The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-04-18
MUZZLING THE JOURNALS.

The Legislature of California mas re-
Gently passed a bill, and it is now
law, which provides, that every article,
statement, or editorial in a printed
publication published in the State,
which tends to blacken the memory
of one who is dead, or to ilnpeach the
honesty, integrity, virtue, or reputa-
ton, or publish the natural Or alleged
defects OF one who is alive mast have
the name of the author signed at the
end
The journals of the State fenounce
this law as an unconstitutional abridg-
ment of the freedom of the Press. The
constitutionality of the law will be
tested at once.
There does not seem to be, IN this
law, any abridgment whatever of
freedom. The law permits any jour
nalist to write what he pleases, but
it declares that the man who writes
certain articles shall sign his name to
them The freedom of the Press, guar
anteed by the Constitution. of the
State, does not mean freedom to skulk
or fire behind trees, or shoot from the
bush This recent law merely clears
the way, and makes it easy to identify
an offender. 1t forces out into the
open those men who deal with queer
goods" in journalism and compels
them to put out a sign, just as a po-
1iceman who carries club is required
to carry number for Identification.
The yellow journals declare that the
journal itself is responsible for the
character of its publications. But the
owners of journals know that a state
ment made in a newspaper with only
a corporate existence does not, in the
public mind, have the force of state
ment made by an individual More
over, an Individual will avoid making
statements over his own name that
may make him liable to personal at
tacks with the fists, or the horsewhip,
or the bullet.
In the publication by a yellow jour-
nal, some years ago, of the private his
tory Of a distinguished family, one of
the members of which was insane, a
judge of the highest Federal court de-
clared privately that it was only the
use of the horsewhip and the bullet
that would prevent such publications
for gain, and that the community in
time would enforce some way of
reaching the real offender who was |
the person that dared to personally |
edit painful revelations.
President Harper, of the Chicago |
University, recently told the students |
of Berkeley, that there was no great |
er despotism than the ignorance of the |
multitude and the vilification of the |
press
This law of the State of California |
is the protest of society against a great |
wrong. 1t means that men and women
saults upon their characters. The law,
however, goes to the extreme, and |
may therefore defeat itself 1t makes |
no distinction between private and |
public persons Any distinction, in a |
regenerated world, would be quite un-
necessary But in world that is
full of sin and abounds in the most
picturesque unrighteousness, some
sharp things should be said by an en-
lightened press, without fear of en-
barraSsment. The California statute,
if strictly enforced will make the
journals of the State rather dry read
ing, and deprive the people of the daily
amusement of seeing some one
scored" But it will not be strictly
enforced. The people must have the
daily stimulant of scandal, or life it
self will become q barren waste. The
rise in the character of the press de-
ponds wholly on the rise in the char
acter OF the readers of the papers,