The Sentinel=record., 1910-01-27
LIBEL CASES THROWN OUT CURIOUS AND INGENIOUS MIND THAT BROUGHT LAW OUT" IS A PRIVATE CITIZEN. Review of One of the Most Unusual Precedents Established by Roo-
 sevelt While Serving
 as President.

I against the Press Publishing Com pany, publishers of the New York l World, charging Joseph Pulitzer and others with criminal libel against Theodore Roosevelt, President Taft anu ogners, was quashed today in the United States District Court.
 Judge Hough ruled that the statute upon which the indictment rested was not sufficient in authority or, in other words, that the court had no jurisdic- tion.
 Delaney Nicoll counsel for the de- fendants. interpreted the decision as signal victory for the freedom of the press.
 'sThe curious and ingenious mind, V he said. that brought to life for the fiist time in eighty-fve years the law upon which this prosecution was begun. has retired to private life, but has left this legacy beh,nd 1t.
 This is not a prosecution brought by aggrieyed or injured private in dividuals, it was begun by the presi- dent of the United States in an at tempt to show that a libel had been committed on the American people.
 "The statute upon whic hthis suit ygs brought was drafted to punish offenses not covered by the laws of the section in which they were com mitted. In construing the statute it is not for us to consider what a fair minded attorney general might do un- der it; it is for Us to consider what csn be done with 1t.
 We had better have the sedition law or even the star chamber again than such monstrous practice as the government advocated in this proceed ing"
 President Roosevelt, in his message of December 15, 1908, to congress, thus characterized the publications of which he complained;
 'It is idle to say the known char acter of MT Pulitzer and his newspa- pers are such that the statements in that paper will be believed by nobody. Unfortunately, thousands of persons are ill-informed in this respect and believe the statements they see m print, even though they appear in nwspaper published by MT. Pulitzer.
 These statements are false in sv- cry particular, from beginning to end. The wickedness of the islanders is only surpassed by their fatuity. So utterly baseless are the stories that apparently they represent in part merely material collected for cam paign purposes and in part stories originally concocted with view Of possible blacSmail
 "I don't believe we should concern ourselves with the particular individ- uals who wrote the lying and libel GUS articles. The real offender is Mir Joseph Pulitzer, editor and proprietor of the World It should not be left to a private citizen to sue MT. Pulit- ger for libel. He should be prosecut- ed for libel by the governmental au- thorities.
 There is nothing to choose between a public servant who betrays his trust public servant who is guilty of black mail or theft or financial dishonesty of any kind, and man guilty as Mir Pulitzer has been guilty in this in stance. It is therefore a high nat tioral duty to bring to justice this yillifier of the American people,"
 Judge Hough in rendering his de- cislon, said in part:
 "It is charged here that the crime Of sending libeEous matter by mail is punishable at the place of destination Of the ibelous matter. If it is so held that the offence of libel on federal territory is crime cognizable in the