The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-05-02
TUESDAY, MAY 2, 1899.
TWELVE PAGES.
That Libel Suit.

have gone along as a passing
incident in the days doings but
for the singular manner in which the
Miner comments upon the case. APP
parently, the Miner is in doubt not
as to the justice of Whiteside's COM
plant, but as to the good or bad
policy he displays in starting the suit.
In the same strain, the Miner dwells
on the fact that Whiteside might be
considered unwise by many in taking
his reputation into court
Most people will think that this part
of the lawsuit is exclusively White
sides affair; the advice which the
Miner proffers him might have been
well enough and in good place if it
had been given out before the suit
was brought it is in the nature of
ex-post-facto advice now-the pre-
sumption is that Mr.. Whiteside took
up this phase of the affair and dealt
with it before his complaint was filed.
Manifestly, this assure raised by the
Miner is a part of Whiteside's end of
the quarrel: one does not see why the
eral theory is that when a newspaper
has a libel suit on it's hands-no mat
ter what the merits-it has troubles
enough of it's own.
What would more interest the pub
lie would be- for the Miner to say
If it wants to say anything to the
public about its lawsuit-that it agrees
"a a 4,
agrees to knock him out. That would
be to the point-if the Miner feels sure
of it's ground and if, as We have sug-
gested, it wants to talk at ALL
Another remark of the Miner in re-
gard to this lawsuit gets our atten-
ton. That newspaper declares that
the intention to carry to the floor of
the senate the fight against Clark has
already been made public, and that
the Whteside libel suit is a device to
hlep that case along. AS for it's bear
ing in a court room, this remark would,
we suppose, be ruled out as incompe-
tent, irrelevant and unnecessary, in
ing as newspaper talk, especially
when, as in the Miners case, it is
official talk. The Miners announce
ment that the intention to stop Clark,
if possible, has been made public, is
in the nature of exclusive news; so
far as the Standard is aware, no other
newspaper in the country has carried
this item of news to the public. 1t
may be that the Miner has trust
worthy information not hitherto given
out on this score; or, it may be that,
/. in this instance, the natural expecta-
ton is father to the thought. But here
again is matter which, anyway, seems
to US not to have direct bearing on
home office talk about libel suit, in
case, again. that it is a suit which the
accused newspaper wanted to talk about
at ALL
For any newspaper office a libel suit
is one { f the mean.E things in chris
tendon. The Standard has no contem-
porary upon which It would invoke an
aff1iction of the kind. Suits of the sort
are a vexation and, in instances, an
expense that is irksome. AS for the
money part in the case at hand, the
Miners suggestion is that "a reputa
ton that Is worth anything at all is
worth more than 100000" the amount
\ claimed in the Whiteside action. That
is a consideration worth thinking about
possibly the plaintiff in this case
will ask leave TO make an amended
complaint, under the Miners sugges-
ton, and raise the limit. But then,
there are wheels within wheels. A
rather peculiar thing it is--or, rather,
a thing that would strike the outsider
as peculiar-that the banking house
which belongs to w. A. Clark obtained
in October. 1887. a Judgment for
S1S.703.39 against the Miner, which also
belongs to W. A. Clark. This Judgment
earned interest good and hard The
judgment was renewed in 1894 in the
sum of s32,044.15, and it now amounts
TO more than $4,000. Perhaps Mr..
Whiteside didn't know that; perhaps
he knew it, and knowledge of the fact
didn't make any difference With his
plans. @@& &rrg