The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1913-01-24
THAT CONTEMPT CASE.
Cleft over from last week.

(Le1t over from last week.
The editor, the business manager,
and an alleged owner of the Capital
News have recently served ten days
in Jail and been fined $500 each for
contempt of court for publishing adj
verse criticisms of the supreme court
of Idaho.
The case has attracted nation
wide attention, and the court has
been soundly abused by many people
who have been mis-informed through
the Capital News and through re-
ports for which they were RESPONSE
BILE.
It is long story but we do not
propose giving very much space to it.
Briefly stated, the Capital News
published telegram last October
from Theodore Roosevelt in which he
stated that certain decision relative
to the Bull Moose ticket, was not in
accordance with law, said it was an
in famous decision and that the court
ought to be recalled. The News then
went on from day to day and de-
elared that the court had been
bought, that it had gone into con-
spiracy to put certain men into Of
Ann ond 9TH hv onnnint.
ment, and to defeat its attacks so
long and with such bitterness and
malice, that the court could not hon
,orably let it pass, and at perfectly
proper time these men responsible
for the publications, were cited to
appear before the court for hearing
on charge Of contempt. 49,
After a weeks hearing they were
pronounced guilty, and the decision
showed clearly that it was for the
vicious comment following publica-
ton of the telegram, and for the
charges of corruption against the
court which they were unable to
prove in any measure, and not for
the simple publication, of the tele
gram.
Notwithstanding this, it is said,
and it has not been denied, that the
Capital News caused. to be sent. out
the'f associated press dispatch. that
these three men were fined and i'm
prisoned for publishing the Roese-
welt telegram, and on this statement
the papers all over the, land have
been writing opinions adverse to the
court. The News in turn has been
publishing the opinions written from
this mis-information, and have. been,
working up maudlin sentiment in
their own favor and against the
court, While they were in Jail serv-
ing this most righteous sentence,
they continued to write editorials on
the subject, and labeled them Writ
ten, in the Ada County Jail" Senti-
mental folks adopted the unique
plan of taking penny collection to
nay off the fines, and that is being
promoted by every conceivable de-
vice on the part of the News. After
the. men had finished their term in
jail they continued to write editorials
on the subject, and labeled them,
Written after leaving the Ada
County JAIL thus exhibiting the
jail part of the circumstance to work
up all the sympathy they could, like
the beggar who exhibits his broken
arm to stir up sympathy and induce
i charity, and keeps it in sling long
! after it is back to it's normal condi-
ton.
"A number Of the newspapers OF
Idaho have gone to such extremes as
to, suggest that the liberty of the
press is endangered because these
men have been punished. One
writer went so far as to say in his
malicious attacks on the court that
the editors could no longer feel safe
in: even looking unkindly toward the
court. But when men talk or write
Ia this way they are only trying to
deceive them selves and others.
Every observing man knows that no.
body in Idaho has been disturbed in
the expression of any legitimate
news or any reasonable opinion or
criticism.
Men charge that the court has un-
due power and that judges may
abuse such power. 1t may also be
said that newspapers have undue
power and that individuals may
abuse that power The Capital News
has abused that power for years to
the discontinue of many respectable
citizens who had done nothing to
deserve the fire of falsehood direct