Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 75, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 February 1909 — NEWS ISSUES STATEMENT [ARTICLE]

NEWS ISSUES STATEMENT

Editor Says Indictments Are Attack on Free Press. Indianapolis. Feb. 19.—The News publishes the following statement concerning the Panama canal indictments: "Perhaps t is needless to say that the course of the News will be in no way influenced or affected by what has happened. “This is the phase* of the question that most concerns the public. It has a right to know that the functions of a free independent newspaper will not cease to be performed, and also to know that no personal element will be allowed to obtrude itself in any criticism we may feel called on to make. "We shall not be coerced into silence nor tempted into unfairness. Believing that the great principle of freedom of the press is 'at stake, we must do what we can do to uphold It.”