What does "LIBEL ACT" mean? Does "the state of things was even more in evidence means that the situation was worse than England or not?
Even at the present day the air is charged with prejudice. If any man of standing at the present instant were to enter a London newspaper office and say that he had detected a medium in fraud, the matter would be seized upon eagerly and broadcast over the country; while if the same man proclaimed that he had beyond all question satisfied himself that the phenomena were true, it is doubtful if he would get a paragraph. The scale is always heavily weighted. In America, where there is practically no Libel Act, and where the Press is often violent and sensational, this state of things was—and possibly is—even more in evidence.
The History of Spiritualism By A.C Doyle
XII: THE EDDY BROTHERS AND THE HOLMESES