The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-07-22
AN INTERESTING SUIT 1.

AN INTERESTING SUIT.
 The Philadelphia North American and Mayor Reyburn. of that city. seem de- termined to have it out in the courts in good earnest Some years ago when Psnnypacker was 6overnor of the State the paper carricatured and car- tooned him so cruelty and so bitterly that he tried to get law enacted by the Legislature to curb the liberty of the press, but 1t seems that even a Pennsylvania Legislature was not will ing to go to that extent in the direc- ton of autocracy and refused to pass the bill. as we now remember.
 As Pennypacker is now out of once The American has let up on him and has been paying it's respects to Mayor Reyburn in away that almost takes the hide on that oficial. The Ameri- can is noted for the excellent severity of its cartoons, if that is the proper way to express it. It has had a series of them of late that have almost driven the Mayor wild. and a little while ago he issued public warning to the press that attacks on the administration must cease or he would find a way to put a stop to it.
 This threat naturally put the editor of The American on his mettle and he announced that not only would the pa- per not desist. but that it intended to print two columns of criticism in future where 1t had only printed one in the past. Even in this plundered city" it said, never before did the element that lives by wronging Philadelphia, dare demand that the liberty of the press should cease. and that no state ments should appear save those which they issue or which their censorship approves. Tn this matter we waste no time with Reyburn. To seek the source of this scheme we must look deep into the sewer of political corruption. The mouth is the mouth of Reyburn. but the voice Is the voice Of the contrac- tor"
 Of course this defiance made Reyburn hotter than ever. so few days ago he swore out warrants and had all the sd- itors and cartoonists arrested on a charge of criminal libsl. and now the courts must settle 1t. The Hartford Courant thus refers to 1t:
 The arrested newspaper men appear to be in real Jeopardy. PenneyIvania law regarding libels is pretty stiff, and the Mayors lawyers have q reputation taken an appeal to a higher court, Ed itor Pascoe of The Germantown Tele- graph would be in jail at this moment legged libel on Sheriff Brown. Judge Magill wouldn't admit any proof of the truth of the article complained of; truth IS no tustihcation Of a libel" he said Tn his charge to the jury he gave them this instruction about the article: The law presumes that 1t was written and published with malice"
 That Judge is plainly not an advo- cate of the freedom of the press. anl if The American's editors are to be tried before him. or one of his kind, they may fare badly. IL may be possi- ble that before aH Is done the higher courts may be called on to decide the question of what kind of cartoon con- stitutes libel Some Of the most bit ter, biting and significant things that we have ever seen in newspapers were in the form of cartoons. and the, courts may fix limit beyond which they can not go and escape prosecution Nat urally the proceedings in this case. and the final results will be interesting to newspaper men. as well as to others. If the Mayor fails in his attempt to punish The American's editors it is possible that he win be assailed more vigorously than before, and If he suc- ceeds we may have a judicial deliver ance as to what libellous cartoon is.