"Who Believes in Honest Government?"

PRESS

When the Louisville Courier-Journal was owned and edited by the late "Marse" Henry Watterson, he thought nothing of calling Theodore Roosevelt "as sweet a gentleman as ever scuttled a ship or cut a throat." President Roosevelt thought nothing of it either. When he returned to private life, he and Watterson dined together on the best of terms. Last week the acting editor of the Courier-Journal, now owned by Robert Worth Bingham, U. S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James's, got into a serious scrape for much less daring impudence.

In the Courier-Journal's letter column there appeared last week a communication which roundly flayed the State Legislature, with the intimation that Speaker Woodfin Ernest Rogers Sr. was accepting bribes. The writer signed him self "One Who Believes in Honest Gov ernment, a member of the House of Representatives." Said he: "Who tells the Speaker what bills to be killed? . . . Someone behind the screen is pulling the strings." Coming, as it appeared, from inside the Capitol at Frankfort, the letter stung the Legislature in a tender spot. A committee formed to investigate lobbying wired the Courier-Journal for the name of "One Who Believes in Honest Government," threatened to subpena Acting Editor Vance Armentrout if the name was not forthcoming. Above the Courier-Journal's letter column runs this legend : "The writer's name and address must be signed, not to be published without consent." Editor Armentrout, a seasoned newspaperman who used to manage the paper's capital bureau, instantly saw that the Legislature's demand constituted a challenge to the protection which the Courier-Journal, like most papers, gives its letter-writing readers. When he refused its request, the committee promptly summoned Editor Armentrout to Frankfort.

Haled before the committee. Editor Armentrout admitted that he had the name of the writer, but swore he would not reveal it even when he was accused of ''placing the Courier-Journal above the State of Kentucky." Said he: "The names of the writers of such communications are confidential. They give their names to the editor in the belief that confidence will not be betrayed and it will not." After further attempts to browbeat Editor Armentrout into committing the unpardonable sin of journalism, the committee ordered a sergeant-at-arms to take him to the Frankfort jail.

A slight, sandy-haired man who gets ideas for some editorials while riding on a roller coaster in Louisville's amusement park, Editor Armentrout remained in jail long enough to pay the price of 50-c- rather than "50 licks with a black lash" for joining a prisoners' Kangaroo Court. After one hour his lawyer got him out on a writ of habeas corpus.

Still determined to find out who "One Who Believes in Honest Government" was, the Legislature decided to have Editor Armentrout tried before the Lobbying Committee on a charge of contempt. If convicted, he can be sentenced by the State Legislature to a maximum of six months in jail, fined $1,000.

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