The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1922-07-14
New York Times Challenges Senator
Watson Ond.l TO Waive Immunity.

Watson 0nd.) to Waive Immunity.
We do not know nor do we care
whether Senator Jim Watson believes
what he said yesterday in the Senate
that the New York Times does moi
tell the truth about the tariff because
retail merchants will not let it. Sena.
tor Watson seems to regard the i'm
munity of Legislative halls as license
to utter any libel. IL he will be oblig-
ing enough to repeat this statement
outside the Senate Chamber, shelter
ed by no special privileges but those
OF the citizens held responsible for his
words, we shall make reply to which
he will be compelled to pay attention.
New York Times editorial, June %,
1922.
To this indictment for libel and the
challenge to waive immunity, Senator
Watson has made no reply either in
the Senate or in the public press, so
far as we can learn. He has not
waived immunity so that he can be
held legally responsible for his charge
that importers control the policy of
that great newspaper, the New York
Times. He has not even filed de-
murrer to the indictment.
To those who know the ethics of the
metropolitan press, Senator Watson's
charge against the Times falls of it's
own weight, Newspapers like the
Times spend every year many times
the amount of Senator Watson's an
nual salary to keep their. columns ac-
curate, clean and fair. Their main
policy is to print the news and to COM
ment thereon uninfiuenced by any con-
sideration except to tell the truth,
which is the only reason for publishing
a newspaper. Their ethical code is as
high and inflexible as that Of vir-
tuous man or woman. Advertisers do
not place their advertisements in such
papers as a matter Of favor, but in
order to get financial results from the
quantity and character of the circula-
ton of such papers. The same is true
of the leading Republican newspapers
of the United States as well as the
great Independent press.
The charges that the metropolitan
press is influenced or controlled by i'm
porters and retail merchants made by
Senators McCumber and Watson
(Ind.) are just as applicable to the
smaller papers, for the so-called
Country press" is governed by the
same code of morals as the metropoli-
tan dailies, and the few exceptions in
both cases only prove the rule.
An incorruptible press is the chief
safeguard of nation, and when it is
assailed by the slight-of tariff
thinkers in the framing of an extor-
tionate tariff bill in the interest of
one class against every other class,
the honest press of the country, re-
CARELESS of party, should be unit in
resenting and rebuking the assault.
Senator Simmons Defends the Press
and Exposes Republican Assailants.
While the metropolitan press is be-
ing assailed in the Senate in the in
terest of tariff extortionists, it does
not lack defenders in that body. The
able Democratic Senator from North
Carolina (Mr. Simmons), former
Chairman of the Finance Committee,
not only defended the integrity of the
press but exposed the reasons for the
assault in his usual clear and forcible
manner in recent speech. In part,
he said:
81 assume that these gentlemen IRE
publican tariff makers) are not after
the importers and the department
so much as they are after the news
papers of the country, the press of
the country. That is their objective.
We did not hear much talk about the
activities and the sinister motives of
these importers and department stores
until we began to read into the Record
these editorials from the great metro
politan newspapers of the country de-
this bill in unmeasured
terms. 1t was these editorials under
which the Senators on the other side,
in charge of this bill, sduirmed and
1t was these editorials that
drew their fire. But it became neces-
sary to ascribe sinister and cor
rupt motive to the newspapers, espe-
cially Of the Republican press, that
we're so severely criticising and de-
nouncing this bill; and then for the
first time, coming in force, in over
force, we saw and heard
these assaults upon the department
stores and the importers. For what?
For the purpose Of fixing an Interior
and unworthy motive upon the news
papers for their attacks upon the bill.
When these great newspapers de-
clared themselves, and when their
lead was followed by the big papers
of all the large towns of the country,
without reference to whether they
were importing centers or not, when
Senators on the other side saw that
the clamor against their bill, which |
started with these newspapers, was
being taken up by the smaller dailies
and weeklies throughout the country,
and saw the number, day after day,
Of these assaults from Republican
from newspapers that had
always supported the theory of pro-
lection and Republicanism, with re-
spect to those partisan Republican af-
fihations no question could be made,
they saw the necessity Of Immediately
finding some plausible excuse for that
on the part of this large
number of newspapers throughout the
country, not only of their own party,
but Of the nonpartisan press, of the
trade press. In fact, this movement,
was led by the commercial papers Of
New York and Chicago, and by the
papers Of those cities and
of other large centers And So The