The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1903-07-03

citizens. 1t was personal letter to the |
same Mayor whose interview they term
reporters interview and 1T was
furnished The Herald and News at
least, not by ,.he Commissioners, put
by the Mayor, to- whomit was addressed.
| challenge a.ny man to produce
line in the article referred to, in when
is expressed any opinion by the reporter,
or by the paper. True, the Mayor d'o
express an opinion, and for asking the
Mayor for his opinion, l have no apolo-
gies to offer. | believed then, and still
hold, that the Mayor has right 70
explain his own position, and that he
also has the right publicly to express
any opinion which he may hold concern
ing a matter affecting the city's inter-
ests.
Perhaps if the Commissioners had
taken this reporter in hand and given
him few lessons he would have learned
to distinguish between courtesy and the
kind of "breach of courtesy which
| the Commissioners find in the article
| referred to-, and their dignity would not
| have been offended (however unwltt-
ingly) by him. This same reporter was
notified on an occasion last year by
! Superintendent Boyd that there would
! be a public meeting Of the Commls-
| sioners, and Superintendent Boyd ex-
| tended him an invitation to attend the
\ meeting. He wenk- AS soon as the
! meeting was called to order the chair
\ man of the CommisR oners asked him
| to leave, because matters would possibly
4 be discussed which it would not be ad-
! visable for the public to know of. The
1 reporter left. He felt then, and feels
| now, that if pubHs officers desire to
\ engage in a discussion in regard topub-
1 lie matters which it is not advisable for
\ the people to hear, that theE showed
no discourtesy in asking the represen-
4 tative of'a newspaper to leave, although
their Secretary had extended him an
invitation to be present.
When the Commissioners met with
the finance committee on last Friday
afternoon, they requested three mem
1 bers of the committee to meet with
them and ignored the Mayor, who is
Il
from Council. The Mayor to, k nc
offense. At the time l was rathe in
clined to the belief that the honor able
Commissioners had been guilty of ara tn
er large "breach of courtesy" BUTT Is
plain now. They could have meant NJ
"breach Of courtesy" because if they
deemed it a "breach of courtesy to be
placed in the same column in public
newspaper with the Mayor in connection
with the same public matter, they
would not want him to attend one of
their meetings. Under such circum-
; stances, the Commissioners, forsooth,
displayed no "breach of courtesy in
ignoring the Mayor.
The Commissioners have never hand
ed The Herald and News a public COM
munication emanating from them. The
. Herald and News has always been
forced to secure such communications
1 from those to whom they are addressed.
euer, have long since learned that the
Commissioners do not want representa-
| tiveS of newspapers to attend their Off
cial meetings, and we T.. been under
| the impression that ~ did not
desire their communications printed.
5 1t has always seemed to be their policy
t to keep from the public everything
possible, even though it should be the
S publc's business. Under these crcum-
g stances, we felt that there had been nc
G 'breach Of courtesy" and their com
e munications, being matters of news, we
y secured in the best manner possible.
y The Herald and News knows that il
e was shown no discourtesy by the Com
G missioners in that their statement tt
the citizens was not furnished it, be
e cause, perhaps, the Commissioner
l. thought it might be ''sandwiched be
e tween editorial comments and reporter
d interviews; and in the Observer the,
e knew it would be made secondary onl
s. to an attack upon an unassumng re
n porter for having interviewed tn
ID | Mayor, and therein treated the Com
l. missioners ''discourteously.
n The reporter knows that the Commits
d sioners are courteous gentlemen. H
|, has had abundant opportunity to oil
g serve this fact, and to these courteou
is gentlemen, he apologies for any az
% parent discourtesy shown them.
a Mr.. Editor, in justice to myself al
ID to The Herald and News, which
1t represented in writing the article r.
n fcrrcd to, ask that you will publis
sc | this communication.
e. JOHN K. AULL.