The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-02-16
A COWARDLY LIE.

At the banquet Of silver Republicans
| held in this city on Friday evening
| Senator S. B. Howard, Of Minneapolis,
responded to the toast 1.-THE Press"
and is reported as follows: 1.-THE press,
| he said, nodded opinion, but the
power of gold nodded the press" We
| call attention to this, not because Sen
ator Howard is particularly worthy of
attention or of answer, but because he
has voiced, in this case, the cowardly
lie with which so many people, who
| are deficient both in mental and moral
fiber, are wont to meet an argument
! that they cannot answer If the G o b e
or any other newspaper were to pub
lish an article tomorrow morning say
ing that Senator S. B. Howard, of Min
neapolis is venal legislator and a
corrupt man; that he owes his position
| in public life to his venality; that his
vote is for sale to the highest bidder,
and that any man or any interest can
command his voice and his support for
a money consideration, he would con-
slider himself greatly aggrieved. I'm
questionably, he would demand a
prompt retraction, or he would bring
suit for libel alleging great damage
to himself from a publication not
founded in fact. The same course
would be taken by any individual sim
ilarly attacked, and the law so far
recognizes the validity of their cause
and the business of their grievance as
to provide that substantial money dam
ages shall be paid where the libel has
been proved. Yet that which these in
diViduals regard as a wanton injury
to themselves they are quick and reck-
less enough to attempt to inf1ict upon
Others where the law does not give
protection, but leaves the injured par
ty to take his own punishment. The
reflection which Senator Howard would
resent upon himself he is prepared to
cast upon others without an iOta of
evidence to offer Because he believes,
or pretends to believe, in free coinage
Of silver, and the great body of the
press throughout this country does not,
he does not hesitate to attempt to fix
upon men as much his betters morally
as they are Intellectually his superiors,
the stigma of an interested motive
We have only to say, in the name
Of Journalism everywhere, that the
statement is a willful, deliberate and
cowardly lie, and that the man who
made it, or who shall make it hereafter,
deserves the contempt and opprobrium
in which the liar is held in every COM
munity of decent men. AS far as we
know them, newspaper men have high
er standards of public duty and of
private right than men of almost any
other profession. Their business shows
to them, day after day, the imperative
| necessity Of an intelligent and incor-
rupt public opinion to the existence of
| Tree institutions. They see, as few
others can, how the world needs cour-
age and conviction. They sacrifice more
in times Of public excitement than all
others combined: While the business
man and the workingman can voice
or conceal their opinions, as self-inter-
est may require, and in either case sl1f
fer nothing in a business way. the
newspaper takes its life in its hands
and does not hesitate to invite the CEN
sure and the injury inflicted by those
whom it must offend if it would tell
the truth. In the world of newspaner-
dom, as everywhere else, there is a
human average. There are good men
and bad men, men venal and men un-
purchasable, courage and cowardice;
out, on the whole, the press of the
country is it's standing army, that
fights at its own cost and it's own risk
the battles of that eternal vigilance by
which liberty must be preserved, as
we'll as Won
Men were bought in the last cam
paign with the same pieces that paid
Judas Iscariot, and other men were
bought with gold. But the press of the
country, as whole, like the voters of
the country as a whole, stood for what.
right or wrong, represented the
policy that, according to its
conviction, was essential to national
solVency and national honor. The time
should not be long distant in any COM
munity when no man will be tolerated
by his fellows who utters against any
class in that community as a class
without evidence and without specifica-
ton, that cowardly lie which, if he was
correctly reported we here nail upon
the otherwise creditable record of Sem
atOr Howard.
A BLOW FOR LIBERTY.
Heroic little Greece will rnlau as i'm