The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-05-14
IT CAN ALL COME OUT
Quinn Takes Recent Libel Suit
Talk for a Text.
THE END TO BE SOUGHT
Running and Racy Comment on Some
of the Things That Have At
tracted Notice in the Ma
TONS Biggest City.

Special Correspondence of the Standard.
New York, May $50 there's libel
suit of 100000 against the Butte Miner
for charges against Mr.. Whiteside!
Well, let the gayety of nations be
maintained.
- The people of the country at large
who have been given to understand
that Montanas honor is perpetually for
sale will follow the proceedings with
interest.
If, as Mr.. Whiteside AYERS. he receiv
ed $4,000 with which to bride mem
bers of the legislature, and if news
paper defending the crime added in
suit to injury by branding the enemy
of the crime as the criminal, there
should be no doubt as to the verdict.
IT, on the other hand, a man innocent
of bribery was elected to the senate
and Whiteside flashed 100000 in a
corrupt and dishonest attempt to
blacken the reputation of the innocent,
then the suit for libel should be dis
missed and Whiteside punished.
There can be no middle ground.
Some one attempted to corrupt the leg
islature. Some one used money dis
honestly and criminally. The name of
Montana was made a by-word through
out the nation, and the state owes it
to itself to get at the facts and act
without fear or favor.
Some one committed the crime. Some
one is lying. Some one has done that
for which he should be prosecuted and
punished. Who is guilty?
The time has come when the people
of the great treasure state must say
to the world that they are not bribe-
seekers, that they respect honor and
virtue, that they are not groVellng
bootlickers at the feet of ambitious
mil their children
ing raised in an atmosphere of decency,
and that no man, even though he have
the wealth of Vanderbilt or an Aston,
can prostitute the states citizenship,
humiliate it's people, degrade its man
hood and defy it's laws.
Honest people throughout the coun-
try are not interestd in the personality
of the guilty. They care not which
side suffers so long as justice be done.
Let it not be said that Montanans
are money-worshipping beggars who
willingly wallow in the foul cess
pool of corruption at the behest of self
seeking moneybags, who look upon
human beings as burden bearing asses
to be driven hither and yon by the whip
of gold.
There is more at stake in the present
contest than the mere punishment of
an individual. The name and fame of
a great commonwealth of the American
been placed upon the state, and if it's
removal be possible all the power of
the people should be exerted in that
direction.
If Whitside lied about the 100000 he
should be branded and driven from the
state. If he has told the truth, no
punishment is too severe for those who
made henious crime doubly black by
bespattering his name with the venom
of hypocritical and malicious abuse.
Among the topics of conversation in
New York's military, social and po-
litical circles is the decision in the case
against the officers of the list regiment
of this state. To classify men as cow
ards is to place them under ban from
which recovery is impossible. Such has
been the fate of Colonel Downs, Major
Whittle and Lieutenant Colonel Smith.
This is the one dark spot in the glori-
Gus record of the volunteers. Every
other regiment that went to the front
won added glory for the republic. From
North, South, East and West went brave
and heroic men to defend the flag and
sustain the republics reputation for
valor. The rank and file of the list
are as brave and loyal as those of any
other regiment in the service. No one
charges the soldiers of this Inflated
regiment with cowardice, but it has
been officially decreed that the officers
trailed the colors in the dust and
brought reproach upon the troops.
There is something pitiful about the
situation, yet all of the evidence seems
to point to the justice of the decision
According to the testimony no other
verdict could have been rendered. with
out bringing the entire army into dis
repute and robbing the Iion-hearted
lads from the country at large of the
honors which they have so valiantly