Muncie Post-Democrat, Muncie, Delaware County, 3 March 1927 — Page 2

THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 1927.

THE POST-DEMOCRAT A Democratic weekly newspaper representing the Democrats of Muncie, Delaware County and the 8th Congressional District. The only Democratic Newspaper in Delaware County. Entered as second class matter January 15, 1921, at the Postoffice | at Muncie, Indiana, under the Act of March 3, 1879..

PRICE 5 CENTS—$2.00 A YEAR.

Room 613 Wysor Block—Telephones 2216 and 2540 GEORGE R. DALE, Owner and Publisher. Muncie, Indiana, Thursday, March 3, 1927.

Muncie Needs Cleaning. If the bitter controversy between Judge Dearth, of the Delaware circuit court, and George Dale, Muncie publisher, results in the authorities awakening to the true conditions that haye long prevailed there and which have been so notorious that Muncie is known from one end of the country to the other as a haven for crooks, the good citizens of Muncie ought to be pleased. Dale probably published much that he should not have published, as this is his weakness as the people here where he one time published a newspaper well know, but from present indications it looks like he has the best of the argument with the judge. The high-handed outrage of Dearth in arresting the newsboys that sold Dale’s paper and the brutal treatment of some of them, has reacted against Dearth and lost him much prestige in his quarrel with Dale. If a judge of a circuit court has so much arbitrary power as Dearth lias shown, he may be a dangerous man in any community, and wholly out of harmony with Americans and their constitution.—Hartford City News.

Comrades!

The Muncie Star, pitifully groping in all directions for help, finds one discordant note, an editorial printed in the Marion News-Tribune, in which the statement appears: “We hold no brief for George Dale. In our opinion he is a discredit to the profession.” The News-Tribune also adds: “Mr. Dale once thought of starting a paper here.” It is true we once thought of starting a newspaper in Marion, at the request of the leading democrats of Grant county who were tired of being misrepresented by the NewsTribune, a fake democratic newspaper owned body and soul

by a great corporation.

A discredit to the profession indeed! And pray what profession? Surely not the newspaper profession, for nobody connected with the Marion News-Tribune can be class-

ed in that honorable cult.

With its record of devious and slimy truckling to big interests and sickly submission to any boss who happens along with a whip, what right has its editor to talk about belonging to any profession unless it be the profession of which Oscar Wilde wa's the premier artiste?

the first of the year, has moved that certain convictions of Dale be set aside on the ground that he was tried in a manner illegal. Judge Dearth’s conduct some days ago in mobilizing the Muncie police force for special and extraordinary j duty in an undertaking by the jurist to suppress an issue of Dale’s newspaper without due process and by force was an amazing judicial performance and an example of judicial conduct in which the judge appears to have had no abiding faith, for he has thought fit to ignore the challenge which responsible citizens hurled at him by going on the streets to sell Dale’s paper containing repetitions of the matter which Judge Dearth had deemed offensive and sought to suppress. But the question of the juries in Judge Dearth’s court is an issue of utmost gravity. The jury system is the palladium of the citizen’s liberty wherever the genius of AngloSaxon liberty has been established. The constitution of this nation and the constitutions of all the states have thrown about the right of trial by jury every safeguard which a jealous concern for individual liberty was able to conceive. Packing a jury under any circumstances is regarded as the ultimate offense in obstruction of justice, no matter by whom or by what means it may be effected. It becomes an offense of most heinous quality if undertaken at or tolerated by a judge in whose court a venal jury is to sit. Judge Dearth himself ought to be the first and most assertive in demanding opportunity to clear his judicial conduct from such charges as are clearly implied by what is told of the manner of selecting juries in his tribunarat Muncie. Want of judicial temperament, ignorance of the law, ill-balance judgment and even the harboring of unreasonable and hostile prejudice are now and then here or there disclosed as the ingredient qualities of a judge’s unfitness for the ermine of his high office; but it is most rare if not wholly a unique instance of unfitness which is implied of Judge Dearth that he has permitted if not connived at irregular and unlawful practice in the impaneling of juries in his court. Judge Dearth ought by all means to demand a clearing of his name of these charges and implications. Except he do that, his usefulness in the even administration of justice would seem to be at an end. A court which is brought to lie under such ascriptions can have no measure of public confidence.—Ft. Wayne Journal-Gazette.

“The Ides of March” Four years ago this month Judge Dearth inflicited upon the editor of the Post-Democrat the heaviest penalties ever meted out to an Indiana newspaper man for contempt of court. ' . / This newspaper had criticized the acts of the court, the prosecutor, sheriff, police department, grand jury and' jury commissioners. Our charge was that a conspiracy had been entered into through klan manipulation to cause a false and fraudulent indictment to be returned against the publisher. For making this charge Judge Dearth and former Prosecutor Van Ogle instituted the contempt proceedings. In our answer we declared the truth of the charge and offered to prove it in open court. This answer so inflamed the Muncie Mussolini that he held it to be direct contempt of his court and another heavy penalty was added. “If the grand jury that indicted you was packed,” declared Dearth, from the bench, “Then God give us more packed juries. If you don’t like it in Muncie why don’t you go to Russia?” And now, after four years, this ignorant, tyrannical autocrat of the bench must go to trial before the bar of the senate to answer to the house indictment that he did pack juries and that by his infamous performance two weeks ago in suppressing a newspaper he violated the constitution and is guilty of high crime and corruption. As the state and nation thunders its approval of the action of the legislature, the deposed judge might rub up on his Shakespeare, if he ever heard of the great bard, which is somewhat doubtful. “Remember the Mes of March, the Ides of March remember.”

“I AM THE LAW” (Continued from Page One) batter that ever set the fans wild in the ninth inning with all bases full, two out and a. tie score. Georgei s just as good a sheriff as he wigs a baseball player. If you don’t think so, ask anybody in Celina or Fort Recovery. He is just starting Ion his third term and is the only man in the history of Mercer county ever elected to that office three times. My release from pleasant captivity came after the presentation of a bond for a thousand dollars, signed by volunteer friends from Mercer and Darke counties. A formal demand for my release on a writ of habeas corpus was presented this afternoon in the court of Common Pleas Judge Miller, who set the date of hearing for next Tuesday. I have established my headquarters here in the office of the Fort Recovery Journal. This lively and prosperous newspaper is owned and edited by Helen Irelan, wife of the late William Irelan, a very dear newspaper friend of mine of former years. Dalis B. Irelan, son of the proprietress, a mighty fine upstanding young man, is the active manager of the Journal. He bade me welcome and assigned me a desk and typewriter with the information

the penitentiaTy fte i

■ 'ii

An Amazing Situation.

g (Indianapplis Times.)

As long as a judge stays out of cannot be removed from office.

He may tear the Constitution into ribbons, ride rough shod over the Bill of Rights, perpetrate any tyrannies of any kind and remain on the job. The Legislature can not, remove him, as it could remove a Governor who betrays his

trust.

The higher court cannot touch him. Only and after in some court, probably his own, he has been convicted of cor-

ruption or “high crime” can he be removed.

^ , TT . , _ , „ , 1 , Such is the amazing situation if the law is correctly inRed Haired Johnny, eleven and unafraid, a newsy j terpreted by the attorney general of the state.

Red-Haired Johnny.

who fears nothing and knows his rights, told Judiciary A committee “all about Judge Dearth” and quite a bit about

Muncie police tactics Monday night.

“He (Policeman Ira Pittenger) called me a damn liar and slapped me after Judge Dearth had lectured me,” said

Johnny.

Reed committees and grand juries of late have listened to impressive witnesses, but Red Haired Johnny, a little boy who was robbed of his newspapers by Judge Dearth, then lectured and threatened by the thief and later assaulted by a policeman for standing to his guns and asserting his rights under the constitution, was one “probe” witness whom nobody could doubt. It is extremely fitting that it should have devolved upon an innocent child to kick the pedestal out from under a man who asserts himself to be a great juvenile judge.

A Matter of Importance.

:■ It is now permitted by the United States supreme court that George R. Dale, newspaper publisher at Muncie, may have one of his numerous cases reinstated in that tribunal.

That means that the highest court of the land will review! to operate and there is ho such thing as freedom of speech.

It is true that other lawyers have declared that the Legislature has the power of impeachment. It is certain that the Legislature at one time tried to take that right to protect the people from tyranny and injir> tice and to write several pages of laws, describing in detail the metho.d, the procedure and the means by which judges who had outraged public decency could be tried before the

Senate and removed from office.

It is also true that the Supreme Court of this state has never passed directly upon the right of the Legislature to impeach a judge and that the opiion of the attorney general

on the subject is just as an opinion.

On other matters this Legislature has not accepted the opinion of the’ attorney general. That was notable in the opinion in which he held invalid the attempted raise of their own salaries. The members of the Legislature considered that so grave a matter that they sent lawyers to the Supreme Court to discover whether or not he had interpreted

the law properly.

If the opinion of Mr. Gi.lliom is accepted as the law of Indiana and no step is taken‘by this Legislature to test it or to remedy it, then the Constitution in this State has ceased

“Unenviable Notoriety” The manager of the Piggly Wiggly store is raising a fund to keep down “the derogatory publicity the city is receiving.” He considers it harmful to the growth of the city. ■ . - With all due respect to the pigglywigglyman, Muncie todhy is heralding abroad information to the whole world publicity which really means something for Muncie. The so-called “harmful publicity” complained of resulted from the harmful acts of a judge, and his political associates, whose utter disregard for the law, the constitution, and the rights of citizens, have placed Muncie in a bad light abroad as well as at home. It was this persistent “harmful publicity” that turned the spotlight on the offenders and caused the removal from the bench of the principal cause of Muncie’s unenviable notoriety. It is being heralded all over America today that the citizens of Muncie are finally awake to their peril and have united to purge our city of the evil influences that have lowered us in the estimation of our neighbors. If any fund is to be raised in Muncie it should not be for the purpose of stifling and smothering the free opinion of the press, but rather for encouraging the free and unhampered exchange of thought in order that the cleansing may be complete so that in the end the world may know that Muncie has redeemed herself and that Piggly Wiggly stores and their patrons may live here secure in the rights guaranteed them by the constitution.

that they were mine as long as my stay in Fort Recovery continues. The people here are very kind to me and without exception, they are in sympathy with the Pots-Demo-crat’s fight for free speech and against judicial tyranny.

ONE HUNDRED MILES AHEAD (Feb. 24, 1927)

Beauty in the mountains, Glory in the sky; Nimble Number Twenty, 'Surely made to fly. Swingin’ round the ledges, Climbin’ up th’ slope Down the grade a rompin’, Like a cantelope. Snortin,, sniffin’, squealiu,, Scurryin’ on, in glee. Totin’ folks all safe and souu’, T’ where they want t’ he. To me there somethin’ thrillin’ About a train like Twenty; Th’ way she gaily does her stuff, A givin’ service plenty. Th’ reason why I guess that she Can be so pert and smart, A thousan’ men are on the job, Each faithful to his part. A seein’ to it—diligent— An’ that’s a plenty said, That signals, tracks and lights are right One hundred miles ahead. T. L. R.

the decision of the Indiana supreme court affirming the (judgment of Judge Dearth, of the Delaware circuit court, , penalizing Dale for contempt. The meat' of the matter is that Judge Dearth and the Indiana supreme court have held that the ‘truth is no defense’ in a case where public statements have been alleged to be in contempt of the bench.

There is no debate as to the facts in the charge made

against Judge Clarenc W. Dearth of Muncie.

Not even his attorneys, who shout in glee that there is no power that can remove him, have denied that he ordered thirty-eight newsboys arrested without warrant, that he took away their papers and by that act actually did sup-

This case is of vital concern to publishers throughout press an edition of a newspaper.

Indiana—indeed, throughout the country. If the highest ‘ He stands alone in all the history of this country as the

court shall hold, finally, that one who criticises a judge and one judge who has dared to do this thing,

so doing have all authority of truth for such strictures as ^ ^e incident is the first of its kind ever attempted by

may be uttered, yet nevertheless is guilty of contempt, if the a j uc j£ e this or any other state.

court chooses to conceive itself to be outraged, then the The only explanation given by his friends and defendbench will be proclaimed immune to criticism and, no matter ers Lhat he acted in haste, “on the spur of the moment,”

what its acts, may punish any who may state a critical opin- an( ^ Huff he might not do the same thing again.

ion. This may in the sequel be held good law and a worthy procedure, but we very much doubt that the supreme court will take such a view. If it should, something new in the way of law or constitution would seem to be indicated. The courts should be held in respect, but only insofar as they merit respect. We get an occasional example of judicial conduct which not only does not merit respect, but which very positively deserves the general contempt. Where that becomes the palpable fact, susceptible of competent proof, we believe it ought to be safe to offer public criticism. There will be a better understanding of what it is safe to do in the matter of criticising a court after the federal supreme court shall have given an opinion in the Dale case, should that tribunal find in the appeal such substance as it may properly consider. If it be held that, no matter what is of verity, a newspaper may offer any stricture of judicial conduct, it will do so at its peril, that hazard cannot be made too clear. We are well pleased that Editor Dale has got his case where it can be finally determined.—Ft. Wayne Journal-

Gazette.

Packed Juries

If there be one aspect of the affairs of Judge Clarence W. Dearth, of the Delaware circuit court at Muncie, more alarming than another, it is the charge that grand and trial juries in his tribunal are irregularly impaneled and the implication that such bodies are packed. That juries have been impaneled in a way contrary to law and have included men not eligible to perform jury duty we are given the testimony of the prosecuting attorney and of reputable members of the Delaware county bar. One of the charges by George R. Dale, Muncie editor

There is no question that Muncie is muzzled. Lawyers privately admit that they do not dare to express their opinions. Ministers have consulted lawyers as to how far they dare criticise this judge and stay out of jail on charges of contempt. Merchants and bankers admit fear. There is no denial of the fact that the judge, acting as a judge, invaded two rights guaranteed by the Constitution. Yet he remains on the bench. The Legislature is asked to surrender, without k test, the right which was written into the law in 1897 to remove judges by the impeachment pro-

cess.

The people of Muncie who ask the removal of this judge that their lips maybe unlocked and freedom of speech be returned to their city are told that only after a judge has been convicted of corruption, or “high crime,” can he be re-

moved.

If there be a higher crime than j udicial denial of constitutional guarantees of the right of free speech and of freedom of confiscation of property without process of law,

only a slave could name it.

The situation is more than amazing. It is appalling. And in that situation, certainly the Legislature can not

hesitate to do one of two things or both:

It should submit an amendment to the Constitution .which will make clear that judges cannot perpetrate tyrannies, defy the Constitution and hide behind the thought that

the Legislature can not remove them.

It should not accept any opinion as to the invalidity of the present laws giving the power to impeach until the Supreme Court of the United States has so declared. Certainly, also, the attorney general, conversant with the facts in the case and asserting thaUthere s.re legal remedies for the wrongs chargfed against Juffge Dearth, should

Dearth’s Amazing'Effrontery. Clarence Dearth has employed Indianapolis attorneys who will act in conjunction with Ryman and Ogle in an effort to keep Dearth on the bench. The technicalities of the law are to be invoked, we are informed', to accomplish this purpose. Gilliom’s opinion that the legislature had no right to impeach, which was disregarded by the house of representatives, is to be invoked, and various steps are being proposed to keep on the bench this Mussolini of Muncie, in spite of the urge of public opinion which has unanimously condemned him. ^ As we asked in our last issue, what manner of man is this, anyway? Suppose for an instant that through some technicality of the law his impeachment by the legislature is set aside without reference in any way to the merits of the charges preferred against him. Where is there another mafi, but Dearth, who would view the situation as he does? The job, paying $0,000 a year, is all that he looks at. That he has been disgraced and damned before all Indiana is nothing to him. His hide is too thick for him to comprehend his own humiliation or to realize what a sorry figure a man would cut on the bench after the legislature by a practically unanimous vote had declared him guilty of high crime and corruption. He is even quoted as saying that he would be a candidate for renomination next year. His amazing efrontery is almost beyond comprehension. Public opinion is nothing to him. He simply wants to keep his six thousand dollar a year job, with its power to create salaried positions for members of his own family.

DANCE

Saturday Night, March 5th

Everybody Come.

Moose HaU

“If This Be Treason-^-” “If this be treason, then make the most of it. 1 know not what other may do, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death.” Patrick Henry”s “treason” became patriotism later. The treason of the Post-Democrat, as it dared for four years to stand alone and spit defiance in the face of a judicial tyranny worse than that of colonial times, has now been translated by the whole state as sane and conservative opposition to a system which sought to set aside the constitution.

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whose troubles have been the occasion and center of the take the first train to Muncie, or whatever place those

flurry of sensation involving Judge Dearth, is that-he was tried before and convicted by a jury upon which sat men who should have been disqualified for duty as jurors. The new prosecuting attorney of Delaware county, who took office

remedies can be found, and lend the full power of the State

"to an effort to apply them.'

Indiana must not become the empire of the padlocked

lip and judicial Simon Degrees.

The Campbell Jury. “With a Campbell jury, how can a Stuart get justice?” This old Scottish saying must have been made to order for Dearth. JUDGE DEARTH WEAChED 93 TOT (Continued from Page One) House committee sprang to his feet. “Joe Davis gave him the opportunity to save himself when he told Dearth the jury commissioners were crooked and was repaid for his suggestion that the judge clean up by reforming his jurypacking system by being threatened with a jail sentence for contempt/’ he shouted 1 .' “Instantly the committee was fired with but one thought, and that was, “Go get this Muncie Mussolini and get him quiek.’ , Instaltly the resolution was reported out and in record time the House of Representatives, by a vote of 93 to 1, adopted the resolution of impeachment.

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