Jail and Fines

Because of contempt of court, three newspapermen of the South were cast into jail and another was fined $300.

In Birmingham, Ala., the editor, the managing editor and a reporter of The Birmingham Post published an article telling that a man on trial for murder had also been indicted for flogging and kidnapping. Judge H. P. Heflin of the Circuit Court cited them for contempt of court, because their articles " prejudiced " the cause of the man on trial for murder.

The editors were defended by Newton D. Baker, ex-Secretary of War. He pointed out that they had expressed no opinion of the guilt or innocence of the alleged murderer; that they had simply told the facts about the man on trial. Mr. Baker insisted that freedom of the press is as important as the right of free speech. Judge Heflin replied that the court was higher than the newspaper, and that liberty of the press was secondary to human liberty. So he sentenced the three newspaper men to a day in jail without leave to appeal their case.

In Memphis, Tenn., Gold V. Sanders, editor of the Memphis Press, fell into contempt of court and was fined $300 and costs by Federal Judge J. Will Ross.

Last September Mr. Sanders wrote an editorial commenting on the punishment of another editor who criticized the Daugherty railroad injunction.

Editors do not put judges in jail for contempt of press, but they are not helpless--as judges know.