The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1916-11-09

o'clock, and told him that The Herald
was publishing the testimony of the
INQUEST, and that our columns we're
open to tie defense for any state
ment that the defense might wish to
make. We emphasized the fact that
we wished to print fair and i'm
Partial story of the homicide, to
which our subscribers were certainly
entitled. He thanked us for the op-
portunity and promised to see US la
ter in the day.
Nothing was heard from the mat
ter, however. until this writer re-
turned from dinner, about one
O'Clock, when he found that Mr.. May
field wished to talk to him. Mr.. May
field was called up at the Garland
house while he was eating dinner,
and a long telephone conversation
ensued, in which Mr.. Mayfield told US
that if We published the testimony
in the case We would be Immediately
sued for damages. 1t was made very
clear to Mr.. Mayfeld that The Herald
was endeavoring to do nothing but
print the news. We paid no atten-
ton to the threat against The Herald,
for we knew that public records on
file in the court house belong to the
public, and every subscriber of The
Herald had the right to go to the
court house and read the record for
himself if he did not care to read 1t
in The Herald. Later in the day Mr..
Free was sent to The Herald office
about the matter, but was politely
informed that the readers of this
newspaper were entitled to know
what the testimony was. We
further renewed our request for
statement, and even offered to hold
the forms of The Herald for reason
able time to print the statement.
Mr.. Mayfeld, in the article, asks
the public not to condemn man on
newspaper statements, yet over a
non-de-plume he attempts to con-
denim us for printing the records.
Why did he not sign his name to the
article, so that the readers of the pa
per might take what he said for its
real value?
MIR. Mayfeld asked The Herald not
to print the testimony, but to print
a general summary. A general sum-
mary appears in this weeks Bam-
berg County Times. We reprint
it elsewhere today. Perhaps Mr..
Mayfeld would deny writing this
summary, but we will leave the
public to judge who wrote it, in the
light of the facts as cited above. All
that is contained in the Times &C
count may be true; we don't attempt
to deny the truth of any statement
therein, but as to the fairness of the
statement in presenting the facts in
the case, we will also leave that to
the public.
The "Friend of George Hers
says: "Looking back through the re-
cent months of political troubles and
the efforts of the courts to enforce
the prohibition laws in this coun-
ty = will be found reason which
animates some to misrepresent and
condemn a man in advance of his
trial by jury of his county" No
more vigorous advocate of the en-
forcement of the prohibition and all
other laws exists than The Bamberg
Herald. Every reader of The Herald
knows this, and Mr.. Mayfield has
been a valued reader Of The Herald
for many years. The Herald has not
condemned the defendant in this
case. We print the news. The jury
and the court will try the case.
In conclusion we will say that The
Herald intends to print the news. 1t
does not intend to be coerced into
either printing anything or learfrg
anything out of print We will also
say that we are very sorry indeed
that we have to discuss this subject
at all, for We would not say or do
anything that could in anywise be
construed as prejudicing the case of
Mr.. HERS. No one knows that any