Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-01-30

its diatribes with feelings Of terror, does
not alter the ethics of journalism or en-
large the license of a s~elf-respecting
press.
If it be wrong for a newspaper to try
and convic a man in it's columns. when
his case is being investigated by a grand
jury: if it be wrong for a newspaper to
try and convict a man in it's columns
when his case is on trial before a court;
if it be wrong for a newspaper to try
and convict a man whose fate is being
determined in the tribunal Of last resort.
before the evidence has been submitted
to the consideration of that body-then
is the Anaconda Standard in the wrong
and the Inter Mountain in the right. Be-
cause that man happens to be one of
the prominent citizens of the state of
Montana, who was elected to the senate
by a democratic legislature. instead of
Il murderer or a horse thief, does not
alter one iota the principle involved.
The question of who the person may be
is immaterial in the calculation of the
principle.
If the Standard can justify it's position
in acting the part of both judge n jury
in the Clark case, there is 40 reason why
it should not assume the same preroga-
tive in any case that may arise. n pass
judgment upon it in advance of it's hear
ing in the courts. To some extent it has
assumed this right, notably in mining
suits that were pending, and, if allowed
to go unchecked, will shortly recognize
no limits in it's efforts to bulldoze the
courts n whip the jurors into line.
AS has been repeatedly stated in these
columns, the contention in behalf of de-
cent journalism has not been made in de-
Tense of Mr.. Clark, or of any of his as
sociates, but in defense of the public.
the most powerful factors in our public
life, and it's ethical limitations are a mat
ter of concern to all. When a purely
personal organ, like the Standard, over
steps the recognized bounds Of newspa-
per propriety, and attempts to assume
the functions of the court, blasting the
reputation of men right and left, before
the accused have an opportunity to pre-
sent their defense before a duly consti-
tuted judicial body, it is time to call a
halt upon such disreputable journalism.
To ,,or,,,iftoI fo on ,,,roh,lo1 ~ yx-orl1 1n
only a question of time when such news
papers would run amuck on any pretense,
and keep the community in a feverish
state of unrest, converting the
wealth into a perpetual broil.
Already the disgraceful spectacle of a
ruined reputation abroad looms up like
a nightmare before the people of this
state-due, not to the fact that criminals
have been apprehended and enjailed for
high crimes n misdemeanors against
the law-but to the fact that no effort
has been made by alleged reformers to
place malefactors in stripes, while adver-
Using to the world that this state is too
rotten a borough to punish it's own GRIM
mails in the courts of the commonwealth,
n it's people too degraded to see that
justice is done within our borders! Mon
tana has suffered i%rreparably from the
course pursued by the Standard, and has
gained nothing therefrom which a hear
ing in the courts of the state would no
have brought out. This sort of journal
ism, at all times r~eprehensible, but made
disgustingly conspicuous in the Clark
case, on account of the higher stakes for
which the Standard and it's hackers are
playing, cannot fail to impress the pub
lie with the rectitude of the course pur-
sued by the Inter Mountain when it has
the courage to administer a rebuke.