Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-11-13
KEEP COOL, GENTLEMEN!

There is a marked tendency on the
part of the respective newspaper organs
of our turbulent and distorted democracy
to fly into a rage while discussing the
Welcome case. The display of temper
is wrong from every point of view. Moth
ing is to be gained by it, and sometimes
the cause of justice is weakened when
angry platitudes displace the conclu-
sions of common sense.
1t certainly was a mistake for the Hell
ena Independent to personally attack
Mr.. Marcus DAILY. in it's efforts to pro-
tect the interests of Mr.. Welcome.
Newspaper assaults of that character
will neither help Mr.. Welcome nor hurt
Mr.. Daily. They totalize merely in the
fermentation of bad blood, and the Gre
alton Of scars that last long after the
ends of justice have been met and finally
disposed of. If they serve a purpose
in the economy of journalism. that pur-
pose is to defect public attention from
the propositions that are directly in is
sue.
III AM q a ol'oii Ahi'
Daily. and recounting the manifold bless
ings which Mr.. w. A. Clark has vouch-
safed to the state. features of the
Welcome case. the Independent closely
initiates the tactics of the Anaconda
Standard last winter, when, in advance
of the meeting of the Legislature it en-
deavored to make votes for Mr.. Conrad by
giving the details of the career of politi-
cal debauchery upon which it declared
the Clark men We're about to enter. Mr..
Clark was then entitled to immunity
form a verdict of guilty, IN advance of
the facts; and Mr.. Daily is now entitled
to freedom from the charges brought
against him by the Independent. until
his connection with them is conclusively
shown.
The case in issue has to do merely With
the alleged conduct of Mr.. Welcome, and
the question to be settled by the SUI
preme court is whether he was or was
not guilty Of conduct unbecoming a pro-
fessional man AT it is clearly a mat
ter of personal responsibility that at
taches to the defendant himself, the fig
ure which Mr.. Clark may have cut in
the background behind him. or the in
tluence which may have been exerted by
Mr.. DAILY in the movements of Mr.. White
side, really have nothing to do with the
outcome of this particular case.
When, in the course of human events,
some gentleman is Inadvertently appre-
hended with a jas, his personal respon-
sibility is alone taken into consideration
The question of who manufactured the
whiskey which he drank, or from whom
he originally secured the money With
which to buy the ubiquitous fluid, does
not enter into the conclusions of tbs
court. The illustration, though perhaps
a little far-fetched, may be made To ap-
oily TO the Welcome case. The sole re-
sponsibility for his own conduct, good
or bad, rests with the defendant. 1t is
a weakness, therefore. that would lead
his friends to speculate az andom as 10
the bearing which ~extranvous circum-
stances may have on his case.
Last winter, the Inter Mountain td-
vised the Anaconda Standard to cease
threshing the ala with its dextrous mani
pulation of phrases. accusing everybody
and everything, in a political way, of cor
ruption-from the molecules and monads
of democracy up to the main guy ropes
and proceed to the more expeditions and
satisfactory method of acting on infor-
OF the law. The Helena Independent in
vites the same sort of advice. Instead OF
accusing Mr.. DAILY of all manner of of
lenses against proper conduct on the part
of a public man-instead of ascribing tc
him conspiracies of greater or lesses de-
gree-our capital city contemporary
should take such action in the courts as
would seem most likely to unearth the
crimes that are so darkly limited at!
-
Public interest has reached a ppinj
where the ruth, the whole truth and
nothing but the truth, will be accepted as q
satisfactory conclusion of the controversy
which the democratic party has forced
upon the people of this state. In a gen
eral way. the people understand that the
criminal charges set forth in the columns
OF the newspapers, and in the calendars