The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-11-14
Agn,n, she Nashville Tragedy.

Charleston News and Courier.
 The case is rare. if it has ever been sioiss iHwh however wnsn siPaiy worasd. have seriously or permanently injured man of substantial merit unless they were true. To state as a fact that mer- chants or bankers notes have been protested may do them harm because financial credit Is peculiarly sensitive and may he destroyed at a breath. but to say In general terms that mer- . chant or banker Is a thief without specification of a case of dishonesty accompanied by circuniStantial state Enent is not likely to ruin him where he is known, if his reputation be good, scS by snd would be, When, therefore. parti- san newspaper. ridicules partlsan tn- dividual 1t is no excuse for the indi- prehensibie the conduct of the editor may have been. Col. Duncan B. Coop or ana Iits son. who killed ex-Senator Carmack. will probably in secret rec the sake of argument let us 50 de- scribe theTnl abusive articles publish ed by The Nashville Tennessean about the former did not inture him in the respect of his friends exceIM in so far they were accompanied by the state ment of damaging facts or allegations that Colonel Cooper cannot dispfove. It Is the truth that hurts. Suppose AGh4AGDB%GG0 at Colonel Cooper's expense, what of 1t? The partisans of the Tennesseean would have fndulged in most of the laughter and Colonel Cooper, much as he may have been annoyed. would not have been crippled In influence by 1t: An intelligent man becomes 6 fool when he goes out to abate mere an- noyance with pistols; Colonel Cooper ana his son had all to- lose and noth- ing to gain hy killing Editor Carmack. and they were without Justification in seeking an altercation or the opportufl- fly for | with him in the public them profound and irremediable ir- jury.
 an editor should confine himself to the. public record of his political oppcn- ents and only deviate from it to crit icise his personal habits and eharae- teristics in extreme cases-oniy when s6s peSPlss ps sse a o of eH5Ss bSss deprayity there exists no reasonable doubt. highway robber or burglar or forgar or notorious prodigai who state state ought s is ts De sxposed exp 'is and the newspapers should expose him. stating the factSs but 1t has no right to de- scribe man as a clown or an ass merely because he Is, on the other side. At the same time. man who Is called an ass, but Is not an ass, will not make an ass of himself by shooting the ed- itor; . schutiny the accounts in the morning newspapers of Nashville of the shoot ing between the Coopers and Mir. Car mack. especially the account in The Tennesseean. of which Mir. Carmack was the editor. Now, when the editor of a newspaper Is killed, the affair is to the staff of that newspaper a fam fly tragedy" the bond between the working members of newspaper statf being nearly always intensely affec- donate, so that excesses of expression In The Tennesseean are to be expected and not to be uncharitabiy eensured;; Al the same time, we are impressed with the absence of anything in The Tennesseean's or The Americans ac- counts to show that Colonel Cooper formers references to the tragedy of Monday.
 Colonel Cooper is nowhere accused of larceny, forgery. libertinism. drunk enness, arson. enbezzlement or other high crime. he seems to be universally conceded to be a man of prominence, who enjoys the respect and friendship of good men. and the head and front the point of view of Tae Tennesseeari, is that he was an influential partfsau on the side of politics which the late Senator Carmack and The Tennesseean opposed, and the political manners Of which 1t condemned. Consequently, 1t seems to us that ridicule and invectiv0 in so far as they were directed to Col- onel Cooper's personality, were not jus- tifiable on the pert of AtF carmack and that by resorting to them and not confining himself to the issues raised by Colonel cooper's acts, he. greatly weakened the case against Colonel Cooper. It Is equally clear, on the other hand. that Colonel Cooper and his son were practically impregnabIe to the assaults of Editor Carmack and that. not being criminals or scoundreIs or malefactors they were foolish as we'll as inexcusable in deliberately in- Viting that the charge of the infamous crime of murder he laid at their doors