Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1908-11-19
Prosecuting The Press.

any such thing? If there is, there
won't be for long if the present
postal laws be not changed. At
Fort Scott, Kansas, was set for
trial last Monday, the case of Fred
D. Warren, editor of the appeal to
Reason, charged with sending
matter of a defamatory, scurril-
Gus character through the mails.
The matter complained of was
an envelope bearing in red print,
the offer of 1000 reward to any,
one who would kidnap ex-Goyer-
nor Taylor, wanted for the Goe-
bel murder, from Indiana to Ken
lucky. Ex-Governor Taylor has
never appeared as complainant
in the matter, but Warren was in
dicted all the same. Warren or
his paper offered the reward sim
ply as an answer to the United
States Supreme Courts decision
that the "railroading" of Meyer,
Hayward and Pettibone from Col
orado to Idaho, was not kidnap-
ing, though the men were denied
the privilege of seeing lawyers
and hustled off on special trains
before habeas corpus proceedings
could be instituted. If kidnapping
of Socialist workingmen charged
with murder was not an otfense
against the law, then it would be
no offense for anyone to take the
Republican fugitive ex-governor
of Kentucky from Indiana to the
State wherein he stands indicted
for crime. Warren and the Ap-
peal to Reason made the most of
their point in every way. One OF
the ways was to print the offer OF
the reward on all the papers en-
velopes, thus calling the attention
of everyone through whose hands
the envelopes passed to what the
Socialists believed to be an out
rageous denial of justice. 1t is
now said that the postal law un-
der which Warren was indicted at
Fort Scott was passed solely to
"get' Warren and if possible to
suppress his rabidly Socialistic,
but widely circulated publication.
The fact that the envelope only
offered reward for the kidnap-
ping of ex-Gov. Taylor, without
accusing him of any crime,
would seem to disprove that the
offer was defamatory or scurrilous
or threatening. That ex-Gover-
nor Taylor didn't think it SO may
be assumed from the fact that he
lis not prosecuting witness in the
case. At former hearing of the
case the editor of the appeal had
in court hundreds of postal cards
on which various sheriffs, bank
officers and other persons through
out the country had offered re-
wards for the arrest of different
persons charged with murder,
horse stealing and other crimes
These postal cards had gone
through the mails, but no one oi
the persons mailing them was ever
indicted. The law was not in
voked against anything of the sor
until an opportunity offered to in
woke it against the editor of the
great Socialist sheet at Girard
Attorney Clarence S. Darrow
famous as novelist, essayist
quietist and attorney for Meyer
Haywood and Pettibone appeared
before the department of justic'
in Washington and laid befor'
the attorney general of the post
Office department several hundred
postal cards of the character de.
scribed above, but no action hal
been taken against any of the al
legged offenders. Every govern
ment official to whose attention
: these cases have been called ha
refused to take any action, excep
in the case of the editor of the Ap
peal. One specimen card the at
torney general of the postoffic
department declared to be un
mailable under the law, and s.
wrote the district attorney, who i
prosecuting Warren, but the dis
trict attorney did not have tn
sender indicted. The same dis
trict attorney has offered to le
Warren off with a fine of onl,
S1.OO, and costs, if Warren woul'
plead guilty. Warren stood OF
7 the ground that he would eithe
be tried or the case would be dis
J missed. Once before the posta
authorities tried to keep the Appeo
out Of the mails, because Of al
article attacking the President