The San Francisco call., 1899-03-10
ANOTHER ROUND
OF PRESS BATTING
IN THE SENATE
The Upper House Passes the
Bill to Compel Signatures
TO Articles.

CALL HEADQUARTERS, SACRA-
MENTO. March 9.-The Senate took TO
press batting again this evening and in
dulged in one Of its periodic revels in
vituperauon directed at all things jour
nalStic.
MOrehOuSe was floor manager and Davis
was his assistant, and between them they
passed Warehouses; measure to compel
signatures to all personal articles.
BY the bill every man who writes an
article which tends to backen the men,
ory of one who is dead. or to impeacn the
honesty, integrity, virtue or reputation
or publish the natural or alleged defects
Of one who is alive, and thereby expose
him or her TO public hatred, contempt or
ridicule' must sign his true name TO ii
and it shall be printed at the end of the
article. To insure an observance of this
- law there is provided penalty of $1,000
Tor every infraction of its terms.
Smith was the first TO speak in defense
of the impersOnal character which has
made the newspaper such power and
has given il 50 much more opportunity to
prosecute its work in It's own chosen
field. Smith is newspaper man. and so
IS Shortridge and Rowell and Prisk, but
there are others in the Senate who are
not, and IL was those who, not knowing
1he work involved in publishing the news
on time. waXed eloquent over the pOssibil-
tiles of newspaper work and the restric-
tiCns it can bear without losing its use
practical aspect of the signature scheme,
and he was followed by Sims, who went
further into the rights and Liberties Of
the press. Smith thought the law, II en-
acted, could never be applied, and Sims
believed it would hamper an institution
which should not be hampered. Sims de-
clared there was law enough on the books
to right every wrong the press ever did
or viii do, and he thought it was a dan
gerous precedent to establish, this taking
away from the paper its general responI
siblity and making it mere personal
one. He looked at the signature measure
only in conjunction with the one allowing
q free pot shot at all offending editors,
and he saw in it the good point of show
ing a man the person to draw a bead on
If he wished to exercise the right OF Tree
shooting, but he believed it was bad law
and should not be considered seriously
by the, Senate Senator simpson son sup sup
ported the bill. He said no man had more
cause than he TO favor such a measure,
and he believed it was a law that should
Shortridge had his word to say in de
Tense of his own profession and he used
all kinds of emphasis in the saving. He
too knew the law to be impractical, ana
from his own experience he illustrated
what he meant. He tried to explain the
process of gathering news and to show
that there were some things about II that
when left to fallible human judgment
might not go in practice as they DO in
theory: but the Senate had brought the
bill up TO pass it, and It did not need the
verbal VitriOl which MorehouSe poured
over the newspaper tables to insure a big
vote. Davis speech ON the subject was
what did most for the bill, for he declared
himself in favor of the liberty of the
press and then proceeded to adroiuy re-
strict it. He believed it should be placed
under certain limits-the same limits the
previous speakers had opposed-not be-
cause the restrictions were bad in them
selves but because they opened the door
10 others One of the limits he favored
was the MOrehouse measure.
p The bill then went to vote and it was
passed by the following;
Aves-Ashe Bettman. BOyce, Bulla,
Burnett. Chapman. Curtin, Cutter, Davis,
Dwyer. Flint, Gillette, Hall. ttoey, Leav-
TT. Luchsinger, Maggard; MorehouSe
Mutt. Simpson, Smith, Taylor. Trout-23
Noes - Braunhart. Dickinson, Doty,
Feeney. La Rue, Prisk, ,Rowell, Shortridge,
.Absent-Currier, Jones, Laird, Langford,
Pace. Wolfe-6
Smith changed his vote from no TO aye
before the result was announced and then
gave notice that he would move for a re-
Consideration tomorrow.