The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-10-13
NO CAUSE FOR ACTION
 IN SUITS FOR LIBEL
(COntinued from Page .one.)


 two adjoining States. and to the Dis trict of Columbia there were sent by mail about fifty copies to subscribers, persons who ordered them sent. The defendants have no agent or bureau or office. and maintain no agent or bureau in the city of Washington. in the District of Columbia for the circu- lation of papers within that district.
 Jurisdiction of Court.
 50 the question is. do the defend ants, when they prepare and publish fifty copies in the city of Indianapolis and deposit them in the United States mail in this building to be transmitted by mail to fifty subscribers in Wash tngton--do they publish those fifty copies In Washington? If they do. if they did, the court has Jurisdiction of the offense. l will not go so far as to say that 1t has of the defendants. But if they did not. then the court has neither Jurisdiction of the offense. It will not so SO far as to say that 1t has of the defendants. But if they did not, then the court has neither ju- risdiction of the offense nor the de- fendants.
 ITO my mind, there Is but one con- clusfon to be drawn. Everything that the evidence shows that the defend ants do or did. they do and did in the State of Indiana. city of Indianapolis, County of Marion. 1 am not here to agent in Washington to whom they sent fer circulation copies of this pa per. that they might not be amenable to prosecution in Washington. if they could be arrested in Washington.
 T have thought about this thing a good deah and 1t seems to me that I am compelled to take one of two views. and there is nothing between them. Either when a newspaper owner or proprietor does what the evidence in this case shows those defendants did, composed, printed and deposited in the mails for circulation. these papers containing. for the purposes of this statement, libelous articles. either they are guilty here and in every coun- ty, district or Jurisdiction into which these papers go. or they are only guilty here There is no middle ground to take. Waen these defendants put these papers containing those q will hereafter call them) libelous articles into the postofiice here in Indianapolis and they went through the country into the various States. counties and districts of the United States, either it became a crtme-A separate and in- dependent crime in every one of the counties, districts or states in which the papers WenL--Or there Wdb put oho crime. and that was here.
 "The counsel for the Government supposed a case where a paper is de- posited here in Indianapolis. and cir cuiated throughout the ninety-two counties of Indiana. I asked whether they could be prosecuted in every county and the counsel thought they could. Then suppose there was an in- dictment in Posey County. Would they have the trial and prosecution in Ma rion County. The counsel for the Gov ernment thought they would don't think so at all. I am so certain of 1t that feel like saying I know it. The theory Is that 1t becomes crime in the Jurisdiction where 1t is circulated. SSiil 1t must be a separate crime. If there Is some thing in tine circulation in the other district or Jurisdiction. 1t makes it a crime there and 1t must be a separate crime. There is no escape from that.
 "I think between these two views that the other view is the more reas- enable one and Is the correct one. I am not saying now that there might not be circumstances where a newspa- per circulated throughout the country might not be published in more than one place. I am speaking of the fact as shown in the evidence here-where
 
 posit 1t in the postoffice for circula- ton through out the counties and dis tricts, that there is but one puhltca- tion and that one is here. If that is true, then there is no publication, &C., cording to the evidence, in Washing ton.
 Liberty is Involved.
 ITO my mind. that man has read the history of our institutions to very llt- ( kNA xhn mt If = tie valua ton on the possible success of, evidence such as this If the his tory of liberty means anything. If the Constitution means anything. then the prosecuting authority should not have the power to select the trtbuna1--if there be more than one to select from at the capital Of the nation, nor should the government have the pow CT to drag citizens from distant States there for trial.
 "The defendants will be discharged"
 Charles W. Miller, United States at torney for this district. closed the ar gument for the Government this af- ternoon. He read portions of editorf- als from The Indianapolis News print ed in October, November and Decem- Der of last year in which 1t was all legged that an American syndicate had bought the securities of the old French Panama Canal Company for $i2.00o.- 900 and sold them to the United states for $40, 100000.
 It was charged in these articles that william Nelson Cromwell, Douglas Robinson. Charles P. Taft and other intimate friends of President Roose- welt had knowledge of this "swindle" as the editorials called 1t. by which "a gang of spectators" had robbed their country"
 Mir. Miller said that it was implied that MT. Roosevelt. President Taft and former Secretary of State Root were informed as to the alleged swindle and that, as the records at Washington showed there was no "American syndi- cate" as described and the sale of the Panama Canal was perfectly legiti- mate and honorable the publishers of The Indianapolis News had committed criminal libel against all the persons