The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-02-23
Get into Line.

The grudging assent given by the
house judiciary general committee to
the new libel bin proposed by the
Pennsylvania Editorial association-an
assent which took the form of a favor
able recommendation only after the
bill had been emasculated in two vital
placos-shows that the press Of the
state needs to insist upon fair treat
lnent at Harrisburg. For years it has
petitioned the legislature for relief from
unjust laws without avail and now it is
apparently time for a more determined
method to be adopted. The newspapers
Of Pennsylvania have it in their power
to command that the legislators for
whom they do so much without return
shall cease to trihe with a subject in
which the newspapers are so directly
and deeply interested. Shall they, then,
remain meekly acquiescent under q
condition of antquated legislation
which singles them out for special
injury?
We should be less emphatic on this
point did we think there could be any
ten2ble reason for the legislatures APP
parent reluctance to revise the libel
laws in the interest of justice. But the
fact that there is no such reason, that
not one substantial argument can be
offered in support of the contention
that newspaper owners and conductors
should by law be deemed guilty of q
| criminal charge until proved innocent
and that they, alone among defend
| ants in civil litigation, should be sub
| ject to multiple prosecution and pun
ishment practically at the will of legal
| harpies who make q business of incit-
| ing speculative damage suits, leaves
no alternative but the suspicion that
those legislators who oppose libel re-
form are trihing with their duty and
permitting personal prejudice arising
perhaps from past criticism to blind
| their mental vision.
The Legislature might far better get
in line with the more enlightened west
ern states, and adopt a libel law sim
liar to that now pending in the Wiscon'
sin legislature which provides that
Before any suit for libel may be
| brought for the publication of an article
in any newspaper in this state the ag
| gricved party shall, at least five day!
before beginning suit, serve notice il
writing on the publisher or publisher!
Of said newspaper, at their principa
office of publication, specifying tn,
statements in the said article Whicl
he or they allege to be false and de
famatory, and if it shall appear on th
trial of said action that said article
was published in good faith, that it
falsity was due to mistake or misrepre
sentation, and that full and fair cor
rection or retraCtion of any false state
ment therein was published in the mex
regular issue of said newspaper afte
service of sucn notice, or, in cas-
of daily newspapers, within five day
after said notice aforesaid, in as con
spicuous place and type in said news
paper as was the article compliance
of, then the plaintiff in such case shal
recover only actual damages and sue
correction or retraction may be con
siderad by the jury in estimating sue
actual damages"
between innocent mistake and Wifi
guilt. Such a proposition as this eve
without provision that plaintiffs b
required, in the discretion of the judg'
to give advance security for cost:
would work fairly with regard to repu
table and honorable publishers, sine
it would enable them to put their sid
: of the case clearly and fully befol
the jury. The Wisconsin proposition
which in essence now appears on Tn
statute BOOKS of a majority of the mol
progressive western states, is the con
l mon sense as to libel legislation VIII
the present Pennsylvania law is II
> vicious end intolerable superstition II
; herited from times when Journalists
consisted chiefly of inVenting maliciol
| noli1ical lies.