Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-11-23
Views and Reviews
Chapters from Nebraska's
COntempt-Of- Court HISTORY

chapters from ~ eOrGSEG S
| Contempt-ot- Court History
In trying to justify the decision in the re-
| cent contempt case the court professed to see
special significance in the fact that in looking
up the precedents, it was found that most of the
law of contempt in Nebraska, as defined by ur
supreme court. has been the result of cases
brought from time to time against The Bee
and its editor. To this, in responding to the
usual question as to what had to say, | re-
| piled:
THE court has referred to the fact that
the contempt law of Nebraska is in large part
made up by cases that have come out of liti-
cation over publications in The Omaha Bee.
| That take it, is no reflection but credit to
the paper it being proof positive that its
editors and reporters have been alert in ex-
posing corruption in Office and standing per-
sistently against persecution and oppression
when it believed it was right"
What said in the court room may warrant
little elaboration from the history of the con-
tempt proceedings that have envened the
career of The Bee. The leading case, and the
one most cited in all such trials. is known as
"the Percival case which occupied the boards
nearly Is years ago. Percival, at that time a
reporter for The Bee, wrote a graphic descrip-
ton portraying the performances of an ar
bltrary and VIGOROUSLY tyrannical and vindic-
tive Judge of the district court who while play
ing favortes had-been paradng himself as a
terror to evil-doers and venting his personal
spleen through his judicial actions. The par
tcular article, for writing which Percival was
hailed into court, started as follows
Justice without equality. Sentences ad-
justed to fit the men. One party to crime
gets fve-year sentence in the pententiary
while the other gets the benefit of pull
Persons who were around the criminal section
of the district court yesterday afternoon wit
messed striking Illustration of what it is
to be possessed of a pull. The same persons
were given an illustration OF how easy it is
to keep out of the pententary if the pull is
worked for all it is worth"
Not content with landing on the offending
reporter with jail-sentencee and forcing him
to go to the supreme court at Lincoln for re-
lease by supersedeas, my father, as editor of
The Bee, was also called to personal account by
pleasure by similar Jail sentence and refusal
to accept bond. The two cases went up on ap-
peal and the findings of the lower court were
reversed, not only by the supreme court but
also by the unmstakable verdict of the great
court of public opinion, which is in reality all
controlling
1t was Just coincidence that while the
proceedings in the contempt charge against me
were on and the Percival case was being con-
stantly referred to, the Percval who was
the torm-center Of similar judicial hare-up
a quarter of a century ago was himself serving
as juror in the selfsame court and being as
signed by the presiding judge to report to one
court room or another.
Another famous contempt case which figured
prominently in the argument was that in which
The Bee and its editor were cited by the SUI
preme court about 20 years ago. This was
case growing out of successful hight waged
by The Bee for home-rule police commission
and for the right of Omaha to govern itself
IN in of a
satrapy of the governor at Lincoln The art1--
Gle that made the trouble was editorial
respectfully and temporarily calling attention to
the fact that the issue sought to be reopened
judicata in a preceding suit brought by direc..
ton of Governor Holcomb for the benefit of
his own appointees and that the governor, hav-
ing later been elected to the supreme bench,
was already committed to the claim OF the right
of the governor to name Omaha's police COM
mission and therefore properly ought not to sit
in judgment. In the eyes of certain sensitive
Judges of the court this constituted diabolical
attempt to impede justice which could be salved
only by imposing fine upon The Bee and ad-
Judging its editor culpable of contempt with
the privilege of asking for a remission. OF the
fine upon showing of public retraction and
confession of guilt. Needless to say, my father
took the money down to Lincoln and paid the
fine 1t is worth noting that the final decision
in that particular pending case was that the
be reopened-exactly as the editorial written
by my father had contended.
That reminds me that the penalty imposed
for offending the dignity and invading the indie.
pendence of the supreme court was hne OF
$780, which I believe is the largest on record
in any contempt proceeding in this state While
l cannot speak with positive knowledge, think
it conservative estimate that all the collected
fines in all the contempt cases in all the courts
Il. -, &c I,,;cc 70 cto{
do not aggregate $1,000.
The present liberal view of the constitutional
right of free speech entertained by our supreme
court may be gathered from decision rendered
without a dissent in very recent case (not
contempt case, however), also growing out OF
publication in The Bee. The part of the opin-
ion written by Judge Rose quoted by counsel
in the argument is:
THE freedom of the press not lib
erty enumerated in the Magma Charta, but
was subsequent growth of several centuries
After the printing press became the means OF
disseminating information and opinions re-
latng to the church and the state, all printed
matter was subjected to censorship or super
vision. This power was first exercised by
the church and afterward by the CROWN
printer was required to obtain license. For
publishing sedltious opinions such punish
ment as mutilation whipping, imprisonment
Punishment and death was inflicted The
practice of supervising manuscripts in ad.
vance of publication was finally abandoned,
but the press subsequently restricted by
vigorous prosecutions for libel and by cruel