The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-12-04
EDITORIAL TRICKS
In THE FATHERLAND
How German Scribes Evade the Lese
Malest Law.
JANITORs HIRED AS EDITORS
An Exceedingly Interesting Chapter
Upon the Possibilities of Journals
ism Even in n Land where Freedom
of the Press Is a Feature Unknown.
Georse w. Hinman in the Sun.


George w. Hinman in the Sun.
Three years ago the editor of one of
the countless Volkszeitungs in Ger
many sat in court, answering the IA
miliar charge of insulting a Prince.
You are the responsible editor of the
Volkszeitung?" asked the presiding
judge.
II am"
And as such you are named in every
issue of the Volkszeitung?"
Il am"
did you write the article which gave
rise to this action?"
II did not"
What class Of article do you write?"
81 do not write any articles
What, then, are your duties?'
II sweep the office and receive the
cards of persons who wish to see the
editors"
What else?'
well, in winter l build the fires and
keep them going"
"Is that ail?"
mo, l dust the desks and sec that
each gentleman has his rarer and ink
ready for work, and scour the window $
and sometimes help distribute the pa
pers."
Anything else?"
"Why, your Honor. vha: do you ex-
pect for 60 marks ($15) a month"
The KoClnische ZeituuE, which re-
ported the trial, cut short at this point
its account of the examination of the
Volkszetung's responsible editor and
fell to moralizing on the deceptions and
tricks which laws regarding insult of
majesty, otherwise known as majes-
taetsbeliedigung, or lese majestic, had
forced upon the German press. OF
course, the editor on trial was no editor
at all except in name. He received his
$15 a month merely as janitor. Though
he was announced, to satisfy the law
in every issue of the Nolkszeitung, as
the responsible editor, he never had
penned a line for it's columns For
this very reason he had been selected
to bear the legal responsibility for the
men who wrote the newspaper If ar
rested, tried, and imprisoned he never
would be missed. The VolkszeitunC
would take on another janitor from its
waiting list, for even in over-educated
Germany janitors are much more
abundant than editors
THE JAIL EDITOR.
Such is the institution of the iail edi.
tor in Germany. 1t is calculated sole.
ly to thwart by a trick the oppressive
provisions of the press law and to for.
tify the newspaper business against the
periodical onslaughts of crown prosecu.
tors. Without it only the dyed-in-the
wool monarchist would be able to pub.
hsh continuously daily newspaper
for the law is unbending, the crown
lawyers are fanatically Jealous, anC
the complaints from Berlin flute,
down like the leaves of autumn.
But the fiction of the responsible edit.
or Is only one of several means n,
which the law for the protection O
royal regulations is thwarted. 1t be
longs to the daily and weekly press
The pamphleteers, who appeal to g
class OF higher average intelligence
nave better trick. 1t is that of the
historical parallel. The most celebrated
example of this style of literature il
recent times is "Caligula, written b,
the South German" Prof. Quidde
Caligula" was aimed directly at tn,
throne. 1t was intended to tell tn
German people that their Emperor wa.
OF the tvpe of the old Roman monster
that his mind was of the same calibr,
and his impulses of the same nature
that he was passing through the sam,
course of development and that h,
promised to bring up in the same sinl
or iniquity, cruelty and madness. TIL,
early promise that Caligula gave O
better things, the dismissal OF trieC
statesmen, the growing love of display
that DISTINGUISHED his reign and hi
waxing eccentricitv and final madness
were depicted by Quidde with pains
taking use of modern political phrases
and curernt German idioms. Where Ro
man history threatened to mar th
parallel between the monstrous Caesa
and the reigning Hohenzollern, Quidd
bent 1t forcibly into line. So, withou
once mentioning an event of the las
thousand years and without once hint
ing at nineteenth century man, he &C
cused William ii. of about every enor
nifty that human being can con
ceive.
Quidde's position was absolutely i'm
pregnable, although his onslaught OF
the throne was as vicious and direc
as it could be made, and his pamphle
was sold up to the twelfth edition
There was no sentence on which {
crown prosecutor could hang a com
plant. The whole Empire rang will
the scandal of the insult, and dir,
wrath reigned supreme in Berlin's OLE
castle and Postdam's new palace, We
Quidde was safe from the clutches O
the law as if he had been in Timbucto
or Chicago, "Caligula" was a delicat
and poisonous piece of work. 1t hal
probably only one superior in the liter
airy products of the lese majestic para
graph, and that one is another class.
AIRING SCANDAL.
In general the other class is lower II
tone than the Quidde pamphlet 1t in
cludes revelations of royal scandals
notably youthful misdeeds In none,
and love. The scenes Of these scandal
are laid in the present usually, but tn
names of the actors are omitted o
given only in distorted form Most o
the books, pamphlets, and daily news
paper articles regarding the KOtz
pyNxRqEgyZyzk2S2yzygsgyg NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.