doiph de Cordova who is an authority
on things theatrical, sheds some interest
ing light on the life of the average actor,
which goes TO prove how far from a
pathway of rosesis his. He says: ssThe
salary of the average player is put down
nv an eminent authority as MT moro