Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1917-10-19
TIlE NEWS

III y M w -
The professional card of an attorney
at-law, who for many years has been q
patron of our advertising columns, was
withdrawn from The Register this week
at his request, This bereavement in
volving the loss Of SO per annum in adj
vertising revenue, would ordinarily be
altogether our own funeral But one
circumstance so alters the case AS to
make It not so much our personal con-
Germ A. that of the whole people of Adj
Olson County, and we lay IT before
them as a grave matter constl-
tuting an insult to their lntelll'
gtnce and to the newspaper which
would faithfully represent them.
The Register will print the news. 1t
will do so without fear or favor. 1t viii
do so with full, sense Of propriety 1t
will do il with malice toward none,
and charity for all, " but it will print
the news. II did so last week in one
instance which leads to the text of this
sermon. 1t published the facts OF the
arrest of Middiebury lawyer on a
body writ issued on the allegation that
he had appropriated to his own use
the sum of about. $500 collected for a
client, and he was held under bail for
the December term of the County
Court. The papers in the case were OF
official record The Register, consider
ing itself under obligation to the people
of this county to report the news, did,
with confessed personal reluctance,
print the facts of the case, and was the
only paper in the county to do so.
The removal of the professional card
from our advertising columns was not
the action of the attorney who was ar
rested, nor of any partner of his. 1t
was the act of a man of no known asso-
citation with him other than that Of
common fellowship in the local practice
of law. He called us On the telephone.
This in substance was The dialogue:
"Hello! The Register
"Yes.
IL think | will take out my ad. /
began it some years ago as a personal
favor y
THE Register would not urge any
one to advertise on anything but d
business basis, am sure. AS for our
selves, we firmly believe in advertls-
ing"
"But I've been reading last week 5
Register and | do not see that our adj
vertising gets us any favors."
"Do you mean to intimate that be-
cause The Register published the news
of local lawyers arrest you would
withdraw your advertising in protest.
Eyes, that's what mean.
my dear sir, if that is the attitude
of any man or set of men in Addison
County it should be the subject of an
editorial on newspaper ethics, y
We hung up our receiver. And here
is our say to the people of Addison
County:
The Register will not be bribed
or inundated into the suppression of
news. 1t will not include either in the
oral or written terms of any advertising
contract the protection of any person or
set of persons from exposure of wrong
doing so far as such may be the matter
of formal legal charges.
The legal fraternity is neither exempt
from the application of the law nor
from the publicity that is desirable
consequence of any alleged trespass
against it. The public deserves pro-
lection from the dishonest lawyer, if
such there be, more than from any
other set of dishonest persons. 1t would
be a pitful state of affairs were a news
paper purporting to represent the com
munity to bargain with any man or set
of men to shield them from the con-
sequence of their acts. The Register
will never be 80 low. 1t will mercilessly
expose any man or clique of men who
would by the leverage of their patron
age of our advertising columns seek to
threaten, intmidate or influence US into
anything but straightforward policy
of recording facts deemed of in
terest or Importance to the people of
Addison County.
A newspaper cannot exist without adj
vertising. The Register has desirable
space to sell for such a purpose, and
with an increasing circulation it will
carry any honest advertisers message
to several thousand readers at very
nominal rate. We will sell printers ink,
but we do not carry whitewash.