The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1909-05-13

ed night and day by at least one
deputy sheriff.
"rhis paragraph, II taken seriously
and literally, means tnat II any OF
the unnamed ten of the sixteen
should be nominated and also IL the
Democrats should not nominate four
suitable men, the blind goddess would
not be safe. In other words, none
of the ten would be fft guardians of
the goddess; and these plaintiffs are
here included among the ten. But
why these plaintiffs would not be
1T guardians of the honor or the
goddess is not stated. At most this
figurative statement cannot mean
more than that these plaintiffs are
not fit to be judges.
s'And to say OF any man who Is a
candidate for judge that he is unfit
to be judge is not defamatory.
~ find the law to be we'll set
tied that publication which is a
fair comment and criticism on n
matter OF public interest is not IL
belous.
"'rhe court of common pleas Is the
most important tribunal In our judi
elal system. and in no other court Is
better qualification for the work de-
manded 1t is the court that is
nearest the people. Here In earnest
and sometimes bitter contention, un-
der the sway of interest, OF passion,
Of bias and prejudice, and sometimes
OF perjury, the rights or the contend
ing parties are to be determined.
and they ought TO be determined
rightly.
ITO preside over such contentious;
to decide these with reasonable
promptness; to do this continuously
day after day, year after year, I'm all
sorts of cases, and to make few mis-
takes. requires a man of good physi-
cal constitution and OF good mental
endowment He must have mind
well poised and well disciplined.
He must be man OF legal learning
and of legal discrimination.
FCertainly, nothing could be more
.pretentious than for man, material
ly wanting in these requisite qualifl-
cations, to offer himself as a candi-
date for such office, and when these
sixteen gentlemen offered themselves
as candidates for such office they
voluntarily submitted themselves to
fair comment and criticism as to
their personal fitness for the officei
"To say of candidates for such
office that they are wanting in ex-
peiience, and that their experience
has not been of kind to disqualify
them; TO say of them that they ought
not TO receive the slightest considera-
tion at the hands of the Republican
voters; that, at best, they are only
third raters. whatever that may
mean, and that as judges they would
not come up to the high ideal that
ls symbolized by the blind goddess,
whatever that may mean, is certain
~ not going beyond fair criticism,
especially when the writer makes
way for it by the undenied statement
that "the bench of Cuyahoga county
Is now carrying about as big a bur-
den OF incompetency as 1t can stand"
|I believe the authorities are uni
formly to the effect that when one
'offers himself as a candidate for pub
office, his qualifications and fitness
for the office may be freely dis
cussed and commented upon, in the
newspapers or otherwise. so long
as the comments are fair. are in good
faith and are limited to his 6tlIess
for the office,
III must find that while there Is
much in the article that Is both crit
lcal and censorious. it does not go be-
yond that fair comment and criticism
which the law allows OF one who
offers himself as candidate for
public office that so closely con-
Germs the general welfare as does the
office sought by these plaintiffs.
"a must further find that the criti-
cisms complained OF do not with any
certainty refer TO these plaintiffs, or
to either OF Them, so as TO give them
or either Of them right of action,
even II the article were OF this ma