The Julesburg grit-advocate., 1921-10-13

ne NTll-AuSOCdlc Ildu lopSti W
give it's readers this week the names
of the eighty petit jurors summoned
to appear for jury duty at the COM
ing regular October term of district
court, which convenes in Julesburg
Tuesday, October 25th. This is the
largest number of jurors ever sum
moned at one time in the history of
the county We also had intended
publishing the tentative list of cases
that will appear on the court docket.
The above information is news that
the public is entitled to know about
This paper feels it duty as "A
newspaper. to publish the proceedings
of our courts as matter of public
interest, giving the facts as they
transpire, and "hewing to the line
in fearless way, regardless of the
wishes of few who perhaps may
wish to suppress certain proceedings
for reasons best known to them
selves. We feel that the citizens and
taxpayers of Sedgwick county have a
right to know what is transpiring in
our courts and the Grit-Advocate is
going to adhere to the policy of pub
fishing the news as the facts war
rant.
We do not believe that any public
official has legal right to suppress
the news of the district court, regard
less of personal feelings which may
be prevalent against any individual
or newspaper, based upon any legiti-
mate news article which the news
paper may have published previously,
which, perchance, did not coincide with
that officials opinion, owing to the
criticism Incorporated in the article.
The newspaper is public enterprise
and in most cases voices the senti-
ment of the public, and no court Of
ficial should feel big enough to at
tempt to keep the public from access
to the legitimate news of the court
just to satisfy a personal grudge
against the newspaper, which enter
prise is merely the medium in which
the news is conveyed to the public.
There has been an effort this week
by public official to prevent the
Grit Advocate from publishing the
news of the district court in Sedgwick
county. A reporter of the Grit-Ad
vocate visited the office of the Clerk
of the District Court of Sedgwick
county Wednesday morning in quest
of the list of the names of the eighty
petit jurors which have been summon
ed to appear at the coming regular
October term of district court, and al
so made a request for tentative list
of the cases on the court docket for
the purpose of publication in this
we KS issue of the paper. The Clerk
of the District Court informed the re-
porter as follows:
Since the Grit Advocate has seen
fit to criticise the Court, the Court
the Grit-Advocate. am sure the
Court would not want me to do So"
The representative of this paper
reported the statement
of the Clerk to the editor of the Grit
who in turn called the Clerk
Of the District Court over the phone to
verify the statement and asked that
she reconsider the matter, in public
interest. But there was only a mega
tive reply, the clerk informing the
editor that she would not give US the
jury list or docket list for publica-
ton, giving again as the reason that
we had CRITICISED" the Court through
the columns of the paper.
Therefore, in this weeks issue of
the Grit-Advocate, we are unable to
publish the jury list and the list of
cases on the docket to be heard at the
coming regular term of court. We
will admit that we are handicapped
thus far, and our numerous readers
have the Clerk of the District Court
of Sedgwick county. public official,
to thank for the elimination of this
important news which is of interest to
the public at this time. We are not
in a position at this time to say
or not any other court Off
cials are back of the Clerks actions.
but one can form their own concu-
sions from the statement made to
Grit-Advocate reporter relative to the
matter. We are going to make
thorough investigation of the matter
and use every effort to protect our
rights as a newspaper. Securing the