Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1900-01-27
M1N1Ncb1MJouRNA1
FROsTBURG, MD. JANUARY 81, 1901
The Press-Is il Free?

The JOURNAL last week exhibited
some concern tor 1.-THE liberty of the
press" in Cumberland-a liberty grow
ing out of and concurrent with every
other democratic principle inherent in
the scheme of self government.
This concern was aroused by the IN
situations, publicly made, that par
ticular portion of the press, as stated
by one, is "pliable;' by another as
"debauched"- clear notice, by I'M
plication. that Cumberland did not
approve press that is free to become
"pliable" or "debauched.'
Early this week came the news that
Il fire company down there refuses to
recommend John w. Avirett for
State f re Marshal''-not on account
of unfitnesS, incompetence, or any of
the other usual ineligibiitIes, but be-
cause 1.-The public press owes its first
duty"-not to the democratic party in
this instance, nor even to its beloved
country as "A whole, but "to the people
among whom it circulates and from
whom it derives its support" etc.
From which it appears that, notwith-
standing the sacred warrant in the
Maryland Declaration of Rights, Mr..
Avirett, personifyiug "the press" is
not at liberty TO sell the policy of his
paper nor to hold office.
Now, if these dispossessions could
be accomplished by legal process, no
body could complain.
But a public meeting and fire
company, becoming a law unto them
selves-judges, jury and prosecution,
haye decrced that there are at least
two liberties 1.-THE press" of Cumber-
land shall not enjoy.
SO far as Mr.. Avirett's candidacy
for office is concerned the JOURNAL is
not interested, but in the more vital
matter of 1.-THE freedom of the press
it feels just as it imagines the fathers
did when they ordained it as one of
the temples of freedom in the aggre-
gate which, like the popular right to
Ensemble peaceabIy," should never
be pulled down.
SO long, therefore, us 1.-The press
conducts itself within the law which
denies no mans right to differ with it,
so long its right to maintain its con
victions of what is in the interest of
the public good is unassailable. In
Millions nervous words
This IS true Liberty when freeborn men,
H""j"g TO dd"iSc tie p"biic, may speak free
Which he who can and will deserves high
praise;
Who neither can nor will may hold his
peace
What can be justcr in a State than this?
1t is to be regretted, therefore. that
the fire company did not place its an
tagonism to Mr.. Averitt on some other
ground, for if his editorial views,
bought or unbought, upon one public
topic can be suppressed by a faction of
his constituency, his editorial views,
for instance, upon free coinage, an
issue thousand-fold more important
than the water problem. can be also
eujoined.
In an event of that character-im-
probable but not impossible, some of
the very men now practically suppress
ing his paper would be the first to run
to aid in its liberation.
The Office of the press, like that of
the machinery of the gospel, is not
proscriptive, but persuasive. 1t would
that all men should believe as it does.
On the other hand, the function of
those who resent in any way the ex-
ercise of its chartered rights carries an
ugly taste of what the sayages do with
missionaries in the Cannibal Islands,
who burn and eat the individual in
order to make odious the evangelism
that doesn't suit them.
How il Works.
Il