Arizona republican., 1917-03-24
Ethical

Throughout a sitting or the superior court yes terday morning. stranger, by no word or incident would have inferred that he listening to a pro- ceeding involving an election He would have surmised nothing else that he was present at an inquiry into the ethical features of the newspaper business and the calling of the detective However unprofitable this proceeding have been in its relation to the gubernatoria contest it was not without interest to those of the Fourth Estate and all auditors, for all of us attracted by the mystery which hangs about the movements of the detective. The active. the most eminent of men have always concerned themselves with the mysterious Congressman Joseph Cannon finds reere alton in detective stories and the late Rt Hon. w F. Gladstone the great English statesman had two kinds of relaxation, choppng down trees and reading de- teetive stories.
 The feature of the newspaper proposition under discussion the interview which. for lack of space we must pass hurriedly There are forms the interview takes: the signed statement of the interviewee; the translation of his words without alteration of their meaning in readable English, in which the words attributed to him may or may not appear in quotation marks, and the exact lan- guage of the person interviewed The last named form is frequently employed when the interviewer is careless of the feelings of the person interviewed or purposes to hold him up to ridicule.
 There are three languages employed by the average person. the spoken language used ordi nary occasion, the spoken language used in public addresses and the written language. The last named is as nearly correct as the user make it; the to last is partly manufactured the first is the rough. material which with respect for himself would be proud to in print
 The average interviewer never intentionally mis- quotes misrepresents the meaning of his subject, for reputation for accuracy is important asset of the newspaper The longer he is in the service the valuable to him this asset becomes. Now and then a man is maliciously misquoted for there are scalawags in the newspaper field just there in the pulpit Occasionally. and perhaps frequently, an honest but careless interviewer misnterprets the language of his subject.
 The repudiation of interviews is much ire quent than inaccuracies of interviews Population is made for a variety of reasons. The interviewee finds that has made reinstatement which will be damaging him and he raises question of veracty between himself and the interviewer pub lie of prominence seldom does that than once. There are statesmen in Washington who can not get their views before the public for the that they have fooishly been guilty of that sort of repudation. Once a has done that he is marked by all the correspondents, who will not thereafter quote him directly indirectly. Sometimes they make this concession They will accept written statement from him but it must be signed by him. It is then preserved for anytime within which he would be likely to deny it.
 There is the frightened repudiator and sometimes, honest He discovers that statement hot from the mouth different thing from the statement in cold type the morning He has realized that there is a startling difference be- tween the spoken word and the printed word It fills him with emotions ranging through amazement, chagrin and horror. He feels that the interviewer ought to have warned him against his mouth. The next step is repudation.
 As to the inquiry into the detective business yes terday, it went to the dsingenuousness of the de- tectve. his pretense sometimes that something he was not his deception of the subject It is that detectives not always open and above board whereat reminded of the visit of an aged minister of the gospel to the university where his favorte nephew was the pitcher of the college nine In the course of a game young man in the grand stand sitting next to the proud minister re- marked the signs that being transmitted from the pitcher to the catcher. The man turned upon him angrily. Do you to tell he asked "that nephew is colIusion with the, catcher to de- ceive the batter?'
 If detectives always or often proceeded in a di- rect manner, with brass band other form of due notification they would not get very far is the businesF of the detective to misead and deceive his subject who is generally a criminal after whom the law IS reaching In civil matter it is his business to mislead or overreach the party whose interests are adverse to those of his employer
 But do not lawyers do the same or worse2 In almost every case the lawyer one side or the other knows that his client is in the wrong. It is the aim of the lawyer to blind the jury court to that fact to keep the truth away from the jury and the court There have been other lawyers but we never. knew but one who would not take case until he had satisfied himself that his client if in criminal case was innocent; or if in civil hn the right It is said that now and then when he discovered that he had been deceived by his client he withdrew There be detectives are as conscientious However, so far honesty is concerned all of the trades and professions and cangs to which we be-