The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1912-06-11
ARBITER OF MORALS.

people!
This from the Spartanburg Herald:
HThis is from the Newberry Herald
and News: Attorney General Lyon
is pretty severe in his structures on
Richland county juries. This reminds
us of a losing baseball team playing
the baby act by calling the umpire
rotten. The attorney general, how
ever, is not to be censured too Sc
verely. Greater men than he have been
spoiled by less amount of newspaper
praise than he has received. He is
young yet, and he may get over his
unfortunate tendency he has shown
violent evidence of. We hope So" 1t
is just this sort of thing that under
mines decent civilization, corrupts
public morals, and breeds graft and
grating. The result of the so-called
graft prosecutions in this State is re-
fection upon the commonwealth,
showing a low order of morality and
a sneering disregard for honesty in
public Office"
The Herald and News is willing to
compare its record for support, to the
extent of it's ability, of decency in civil
lization, of public morals, and of all
which tends to the best interests of
South Carolina and her people, with
the record of the Spartanburg Herald
or any other newspaper. Since what
time did the Spartanburg Herald or the
attorney general, for that matter, be-
come the arbiter of the morality and
the decency of the people of South
Carolina? Are the juries of South
Carolina of low morals simply because
their verdicts do not agree with the
opinions of the Spartanburg Herald or
the attorney general?
The juries of Richland county may
have been wrong in their verdicts, but,
until the contrary is made to appear,
they are entitled to the presumption
that they, as citizens of South Caro-
lima, acted as they thought right and
proper under the evidence submitted
to them. And neither the Spartanburg
Herald nor the attorney general has
any right to accuse them of improper
motives, without presenting something
to base the accusation upon. Theirs
was the duty, under the law. Jury
duty is, at best, a hard duty. But a
iuror does not lose his citizenship
when he goes upon jury, nor should
he be made the target for villification
when his verdict does not agree with
self-constituted arbiters of morality.
We are not defending any grating,
and we are not defending lawlessness.
We believe that when man violates
the laws of the State he should be
punished. But we fail to see wherein
it aids in vindictation of law to accuse
of improper motives jury which, so
far as has been made to appear, was
composed of men who are as good cit
liens and as patriotic as either the
editor of the Spartanburg Herald or
the attorney general.
Most of these attacks on the juries of
South Carolina are all rot, anyhow.
The juries are drawn from the people,
they represent the people, and in
most cases they do the best they can.
And it comes with very poor grace
for the attorney general of a great
State to whine about the failure of
iuries to do their duty because they
have failed to convict at his bidding
His duty was to present the case OF
the State, and when he had done that
his duty was discharged. He was not
responsible for the verdict.
AS to the grandiloquence of the
Spartanburg Herald about decent
civilization and corrupt public morals
and sneering disregard for honesty in