Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1911-05-20
Good and Bad Points Of the Publicity

Among the acts passed in the
haste of the closing day of the Illi-
nois legislature was Representative
Chester Church's bill, which prohib-
its publication of detailed state
ments or descriptions of crimes and
execution Of criminals which went
through the senate without being
noticed. The bill was called up by
Senator Barr. Without waiting for
an explanation OF the bill the pre-
siding officer ordered the roll called.
and the bill carried through by a
ed the house. 4
The full text of the Church bill
is as follows:
Section /. Be it enacted by the
people Of the state of Illinois, repre-
scented in the general assembly, that
no person, association or corporation
shall publish and no proprietor, man
ager or editor shall permit to be pub
lished, in any book, newspaper, mag
azine or any other written or printed
publication, circulated wholly or in
part in this state:
(a) Any detailed statement or de-
scription of the execution of any per-
son convicted of crime.
OBJ ANY detailed statement of any
evidence of indecent or obscene acts
given in any trial or proceeding or
any such statement in regard to such
acts of any person charged with i'm
moral conduct.
(c) Any detailed statement or de-
scription of the commission or at
tempted commission of the crime of
murder.
Section 2. Any person who shall
be found guilty of violating the pre-
visions of this act shall be confined
in the county Jail not less than six
months or shall be fined not more
than $1,000 for each offense, or may
suffer both such fine and imprisOn-
ment for each offense.
The new law starts out all right,
but like many other forms of legis-
lation it goes too far. The first two
sections are designed simply to put
a stop to yellow journalism and no
paper will object to their
enforcement if il can be done with
out discrimination. The first provi-
sion will, If uniformly respected, &C.
complish a two-fold purpose. 1t will
eliminate the publication of such de-
tails in connection with public exc
cutions as appeal only to the NOR
bid. In the second place, it will eff
fectually check the practice of hero
worshipping in connection with
criminals condemned to pay the ex-
IRENE penalty. The second section
is obviously proper.
The third section is open to dis
pute. There are details in connec-
ton with the commission of the
crime OF murder that the public has
right to know, not that there
should be any disposition TO print
narrowing or horrible details, but
for instance Mayor Gaynor of New
York was the victim of attempted as
sassination on board ship last sum-
mer Just as he was starting for
Europe The mere announcement
that an attempt was made on the
life OF Mayor Gaynor that day would
hardly satisfy the public. The same
would be true in the event Of the
assassination or attempted assasina-
tion of the president or other high
Official. In such cases, as indeed in
many others, the public has a right
to know the details. or at least a rea-
sonable statement of the circum-
stances attending the crime OF at
tempted crime.
The Questionable phase of the
law, taken as a whole, from the view
point OF the publisher, is that its
effect would be TO throttle the news
papers and other publications print
ed in the state while publications
outside the jurisdiction of the state
might readily escape the penalties of
the law and thus put the Illinois
at a decided disadvan-
tage.
Furthermore, Il is doubtful on
general principles, if the law is cru