The Glenwood post., 1908-12-19
Notice Of Diseontinuanee
Saturday, December 10 1908
THE MURDER OF cARMAcK

Most of our readers remember the
shooting few weeks ago of Senator
Camack of Tennessee, the result of an
editorial which appeared in Carmack's
paper rejecting on Major Cooper,
more or less prominent character in
Carmack S neighborhood.
The more one learns of that terri
BILE tragedy the more inexcusable does
it appear. There never was an editor
worthy of the name who has not felt
obliged to write something which
gave otfense and which he knew at the
time of writing it would prove often
sive to some one.
Often an editor is obliged to speak
straight from the shoulder and make
direct and positive statements, which
he knows will be far from pleasing to
some of his readers. Sometimes he
makes statements in direct and un-
mistakable style and sometimes he
chooses to veil his language SO that
it will be well understood by those
for whom it is intended and yet re
main more or less obscure to others
At other times he feels that he can bet
ter accomplish his object by resorting
to that bitter and biting style
known as sarcasm and yet it is safe
to say that through it all the average
editor is actuated by laudable de
sire to accomplish the best things for
the community in which he lives and
moves.
Men whose lives and practices are
not what they should be vince and
squirm under the biting but undenia-
BILE truths which fall from the editor 's
pen. They are cognizant of their
guilt and so are others but they pro
ceed to throw fit if the editor but
mentions it in the public page. They
shrink from the light of publicity be-
cause their deeds are evil.
The great trouble with most editors
is that they are altogether too leni-
ent. They seek to avoid offense and
in this are frequently remiss in their
duty to the public.
The editor knows more of the private
and inside life of community than
any man in that community. not ex-
cepting the lawyer, the doctor, or even
the priest, and yet it is rare thing
for an editor to allow these personal
secrets to be made public through his
paper and seldom does the editor allow
his own personal opinions or preiudi-
ces to control the policy of his paper.
Too often he is tempted to neglect his
duty to the public rather than offend
or humiliate someone in interest.
But to the killing of Carmack. Here
is the article over which Carmack was
murdered on the public highway and
if anyone can read this article and say
there was in it the first shadow of ex-
cuse for the killing of this brilliant
southern statesman, we should like to
know the brand of logic he uses:
"To Major Duncan Brown Cooper,
who wrought the great coalition; who
achieved the harmonious confidence of
incompatible elements; who welded
the pewter handle to the wooden
spoon; who grated the dead bough to
the living tree and made it bloom and
burgeon and blend with golden fruit +;
who made playmates of the lamb and
leopard and boon companions of the
spider and the fy; who made soda and
vinegar dwell placidly in the same boz
tie, and who taught oil and water how
they might agree--to Major Duncan
Brown Cooper, the great diplomat of
the political Zweibund, be all honor
and glory foreyer,,