The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-09-07
pVRIIC OFFICERS ARE PAID TO
ENFORCE LAWS.

assume the initiative in the prOSecu-
ton Of the tobacco trust. The editor
declines to do the wOrk that public
officials are paid to do for three rea-
sons:
/. It is the duty of a public journal
to call attention to wrongs hat in
jure the public, and not to usurp the
place of public officials. If it under
took to furnish the information for
all prosecutions of violations to which
il calls attention the newspaper would
have little time for anything else. In
Raleigh. when the News and Observer
called attention to the failure of the
city administration to enforce the
law against hell holes and joints and
blind tigers, the officials lolling in the
shade of the market house and their
sbackers, said: Let the News and OBJ
server give us the information and
we will act Did the editor do this?
No. In common with a large major
ity of the law-abiding people it de-
clared it would appeal to Caesar"
What was the result? New officials
were chosen who are enforcing the
laws long openly flouted. A newspa-
per's staff is busy doing their work.
They cannot neglect it to do the work
of public officials. A part of that
work is to "cry aloud and spare not
when public officials fail to obey their
oaths of office. II the officials can
say to the editor quit Your work and
do what we are paid to do. or shut
up then the newspaper should be
given the sum paid for law enforce
ment SO that it can employ the neces-
sary force to see that the law is en-
forced. That is not the function Of
the newspaper.
2. 1t is the duty of public officials
to enforce the law. That is what they
are elected for and for which public
taxes are levied. In the old times be-
fore we had government, every man
was his own policeman. Now when
a man takes the laws into his own
hands he is a law-breaker. The coun-
try denounced the Night Riders Of
Kentucky because they met the law
Iessness of the obacco trust by law
l~essness. The country said that law
lessness is never permissible. If the
law officers in the beginning, had en-
forced the Sherman antitrust law
against the trust, there would have
been no Night Riding lawlessness.
The newspaper that would usurp the
duty of paid law officers would find
itself the target of the officials who
would stand off and say: IF you
think YOU have the power and the
means to do the work for which laws
and courts were created. hire our
lawyers. pay your witnesses and go
ahead"
3. If the editor of the News and
Observer should decide that it is the
mission of a newspaper to do the work
for which public officials are paid, he
would not undertake to enforce the
so-called North Carolina antitrust
law because he does not hin the law
is worth anything. In 1907, when the
Senate cut the best out Of the act, he
said it was giving the promise to the
ear and breaking it to the hope" A
majority Of the Democratic membe
of the Legislature Of 1909 voted for
a stronger act than was passed be-
cause they did not believe the Blow
Bassett amendments, without machin-
cry, would reach the trusts. 1t was
apparent that the men who always
sneeze when the tobacco trust takes
snuff had no OBJECTION to the anti
trust bill that became a law. That
fact convinced this paper that the law
was so drawn, by omission or other
wise, as to make the tobacco trust
feel comfortable. This paper would
never go cunning with a gun loaded
will blank cartridges. 1t would not.
therefore, hope to convict a trust with
the pink-tea act passed in 1907 as
aYnandaI il, 1Q0Q TVhnca who ha1iava /