Albuquerque evening citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1905-1907, 1905-08-08
DISCUSSION OF DIFFERENCE
BETWEEN PUBLICITY AND BLACKMAIL
From Prescott Herald

"a sort of protection money that low country gentle
men and hernors lying near the Highlands pay to some
Highland chief, that he may neither do them harm him
self nor suffer it to be done TO them by others" This is
Walter SCOTS definition of blackmail. And indeed the
word took it's rise from the borderland between Scotland
and England, where the paying of such tribute to free
hooters was once a common practice.
Today, bbackmail stands for a different form of trib-
ute, for it is seldom that in civilized countries brute force
can require the purchase of protection from brute force.
Even as humanity has become more refined under the in
fluence of civilization, so also have the evils of humanity.
The weapon of the refined freebooter in these days is
usually publicity, but the price Of protection is the same
as old-money. The man. or woman, with a past, or an
unworthy present, is threatened with publicity, and he
pays the price of silence in dollars. In the field of invest
ment, wherein the confidence of the sensitive and conser-
vative public is a recognized asset, worthy of any mans
possession, the freebooter is not without his opportunity
and his weapon in adverse publicity.
With the modern blackmailer, publicity Is not the
end sought, but the means to an end, and that end is hush
money. In every case which the criminal law places its
fingers upon the purpose is that of the highwayman, to
gain that which has been the madness OF all ages, worldly
possessions or their symbol, the coin or the realm. DO
footpads hide in the dark alleys for the mere pleasure OF
doing it? Does the corrupt police officer extort money
from lone women and gamblers, as a shield from moiesta-
lion, merely for the innate enjoyment of being a mischief
maker?Does the blackmailer threaten to punish the short
comings of his neighbor simply through a high-minded
interest in the welfare of society? The questions answer
themselves.
Where the law recognizes publicity at all. it recog
nizes it as an end. 1t is publicity for the sake of publicity
The court that issues q subpoena to compel a witness
to testify before it or a search warrant to permit oficial
entrance into the house of a citizen, is guided by one mo
tive, and that motive is publicity for the good of the
state. The blackmailer is punished by the criminal law
because he seeks to make a mercenary use of publicity
because he would abuse the powr of publicity as an in
strument of extortion.
Among the numerous phases of the laws operation
with reference to the publicity idea is found the duty Of
the public official toward the citizen, the duty of the
partner toward his fellow, the duty of the corporation
management toward its stockholders. What is the duty O
the one is the fundamental right of the other. The public
official, the partner or the corporation manager that fol
lows the opposite philosophy lays himself open not only
to legal but public condemnation. The fact that he Lays
himself open to b,ackmail at the same time does NO
lessen the force of such honorable condemnation as he re
ceives. When publicity is the end sought, either through
the right of public enlightenment or the adverse achieve
ment of public scorn, the end is honorable and it abide
Ill the assaults that have ben made upon the freedom 0
the press. The law recognizes it. Common sense az
proves it.