The Bamberg herald. (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, November 09, 1916, Page 4, Image 4
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...
ACCORDING
TO LAW
T??nl \f Rrvan's famous
I story dealing with the question
of woman's debt to her
home.
Five Acts
Friday, November 10
Thielen Theatre
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