drous kind. It is the country newspaper, bringing together daily the threads of the town's life, weaving them into something rich and strange, and setting the pattern as it weaves, directing the loom, and giving the cloth its color by mixing the lives of all the people in its color-pot—it is this country newspaper that reveals us to ourselves, that keeps our country hearts quick and our country minds open and our country faith strong.
The country press has not been without its influence. The Independent of New York City once offered a prize for the most meritorious essay describing "The Best Thing in Our Town." It was awarded to a preacher in a Missouri town who told about the local weekly of his parish. The country weekly often is just that—the best thing in our town.
FAMOUS LIBEL SUIT
A libel suit brought by the United States Government against The World of New York and against The News of Indianapolis attracted much attention. On December 15, 1908, President Roosevelt sent to Congress a special message upon the purchase of the Panama Canal Right for forty million dollars in which he asserted that the Government authorities should bring suit for libel for the intimation that the money was not paid to the French Government, but to an American syndicate, which had purchased the effects of the Panama Canal Company. President Taft, who went into office on March 4, 1909, kept aloof from the matter, but the Government continued its prosecution of the two papers on the grounds that it was their purpose to "stir up disorder among the people." The charge against The World was that it circulated twenty-nine copies containing the item "within the fort and military reservation of West Point." The World fought the suit on technical grounds, for reasons best known to itself, and resisted the pretense of the Federal authorities that they had a coordinate jurisdiction with the State authorities in prosecuting libel. No action was taken by the Government to bring the suit to the District of Columbia. The matter came up for trial in the United States Circuit Court of New York City on July 25, 1910, and the Court ordered that a judgment be entered quashing the indictment
