On December 29, 1916, the Washington State Supreme Court affirms the misdemeanor conviction of Paul Haffer (1894-1949) for criminal libel. The victim of his offense is George Washington (1732-1799), dead these 117 years. Haffer, a Tacoma resident and committed socialist campaigner, told the Pierce County Superior Court during his trial that he had nothing against the first president when he described him in a letter to the Tacoma Tribune as a slave owner, heavy drinker, and user of profanity. Haffer said he simply didn't think citizens should idolize Washington, or anyone. Despite nationwide publicity and ridicule of the state law prohibiting exposing dead people to obloquy, Haffer's conviction is upheld on appeal by the Supreme Court.
Joab versus Haffer
Haffer's letter, published in the February 18, 1916, issue of the Tacoma Tribune, described George Washington as an "owner and exploiter of negro slaves. ... a profane and blasphemous man and an inveterate drinker" (The Northwest Worker). Haffer suggested that citizens should "take the tales of nobility of these so called great men with the proverbial grain of salt. This is not written in a spirit of slander or with the idea of antagonizing anyone except mindless hero-worshippers, but with the idea of, perhaps, getting a few to draw aside the painted curtain of the school histories and gaze upon the actors in their true light" (The Northwest Worker).
The libel case based on the letter was brought by another forthright Tacoman, Colonel Albert E. Joab (1857-1930), who had served as Commissary General at Camp Murray (later Fort Lewis) in the 1890s. Joab was also an attorney and familiar with Washington state statutes. He unearthed a little-known 1909 law that prohibited "exposing the memory of one deceased to hatred, contempt, ridicule or obloquy" (The Northwest Worker). Joab didn't mind exposing living people to obloquy, however. The next year, he made the papers for getting himself punched in the nose by an 81-year-old grocery-store proprietor for saying nasty things about President Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) ("Defender of Washington ...").
Nevertheless, Joab was more complex politically than his knee-jerk patriotism might suggest. The same year that he prosecuted Haffer, the national NAACP magazine The Crisis reported that Joab was presented with a loving cup by a "committee of colored people" in thanks for his assisting with a protest against the racist film The Birth of a Nation ("Social Progress"). Earlier, in 1904, he had joined other prominent Tacomans in signing a resolution against the "barbarous massacre" of Jews in Kishinev, a Russian pogrom that inspired international protests (Adler, 199).
The libel case against Haffer was tried in the court of public opinion before it reached a courtroom. Municipal Court Judge Graham said he didn't want it in his courtroom and would not allow the defense to present any evidence in his courtroom ("Tough for George ..."). In the meantime both Major E. M. Brown (d. 1916), a Spanish American War veteran and prominent doctor, and Hamilton Gronen (1874-1968), chief engineer for Tacoma, made public statements praising Joab and excoriating Haffer, while local socialists got busy raising funds for court costs.
Haffer challenged Joab to a public debate on George Washington's life and times. Joab said he would gladly do so after the trial.
Trial and Verdict
At a preliminary hearing in Superior Court, Haffer's attorney, P. L. Pendleton, moved for dismissal on the grounds that Washington had no living relatives who had standing to bring a libel case. Deputy Prosecutor James W. Selden (1872-1948) countered that "we are all relatives. His peculiar relation to the history of this country has made him the father of us all" ("Proves We're Related"). Although a Mrs. Rasmussen stood up to contradict that statement, shouting "I ain't no daughter of Washington's," the judge allowed the trial to go forward ("Proves We're Related"). On April 28, the trial finally started in Pierce County Superior Court, Judge Ernest M. Card (1877-1952) presiding. George Washington's portrait was taken out of the courtroom for the duration.
Colonel Joab, wearing his military cape and assisting the prosecution, called Haffer an anarchist and a blackguard and then expanded his description to "a striped hyena, a grave robber, a slimy shark and a wharf rat," while Pendleton in turn called Joab "a middle-aged man with a schoolboy's mind indulging in a schoolboy quarrel with a schoolboy" ("Ridicules Col. Joab's Charges").
Once all the evidence and arguments were presented, the jury took only an hour and a half to convict Haffer. Following the May 3 verdict, Joab thanked each man on the jury for his patriotism as he left the courtroom.
Question in the Press but Upheld on Appeal
The Tacoma Times published an interview with Haffer the day after the verdict. The apparently star-struck reporter described the convicted defendant's "well developed pair of arms and broad shoulders topped by a mass of yellow, unruly, bristling hair and a smile ..." (Sutherland). Haffer assured the Times there was "no malice in my heart when I wrote that article. I wished to correct the fallacy of hero worshipping," adding that he had a passion for deep reading and writing and that he hoped to promote socialism, "the educational kind," with his work (Sutherland).
Three days after the verdict the Times wrote, "The whole proceeding has been silly. The prosecuting attorney and the superior court never should have tolerated the use of our judicial machinery for so absurd an action" ("Another Freak Court Episode to Live Down"). Papers around the country followed the story with varying degrees of sarcasm. The Chicago Herald said:
"Aside from patriotism, the loyal Tacoman has a good reason for objecting to aspersions on the character of Washington. Tacoma is in a state named after the Father of His Country. It follows that referring to him despitefully is a slur on Tacoma, on the state in which it is located, and is almost tantamount to asserting that the climate, soil, crops and agricultural and industrial opportunities of that great and growing commonwealth are not superior to those to be found anywhere else" (quoted in American Socialist).
Haffer posted bail and appealed the verdict. He also considered suing Joab for libel, specifically for calling him a "blackguard" and "anarchist." Despite the pleas of the Tacoma Times and other Washington papers, Haffer's conviction was upheld by the Washington Supreme Court in a unanimous decision issued on December 29, 1916.
Only One Other Case
Haffer was pardoned by Governor Ernest Lister (1870-1919) in May 1917 after several months in jail. However, he was only free for three weeks before being arrested for "slacking" (not registering for the draft). Again convicted and sentenced, Haffer was drafted out of jail in June 1918 and served at Camp Lewis until the end of World War I.
Only one other case is known to have been prosecuted for libeling a dead person in Washington. In 1921 a Ferry County deputy sheriff and Farmer Labor Party activist, J. S. Bedler, and the editor of the Republic News-Miner, A. L. Van Dahl (1884-1954), were convicted and fined, although not jailed. Bedler had written an article that Van Dahl published referring to the recently deceased Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) as a "blood-thirsty maniac" ("Fined for Libeling Roosevelt").