The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-01-17
SenSati0naliSm Denounced Bv
Justice Brown.
METHODS OF PAPERS
REGRETS THE GROWTH oF VEL
Low JOURNALISM.
Doubtful if Any Legislation is Prac-
ticable TO Restrict the Excessive
offense INDUCED in BY Certain
Newspapers-Censorship is Not to
Be Thought Of in Free Country.

Albany. n. Y, Jan. 16.-The principal
address before the State Bar associa-
ton tonight at its meeting was by
Justice Brown Of the United States SUI
preme court upon the Liberty of the
Press" in which he severely denounced
what he termed sensational Journal
ism.
Ugly. stories are told" he said, of
the methods resorted TO to create a
sensation or TO advertise a paper, Of
correspondents sent to Washington
with Instructions to blackan the char
acter of particular men, regardless of
fGets; Of editorial space sold for so
much a line; Of spies put upon houses
to unear h domestic scandals or upon
the steps of public men to ferret out po-
lltica1 secrets; of respectable women
detailed to walk the streets at night,
get themselves arrested as disTeputable
and spend a night in prison for the
sake Of startling article upon the
prosecution of working women; Of var
iOus other Contrivances by which re-
porters are sent, not to investigate
facts, but TO make case by hook or
crook against some prominent official.
For the credit of humanity, not to say
the honor of great profession, let US
hope that these stories are untrue.
Offensive Pictures.
''The next step in their downward
career was the illustrations. and such
Illustrations Pictures Of current events
murders and sudden deaths, some
times copied from photographs, oftener
drawn from imagination.
All Of these eXtravagances Culmin-
ate in the weekly Sunday morning edi-
tons. If there be another worse than
this the mind of man hath not hitherto
conceived them. Probably no law
could be framed which could cover such
cases. since matters Of taste are beyond
the pulse Of the law. but it is to be res
gretteds that the great mass of the
American people are so imperfectly
educated as to take pleasure in these
abOrtiOns of the engraver's art.
But it is in its assaults upon pri-
vate character that the press is guilty
of its greater cruelties, for no other
word in the English language will ade-
quately express the nature of these at
lacks"
Justice Brown then recited the pro-
visions OF the law of libel, and asked:
who shall say that the citizen has
any adequate projections Does not the
press hold our regulations completely
at its mercy?
Legislation Impracticable.
1T is exceedingly doubtful" he con-
tilued, IF any legislation is pTacti-
cable which shall tend to restrict the
excessive offensc INDUCED IN by news
papers OF course. p censorship is not
to ! e C. gght Of in d free country. We
can iul sine a censorship which. with
out REFRESHING the freest decision of
political and social conditions and the
claims of candidates 10 the SURFACES
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.
In this ineficacy of the law as it
stands at present and the impractical
bility Of further legislation, we are
confronted by the fact that in this free
country there has grown up despotic,
irresponsible power which holds our
regulations completely at its mercy.
No man occupies a political position by
executive appointment and few by
election who cannot be driven from il
by a combined attack Of two or three
influential journals, whose cue the mi
nor papers are only too ready to take
up Under such circumstances what
possible recourse have we except TO
make the best terms with this power.
and if we cannot obtain justice, to
crave meTcy?"