The record-union., 1899-02-21
Evening Session.

Evening Session.
AT the evening session the Senate
began where it left off when the after
noon recess was taken. The crowd
was almost dense in the gallery, and
while for an hour and half Dickin-
son and Morehouse asserted their right
to be heard the spectators staid on
to the end.
Dickinson said he did not desire to
make a speech upon the amendment
until later in the session. He favored
the bill, but on the proposition OF lib
er1ty and license He said the distinc-
ton between the two terms was pro-
nounced. The principles now practiced
by the sensational press, If followed
to it's natural conclusion, would result
in bringing under its influence every
public man in the State. He had, he
said, been in the public eye for twenty
years, but he had no desire to be kept
there by the cartoonist. The great
majority Of the press of the State, he
said, was clean and decent, but the
minority was neither clan nor decent
the minority exercised the license of
the press, the majority exercised it's
by a previous speaker, was a great
agent of civilization, but it was also
true that owing to the press, unneces-
sary battles had been fought, and
that regulations both Of men and
women had been ruined He emphasized
the fact that but few journals in the
State exercised the license of the press,
and he felt that every editor OF every
decent paper favored the bill. 1t was
impossible, he said, to apply a wide-tire
Act to the newspaper question, and If
the respectable papers suffered by the
passage of such a bill as that under
consideration, 1t would be because they
had been found in bad company.
Dickinson spoke of libel cases in
court and said that for jurors to bring
in g. verdict Of guilty meant that they
would be put on the black list. They
therefore hesitated before bringing in a.
conviction.
Gillette called Dickinson's attention
to the fact that cases under the pro-
posed bill would have to be tried by
juries, and wanted to know how he
would get a conviction. He submitted
that the penalty was more severe under
the old law, than under the proposed
new law.
Dickinson replied that the penalty
would be so reduced that jurors might
dare bring in a proper verdict. He
said the present law was intended to
reinforce the law now in force-was
intended to keep the man who was
slandered from going out and shooting
the editor of sensational paper. No
man, he said, cared to adopt such a
course, and subsequently go through a
trial for murder even though certain
that he would in the end be found in
nocent.
Dickinson said that cartoons had had
very little effect upon him personally
He had been hurt only through his
family. Ladies, he said were sensi-
tive to caricatures, caricaturists were
insensdtive, and the man who published
them was void of all feeling. He told
story about how he had once been
misquoted in telegram to the Exam
iner.' He went to the representative
of the paper, gave him correct infor-
nation, which had never been returned,
and the. representative of the paper sub
sequently told him he had given the
facts to his managing editor who had
said, I'VE are great metropolitan pa
per, and great metropolitan paper
never retracts."
The speaker explained that never was
a murder committed without the pis-
tol or the knife was pictured, and
the rope and every incident of the
hanging of the murderer set out in
pictures, for the benefit Of the children
of the land. 1t was claimed, he said,
that such things were pictured to en-
tighten the public, all Of which was
lie
Morehouse was again recognized, and
in forceful language told the story of
the Tuolumne County girl, the history
of whose affairs was recently published
in San Francisco. He said the rela-
tives of the girl, who was little more
than child, had redress against the
editorial I'VE" 1t was against such
wrongs that he protested. He had two
daughters, and il the character of
either of them ever came to be as
sailed in the columns of newspaper
he would kill the editor of that paper,
If he was hung for so doing to the
nearest black oak tree. He appealed
to the Senate to rise up for the protec-
tin Of homes, of womanhood, Of man.
hood. Nobody, he said, was secure
from attacks by sensational journal
ism. He stated that two years ago he
introduced a bill applying only to Santa
Clara County. A millionaire Of that
county came to him and told him the
bill should not pass, and that II he
(Morehouse) persisted in pushing the
matter he would buy the columns of
the Examiner" and the day but one
following the measure would be at
tackled. ION the day he mentioned
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