The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1907-05-10
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Press MuznlinE Repealed.


The most notable effort ever made
In this country. perhaps, 70 81 anal on
the thee curio department of history
On May the bill repeating the cele-
srse ID, sF1eS bS the and
became Immediately effective.
II in the future any man thinRs
that the remedy for such eViis ~ may may
tle-or attempt to throttle--the press
of the eountrv. he should turn to tins IS
interesting chapter of PennsylVania
history and study 1t atteniVelS strong
man. His intellectual limitations We're
painful. He was. as one or ms eritiGs
frequently put 1t. an antiquity. nc
in the pioneer period of America than
Of what was being done under his very
nose at the capital. A corrupt gang
ing $4,000, 900 from the State on the
building of the state capital, and II Is
the charitable view to say that PENNY
packer knew nothing about II.
ed upon, chiefly by the North Amer
lean, the iold antiquary foamed at the
mouth and vowed vengeance. HIS crit
les became still more alarmed tor the
tration when he declared that nB SIS
Quay was a greater man than cay or
Webster ard that there were no TElIs
in the state to complain OF. They
spok~ out in good. plain Terms, ana
Pennypacker foamed and fumed all the
more. .,.,..; o.,
He finally induced b the LsgislafpPe ed
the privileges of the press. DHrlns
the discussion Of it, and in the very
heat of the campaign he was perhaps
cartooned individual in the United e, d
States. The defiance of him and MS
/ muzzle was bold and unsleeptng. inc
poor old antiquary fairly wrlt nee 10 =,
was on the statute books The press
went on in the even tenor Of it's way
printing what 1t pleased ana employ
ing the swittest cartoonlsts In the
country 1t was a living visible II
! lustration of the attitude of the public
towards such restrictions of the. press
as Pennypacker had sou soug ;ber 10 iimP4 fbe
pvess which Milton had fought for and
j the Anglo Saxon world had long since
demanded and received. Re .tric lon
the spirit of the times, as all the other
| ideas for which Pennypacked had
He went out of office on the hrst of
| the year. In the meantime the no
torious graft, particularly in connec-
tlon with the $13.0OO.000 capital, be-
came a stencil in the nostrils OF the
state and the former Governor had
to bear the brunt of much of 1t.
Whether he had guilty knowledge, or
was crimnally ignorant. made but
/ little difference. He stepped down anq
| out. followed by the mingled pity and
derision If the people.
1t was only natural that with him
should pass the antiouated law for
which he was RESPONSIBLE and the
Legislature FASTENED to repeal 1t. II
| has Just been signed--this repeal
measure and how the restraints on
| the press have no more place upon
the statute books than they had In
fact before.
1t has scarcely created ripple or
| the surface to abaHdon a law whicf
! was never taken seriously. except By
its author, and which only \served Il
make him ridiculous. But It has serV'
ed to teach a lesson. after all. It has
shown the folly and utility of at
tempting u inject sixteenth century
ideas into the twentieth century.
1t will be a long time, no doubt, be
fore another attempt is made to dc
anything so foolish as Pennypackei
attempted. but whenever anybody feels
the desire to revert to outworn meth
DDS in this progressive and eniight'
ened age, they can draw a profitable
lesson by consulting the history of th'
press muzzling measure fathered b.
| Pennypacker. of Pennsylvania, ant
row discarded forever.