|argument that municipal ownership |would be dangerous because of |undue political influence, for |the local monopolies under |private ownership were already in |politics, and in a most dangerous |manner. He observed facetiously |that he hesitated to discuss the |question before a of municipal |control orownership Toledo |audience. From the control of the markets to the control of the minds of a people--this is the line of march. So direct, persistent, and bold were the charges of corruptions rung day after day by this journal against all the officials concerned in the city gas enterprise that some people began to believe there must be truth in them. But when the community at last turned upon its maligners, and the grand-jury brought indictments against the active manager of the paper and his chief assistant for criminal libel upon the city's natural-gas trustees, the whole structure of their falsehood went down at a breath. They had no defence whatever. They made no attempt to justify their libels or even explain them. Their only defence was a series of motions to get the indicted editor cleared as not being responsible for what had appeared in the paper. Counsel labored over the contention that the accused was none of the things which the language of the law holds for libel. He was neither the "proprietor," "publisher," "editor," "printer," "author," nor a person "who uttered, gave, sold, or lent" a copy of the newspaper, but only the "manager." The employés gave testimony which would have been ludicrous but for the contempt it showed for court and community. The journalist who was the "managing editor" of the paper under the indicted chief editor was asked: "Who was the head of the paper when you entered upon your duties as managing editor?" "I do not know." "Who hired you as managing editor?" "I really can't say that I was hired at all." "Who employed you to come to Toledo?" The witness had been an employé in Pennsylvania of the editor on trial, and had followed the latter to Toledo to take the place of managing editor. "Nobody employed me." The son of the indicted editor had also followed his father to Toledo, and was employed on his paper. Asked for what purpose he came, he said: "I had no purpose in coming." The gentleman who had charge of the counting-room was asked who fixed his salary. "I regulate my own." The advertising manager declared: "I have no knowledge who is my superior."