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Stop lauthrrg iSrraW ESTABLISHED APRIL, 1891. Thursday, Nov. 9, 1916. THE HERALD'S REPORT. In last week's issue of the Bamberg County Times there appears over the signature "A Friend of George Hiers" statements which reflect on The Bamberg Herald, and which we will not allow to go unnoticed. The article charges that "sensational accounts of the unfortunate tragedy which occurred in Ehrhardt, in which Charles E. Kinsey was killed, have been published in the county papers" and further refers to the said reports as being "sensationally false." The Herald wishes it distinctly understood, all statements to the contrary notwithstanding, that it harbors not the least ill feeling toward Mr. George Hiers. He has been a friend of this newspaper for many years, 'and we have nothing to say as to his guilt or innocence. The guilt or innocence of -the defendant has no place in this discussion. This matter was brought up by his attorney and what we have to say deals with the attorney alone. Friday morning one of the publishers of The Herald requested the publisher of the Times to inform us ontimr nf the article refer W livjr vat, w.v*w*?v^- y red to was, and we were told that it was handed to Mr. Rowell by Mr. S. G. Mayfield. In view of previous events, it was obvious that the statement should have emanated from Mr. Mayfield's office. The charge of Mr. Mayfield was evidently directed at The Herald, although the name of this newspaper was not called. As to whether or not The Herald published a "sensationally false report" of the matter we will leave the public to decide. In a case#of this kind, a newspaper which has regard for the truth and accuracy of its . statements cannot afford to print rumors and hearsay, and we wish to emphasize the fact that in our account of the unfortunate tragedy not one rumor was repeated. The Herald printed the complete testimony taken at the inquest over the dead body of Mr. Kinsey. No comment whatever was printed. The testimony of the coroner's inquest is a public record, filed in the office of the clerk of court. The Herald cited its authority for its source of information. That is more than any other newspaper published in Bamberg county did. The article further reads: "If the reader will stop to analyze the articles which have appeared in the press, it will be seen at once the cause which impelled these publications to print the articles." This is couched in carefully evasive language, but the intention is clear to impugn the motives of the "press,"! which of course includes The Herald, in printing the account as we did. I As regards The Herald, the writer of I the article knows better than anybody else the untruth of the statement, for every opportunity was afforded counsel to present Mr. Hiers's side of the matter. If there were "sensationally false")' reports of the killing in this newspaper, the reports were made by the witnesses at the inquest, for the tes-' timony was printed without comment, and only after we had made several attempts to get Mr. Mayfield; ^ - xu - J ~ I to give a statement as to mo U07 fense's side of the matter. The reader will bear in mind that the coroner's duty is to take the testimony of the witnesses without color, just as it happened. This testimony is obviously the best source of information, because it is the sworn statements of witnesses. We do not pretend to say that the testimony covered the case; we don't know. We are in the newspaper business and are not detectives to hunt up testimony. We do know that the testimony we| printed was sworn to, and that it was 1 duly recorded in the records of Bamberg county. Anything we might have printed other than the testimony or a statement of Mr. Hiersj would have been hearsay or rumor ( and, lacking authenticity, would havei been manifestly unfair to one side orj the other. The province of this newspaper is to present the news and present it fairly. The defense was given every opportunity to print a statement, and was perfectly at liberty to refute the testimony if so desired. Tho attnrripv wa? not onlv eiven the opportunity, but was strongly urged | to prepare a statement for publication along with the testimony. No j statement was given The Herald. Now, as to a few facts concerning j The Herald's part in this affair: |j Monday morning the writer of the account of the killing appearing in The Herald went- to the court house and copied the testimony of every witness at the inquest. Carrying out the policy of The Herald to present all matters clearly, fairly, and without any color whatever, the same writer saw Mr. W. E. Free, law partner of Mr. Mayfield, on Main street "Wednesday morning about nine o'clock, and told him that The Herald ' ( was publishing the testimony of the ( inquest, and that our columns were j open to tlTe defense for any state-!' raent that the defense might wish to!' make. We emphasized the fact that 11 we wished to print a fair and im-J | partial story of the homicide, to; ( which our subscribers were Certainly entitled. He thanked us for the op- ' portunity and promised to see us la-1' ter in the day. I Xotliing was heard from the mat- j ter. however, until this writer re- , turned from dinner, about one o'clock, when he found that Mr. May- ' held wished to talk to him. Mr. May- I held was called up at the Garland f house while he was eating dinner, | and a long telephone conversation | ensued, in which Mr. Mayfleld told us that if we published the testimony ' in the case we would be immediately I sued for damages. It was made very | clear to Mr. Mayfield that The Herald j ? J /v 4- /1a n Athin cr hnt a was ^IlUtJcl \ Ui ills muv | print the news. We paid no attention to the threat against The Herald, for we knew that public records on file in the court house belong to the Public, and every subscriber of The Herald had the right to go to the court house and read the record for himself if he did not care to read it in The Herald. Later in the day Mr. Free was sent to The Herald office about the matter, but was politely informed that the readers of this newspaper were entitled to know what the testimony was. We further renewed our request for a statement, and even offered to hold the forms of The Herald for a reasonable time to print the statement. Mr. Mayfield, in the article, asks the public not to condemn a man on newspaper statements, yet over a non-de-plume fie attempts to condemn us for printing the records. Why did he not sign his name to the article, so that the readers of the paper might take what he said for its real value? Mr. Mavfield asked The Herald not to print the testimony, but to print a general summary. A general summary appears in this week's Bamberg County* Times. We reprint it elsewhere today. Perhaps Mr. Mayfield would deny writing this "summary," but we will leave the public to judge who wrote it, in the light of the facts as cited above. All that is contained in the Times account may be true; we don't attempt to deny the truth of any statement therein, but as to the fairness of the statement in presenting the facts in the case, we will also leave that to the public. The "Friend of George Hiers" says: "Looking back through the recent months of political troubles and the efforts of the courts to enforce the prohibition laws in this county * * * will be found a reason which animates some to misrepresent and condemn a man in advance of his trial by a jury of his county." No more vigorous advocate of the enforcement of the prohibition and all other laws exists than The Bamberg Herald. Every reader of The Herald knows this, and Mr. Mayfield has been a valued reader of The Herald for many years. The Herald has not condemned the defendant in x this case. We print the news. The jury and the court will try the case. In conclusion we will say that The Herald intends to print the news. It does not intend to be coerced into either printing anything or lea ">g anything out of print. We will also say that we are very sorry indeed that we have to discuss this subject at all, for we would not say or do anything that could in anywise be construed as prejudicing the case of Mr. Hiers. No one knows that any better than the learned counsel who is seeking to make capital out of an incident that he knows he brought about himself. Honor Roll of Pine Grove School. First grade. Ivy Patrick; second erade. Fav Patrick; fourth grade, Hughie Hutto; eighth grade, Minnie Crider, Lottie Crider, Inez Zeigler, Monroe Crider, J. D. Patri<jk. I MILDRED GREGORY ...in... 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