GOVERNOR, 1903
ordeal had been passed with general approval and with much of importance accomplished. The newspapers began to make suggestions that I would be the next Republican candidate for the Presidency of the United States. This situation, however, lasted for a very short time. The effort to better the conditions of life, so long as it only interfered with the plans of corporations and politicians, was much to be commended, but when the same care and thought were directed toward the improvement of journalism it was dreadful to contemplate. A bill had been passed called the “Salus-Grady Bill,” which made newspapers responsible for the want of reasonable care, and required them to publish on the editorial page, with each issue, the names of those responsible for the management. In other words, it made them subject to the legal principles which govern the other business relations of men. It was a slight step in the right direction, that was all. It had been recommended in my inaugural address and had been carefully drawn, Carson and myself taking pains to see that it could result in no injury to legitimate newspaper enterprise. It was not the suggestion of Quay, Penrose or any other politician, but was the outcome of my experience upon the bench, where I had known many an unfortunate to be convicted, and many a criminal to be acquitted, because of impressions made upon the minds of jurors by the reckless and inaccurate publication of the facts, and because of the irresponsible interference of the press in all sensational trials, to the disadvantage of the administration of justice. In fact, the doctrine of the liberty of the press is an anachronism which has become harmful and the time has come when it ought to be discarded from our constitutions and laws. Like monarchy and priestcraft, it once answered a good purpose. When kings secretly imprisoned and beheaded men who thwarted their purposes it was an agency for the welfare of the people. Those times have gone. The newspaper is now a venture to make a profit and everywhere it shows the results of the
