The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-01-17
LIBERTY OF THE PRESS.
Justice Brown Denounces What He
Calls Sensational Journalism.

ALBANY, N. Y, Jan. 1.-THE principal
address before the State Bar association
before Its adjournment tonight was by
Justice Brown, of the United States SUI
preme court His subject was 1.-The Lib
erty Of the Press" in which he severely
denounced what he termed sensational
journalism.
ugly stories are told" he said, "of the
methods resorted to to create a sensation
or to advertise parer; Of correspondents
sent to Washington with instructions to
blacken the character of public men, re-
CARELESS of facts; Of editorial space sold
for so much line; Of spies put upon
houses to unearth domestic scandals, or
upon the steps Of public men to ferret
out political secrets; Of respectable women
detailed to walk the streets at night, get
themselves arrested as disreputables, and
spend night in prison for the sake of
a startling article upon the infamous
prosecution of working women; of various
other contrivances by which reporters
are sent, not to investigate facts, but to
make a case, by hook or crook, against
some prominent official. For the credit
Of humanity, not to say for the honor of
a great profession, let US hope that these
stories are untrue.
1.-THE next step in their downward ca
reer was the illustrations-and such illus
ties, murders and sudden deaths often
occupied a foot-of space, often drawn on
imagination. If there be another worse
than these the mind of man hath not hith-
erto conceived them.
Probably no law could be framed
which would cover such cases. since mat
ters of taste are beyond the pulse of law
but it Is to be regretted that the great
mass of American people are SO imper-
E4Ir MI In
these abortions of the engraVcrs' art
"But 1t is in it's assaults upon public
men that it Is guilty of its greatest cru
elites, for no other word in the English
language will describe the character Of
these attacks
Justice Brown then described the law
Of libel, and then asked:
"Who shall say the individual has any
too much protection. Does not the press
hold our regulations completely at Its
mercy? 1t is exceedingly doubtful If any
legislation Is practicable which shall tend
to restrict the excessive license INDUCED
in by newspapers. OF course a censor
ship Is not to be thought Of in free
country We can imagine censorship
which. without depressing the freest dis
cussion Of political and social questions,
and the claims of candidates to the SUI
frages of the people, might repress much
that is indecent, coarse and libelous' but
in the practical administration of such
law the abuses would soon outnumber the
advantages. .
I'm this ineff1cacy Of the law, as 1t
stands at present, and the impracticabh-
ity of further repression, we are con-
WINGED that in this country there mas
grown up despotic, irresponsible power
which holds our regulations completely
at Its mercy. No man occupies a polit-
zeal appointment by executive appoint
ment and few from election. who cannot
be driven from 1t by a combined attack
by two or three influential journals whose
cue the minor papers are only too ready
to take up. Under such circumstances
what possible recourse have We except
70 make the best terms with this power,
and if we cannot obtain justice, to crave
It's mercy?"