Muncie Post-Democrat, Muncie, Delaware County, 27 April 1923 — Page 1
w
—r*
THE ONLY DEMOCRATIC NE
WS
PAPER IN DELAW ARE-COUNTY
MUNCIE POST-DEMOCRAT
VOL. 3 No. 14
MUNCIE, INDIANA, FRIDAY, APRIL 27, 1923
SUBSCRIPTION PRICE $2.00 A YEAR IN ADVANCE
COURTS AGAIN UPHOLD FREEDOM OF PRESS; CHICAGO TRIBUNE WINS
t •
..
Under a recent ruling of the supreme court, it is held that the 1921 amendment to the state liquor law, was drawn and passed in such a bungling manner that the pos-
session of liquor in itself does not constitute an offense.
LIQUOR LAW SHOT TO PIECES
.. i , -.fir.. i
Throttling- of Press Is “Out of Tune With the American Spirit and Has No Place in American
Jurisprudence^
in jeopardy by The Tribune’s attachs, the court said: •' “The richer the city the greater the incentive to stifle oppdsition— and remain in control of the political
prize.”
J? •!!?_•!«!« ?-?!!- —eS!S^^!a u fa
pj-ess. the opinion states:
“There was a reasonable foundation for prosecuting the government’s critics in the days of ‘the divine right of kings,’ but since the
free speech and a free press ever handed down in the LJnited States the Illinois Supreme court ha^ affirmed the decision of Judge Harry M. i
Fisher of the Circuit Court of Cook | , \ county in the $10,000,000 libel »»*' a ™
hreu^ht by the city of Chicago^un-,
derTthe Thompson administration— magistrates can do wrong no-nin^t Thp Chir'ie-o Tribune and the P eo P le have a fundamental against the Chicago inbune.. right to criticize them and to expose The opinion, which was written by j their inefficiency and corruption so
Chief Justice Floyd E. Thompson, holds that the lower court was right in finding “no cause for action” by
the city against.The Tribune. “Un American in Spirit”
The case came to the Supreme court on an appeal tciKen by the city from Judge Fisher’s decision, which had found for The Tribune. Of the
suit itself, which Chicago’s corpora-
tion counsel at the direction of rday-’ by the city on Sept. 17. 1920. Thompson had brought against ' based on articles appearing
or
The Tribune demanding $10,000,000 damages because articles printed, in The Tribune in the summer of 1920,
the court says: ,
“This action is out of tune with the American spirit and has no place in American jurisprudence.” A Fundamental U. S. Right What is established today is not so much the right of a newspaper to criticise public officials but the fundamental right ol the American citizen to cuss the government and do anything except advocate over-
throw and -^.olence.
The Supreme court states its con-
clusion as follows:
“We consider the question solely from the standpoint of public policy and fundamental principles of government. : t! “For the same reason that members of the legislature, judges of the courts, and other persons engag-ed in certain fields of the public service, or in the achministration of justice are absolutely immune from actions, civil or criminal, for libel for words
that they may be displaced. “It is one of the fundamental principles, therefore, of the American system of government that the people have the right to discuss their government without fear of being called to account in, the courts for their expressions of opinion.”
Suit Brought in 1920
The suit for civil libel was brought
It waf; at that
time in The Tribune in which it was said that the city was “broke,” its credit shot to pieces, and it was so improperly and corruptly administered that its streets were not properly cleaned and the laws not effi-
ciently enfoced.
The unique, underlying theory of the Thompson legal staff was that, inasmuch as a municipal corporation holds property, conducts business, and reqilires credit, it is subject to injury by libelous publications and mav bring action for civil damages. The demurrer of The Tribune to this declaration was that to permit a recovery in such an- action would violate the free speech provisions of the Illinois and federal constitutions. The suit came after former Mayor Thompson had filed a number of other suits for personal libel against The Tribune and other newspapers, and this campaign of litigation was interpreted by The Tribune as an attempt to intimidate and strangle free discussion in Chicago.
v vji ui ciyifuiia,!, jlui iiuui lur yvulus ^ punllc duties, the Individual "citizen T) i^a„
must be given a like privilege when ho is acting in his sovereign capac-
ity.”
Question of Public r-olicy The court did not pass on the truth or falsitv of the newspaper attacks on the Thompson administration, out of which the suit came hut based its decision on public policy only. “The fundamental right of freedom of speech is involve 1 in this litigation,” the opinion states, “and not merely the right of liberty of the press. “If this action c^n be maintained against a newspaper it can be maintained: against eve'"'- private citizen who ventures to criticize the ministers who ventures to criticize thr> ministers who are temporarily copducting the affairs of government. “Every citizen has a right to criticize an inefficient or corrupt government without fear of civil as well as criminal prosecution.” A Boomerang Argument As to the plea that the great fi-
Reporters Make Note of More Than 150,000,(100 Words In One Session
nancial interests of Chicago were put reliable way.
Washington, April 26—The official reporters of debate in congress are in a class by themselves, doing the most skilled recording of the world. During the last congress they took down as they were uttered in sharp and swiftly-spoken ciiebate more than I SO.000,000 words, and then read off their notes in the same legible and facile way that most persons read their Bibles. During the closing session the senate was for weeks sitting continuously from 11 a. m. un-
til 10 o’clock at night.
For 74 years, since the phonography of Isaac Pittman began to record the senate debates they have been reported in just that fluent and
❖ ❖ Y Y Y ❖ ❖ t I t t i ❖ t ❖ ■%o t f ❖ f Y Y ❖To i
:
f Y Y f Y t f f *>
This disastrous ruling of the highestijpourt in the state, has shot a disagreeable hole in Prosecutor Van Ogle’s meal ticket. The liquor law provides a twenty five dollar fee to the prosecutor with every conviction and with this great prize dangling before him, he and the police have been exceedingly active in digging up cases against individuals who may have a few drops in a flask on their person or in their'homes. The law as it was supposed to be, wa^ what might be termed the lazy officer’s law. It was comparatively easy to snoop around in the wake of some active bootlegger and after finding out to whom he was in the practice of selling whisky, to pinch his customers. This took practically no detective al^Iity. About all that was necessary to know was the identity of all the prominent boozj*4mulers and bootleggers and then to catch their habits carefully. S' There are several bootleggers^iere, Among whom Court Asher is probably the most conspicuous, who have regular distributing routes in Muncie. Court, for example, has a great many regular customers, to whom ht delivers white mule much after the manner of the milkman. And, by the way, the process of delivery of whisky by Court seems to have been attended by just about as little risk of arrest as that of delivering milk in Muncie. > But if Court, by reason of the protection afforded him by his brother Klansmen in office, was immune from arrest, not so his customers. By simply trailing around in the wake of the industrious wholesaler of wbjjte mule whisky, the police and sheriff’s officers have been enabled to arrest many purchasers and convict them of violation of the liquor
law.
Taking if for granted that the possession of liquor was an offense, most of the victims pleaded guilty. In the year 1922, before the federal authorities began to inquire into police and city court methods here, Judge Lance Coons would fine the possessors of liquor one hundred dollars and costs and give them suspended sentences. After attention had been forcibly called to the police court system of fines and suspended sentences, a change of policy went into effect and purchasers of liquor were sent to the penal farm in herds, and drovis. In some instances the whisky had beet purchased by petty bootleggers of the bigbooze haulers and bootleggers for resale, ^but in the majority of the cases, it is believed that the liquor was bought for personal usd. On the assumption that the possession of liquor was in itself an offense, it was not necessary for the police or sheriffs’ officers to prove sales or the possession with intent to sell, or, at least, there was no activity in official circles to make proof of that kind. It would have taken work and detective ability and activity to have secured the evidence showing sales, and besides it would have disturbed business for the big booze dealers of the Court Asher type, who ware doing business under official protection. The Post-Democrat believes in law enforcement to the full, and is strongly in favor of the rigid enforcement of the state and national liquor laws, but under the system of enforcement practiced here, in the past, iris fortunate that the supreme court has declared that mere possession of intoxicants is not sufficient to prove an offense. It was rather a remarkable coincidence that the police arrested Court Asher with two quarts of whisky under his coat two days after the supreme court had rendered its famous decision. For many months Court has been pe-ldling his whisky in Muncie without molestation and it was not until after a supreme c' v urt decisiqn had been handed down declaring possession not to be an offense, that the T uucie sleuths were ajjle^to get him with the
f Y Y Y Y «£♦ f Y Y Y
.ift s customers, Dtftrwniie nearextent of his operations, the
ly everybody else in town was aware of t: boldness
police seemed to be in the dark.
After Court’s arrest the other day he was permitted to gt> on a small bond. He is reported to have said that after he had made a statement that he owned seven thousand dollars worth of real estate he was permitted to go on his own recognizance. If he is charged with mere possession of liquor, the recent supreme court decision will free him. And if he is charged with possession with intent to sell, it would require proof and even if proved there is a strong liklihood that the amendment of the 1923 legislature was also bungled to the extent that possession with intent to sell has also been expunged, by a careless legislature, from the category of violations of the liquor law. The change in the liquor law will now make the police and the prosecutor step out on their merits. It will now be up to them to secure evidence against persons charged with violations of the liquor lav/ and prosecutor’s twenty five dollar fees will be fewer and hard-
er to get.
❖ <&>
t
Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y v t Y f Y Y Y Y Y f Y Y Y f Y Y Y >;♦ f f Y Y Y t Y Y ❖ f % t Y f t Y ❖ f ❖ f Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y ❖ t ❖
❖
FARM PRODUCTION TO REMAIN STEADY IN THE UNITED STATES
SPECIAL AGENT IS EXPENSIVE The Post-Democrat last week touched on the activities of “Special Agent” Perdieu, of the C. & D. railroad, who keeps the jail full of railroad bums, and citizens are commenting freely on the situation. Since our last publication the special agent has been as busy as ever, hardly a day passing that he has not sent a bunch of bums through the city court hopper to the county jail, where they will be fed fifteen days each at the expense of the taxpayers of Delaware county. The following from the Star Wednesday morning, is a sample of city court news with which Muncie people are regaled daily: “Henry Williams, Solomon Jones and George Brown, all colored, pleaded quilty to charges of trespass filed by Special Ageht Perdieu of the C. & O. railroad and each received a fine of $5 and costs, amounting to $15.” These fellows, along with many others picked up in the C. & O. yards, will board at the county jail for fifteen days at the expense of the taxpayers, who wonder why taxes are so high. The cost of boarding these fellows, together with the sheriff’s “in and out” fees, amounts in each case to $11.40. When Judge Coons lightly found Henry, Solomon and George, guilty of the heinous crime of trespassing on the property of the C. & O, he sentenced the taxpayers of the county at the same time to dig down in their jeans and pay Sheriff Harry Hoffman the sum of $34.20 for maintaining
them.
The only one profiting by the transaction is Sheriff Hoffman, who receiv'': the in and qut fees and sixty cents a day for boarding tLj bums. Since the food problem at the county jail is a very sketchy affair, a fair profit is made on each prisoner. If the county commissioners had any pep, they would look into the joint activities of the special agent and officials who cooperate with him. We know of no other city in the state where bums are met at the railway station by a special agent, who escorts them to a municipal boarding house, where they are banquetted fifteen days by the citizens of the community and then turned loose In order to make room for another batch of hungry hoboes.
Y Y Y t t t T t t t t I t t t t t t t t t t ❖ t t * t * f ♦J* * t t t
Y 1 si
+44 f t t t I ? ? f t t I t Y
❖ 1 •s* j t 1 ♦>:
Report of 18 Economists and Statisticians Is Submitted to Secretary
Wallace
FRANCE AND AMERICA JOIN IN HONORING VAILLANT X-RAY MARTYR
Washington, April 26—At least no reduction in the supply of American farm products this year, a slightly less favorable foreign demand and an active dtemand at home as long as the present business conditions continue. were forecast today by a committee of 18 prominent economists and statisticians in. a report to Secretary Wallace of the department of agriculture after a two-day confer-
6T1C6 hero.
“It is of the most vital interest to American agriculture,” the report said, “that the United States lend aid in every way possible to the settlement of the reparation, and other
European problems.
“The favorable factors with respect to foreign demand are: First, ’ the influence of American prosperity | upon the demand for European goods, and second, the possibility that the slight business recovery that has occurred in a number of European countries may gradually
gain momentum. Unfavorable Factors
“The unfavorable factors are: First, the progressive piling up of government debts on the continent of Europe, with its offset upon exchange. currency and business; sec-
ond. the Ruhr situation.
“With some overflow of the business activity of the United States to the rest of the world, particularly the non-European part of the world, the prospect would rather be that there will be some increase in the production of foodls in foreign countries. We cannot, therefore, confidently offer any reason for the expectation that our farmers win meet any less severe competition in Euromarkets during the coming
Fiery Cross Editor Changed Name and Left Ft. Wayne Without Notifying His Creditors
A VARIED COLORED SILK KNITTED COAT
Charles Vaillant, the great French radiograph specialist, signing the “Golden Book” in the City Hall, Paris, at the recent ceremony in his honor, when Ambassador Herrick decorated him with the gold medal of the Carnegie Foundation. As a result of his fearless and faithful devotion to radiography, Dr. Vaillant has under-gone amputation after amputation losing, first his fingers, then his right hand, then his left arm, and recently part of his left shoulder.
agree that the country may expect j general business prosperity to last
at least six to nine months longer. The enormous net movement of
persons from farms to
meet emergencies, the committee de-
clared.
❖ pean ❖ year.”
Predicting the domestic demand % for agricultural products would be
❖ | active as long as the present cond'i- j t,120,000
? | tion of business with full employ- towns and cities in the two years end-
v ment continued, the committee said with Dec. 31, 1922, leaves the I'been observed, are always sunk by
is worn with
[Fort Wayne News—Sentinel] The secret is out. Two mysteries are solved at once. The true identity of “John Hamilton.” Fiery Cross editor, whose charges of widespread vice in Indianapolis fell flat in a showdown with the prosecuting attorney, is revealed, and the whereabouts of Milton Elrod, former local man who left Fort Wayne last fall without giving his creditors his forwarding address,
is learned.
For the two are one and the same. This was revealed Thursday afternoon at Indianapolis, when “Hamilton” visited the office of William P. Evans, prosecuting attorney, and admitted that his true identity Was Milton Elrod, acting editor-in-chief of the Fiery Cross, the Ku Klux Klan
publication.
Elrod, who residles at 917 West Drive, Woodruff Place, said that he posed under the name “John Hamilton” in order that his family “might live in peace” and that he would not be forced by what he termed a “gang of thugs and gunmen” to move from Indianapolis, as had his
managing editor.
Elrod’s visit to the prosecuting attorney’s office Thursday was the second voluntary call he had made there in 24 hours. He appeared Wednesday afternoon and talked to Evans and William H. Remy, chief deputy, regarding the assertion published in the Fiery Cross that it had information of 63 places of law vio-
xo Wien a pleated skirt of . T ,.
tan rihhed silk wi+Vi inspts nf Eo-vr, latlon m Indianapolis. At the eontJan rl prhit;s^ 1 ^The^^stockffigs^ -are^a Terence, Evans said, Elrod told him
motley array of colors to hold the atmosphere of the entire outfit.
Fiery Cross In Jail
Are Four Men Taken in Near Negro Camp
Raid
he merely had anonymous informa-
tion about the places.
The whereabouts of Elrod have been unknown here since he left the city rather unceremoniously last September. Elrod was at one time manager of the Warriner Water Softener company here, and later established a radio business on West Wayne street. When this failed he
was lost to Fort Wayne.
It is understood that he became
district manager for the Hoosier
Automobile association at
Youngstown, hio, April 27 — Four men and a fiery cross are in the Struthers, Ohio, jail to-day follow- State
ing a raid upon an alleged KuKlux South Bend and from there went to Klan meeting near Struthers last Indianapolis, where he became con-
r'rvl^
City officials said the arrests were
made by special policemen from the plant of the Sharon Steel Hoop Com-
pany.
The men arrested were held on a charge of having disturbed the peace.
The Logical Deduction
(Kansas City Star)
A scientist tells us that most men
_ _ . _ are right-handed because most of our The cross was being set up near a ' ancestors were warriors. Maybe the
negro labor camp operated by the 1 southpaws are descendants of paci-
stee! company. fists, then, eh, Lefty?
The “Escaped Nun” Allowed To Speak Again in Muncie Without
Interference By City Officials
— 1— Helen Jackson, the pretended ex- ating religious strife for money, nun. played another engagement in ! And in this connection the fact Muncie tffis week at the Campbell f h ?Y 1d no t be overlooked that the , . A . . kuklux, who stand spdnsbr for the auditorium. As vfcual the woman j appearances and utterances of this insulted the religion of the Catholic ] woman, stand for free speech only people of Muncie and assailed the when the speaker advocates klan
morality of the Catholic clergy and principles.
sisterhood. j When the Post-Democrat takes a No attempt on the part of the ' shot at some measly pro-German excity officials to prevent the w-oman ! saloon keeper and bootlegger who from speaking, although tire sitiia- , happens to belong to the klan. the tion was deemed serious enough' by , klansters at once demand that the Chief of Police Benbow to cause i v m j editor be sent to jail, but when an to send a squad of policemen to the ( imposter of the Helen Jackson type auditorium to be ready to quell a : hits town and wantonly libels a repossible riot. j ligious creed and the entire memAbout the meanest thing in the borship of a church, a great howl world is this thing of attacking some- j goes up when an insulted and reviled body else’s religion. The fair Helen church congregation demands that has discovered that there is money j rfhe be denied the right to insult
in ripping' it into the pope and die- ( their religion.
This is one of the consistencies of one hundred percent Americiatiism.
faming Catholic nuns, so she is up the meanest sort of meanness cre-
-X' *:♦ *!♦ »!• *> *;* 4t« ❖ .J. .4, * ^ ^ ^ ^ ( . 4 ^ ^ ^ ,4. ,4, ^ ^ ^ ^ 4+4 »», VJ, 4*. * vj,
Never Let Anybody Else Do It
(Toledo Blade)
American battleships, it may have
most competent observers seem to farms in an unfavorable position to Americans.
Judge Lindsey on “Teaching Respect” Colliers this week published an interesting interview with Judge Ben Lindsey, the most famous juvenile judge, with but one probable exception, in the United States. Judge Lindsey does not take the judge business as seriously as do some of the lesser lights of the bench. For instance, Judge Lindsey asked: “Can you imagine anything sillier than this attempt to teach respect for the courts ?” “I can’t imagine anything stranger,” was the reply, “than a judge asking such a question.” “Shucks!” said Judge Lindsey. “Also fiddlesticks! You might as well talk about teaching salaries as teaching respect. The only way any court can hope to gain any real respect is to earn it. If the courts serve the people in answer to the needs of the people, the courts will be respected. If they consider themselves above the people and expect the people to serve them, the most that they can inspire is fear—and hatred. There is a bigger charice, though, that they will inspire only contempt.” “Don’t you respect your own position as a judge?” I asked him. “Not overmuch”, he answered. “A judge is supposed to dispense justice, but that is impossible in America to day. There is one law for the rich and another for the poor. Every judge knows that, and it seems to me time that one of them acknowledge the truth.”
|£« *}« <{*«$» t$M$» <g» *♦< <j* |J* 4*4 4j4 4J* ♦$* «$*>$♦ 4j4 «J4 «jl *$♦ **4 «£» ^4 4*4 «$* 4*4 4*4 4*4 4*4 4*4 tg*
A