The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-07-26
GAMBLER AND COURAGEOUS
EDITOR.

Not long ago Comptroller Grout, or
Greater New York, paid 100000 for
theater property for the city that was
assessed for taxation at 100000 The
New York American criticized him Sc
verely, intimating that he bought from
his friends for the city, and paid an
eXtravagant price. Grout brought suit
against the American and District AT.
torney Jerome has brought an action
of criminal libel against Mr. Arthur
Brisbane, the editor of the American
who wrote the article in question Mr..
jerome said that in the event of the
conviction OF Brisbane he would insist
on Imprisonment and not accept a
fine. Mr.. James Creelman, the
World star man, prints a whole
page of an interview with Mr.. Rris-
bane upon The suit and Mr.. Jerome's
statement. Mr.. Brisbane is thus
quoted in reply to the threat of Jerome
to put the editor i'm Jail:
The case of Garfield, the public
gambler, was somewhat different from
that of newspaper libel suit, and Mr.
Jerome is to be thanked for emphaSiz~
ing the difference.
Mr.. Jerome, with more than his
usual eloquance before the event. told
the public all that he would do if the
law would let him get hold of Garfield
He accused that man of being a COM
mon swindler as well as public
gambler He accused him, in his own
picturesque and refined language, OF
'robbing a drunken kid of hundred
thousand dollars in a single night
when this public gambler and rob-
Der of drunken kids appeared IL
court 1t was Jerome himself who
changed from roaring lion to COO
ing dove. and asked that the gambler
and thief be allowed to go with a fine
of a thousand dollars.
IF Mr.. Jerome permits public
swindler and law breaker to go at
large on payment of l per cent OF
the amount that he stole from single
drunken kid, he ought reasonably to
ask for some real and very severe
sentence against any newspaper man
appearing before him, if only to EN-
ohasize the difference between the
public gambler and the newspaper
man.
Mr. Brisbane is the best paid news
paper man in the world. He earns
$4,000 a year as writer and is the
man upon whom Mr.. Hearst leans. He
is original, frank, audacious, indie
pendent to a degree that startles. But
he is always pulling toward his ideals
of a government without graft where
every man shall have a fair chance.
He doesn't talk about "a square deal"
and defend a tariff that makes mil
lions for the trusts. His remedies,
sometime looking like socialism, may
not be wise, but they are entertained
by man who thoroughly believes that
they would benefit the great body of
the toilers
The brutal declaration of Mr..
Jerome that he will put Brisbane in
Jail if he can convict him makes the
prosecution look like persecution. 1t
will add interest to the proceeding. If
Mr.. Brisbane has slandered Mr.. Grout
for it, but it is difficult to understand
that he is a worse criminal than the
notorious gambler. 1t looks like
Jerome is smarting under the ridfcule
and criticism of the press when he
talks about Imprisonment. The truth
is that Jerome, like Brisbane. is
pretty free talker himself and has
said worse things about Grout than
Brisbane ever dreamed of saying,
and ought himself to be punished for
criminal libel if circuit is a saint But
Jerome is a politician and folks don't
take his abuse seriously. Brisbane is
an editor and his criticisms have
weight. The politician can deny the
criticism if pushed to the wall; what
the editor said is in black and white
in cold type and can neither be denied
nor explained away.