The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1908-07-31

man in this county to assist Mr..
Fitzgerald because he Is a Clinton
county man-and for political reas-
] ons which | explained to you while
here.
Further, | believe that Mr.. Ford
ney has gone so far as to merit the
opposition of every Republican in the
district, and that it is a duty of the
press, as a quasi-public institution, to
use it's influence against him. You
will not expect me to support him,
in view of this-consequently to ac-
cept his matter as advertising would,
in effect, constitute a sale of that in
fluence, and I don't believe that /
have reached the point where would
"sell myself out"
Respectfully,
w. j. MARTIN, Pub.
In explanation of what called forth
this letter l desire to say: For sew
eral weeks the REDISTRIBUTION Ito
use a common expression) has been
Throwing it into" Congressman
Fordney in every issue. Criticism
followed criticism with no cessation
until some of the readers of the pa
per thought "forbearance no longer
a virtue" and the writer of this ar
ticle called upon Mr. Martin last Sat
urday and made a request for space
in the columns of the REDISTRIBUTION
in order to reply to the attacks made
upon Mr.. Fordney and give him (Mr.
Fordney) a chance to defend him
self This request for space was not
asked as a favor for Mr.. Fordney, but
as a right due Mr.. Fordney. Mr..
Fordney's representative offered to
pay the editor of the REDISTRIBUTION
his regular advertising rates for
every inch of space occupied. The
reasons urged upon Mr.. Martin
to induce him to grant thel
request, were first fair play I
as the American people believe in
fair play. They believe that a news
paper has no more right to sit in |
judgment on a man and condemn him
without a hearing, or giving him a |
chance to vindicate himself, than has
one of our trial courts. Second, the
Ovid REDISTRIBUTION claims to be an
independent paper and that its col
umns are always open for a full and
free discussion of questions of pub
lie interest and concern. And as an
evidence of this statement, it opened
It's columns and invited such discus
sions at the recent local option cleo
ton. 1t offered this opportunity not
only to the man or woman favoring
ocal option, but also to the saloon
keeper who thought his business
threatened with disaster.
But the REDISTRIBUTION refuses the
of congress from the Eighth
District of Michigan,
Ion. Joseph w. Fordney, the privi-
eye of hiring and paying for little
pace in it's columns in order that he
nay vindicate himself from the UNI
ust attack of his traducers.
Think of it! A privilege freely ac-
orded to a saloonkeeper, and denied
o a man whom thousands of his con-
tituents delight to honor.
Why, only in the last issue of the
Union the editor gives
pace for. an article headed "a Square
)eal," and purporting to have been
rritten by a man who hides himself
ehind the pseudonym of Farmer.
If course, the article is a diatribe
gainst Fordney, and anything that
against Fordney can have all the
pace it wants in the Register-Union.
Veil! The REDISTRIBUTION may be
I favor of a square deal, but if its
leas of justice consists in publishing
ne side of a case and wilfully sup
ressing the other, We shall be forced
, resort to the prayer which we re- :
lember reading when boy in an
Id Episcopal book: From such
nd all other evils, good Lord deliv-
: u.s." F. w. REDFERN.