The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1903-10-07

and he would therefore not read them.
Counsel for the defense insisted that
each editorial must be read as q Whole
and Mr.. Elliott gracefully complied
with their view. Consequently the
time of the jury and the court was
largely taken up with hearing ancient
history of South Carolina politics.
However,, Mr.. Croft suggested that
sometimes what Mr.. Elliott believed
did not concern the case might strike
the defense differently.
A New Question.
With the entrance of the editorials
comes a new ~question-one, long settled
in most States and communities and
which may be regarded anomalous In
any civilized country. Strictly 1T Is ne,
part OF the trial, but the question may
be tried nevertheless. 1t will not be
finally settled for South Caroline. by
this trial, no matter what he trials
event, but 1T is a ghost that will not
down. Shall q public newspaper In
carrying out it's policy of protecting
the interests of the people be permitted
to expos those whom 1t deems I'M
worthy, unfit and dangerous when they
aspire to public office? Assuming that
the dead man in this case believed in
assuming for the sake of the arguma nt
only hat they We're true, assuming
not a~sserting-for that is not the re-
porter's province here-that editorials
Teou yesterday were JuStllleu ny liClS
in possession of the editor, had he the
right to give them publicity? Consid-
ering a hypothetical case, not this case,
in which n candidate was a thief In the
knowledge of the editor, must the edi-
tor i'm tenderness for the candidates
feelings leave idle his pen? Must the
editor treat all public men with studied
courtesy, whether they be good n
true or base and false? Have the peo-
pie the right to expect 40 protection
r.,~. A,, nNl 1Dna AlNN
editor w then no duty? What is the
editor there for?" To illustrate: Two
winters gone an awful railway disaster
occurred in New York city. Scores OF
persons, men, women and children
were slaughtered in the wreck. One Of
America, n newspaper two centuries
old, investigated the affair and DELHI
erately declared hat the accident was
caused by the failure of the owners n
managers of the road to provide neces-
sary facilities for safety. They were
murderers, it asserted, these millionaire
|magnates, and one by one the newspa-
per named printed their names con-
s~picuously apart from other matter
with the declaration that they had
murdered their innocent patrons and
one of them so unqualifiedly branded
was then and is now senator in the
American congress-.
In this trial quite a similar question
is before the court-not technically, not
officially. not. by acknowledgment as
yet of either party. the State or the
accused, but the question is DINING
itself into every ear with damning
iteration. Vibrant and charged with 1t
is the whole atmosphere of the court
room and more-the whole atmosphere
of South Carolina. Shall exposure of
the wicked be eliminated from the pages
of the South Carolina press, shall this
press he shorn of a duty to the people,
shall it's arms be placed in a straight
Jacket?
The endeavor OF the defense will be
to establish that the nan who fell
pierced by the missile from the Luger
pistol was actuated by personal enmity.
That is sufficiently indicated in the
cross examinations. Whether the de-
Tense will succeed in it's contention the
future must tell. Other grounds for a
good defense may be established,
eide and the event is not here to be
forecasted or Influenced. Tina Is the
province of the court and jury. Yet the
political policy of a great daily news
paper is in large part in evidence. Edi-
haps it ought not to be~-perhaps 1t is
foreign, perhaps persona non grata"
to the trial, to quote a quotation al
ready used by learned counsel, but the
naked fact is that 1T is. 1t has come
with the coming into the evidence of
these voices OF the lead editor that
live i'm cold type and, apparently, they
come with the sanction of both parties
to the CONFERENCE.-THE the subpoena
duces tecum of the defense and the Of
fering in evidence of the files by the
prosecution.