Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1880-03-10
The Newspapers and Their Friends.


The Newspapers and Their Friends.
The Philadelphia Record is disturbed
at the general satisfaction expressed at
the punishment that has come upon the
crime of Kemble and his co-defendants,
among whom it declares are " men with
whom we have had large and frequent
business transactions-men who are in
every way the equal of any writer or any
owner Of any Philadelphia paper, and
men who befriended many of the very
writers who yesterday cried the loudest
for their damning.' The Record is
frank anyway. 1t is bad to be a pharisee
as its neighbors are, it thinks. But it is
bad to be an intimate of men who plead
guilty to the crime of corruption. 1t
tends to de troy confidence in the absolute
integrity of the conduct of a newspaper
that it proclaims its large transactions
with men of Kemble's character; and
furthermore finds itself in mood to say
of the law furnishing the corrupt solicita-
tiOns of the legislator that such solicl-
tatiOns may consist merely in g dinner
given to a member of the Legislature,
and glass of whisky and water pledged
i'm good fellowship will send man to
the penitentiary." Evidently the Rec
ord, in all its regret for the fate OF its
friends, has wrong appreciation OF the
situation. If it's friends had not plead
guilty it's lament might have been
more reasonable. But it ought hardly to
ask the public to believe that Mr.. KEN
BILE did nothing worse in the way of cor
rupt solicitation than to prOffer dinner
and a glass of whisky to the legislators
who yielded to his seduction. If his Of
fense had been so mild he would have
been ever so glad to show it to the world
by testimony it would have answered
much better than his protest to show
that though technically guilty he was
really innocent. The writers upon the
Philadelphia journals may be as bad, OF
worse, than Kemble, and we are ready to
believe the Record when it declares that
many of them are, since it points them
out and seems to know all about them.
and is ready to include itself among the
number who herd with confessed Grim
inals and possess them us friends, and
have large and frequent business trans
actions with them. 1t is a fact
that has been long time very
conspicuous to the outside world
that the Philadelphia newspapers are
very prone to defend through thick and
thin the rings and corporations who have
frequent and large business transac.
tions." The Record sometimes has been
an exception, and in the matter OF oil
transportation has been on the peoples
side. But it has lapsed from grace, and
gracefully lapseS when it becomes eXpe.
dient. 1t has loving side for the Penn.
sylvania railroad management, nOtOri-
OuSly conducted as it is to give rich or.
poltunities for the plundering propensi.
ties of its officers. 1t has hard hand
for the Reading railroad management
which.if it is not always wise, is at least
as every one knows, always honest. II
is hopeless to expect to find a Philadel
phia newspaper that will do justice tC
the people in theirstruggle with corpora
tions. Not one of these journals to-day
denOunces the gagging of the stockhold
ers of the Pennsylvania railroad at the
meeting yesterday by the hirelings of the
company that filled the hall, and by its
tool in the chair, Mayor Stokley, who
declared the meeting adjourned after
Vice President Roberts and somebody
else had been allowed to eulOgiZe
eN-President Thomson, and to denOunct
Mr.. Parker. who had just introduced d
resolution of inquiry into an allegation
that Thompson had cOrruptly received
fifty thousand dollars Of the company's
money. Mr.. Roberts'S purchased words
could not justify Mr.. Thomson against
such a charge, manifestly. If it was not
true, it would have been properly met by
Mr.. Thomson's friends by demand
for investigation and not call for its
suppression. Nobody can deny this YET
these wretched Philadelphia newspapers
in their reverence for the men with
whom they have large and frequent
business transactions" "denOunce the me1
who sought this most proper investiga-
tion, and attempt to hold up to scorl
stockholders who simply ask for an in
auiry into grave accusations against
the integrity of their officers and con
cerning the corrupt disposition of the
moneys of it's treasury which are charged
to the account of betterments. Men who
ask their stewards to explain where theil
money has gone are fools and chronic
GROWERS: while the stewards are faithful
servants. For have not the newspaper!
"large and frequent business transac
tions' with them: and do they nO
know?
IT is a touching and graphic story o.