The Portland daily press., 1872-01-23
A Few Words with the European q North
- a,nor;cau Newspaper. a'sassasaasa5a

s.a'.aaa.-aza American Newspaper
A ssw words arc demanded in answer to
a. reiterated and malignant falsehoods OF
the Bangor Wing, paper which adds to the
ignominy of being tool the shame of glory
ing in its position. 1t begins the last argu-
ment for its client with the general observa-.
ton that the PRESS has entered upon "a
crusade against everybody and everything"
This is as gross a falsehood as ever found ex-
preston in print, but we must do the wing
the Justice to admit that in this particular
case 1t believes itself to be right. From the
monopolist standpoint the PRESS has done
as it alleges, for it has attacked every monopo-
ly. every scheme for depicting the treasury
for the benefit of rings, every plausible trick
for taxing the people to add to the gains OF
capitalists, every device for subsidizing the
rich at the expense of the poor 10 the
Whig, therefore, it seems as if the universe
had been assailed when its own petty micro
cosm of special interests, rings and monopo-
lists has a much needed ray of light let in
upon it. As the most prominent advocate
of general scheme for giving capitalists a
free pass to the treasury of the State, and as
the leading attorney for the most unprinci-
pied railroad ring that has ever fourished in
Maine, it is no wonder the crusade of the
PRESS seems to it to have o fearfully wide
scope The ssgalled jade winees." But
to our candid readers we can appeal with the
greatest confidence to vindicate our course.
The PRESS has attacked no good cause and
no good man. 1t has been the first and the
most enthusiastic to commend any plan for
the amelioration of the condition of the
masses. 1t has supported the workingman's
cause, always and everywhere. 1t was the
first publication in America to defend the
workingmen of Paris against the wicked
ISLANDERS of aristocrats and priests. 1t was
the first paper in New England to demand for
workingmen the preference in those subsidies
and bounties that are even now demanded
from the public treasury by capitalists. 1t
was the first paper in Maine to defend our
common school system and our school officers
from the assaults of their enemies, and to
begin an agitation in favor of educational re-
form. 1t has ever been the champion of the
temperance reformers, who have done SO
mighty work for no pay and little applause.
1t has denounced wrongs and abuses, paper
credit frauds, political corruption class legisla-
ton, railroad monopolies, Peabody funerals
and postage-stamp legislators. But every good
cause and every good man has found a warm
advocate in the PRESS. e-.- -9
But when the Whtg pretends to quote from
our columns paragraph attributed to us by
one of our New England exchanges, but
which we never printed, no excuse for its
mendacity can be imagined. If you are at
liberty to put your own imaginings or those
of your allies into the mouth of your accusers
in place of their own words, Mr.. Whig, you
will perhaps be able to make out case But
you knowingly and maliciously tell false
hood when you pretend to quote from us the
warning against ''the insidious approaches
and golden arguments of the disciples of
fraud.'' H- Hof iH9 q
In the matter of the European & North
American Railroad the Wing is equally false.
For the third time it has made this declara-
ton: ~ttl'.'A7saa feiA e..ill-.
The PRESS published charge that the L.
OF the Pennsylvania Central monopoly, and it
refuses to retract. - ~ -.b ..,fI +.
We never made such charge. We did
say that there was such a rumor and were
right in saying SO. But we have given ample
publicity to the Hhig's denial of that rumor,
while refusing to allow its attorney-like dec
larations to have greater influence on our
opinion than the better authority of our orig
inal informant. On our referring to the mys-
terry that hangs over the ownership of the
road, and the little light thrown on the mat
ter by the Augusta records, as Transcribed by
the Sunday Star, the Wing .asseverates that
anybody ought to know all about it! 1t
thereupon announces to an astonished world
that any person of ordinary intelligence
should be aware that the shares held by Noah
Woods and others, trustees, belong to part
nership of twenty persons residing in New
Brunswick and in eight States of the Union!
Thereupon it raises an Eldritch screech of tri-
umph and Frances up aud down in manner
that reminds one of Mr.. Punch dancing about
and singing exuitantly to the air of ttMal-
brought after he has knocked Scaramouchs
head off. But its pretended explanation
amounts to nothing at all. The public know
exactly as much as it did before. The Wing
is not the first to discover that the shares in
question, four-ifths of the whole, are owned
by foreign capitalists. The same doubt as to
who they are, and the same rumor still exist.
The Wing either will not or cannot settle the
question and show the incorrectness of the
rumor by stating just who constitute this
firm of capitalists. The fact that some of
chem live in other States besides Pennsylya-
mia is by no means inconsistent with the
ownership of the controlling interest by the
managers of the Pennsylvania Central. When
anything positively contradicting this rumor
is anywhere published, the PRESS will be the
first to announce that it is incorrect.
We now come to falsehood number four,
which has also been three times repeated.
The PRESS affirmed that in consideration
OF procuring an improper schedule of lands,
Mr.. /. r. Clark was made an officer of the
Company .-5.
No such declaration has ever appeared in
the PRESS. The facts about Mr.. Clark were
mentioned, the public being left to draw all
necessary differences. EFgq 0l "-4- '--
The Wing has also been guilty of false
hood in intention by endeavoring to give the
impression that one of the editors of the
PRESS was the author of the Objectionable
language in the grant of 1868. zone of its
own STAFF is the language it uses in making
this charge. 1t afterwards shifts the respon-
sibility to zone of the proprietors'' of the |
PRESS, and says it's all ''all onep' Who ever |
heard stakeholder in corporation called |
lone of the STAFF of a news paper before? |
But this is of trifing importance, because the
course of the gentleman referred to is per-
fectly reconcilable with upright intentions.
As good men and true as sat in the Legisla- |
ture of 1668-men second to none of their as |
sociates in ability and sagacity-haye assured |
us that the purposes of the European & North
American road completely escaped them at
the time the act of that year passed.
Finally, the Wing has three times publish
ed this: ~ 4ul
The PRESS stated on the best authority.
that the Secretary of State, whose duty ii
was to sign the deed, was not given time ey-
en- to read it, though he earnestly desired
that privilege. The falsehood, both of fact 1
and inference in this statement has been ex-
posed by the Secretary himself
We cannot conceive a degree of poverty of
resources greater than that indicated by such