The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-03-26
The Supreme Court Aflrms the
Lower Court.
CAN'T PRINT IN DURHAM
The People of that Town viii
Rejoice at the Decision.
NO MORE sENsATIoNALlsM
Col al Fairbother Cannot Publish
His Stuff in the Domains of
the Old North
State

decision of the Superior court IN Che
case of r. I'll. Cowan VS.. Fairbrother
ct al. In this case Cowan applies for
a permanent injunction to prevent
AL Fairbrother from publishing news
paper in North Carolina, and Mrs. M.
H. Fairbrother from publishing
newspaper in Durham county.
When Fairbrother sold The Durham
Daily Globe to John WILDER Jenkins,
January 1st, 1894. he made a contract
in which he agreed not to publish or be
connected with any newspaper In
North Carolina for a period of ten
wears. and his wife, NJ III. Fairbrother,
agreed not to publish any newspaper
in Durham county for the same period.
Fairbrother first went to Lynchburg,
Va, and established a daily paper to
compete with the paper he had sold;
that enterprise fell through, the outfit
was brought to Durham, and the
Weekly Times" run in the name of
his brother-in-law, Archibald Hatch
EFT: this also failed in a few months.
Fairbrother and his wife then went to
Pottstown, Pa, where he was editor
and she was business manager of
dailv paper owned by another party.
On account of their sensational meth
DDS and libelous articles the owner
and the editors disagreed; they left the
paper, went across the street and set
up an opposition daily. This ran only
q few weeks. The last issue, according
to dispatch that appeared at the
time in the New York World was
never gotten out. 1t seems that this
issue contained ''write-up," in Fair
brothers characteristic style, of prom
inent citizens of the place and gem
eral "roast" of the town. Fairbrother
is said to have planned to leave the
place on an early train before the paper
was issued. But somehow the people
got wind of the matter, a great crowd
assembled at the Office and came near
mobbing the sensational scribbler. He
agreed to destroy the last issue, and
left the place with a whole skin. lie
soon re-appeared in Durham, not quite
a year ago, and bought the Durham
Weekly Recorder from Il. G. Hackney,
attempting to run it in defiance OF his
contract. r. III. Cowan, then editor OF
the Durham Globe, promptly applied
for an Injunction preventing him
from publishing any paper in Durham;
the case was argued before Judge
Graham at Oxford, and he granted
brother appealed to the Supreme
Court. The Supreme Court now sus-
tains the decision of the lower court,
and the permanent injunction is in
force.
Al Fairbrother is said to be some
where in the South His wife is pub
fishing 1.-THE Hillsboro Recorder
The attorney for Fairbrother argued
that he could not sell his right to
publish, under Section 20, Article !,
of the Constitution which guarantees
the freedom of the Press.
The opinion Of the Supreme Court is
long and comprehensive and covers all
the ground fully, citing from almost
every authority on the subject. 1t is
written by Justice Avery.
In the opinion, he writes: Neither
an editor, a lawyer nor physician can
transfer to another his style, his
learning or his manners. Either, how
ever. can add to the chances Of success
or profit of another who embarks in
the same business in the same
field by withdrawing as competitor.
Here one sells his prospective
patronage and the other buys the
right to compete with all others for
it, and to be protected against compe-
tition from his vendor The law in
tends that one shall have the
lawful authority TO dispose OF
his right to compete, but restricts his
power of disposition territorially so as
to make it co-extensiye with the right
to protection on the part of the pur-
chaser. But the contract, OF
which the plaintiff claims the benefit
as assignee through John WILDER
Jenkins, is one which in no way affects
the public, unless it unreasonably de-
prives the people of the State of the
benefit of the industry of the defend
ants. or unnecessarily precludes them
from supporting their family by pur-
suing their occupation. Ii
there has ever been time in the his
tory of the State when an editor could
not acquire a reputation for excellence
in some particular line OF that business
which would enable him to give a pa
per, with which he might be connected,
popularity throughout its limits, there
is no reason TO doubt that one who
would rid himself of q. competitor in
that business, is not describing an un-
nsnaI boundary when he expects the
restriction to the State lines No bet
ter ngoof Of the fact could be adduced
imam IS SET IOIbu III bAC IiiNoiANt - - -
afiidayitg of the defendants themselves,
that they injured their successor, John
Jenkins, in the conduct Of the Durham
Globe, after the contest was entered
into, by publishing a paper in Lynch
burg. Va. A covenant on the
part OF a publisher not to publish a
paper is considered in the same light as
a contract to sell particular business.
X y When the trainers of our Con-
stitution declared that the freedom of
the press was one of the bulwarks of
liberty and ought therefore never to be
restrained, but that every individual
should be held responsible for the abuse
OF the same, they entertained no pur-
pose to restrict the power of any per
son 20 dispose ~ anything of value,
which. as the creature of his own men
tai or nhveical eNertions had hecome