The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-08-07
PERSISTENT UNFAIRNEss.
The New York TImes's Unfair and Dishonest
Treatment of Mr.. Blaine.

The New York Times's Unfair and Dishonest
Treatment of Mr.. Blaine.
New York Sun.
To persist in false accusation after its falsity
has been clearly and concluslyely demonstrated
requires more courage of certain sort than to
make manly acknowledgements of error. In
this sense the Times is brave 1t,
brings itself and its exploded story about the
suppression of four Mulligan letters under our
notice again with persistent impudence which
invites castigation rather than instruction Let
the Times attend while we braid a lash out of
facts that ought to sting its back
In a leading article of d column and a half on
Monday OF last week, the Times announced that
it had made an examination of the record, which
verified in the most startling manner the story
that Mr., Blaine had suppressed some of the let
ters contained in the package which he took
from Muigan. The Times's startling discovery
WAS this: Four of the documents called for by the
memorandum it failed to find in the Congress-
ional Record and, by what it considered as q
most singular coincidence four letters not
mentioned in the memorandum were read by
Blaine Can it be- demanded the Times, that
thesplendidly audacious statesman substituted
some harmless letters from hisown portfolio or
manufactured for the occasion for the four let
tiers on Mulhgan's list, but not readN
The only basis of the Timess startling dis
covery was the phenomenal stupidity with which
its examination of the record was conducted
in the first place Two of the four documents
which it had failed to find were in fact printed
on the pages which it had been examining; half
of its case was swept away by the evidence of
its own unequaled heedlessness A third letter
was there, too, answering the description Of the
schedule in every respect, except that Mullgan
had indexed it as of July 25, instead of July 2.
The fourth, a letter of Fishers to Blaine was
not produced by Blaine at the time. Instead Of
covering the Suppression" of this letter by the
substitution of d harmless epistle from his own
portfolio or manufactured for the occasion, he
simply and aightforwardly said that he did
not find it in the package.
The Suns examination of the record was not
prompted by any other motive than the habit Of
verifying startling and important discoveries
before accepting them even from our neighbor.
the Times Ehe case of suppression and sub
stitution did newsstand scrutiny The record
showed plainly just howsthe Times had been.
misled. Instead of withholding the result of
our own examination because it was favorable
to Mr.. Blaine on this special point of inquiry,
we thought it right to give him the benefit of the
facts so far as they might benefit his case. If
this is creduhty we are happy to be regarded as
credulous by newspaper which prefers a repu-
tation for persistent unfairness.
\ For some time we assumed, as matter of
course, that the desire to avoid misrepresenta-
ton in our treatment Of a political opponent was
shared in an equal degree by the Times. We
regret to say that such is not the case. The
single effort Of our contemporary at present
seems to be to escape admission Of its own
original mistake without regard either to justice
to Mr. Blaine or duty to the readers who look to
it for information and opinions. This is very
discreditable course to pursue. Any newspaper
may be led into false position by misappre-
hension by insufficient or misleading informa-
ton, or by precipitancv which can be inexcusa-
bic without being criminal. Deliberate dishon-
esty is an offense of a different brand