The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1915-12-16
Court Met, 9:45 A. NJ, November so, 1915
AT Augusta, Georgia.


The Court: 1 wish to repeat the same
caution to the spectators that | have given
them in the past, on account of the
crowded condition in the hall Each spec
tator must exert himself in order that alb
solute quiet and silence may obtain in the
court room.
The Court desires also to caution them
that any expression Of approval or disaD-
prevail to any Of the argument of counsel
in the case would be violation of the
rule OF court, violation Of all good order
and it would be the duty of the court to
send such offender promptly to Jail
wish you, Mr.. Marshal WOULD take par
ticular notice of the spectators, and ii you
see anyone offending CT causing any dis
turbances, have him promptly reported to
the court.
The defendant vii proceed
Mr.. Watson: May it please the Court,
when your honor and myself were younger
men, and were endeavoring to master the
rudiments of English law, we were taught
in BlackstOnes Commentaries that the law
was the perfection of human reason.
In the last analysis, that is law which is
rational and that is rational which con
forms to what the world calls common
sense.
We may say of one man, there is a bril-
liant fellow, but he is ill-balanced We
say OF another, he is not so brilliant,
but he is well-balanced he has good
judgment, he recognizes things in their
just proportion to ore another He
sees things, as an artist would put it,
in the right perspective. He is not carried
away by vivid imagination; he recognizes
realty; he never places the smaller above
the greater; the true above the untrue; the
irrational above the reasonable.
Now, may it please the Court, we are
not trying this defendant, alone; the
Court today will make record and that
record will endure perhaps to the end of
time. 1t will certainly be a record which
will interest millions of human beings
tomorrow Therefore, it behOOyeS us to
try and conform to the simple doctrine
laid down in Blackstone, that Law is the
perfection of human reason.
This defendant on trial for book is. in
sense, all authors on trial for all books.
1t is Uncomfortable that rule should APP
ply to him that shall not apply to ALL
Whatever goes to his individual benefit,
cannot be restricted to him alone Other
authors nov, hereafter, and heretofore, get
the benefit of it; anything construed
against him row under this statute, hurts
not him alone, but every other author
heretofore, to-day. and tomorrow. What
he cannot mail, book dealers cannot mail;
what he cannot take out of the mails, for
the purpose Of circulation, book dealers
cannot take out, because this statute is as
severe against those who take out, as it is
against those who put in.
Now this being true, | revert briefly to
the proposition, that it is not to be pre-
sured that Congress meant to lay down
q rule which would prohibit book Dealers
publishers, and men who wish to put in
or take out for the purpose OF circulation
those books which by the conl:lon con
sent Of the reading public have become a
part of the worlds literature. That is not
to be presumed. Consequently, | most re-
spectfully submit that this Court in ar
irving at final conclusion, as to what this
statute means, should consider we'll the
rule Of law, that is laid down here today
and consider whether such rule will
mangle and mutllate the great mass Of
recognized literature. VIII the rule that
Is laid down here today, penalize send Il