The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1907-10-17
SOME HOT SHOTS
Warm Comment on the IndiCt-
ment of lumbermen
NEWSPAPER EDITORIAL
Mississippi Valley lumberman Com.
ments CdustiCdiiy on the Recent
Grand Jury Action

Apropos of the recent indictment, by
a L. s. grand jury, of nineteen promi-
nent Minnesota lumbermen, as a
feature of the fight between the
catalogue houses and the dealers in
lumber, the following editorial from
last weeks Mississippi Valley Lumber
man is of interest:
events in Minneapolis during the
past week have added evidence to
prove that all of the tricks of the
fifteenth century in Spain have not
been forgotten.
"The iniquities of the Spanish In
QUESTION have been passed along to
modern times through the medium Of
the grand jury system. AS in the olden
days, under the cover of religious zeal,
men were tortured until, suffering un-
told agony, and to stop the inhuman
persecution, they confessed to acts OF
which they were innocent, only to be
returned to the rack and again tortured
until death came to- their relief, SO
| under the modern grand jury system,
men whose characters have never been
in the shadow of suspicion can be
maligned and branded with indictment
for crime without opportunity to speak
word in their own defense. True it
is that the travesty Of the grand jury
system is in part compensated for by
the fact that the accused have the
privilege of fair and impartial hearings
| in the open when they are brought to
trial for the Things of which they are
| accused, but, though the law presumes
them innocent until they are proven
guilty, the public and the press are
not so kind, and they are forced to
appear before their fellow men with the
stigma of suspicion attached to them,
and, even after acquittal, the public is
not always fair enough to accept the
verdict of the courts.
Attorneys who are supposed to rep
resent the state or the nation (the
people) in official capacity, too often
misrepresent what they stand for, and
by bull-dozing tactics bring the grand
jury room to the level of the prize-fght
ring. By bullying and cajoling they
pervert the minds of juries, un-
accustomed to the atmosphere Of
courts, to the belief that it is their duty
to smear the regulations of honest
! men with the mud Of infamy. In the
instance at hand, the district attorney
and his venomous assistant, probably
ambitious for political preferment,
have succeeded in charging men with
crime who have done only what the
catalogue houses have openly invited
every person in the country to do.
These mail order houses, wreckers of
the business of honest and hard work.
ing men, have charged the country
merchant with being robber. They
have maligned him and sought to
bring him and his business into dis
repute in the community where he has
at all times performed his duties as
good citizen, and because he has
endeavored by honest means to protect
the business on which he and his
family depend for their living, they
have Joined the baby brigade and
appealed to the courts for protection
for their methods of business piracy.
"That the grand jury system is
vicious has been proven many times.
A recent instance was the accusation
and subsequent trial of United
States senator in Idaho. Accused of
the crime of aiding in stealing timber
from the government, he was brought
to the bar of justice. No evidence
worthy of the name could be found to
connect his name with wrong doing,
and after long trial following which
hia col1nael did n0t c0naider The