Gordan

Defendant was charged by information with violating the provisions of section 249 of the Penal Code. That section defines and prohibits the offense commonly known as criminal libel. He was tried by a jury, found guilty, and sentenced to imprisonment in the county jail for the term of six months. This is an appeal from the judgment of conviction and the order denying defendant’s motion for a new trial.

Defendant is the owner and publisher of a magazine styled “The Crusader,” and it has a circulation of some sixty to eighty thousand copies. The information alleges in substance that defendant, as such owner,. published in his magazine a certain false and malicious libel concerning the members of the fourth degree of the Knights of Columbus, and of and concerning one David Supple, a member of that organization. The article was published under the heading “The K. K. K. Oath Versus the K. C. Oath,” and is in the following terms:

“As Klansmen we have no fight with anyone that has this country’s interest at heart. We prefer to live in harmony with all men and would work with them to keep this country the greatest, grandest and the most wonderful country in the world, where every man can…