The Wilmington morning star., 1940-12-13
BY pFc1pn

recent upsetment of represen. IN.
Ham Fish over some nevSn's
reporting which he held II no Ease'
curate and s%landerous remin Ilac'
to remind him that this SeS N'
things is much more fagrantlv o.
by the members of the honso SV4E
the senate than by newspane, %'
porters. l will not go into tha =
tails of the report which anno1 ae,
Mr.. Fish, because the originaTa
legation or insinuation might ~, a'
last his denial in the mind ~ Wv
reader. However, he specuIsta, as
the advisability of suing for In. ~
and on that point l would ill.,, a't'
observe that the ordinary citi,. "
has no such redress when ba
slandered by a member Of eiSH
house from the floor tberaot 'N'''
Mr.. Fish's anger over this ~,
LEGATION recalls a little controv s1s'
mat l nao with nm a year Or :,
ago on the same subject. Mr. Nv
was preparing a speech 10 bs
livered in his district and was oo W.
templating some unconfirmed w,
If untrue, slanderous matter wh; at
had come to him anonymouslv IN
the mail. I asked him if he h.. u
checked these allegations, and r ra
version of the conversation is ts..
although he had not, he had njsn
ned to use the material. anv W.,
qualifying it with some such ~
cape clauses as 'it is allegeS
and lit is believed"
Dispute Ended
He later said be had no intento,
of using the allegations nconfrn.
ed, and there the dispute ended
1t was his word and my recollec.
ton against mine. That speech wa,
to have been delivered off The
floor, where the congressional in, |
immunity does not run and the con.
gresham, theoretically, would
have been legally responsible for
his remarks. But, inasmuch as te
person affected was Preside,
Roosevelt, he was still immune BIZ,
cause he figured the President
Wouldn't sue. In fact. many poit.
cal orators operate under an in.
piled immunity and are notorious
ly Indifferent to truth and provabe
fact in their comments affecting
the regulations of defenseless cit,
zens.
A communist member of con.
gress once said of a certain man
that this man got drunk every
night, although the congressman
had never had the honor Of NEE,
ing the man and probably had
never even seen him. A like charge
against the communist congress.
man published in a paper having
financial assets would doubtless
have resulted in a libel suit being
filed, communists being hell On
their legal rights and ever alert
to grab a dollar from a capitals
I am aware of another case in
which a famous public man, who
constantly berates the press, de-
liberately libeled a citizen in
speech after two lawyers had a'
vised him that certain matter IN
his address was clearly llbel0l'
Moreover, he boosted Of it.
Legal Remedy
l certainly will not assume the
burden of defending the pu0Ilca'
ton of the report to which re-
preventative Fish objected, but
do want to emphasize the fact thai
he has a legal remedy. wherea'
he and all other members OF ooa
houses may SANDER citizens VIII
IMMUNITY, and that some OF them
have been known to do so.
Unfortunately. not all menoea
of congress have a high regard 10
their responsibility and, oecaus
most of them are politicians
occupation, they are, on the aver
age, much less careful on the lN'
than reporters are in print IN
politician grows up in the haD'
of immunity. The reporter oes4s
to hear about libel when he h
cub. The congressman has no e!
editor over him to ask, VINO
your authority for this cnarss
And to delete it from his reIAain
if it is an anonymous tip or rall..
Obviously, members OF cons'ss
cannot be held accountable W
cause it is necessary that u'
have complete freedom IN oeOaa
But this immunity should lmPvs
on every member a consclelug~
respect for the truth, an aVel.m
to scandal for its own SAKE
a scrupulous respect Tor le IL,
putation of the citizen unoel Yr
~cussion. And the decent mellva
should assume a duty 10 ehp. a,r
wanton SANDER at once leS' m
be repeated by scurrllous pu0D'
tons.
If the United States goVefnlN.ss,
were legally responsible for sl ,% "
libe]/ uttered in congress anu ps
lished in the record, the Judsl's A..
would just about consume ts
tire pot of cash on hand acevD
receivable and the proceeu, q,
public works and building anu +,
United States navy sold unoei
hammer.