Randall v. Evening News Ass'n

Decision Date25 September 1894
PartiesRANDALL v. EVENING NEWS ASS'N.
CourtMichigan Supreme Court

Error to circuit court, Wayne county; Henry N. Brevoort, Judge.

Action by James A. Randall against the Evening News Association for libel. Judgment for plaintiff. Defendant appeals. Reversed.

In an action for libel, where, to justify the publication witnesses testify as to a statement made by plaintiff in a speech, the latter may deny the statement, but cannot state the substance of his speech, and argue therefrom that he did not make such statements.

The articles complained of were as follows:

"LET 'ER GO GALLAGHER.

"The Boulevarders Win the Battle for Private Gain.

"Twenty Estimators Speak for the People of Detroit.

"And the First Boodle of $200,000 is Voted for the Improvement of the Boulevard de Speculation-The Spigot Turned Open, and the Cash will Flow from Now On.

"Twenty of the estimators tumbled head over heels yesterday afternoon in their anxiety to be in harmony with the boulevarders, and to be placed on record as in favor of taxing everybody for the enrichment of a few real-estate speculators. The 20 are Bagley, Campau, Cornell, De Vogelaer, Farrand, Gorenflo Hargreaves, Hickey, Koch, Lenaert, Merritt, Mulheron, McKay Sauer, Stenius, Taepke, Tuchoeki, Viehoff, Wild, and Wright. Eleven estimators went on record as opposed to issuing any boulevard bonds without first getting the consent of the voters. The 11 are Bayer, Galster, Hickox, Markey, Munroe Peters, Petz, Raske, Reaume, Ruch, and Valentine. The boulevarders counted noses before the meeting, and were sure of a majority for the bonds. The board went into committee of the whole, and the minority, led by President Valentine, who yielded the chair to Estimator Farrand so that he could get down on the floor and talk, tried hard to stave off a vote. They interposed motions to adjourn, knowing they had nothing to lose and everything to gain by delay, but they were out-voted every time. Then, too, the boulevarders had the best talkers with them. Estimator Mulheron directed the majority, but Estimator Sam Hargreaves, who has recently flopped and blossomed into the most rabid kind of a boulevarder, Charles Wright, Taepke and James B. Mackay gave them right royal support. James A Randall and some other real-estate speculators, who own property that will be enhanced in value by improving the boulevard by general taxation, were smiling auditors to the one-sided scrap. They knew hours before the final vote was taken that they had a cinch on the bonds.

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"Estimator Mulheron, chairman of the committee that had been considering the question of issuing bonds, was the only one of the five who was against submitting the bonds to the people. The other four members-Bayer, Ruch, Pospeshil, and Peters-insisted that the bonds should be submitted, and made a formal report that the bonds not be issued without the consent of the people. Mulheron presented a report of his own making, in which he advised that the bonds be issued without being submitted to a popular vote. The athletic doctor was loaded for bear, and he made a band-wagon speech that even Randall himself could not discount. He told the board that no question in the 20 years that he has lived in Detroit has made so much trouble in local politics as the boulevard. Then he got sentimental, and pleaded for the members to show their manhood and vote for the bonds, and thus repudiate, as Artemus Ward would say, the 'fowl slanders' that have been cast on the boulevarders.

"Estimator Taepke, like Mulheron, was primed for talking, but, not being a band-wagon orator, he didn't enthuse the boulevarders to quite the extent that the doctor did. Taepke chewed the chestnuts that the boulevarders have been retailing for years about how the city promised to improve the boulevard if the right of way was dedicated, and it would be but justice to fulfill the promise. He also rung in the old saw about how Detroit would have been Chicago 'if it was up to Chicago.' Sam Hargreaves related how he had experienced an awakening not many moons ago, and found that he had been following the wrong path in all the years that he was against the bonds. He was on the righteous path now,-the boulevarders' path. Estimator Charles Wright delivered a carefully prepared speech, which, while it contained nothing that had not been told dozens of times before, sounded well, because the estimator is a pretty fair talker.

"Estimator Raeske, in defending the majority report, said the issuing of the bonds as proposed would be a piece of class legislation. If the city wants to improve streets, let it do so in the heart of the city, and not go to the outskirts. President Valentine tried to get the recognition of Estimator Farrand, who was holding down the president's chair, but the acting chairman recognized Mulheron, who wanted to talk. President Valentine wanted to know if the minority were to be choked off in arbitrary form, but the doctor went on talking boulevard. There were loud calls for a vote, and the minority report, being signed by the chairman, was considered first. The acting chairman declared Mulheron's report carried on a vive voce vote, but a division was demanded by the minority. The division showed 19 for Mulheron's report, and 10 against it. The boulevarders let out a pent-up whoop when the result was announced, and didn't let up until they had run dry. The board, as a committee of the whole, rose, and went into a regular session again, President Valentine resuming the chair. Estimator Petz, one of the valiant minority, promptly sprung a motion to adjourn. The boulevarders wanted to clinch their victory, and a dozen of them were on their feet at one time, demanding a final vote on the bonds. Taepke, the boulevard but not band-wagon orator, wanted to know if 'we,' meaning the boulevarders, were not to have a fair show. President Valentine assured him that no snap judgments would be taken, but that one of the recognized rules of parliamentary law is that a motion to adjourn has preference to any other, and is always in order. The boulevarders were still apprehensive, and every one of them who had his speech-making clothes on tried to talk at one time. The chairman frowned on the boisterous proceedings, and reminded the board not to forget that they were gentlemen. Order was finally restored, and the motion to adjourn was voted down. The final vote on the bonds was then ordered, and 20 to 11 for the bonds was the result, and the boulevarders cheered.

"The board transacted considerable other business before the bonds were taken up. The board of public works general fund was passed at $33,376, a reduction of $15,000 from the sum passed by the council. For the general road fund there was allowed $326,000, and for public building fund $15,000. The cut from the western market fund was restored, and $20,000 was appropriated for both an eastern and western market. Henry M. Duffield, president of the water board, explained that the $75,000 annually appropriated for the waterworks is a necessity, and the sum was allowed. The school estimates were allowed at $367,643.70, a reduction of $13,413 from the figures passed by the aldermen. In committee of the whole the board agreed to allow $54,000 for the maintenance of Belle Isle, $100,000 for improving the park, $6,200 for the maintenance of small parks, $14,250 for the improvement of the same; total, $174,550; less amount raised by proceeds of bonds, $100,000; total amount to be raised by taxation, $74,550. The last meeting of the estimators will be held tonight, when, according to the charter, all business must be concluded."

"THE POET ON THE STEAL.

"Ode to the Estimators and Their Masters, the Boulevarders.

"And now, good folk, fling up your ready money; this town's about to flow with milk and honey. We've got a boulevard, the show is open; roll up and tumble, fling the ready soap in. Although your streets are full of holes and muddy, we'll fill your boulevard with roses ruddy. The ship of state is safe, we're at the rudder. Who'll lack for milk when you supply the udder? Who'll lack for honey, when you give the powers to plant the boulevard with choicest flowers? Did ye not vote it? Are not you creators of all those noblemen, the estimators?

"Down in your pockets, open up your wallets, throw in your cash as you threw in your ballots. Of course you add a trifle to our riches, and this may put a patch upon your breeches. But what of that? Come up and smell the flowers that line the borders of this road of ours. Recline your humble shanks beneath the trees; your worn trousers will invite the breeze; there sit upon the seats and rest your souls, and watch the way a rich man's carriage rolls.

"Contrast the scene, that there your optics greet, with your own nasty, ill-paved, narrow street. And think, O friends, if you had but the brains, or knew enough to come in when it rains, if you were keen at grinding your own axes, if you knew how to enrich a town by taxes, if you knew how to make mean things look pretty, if you knew how to build a splendid city, instead of living plain and working hard, you'd own some land upon a boulevard.

"For know, poor fools, to build a first-class nation, the land must labor under high taxation. And as in nations men must take their classes, just so in this, there's wise men and there's asses. The wise men hold the most plethoric wallets, which others fill by virtue of their ballots. Here in Detroit, and surely more's the pity, wise men are moved to boom our glorious city. But, quite as cunning as proverbial foxes, they raise no question for the ballot boxes. Sometimes, indeed, conventions they invade, but as a rule they buy them ready-made.

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