The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1909-01-26
No Star-Chamber
For Free America.

N~@aS III IltO IcueFdl court In New
York, Judge Ward very sensIhIv
turned down the effort to subpoena
free and independent American citi-
zens to appear before a grand iurv
to testify about anything in particu-
laI and everything in general which
they might have stored away in their
brain cells that would be Interesting
to King Teddy and "Bootlick" Bona
parte in the mysterious suit for libel
against the New Yrok World and In
annapolis News In other words.
this judge knows enough about the
United States, its constitution and
the Will of its people to be aware
that star chamber proceedings are
heither degal nor popular. So he
sat down upon" the ambitious d.
signs of the discredited partners in
Washington.
The judge, moreover, was very
emphatic in his language-planted a
swift and powerful ''sockdoIlager"
between the eyes of the district attor-
ney who contended that s successful
inquiry into the heinous offense, Iese
majestic or whatever one may choose
to call it, might necessitate this kind
OF Illegal proceedings. For in an
sweT to this proposition he declared:
ut would also contribute greatly to
the success and celebrity of some in
vestigations if the authorities had an
unlimited right TO search and seize
persons, houses and papers; but the
right of the citizen against such pro
eeedings is not left TO presumption.
He is guaranteed against unreason-
able searches and seizures by the
fourth amendment to the constitu-
tion'
No doubt Roosevelt will put down
Ward as a weak" Judge, for thus
holding the constitution as superior
to his viii. But the people will IN
doubtely sustain the opinion and pro--
coed to thank the Lord for a level
headed judiciary. In the meantime
the jury in Washington is hard at
work to obtain all evidence possible
to incriminate the two editors. and
seems to have been imbued with the
illusion. doubtless by the absurd
BonapaFte, that suit against them
can be instituted at the capital city.
This was attempted in 1873 when
Chas, A. Dana, of the New York
Sun, by his violent attacks on the
Grant administration aroused the
wrath of the president and his subor-
dinates. They tried to haul Dana
over TO Washington. where, no doubt,
they would have put him through the
third degree and thrown his carcass
to the dogs, but Judge BIatchford. of
the district court, refused to grant a
warrant for his removal, holding (the
gods and the democratic party be
praised) that the proposed action was
unconstitutional.
So the Washington proceedings in
the present case may be looked upon
as an opera bouffe performance. 1t
IS true that the jury guided by the
little fellow OF COrsican ancestry, is
examining newsboys, newspaper ag-
ents, mail carriers and the like, to
prove that the libel of the World and
News was circulated in Washing
ton and that therefore the editors
are amenable to prosecution in that
city. But the plan will never work
The editors published their papers,
respectively in New York and Indi-
annapolis, and suits against them can
DC legally brought only in the courts
OF New York and Indiana
The only chance We can see for a
suit in Washington is one against a
branch of the government-the post
ONCE experimentation spreading the
libel, thus becoming accessory to the
crime. And that would be funny,
wouldn't 1.-THE government, as per-
scnitied in Teddy or brother-inIaw
Robinson or attorney Cromwell, su-
ing the government 1t would take
Gilbert and Sullivan to do full JUS
tice to such a situation
IL may be mentioned incidentally
that it was the passage of what is
known as the Sedition Act of 1873
that provided for the hning and i'm
prisonment of any person publishing
false, scandalous and malicious
writings against the government of