Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-04-09
THE sK1NN1Ne OF JERE BLACK.

ana repuOHsneu ny lno JoS ~
seek to popularize themselves with the I'M
thinking by affecting an can't. monopoly
attitude; but the crushing rejoinder
made by Albert Fink to the Democratic
demagogue appears somehow to have
escaped the attention of those organs OF
"public opinion" We have already CON-
mented upon Mr.. Fink's caustic and con-
elusive letter, but it is worth recurring to,
if only to emphasize the recklessness and
dishonesty with which the so-called "pop-
''ular side of this question is habitually
conducted. The New York Tribune says
of the episode "To see man scien-
g tifcally skinned is an interesting spec
"tacle. Judge Black, the principal orator
"of the so-called Autobiography meeting
"held at Cooper Institute in February,
'has undergone the skinning, and can
"not complain that it was unscientific.
''Mr. Fink, Commissioner of the trunk
SO line pool, has performed the operation,
fand with such effect that is difficult to
"see how any man having the faIntest
g trace of self-respect can again trust him
"self before the public in discussion of a
"subject upon which he has been proved
'to be either as ignorant or as mendacious
Gas Judge Black is shown to be by his
'critic." This is strong language, but
not at all too much SO for the facts. For
Judge Black had asserted that the railroads
robbed the people of S675, 900, 600 per an
mum and Mr.. Fink has shown that the
gross receipts of all the railroads in the
country, from all sources of revenue, have
never exceeded 5000, OO0, 900 in any year
1t follows, therefore, either that Judge
Black lied most fagrantly, or that the
railroads stole S75, 600, 600 more than their
entire receipts amounted to. Of course
there can be no doubt as to the inference
in this case.
Again, Mr.. Fink proved that Judge
Blacks preposterous figures were reached
by assuming that all the grain produced
in the country was moved by rail only,
and all the way from Chicago to New
York, and through the whole year 1850,
at rate which was in force during the
winter months only. As matter of fact
Mr.. Fink shows that the entire amount of
grain carried at the rate referred to by
Judge Black produced net receipt of
only 81, 500, 600. Mr. Fink follows every
specific assertion of the anti-monopoly
champion fabricator, and demonstrates not
only their utter falsity but their out
rageous absurdity. He makes it as clear
as MONDAY that no man who really de.
sired to get at the truth of the matter
could possibly have fallen into SO many
blunders, moreover, and he succeeds CON-
pletely in proving that Judge Black deltb.
erately sought to misrepresent the case in
the most damaging way possible.
1t is not, however, the shameless dishon-
esty and impudent mendacity of Judge
Black that are the most remarkable features
in this episode. 1t is the blind and reck-
less haste with which his absurd misrepre-
sensations have been caught up and re.
peated by the newspapers, and the eager
ness with which so many of them have ac-
cepted every falsehood for truth, and have
proceeded to draw arguments from these
falsehoods. For this shows that instead of
performing the function of critic to the
public, and testing and Analysing whatever
statements are made, the press generally Is
quite as easily misled as the most ignorant
elements among the masses, and quite as
Indifferent to the demonstration Of what it
advocates. Let anybody who has any
kind of reputation make any kind of wild
statement, and countless newspapers will
swallow the fiction without pausing an in.
stant and will then proceed with an owlish
assumption of gravity and deliberation to
draw morals and differences from the non
sense they have accepted.
If this is the way history is being made
now we may well commiserate our
successors in their efforts to find out the
truth about the present time, Here is an
organized movement the avowed purpose
of which is to cure alleged abuses in trans
portation by appropriate legislation and
instead of beginning with candid examin.
alton of the facts in the case, it proceeds
with tissue of misrepresentation so gross,
| fantastic and ridiculous as to excite amaze
ment in all who are capable of reasoning or
rejecting. The press then, which ought
to act as check upon all such laundering
movements, shuts its eyes and gulps down
! every lying statement, and forthwith de-
clares that, seeing these things are so, it is
indeed time steps were taken for reforming
the situation.
What hope or expectation of sober and
intelligent legislation can be justified by
an agitation which thus sets out with fla
grant misrepresentation? How can the
public know anything of the facts when
the journals upon which they depend for
their information are thus capable OF being
duped and hoodwinked by any brassy, i'm
pudent demagogue who thinks to push his
own political fortunes by attacking cor
porate capital? This man Jere Black is
VIGOROUSLY candidate for the Presidency,
and it is perfectly clear that he is using
the Anti Monopoly movement to further
his aspirations. He thinks that if he tells
lies enough about the railroads some of
them will stick; and that if he stirs up
the country he will get the reputation of
being reformer. And so he formulates
the cheap falsehoods which come handiest
to him, and retails them at meetings, and
when he is refuted and exposed as in this
instance no doubt he trusts to the general