Los Angeles herald., 1907-12-25

copious use OF dashes. II quoted at all
win have little trouble in reaching ar
understanding as to exactly what this
man Lanterman said in his drunker
! frenzy.
| While there have been occasions wher
1t was necessary to employ these hori-
zontal characters In reporting the ut
terances of Earl Rogers, attorney fol
Lanterman in his present predicament
the English language appears to have
been sufficient for him to make his
meaning clear in his remarks before
the court yesterday. From two ac-
counts of the proceedings we Gull the
following. which we offer to our readers
as choice morsels for the breakfast
hour this bright Christmas morning. AS
mental pabuium they will be found to
possess highly stimulative qualities.
The first is from the Express account:
Attorney Rogers opened the argu-
ment. Before addressing the Judge he
told reporters that 1t was useless for
them to stay as there would be moth
ing but a lot of dry legal routine. In
his argument he took a thrust at the
newspapers. saying: This is case of
the newspapers. There is no case In
California that is tried by a jury of a
prisoners peers; it is tried by jury of
newspapers
AS was to have been expected. Mr..
Rogers is wrong. He crept into error
when he characterized the newspaper
men who were keeping track of the
''vultures," and he is wrong. decidedly
wrong, incomprehensibly wrong, when
he declares: There is no case In Cali
fornia that Is tried by a jury OF
prisoners peers; it is tried by jury of
newspapers"
If the allegations made by Mr.. Rogers
in moment or pique, possibly, OF at 6
time when his first flush Of ardor and
enthusiasm in behalf of his client had
not perfectly cooled, were true, 1t would
be comparatively easy matter to mar
shall an array Of criminal proceedings
resulting in the punishment of male
factors Of high degree in this state.
Unfortunately. perhaps, for the people
of California, there is nothing in our
code which permits newspaper to sit
in jury. But there is nothing to pre-
vent a newspaper from acting in the
capacity Of witness, not only as wit
ness before the courts but as a witness
to the behavior of public officials who
sometimes undergo the very trying ex-
perience of being compelled to submit
to bulldozing tactics, threats and
pressure" to induce them to abandon
their duty for the pleasanter and easier
task of letting the punishment of evil
doing go by default. If it were not for
some of the newspapers there is no
doubt whatever that Mr. Rogers legal
labors in the defense Of Coroner Lam
terman would not have been necessary.
The newspapers are not sitting as
jury; they are not even endeavoring to
convict Lanterman. All that they have
asked is that man arrested as COM
mon drunk shall be granted the same
common drunk. no more, no less. 1t is
possible that they may have sought a
semblance of courteous treatment from
Earl Rogers, but that time is past; 1t
is not likely that any newspaper will
ever expect anything of the kind
again. There are lots of other things
in connection with this malodorous
Lanterman case that are possible, but
none of them is that the newspapers
aspire to the posts Of jurymen.
From the intensely interesting ac-
count published in The Herald this
morning we learn that Mr.. Rogers and
a few presidents and governors have
been drunk. Here is what he declares:
Judges have been drunk: governors
have been drunk; numerous presidents
of the United States have been drunk;
I, myself, have been drunk"
The Lanterman case was rotten
enough before it reached its present
stage; it has become loathsome to
superlative degree since Earl Rogers
undertook to defend the coroner. Be-
ginning by calling the newspaper men
"vultures" and having reached that
stage where Rogers seeks to justify the
hideous actions of his client by drawing
a parallel between the latter's bestial
state of last week and his own
drunkenness, the drunkenness of
governors, judges and numerous
presidents of the United States"
we feel impelled to appeal to the board
of health to abolish both Lanterman
and Rogers. The stencil is more than
ordinary nostrils can bear.
There is no caIIsa for the display of