The Sunday herald. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1866-1887, 1881-01-09
the PRESS IND THE uoNoPoLrsTs

fHE fhESS dND A NE MONOf Ohfrf'
We have known for many months that Mr..
John w. Thompson, formerly member OF
the District Legislature, President Of the
National Metropolitan Bank, ex-President
Of the Inland and seaboard Coosting Com
pany, Director Of the Washington Gaslight
Company, and the chief owner of the Metro
politan (F st.) Street Railroad Company, was
seeking to deter us from our exposures of
the misdeeds of his corporations, or at least
to take revenge for those exposures, by going |
about among our advertisers and seeking TO |
influence or persuade them to withdraw |
their patronage. When Mr.. Thompson en- |
tered upon this course of trying to injure
our business because we conceived our duty |
to the public required us to assail the seven
cent swindle, the exorbitant charges of the
Gas Company, and the mismanagement Of the
Coasting Company, his name had never been
mentioned in connection with what we had
| denounced as the wrongful acts Of these cor
porations. We had treated him in this re-
gard with special delicacy, dealing only with
the corporate organizations, and not, as
we might properly have done, with their
responsible officers by name. And while
thus abstaining from personal censure, our
columns were open then, as they have al
ways been, TO him or to any other person, for
the correction of mistatements or misconcep-
tions. Instead Of defending his case in
the public press he has unconsciously be-
trayed that money is the chief object of his
worship, by endeavoring to bestow pecu-
mary punishment upon newspaper that has
incurred his displeasure. Whether Mr..
Thompson merely desired to wreak
vengeance upon the The SUNDAY HERALD, or
to turn it from its course, or whether he
hoped by this policy to deter the other news
) papers of Washington from following our ex-
ample in assailing his pet monopolies, we
believe he acted with mistaken idea of the
motives which govern others, however con-
sistent HIS course may have been with his
own.
e We are confident that Mr.. Thompson can
not in the long run injure any newspaper
9 unless he can show II to be in the wrong
An overwhelming public sentiment sustained
r us in our warfare on the seven-cent-fa far,
c swindle, and gave us some credit for it
8 abolition, and intelligent stockholders of tn
company have since declared that the pape
only did them good service, because tn
j. road has been more profitable with the lov
y fares than it had ever been before. 1t thu
appears that in exacting the odd two cent
II from the poorest class of passengers, an
10 from strangers to the city, Mr.. Thompson
l. avarice had overreached itself.
e. We have from the first intended to advis
y the public of the way IN which Mr.. ThomI
le cussion of the conduct of the chartered CO.
porations which have enabled him to null
"a them and roll up his great wealth.
lli president of strong bank, many merchan
ny and business men are dependent upon h
he will for the discounts which they need
We carrying on their business. When he asl
n, one of these to withdraw his advertiser
lei from journal, there is behind the easi
"a understood threat which his control of the
ly bank discounts implies.
ell The SUNDAY HERALD has never been d
lis tered from discharging the duty it owes
he the public by such means as Mr.. Thomps,
ad has invoked against it, and it will no mo
!, be swerved from that duty in the future thi
Sc. it has in the past. If the chartered m
nopolies which are misusing their franchis
Il. to the infringement of the peoples rigf
and convenience and to the detriment of I
;on peoples pockets want fair discussion
- our columns they can have it. If they ca
-. not stand such discussion they will be vs.
49, to eschew Mr.. Thompson's futile policy
70, trying to gag the press, and to stop its
,ho raignment in the only proper way by conc'
49,, ing those reasonable demands of public op
hor ion which we are only too feebly putt
forward.