The Hawaiian gazette., 1904-06-28
NEWSPAPERS AND COURTS.
(From Saturdays Advertiser)

(From Saturdays Advertiser)
Judge De Bolt could hardly have
been serious in his remarks, made from
the Circuit bench yesterday, touching
the motive of the Advertisers leading
article about his duty in the Kumalae
and Johnson cases. He spoke of 1t as
an insult Judge De Bolt, of all men,
ought to know that this journal has
more than once sacrificed its opportu-
mites as a newspaper out of consid-
Grafton for his dignity and that it is
as far from any attitude of insult to
him as he should be to 1t. But let this
consideration pass. What we propose
to say here has only to do with the
freedom of criticism about the acts
or policies or possibilities of public
men which the American press enjoys
and, when honest, exercises for the
public welfare; a freedom which
means much to every citizen and which
it should be the part of every good
man to maintain.
A Judge Is no more sacred from pub
lie comment, save when it is made Of
fensively in his presence, than is Presi-
dent, a Governor or a member of
lGSlSldtlNt DOuy. IL 10 dS thV
right of the press to tell him where his
duty lies-save as saying so may in
fluence a jury or challenge his power
to punish for actual contemplate 1t is
the right of the press to expostulate
with the Chief Magistrate of the ma
ton or with Congress or n State or
Territorial executive or Legislature. A
judge is only above criticism in the
narrow limits of his court and while
he obeys the law; he is not an in
fallible pontiff who can, when the plain
critic walks the street between the
wind and his fictitious sanctity, let
loose the blast of accommodation.
There are examples in point which
show the true relation between the
citizen and the judge. When Theodore
Roosevelt began his public career by
exposing and chaistising Judge West
brook of the New York Supreme Court
he indicated one of the rights of the
American citizen. The people stood by
him and did something for him after
ward. Another result was reformed
judiciary. When the New York Times de-
manded that Judges Barnard and Car
dozo should either do right in the
Wteu SuStS VI Slsiiiu an
trial, it did a plain civic duty and at
the same time mounted to the highest
level of American journalism. Today,
the st. Louis Globe Democrat, in fol-
lowing the Missouri Doodle cases like
bloodhound through the courts is
force for justice scarcely less efficient
than District Attorney Folk himself
and far more efficient than some of the
boss-ridden judges who have the cases
to try. And it is entirely within its
constitutional rights. These examples
supply standard rules of conduct for
an honest press and Judge De Bolt,
whom we believe to be an honest man,
may well ponder them before again
calling to account a journal which
urges him to do his duty despite the
sophistry of lawyers who make it their
business to rescue criminals from pun
ishment land of whose health thieves
ask before they begin to steal"
Let the Advertiser repeat for the
twentieth time, that it means to be as
candid about the judicial department
of this government as it is about the
other and coordinate branches. lis
experience of the past few years
teaches 1t that labor in getting rid
of bad judges and securing good ones
is not necessarily in vain. But for its
attacks upon intrenched chicanery on
the bench of Hawaii, the opportunity
for Judge De Bolt himself would not
have come. 1t was the sentiment so
created which got behind him and put
him upon a woolsack which the hood !
lers in and out of ermine had hoped
to capture for themselves. When he
was once there, however, this paper
sought no favors from him and ex-
empted him from no criticism which 1t
thought he deserved; but it has never
insulted him and does not expect to
do So At the same time it intends to
make the freest and hopes to make the
wisest use, in its discussion of public
men and measures. of the liberty con-
ferred upon the press by the Constitu-
tion of the United States.