The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-01-04
ITO MUZZLE THE PRESS
PENNrPACxEn's SOLICITATION TO
 PENNSYLVANIA. .LEGIsLATURE.
Ssys the Newspapers Dtsssminate Scandaleus ,Hnventions Regard ing the Acts of the Omciais
 of the Consmonwealth.

Harrisburg. Pa, Jan. Ex-Governor Pennypacker recommends the imposi-
 ton of slight tax upon each ton of coal mined. the proceeds of the tax to be used only in the construction of
 roads or in the maintenance or schools.''
 Of the recent legislative act. govern ing newspapers in Pennsylvania. the Governor says:
 At the last session of the general assembly an act was passed requiring newspapers to exercise reasonable care with respect to what they published and further requiring them to print upon the editorial page the names of those responsible for the publication It caused some adverse criticism upon the part of many of those affected by 1t. but the requirement of the publica- ton of the names of editors and busi- ness managers was at once obeyed by the press of the State and the act has resulted in a marked improvement in the amities of journalism insofar as they concern persons in private life. | It is also evident that the act met with the grateful approval of the people. Further legislation is required for the protection of the commonwealth for
 the injury to her reputation and the | disadvantage to the admiration of her affairs which arise from the prevalent | dissemination of scandalous inventions concerning her officials and their eff | forts in her behalf.
 'It is not only an unseemly spectacle, l but 1t is a crime which the State ought | to punish when day after day the | mayor of one of her cities Is depicted | in communion with a monster com | pounded from illustrations ofCopes pal | eontology. and Dr. Dante. The enforce | ment of the municipal law is impeded, and therefore, the State is concerned. We are compelled to recognize that since the cry of liberty of the press | became a shibboleth the relation of the newspaper to the government and peo- pie has been very much modified. 'Tn the large cities what Is popular ly called yellow journalism Is gaining | foothold. There Is daily news paper of wide circulation, published in the city of Philadelphia ostensibly by | Pennsylvania corporation. This cor poration was chartered May IS, 1899. with an authorized capital stock of l 25,000. of which the amount actually paid into the treasury of the corpora | tion was $2.500. So far as the records | of the office of the Secretary of the | Commonwealth show, this amount has
 never been increased. A twenty-story | building on the main street in the | | for offices and other business purposes, | bears It's name. Since Its incorporation | 1t has paid to the commonwealth in | taxes $5.73. Since it's control of what l had been a useful and venerable news | paper began, every mayor of Philadel- phia. every Governor, every United | States Senator, save one, who has only | been in office four weeks, and every
 legislator of the commonwealth. has | Stshf fn dai n tS columns. not of adverse comment, but of invented untruths. All of the peo- pie, proprietor. and peasant, church. | man and heather, are concerned alike that deliberate policy of false report to secure ill-gotten ganis should not \ succeed. What Is the remedy? Soon-
 CT or later one must be provided. | How can the right of a newspaper | to publish the facts concerning the | government and United States officials and to comment on them even mis- | takenly, be preserved. and the con- tinuance of intentional fabrication in
 the guise of newspaper be prevented?
 'eThe constitution in the same section provides for freedom of speech as we'll
 as freedom of the press. Under the
 English common law, when a woman
 habitually made outcries of scandals | upon the public highways to the an-
 noyance of the neighborhood. she was held to be common scold and a public
 nuisance. Anybody may abate a pub
 lie nuisance and she was punished by
 being ducked in a neighboring pond.
 Notwithstanding our constitutional
 provision concerning freedom of speech
 1t has been held that the law of com
 mon Scottish is~retained in Pennsyl-
 vania, although the punishment is by | fine and Imprisonment.
 T suggest the application of this legal principle to the habitual publica- | ton of scandalous untruths. Let the persons harmed or annoyed present a
 petition to the attorney-generaI setting forth the facts and if in his judg-
 ment, they show a case of habitual
 falsehood, defamation and scandal so
 as to constitute a public nuisance, let
 him file a bill in the court of common
 pleas having Jurisdiction asking for an
 abatement of the nuisance and let the
 court have the authority upon suffi-
 cient proof to make such abatement
 by suppression of the journal so of-
 lending. in whole or in part, as may
 be necessary. Since both the attorney
 general and the courts would have to
 concur. the rights of legitimate jour-
 nalism are sufficiently protected and it
 Is only in an extreme case that the
 law could be evoked. For that case 1t provides a remedy"
 The governor then submits a draft