Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-01-30
Again Meets at the Capitol in
Annual Session.
Large Attendance and the Program
full of Interest to All.
Able Address on Law of Libel by Hon.
n. M. Heath.

I oNO'
w. Drisko and Frank H. Dexter VINO
were unable to be present. The COM
mittee on membership reported the
| names of. Leonard Darbyshire of Au-
gusta, editor of Comfort, and Frank D..
Smith of Portland, business manager
of the welcome guest, who were duly
elected to membership in the associa-
| ton.
George S. Rowell of Portland, re-
! ported the various routes that had
been discussed for the next summer
excursion. The matter was then put to
ballot each member indicating his
preference, with the result that Penob-
scot bay, with headquarters at Cam
Gen, was selected by considerable
| majority. Messrs. Stearns, Ogier and
Bowden were made the committee on
summer excursion.
The appearance of Hon. Joseph A.
Holman, one OF the charter members
of the association, was the occasion of
{, rising vote, and recess of five min
utes that those present might have an
opportunity to greet him. In a few
words Mr.. Holman feelingly expressed
his appreciation of the courtesy shown
him, and his pleasure in being pres
ent again at Il meeting of the asso-
citation
Mr.. Merrman of Madison, suggested
that more attention be paid to the dis
cussion of matters pertaining to the
management of the business depart
| lnents, and the various problems of
newspaper publication.
The order of business was changed
by amendment of the bylaws so that
the election of officers should occur at
fhe Wednesday afternoon session, and
it was then voted that the election
should come at that time. This will
| make it possible to devote the entire
evening session to the consideration of
business topics.
1t was voted to hold the next annual
meeting of the association in Portland
Afternoon Session.
The closing session was held in the
Senate chamber beginning at 2 P. M.
and was devoted to the literary pro-
gram. Hon Herbert NJ Heath deliver
ed an address on THE Law of Libel IL
Maine" He spoke as follows:
Gentlemen of the Press: 1 beg leave,
at the outset. to thank the officers Of
this association for their compliment.
shrink from assuming the role of an
expounder of law. My knowledge of
law is os crude and badly arranged,
picked up on the field of battle, that
the result of my work is always a per-
sonal disappointment. My law was
never born-it simply "growed." My
life has been one of activity, with no
time for tarrying at the fountains of
legal farming. 1 can advise you only
from the book of experience and leave
it's accuracy to lawyers of broader
culture and larger scholarship.
1 have some right to bespeak your
charity. My earliest memories are of
a printing office, where my father set
up his editorials at the cases and
worked his old-fashioned press by
hand. My first earnings came from
setting up "pi" at cent stick; l was
la Carnegie among my less favored
mates as we divided the fruits of hon
est toll Later 1 had the honor of be-
ing one of your brotherhood when,
boy in jacket, swept the carpet of
this Senate Chamber by day and at
night wrote items of news for the
Portland Advertiser and the Lewiston
Evening Journal. To this early work
attribute the high moral tone and
gratifying success of both these
papers. My connection with the law
of libel began early. l remember of
hearing my father tell, in my boyhood
days, how he found himself, a strug-
Cling publisher, before the courts Of
Waldo for libel in the days of tenn
perance warfare, when prohibition
s.T VI.
football of politicians and restless
agitators. He was afcarless man much
given to the speaking of the truth-a
trait quite common then and now in
the newspaper Offices of Maine---that
is. until the editor suffers the delusion
that he has received call to sit in
some high office among the councils of
the elect. 1t has been d matter of some
pride that l grew up under the
strenuous influences of acountry news
paper Office and there developed the
Donnybrook disposition of crack lg
heads common to slich or my ancestors
as came from the Emerald Isle. The
| training has been useful in later
years in defending some of your pro-
| fession who at times have published
| the truth when silence would nave
been goldenJ-at least, for them, if not
for me-after presentation of MY bill.
| You will pardon me if l trouble you
with some facts of history, elementary
but too material to be thrown aside.
| Our common law. the unwritten rules
that control society, came to us from
the mother country with our early COL
| oaization. Subsequent statutes have
| modified the harshness of the common
| law rules of libel in England but such
statutes have no force with us. We
stillscling to rules devised in the in
terest of royalty, unmindful of the
march of time.
The first stepjn England toward the
freedom of the press was Fox's act in
| 1892 Before its passage the court had
power to order the jury to find the de-
PENDANT guilty with no proof save that
of publication of the libel. The court,
as a matter of law. determined wheth-
er the article in question was a libel
| By Fox's act the jury had power to
give n general verdict. A like reform
was reached in this country by the
constitutional rule making the jury in
actions of libel judges of the law and
fact. No judge can today instruct the