The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-12-06
..TOO SNAIL A BUSINESS FOR A
PRESIDENT OF THE UNI
TED STATES

The whole country was aroused
more than an hundred years ago be-
cause Congress passed the alien ana
sedition law under which editors were
thrown in Jail for criticizing the Pres
ident. One man was Jailed in Con-
necticut because he said Adams was
stingy and penurious.
Today. without an act of Congress,
but by executive order, the editor of
New England's most widely circula-
ted newspaper is pilloried and ostra-
cized by the government because a
correspondent said the Presidents sons
cruelty chased a turkey gobbler about
the White House lot. Noblesse oblige
applies. it seems. not only to the Chief
Executive but to the heirs apparent
as we'll. If Mr.. Roosevelt's sons had
chased a turkey gobbler, other child
rem just as good have been guilty OF
the same misconduct. AS they did not
chase the gobbler, a simple and dig
nified denial would have set them
straight with the people.
Instead of stopping with the dignl-
fed course, the private secretary to
the President figuratively cut OFF the
head of the offending Boston Herald
and the Weather Bureau was not per-
mitted even to get the weather reports
from the SUBJ Weather Bureau at Bos-
ton. That piece of official and petty
tyranny was so universally denounced
by the press of the country. that the
original order has been modified and
the Boston Herald may now have the
routine news but the offending pa
per is still under the ban of tue
government as to important news, ms
"ukase" going to the point of reqlIlr-
ing the departments to exclude the
individuals responsible for this series
of mis-statements from all facilities
for information
The silly story ought not to have
been printed in the Herald, but in
the best regulated offices such things
do sometimes occur. The Herald
promptly admitted that the story was
untrue and ought not to have been
printed and says that no charge OF
malice lies against the over incredul-
Gus reporter. If the President, in his
personal capacity as daddy of the
slandcred boys, had used the big stick
on the offending writer while suffer-
ing from the natural irritation caused
by the publication, he would have been
acting as you might naturally expect
an irate parent to conduct himself.
Or. if he had refused to subscribe
longer to the offending pape-. that
would have been his individual right.
No matter what action he took as
Theodore Roosevelt TO avenge the
wrong done to his sons, the American
people would have said that he was
exercising a right belonging to every
free American citizen. But when he
issues an executive order" denying
and abridging the freedom of the press,
Mr.. Roosevelt steps far beyond any
authority vested in him. AS a parent,
he has right to punish any offense
against his sons and to defend them
against any attacks. AS President of
the United States he has no right TO
subvert the constitution and abrldge
the freedom of the press because a
newspaper has printed an unfounded
story about his boys. In Empires the
sons of the Emperor are of royal
blood, heirs to royalty. and their per-
son is sacred. In America he theory
is that the President is the servant of
the people and that his family have no
special prerogative. Certainly there is
no warrant in curtailing the liberty of
the press by executive order because
a newspaper inadvertently and with
out malice printed an incorrect story
about the sons of Mr.. Roosevelt. Clos
ing a very sensible editorial on this
matter the New York Times says
Evidently to prosecute a reporter
who has shown himself too credulous
about reports which indeed involve
the Presidents family. but which even
so, do not involve any heinous depth
of moral turpitude. is much too small
business for the president of the Uni
ted States. and we are quite confident
that the President will, upon reflec-
n hat LIGHT