The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1897-07-23

themselves out OF employment would In
the end beneht them. He succeeded In
p~srsuadlng a few Of the men to organize
and quit work and they are the only re-
crults he received, though 1t remains to
be seen what the next few days will de-
velop,
The sensation mongers had come there
to earn their salaries, however, and saw
in this break something on which 10
build good salAable news TO the papers
they represented. A simple statement OF
the facts was not satisfactory 10 them.
They felt that more exciting news was
expected, and predictions of trouble and
dire f~orebodings OF the future must be
INDUCED In because their papers had ex-
pected 1t. Trouble, In their minds, was
sure to result and a general going out
in the Fairmont region would be follow
ed by more trouble.
Something to base their predictions on
not existing. 1t must be manufactured.
So II was represented that the operators
we're preparing for war; threatening
guns were placed at the mouths OF the
mines to shoot down men, and threats
were made by the operators in case their
men should listen to Debs' advice,
These things only existed In the minds
OF the correspondents, They had TO ex-
LIST there as they existed nowhere else,
and the papers receiving their reports
had to have something sensational from
stan" correspondents to enable them
to boast OF superior enterprise" Hav-
ing mapped out this Imaginary state Of
AFFAIRS, they proceeded to build upon
1t. Some of them builded great and
some of them builded small. Some en-
gagged in a line of se~nsationallsm calcu-
lated to incite trouble and the seeds
sown may yet bear fruit.
Our esteemed morning contemporary,
which should have been one to do every
thing not to excite a disturbance on West
Virginia soil, was one of those that build
ed great. Debs held a meeting in the
public square In Fairmont, Probably
500 citizens turned out to hear him, less
than 100 being miners. Debs had been
well advertised, and there was a natural
curiosity to hear him.
Our enterprsing and esteemed contem-
pornry's special stan" correspondent,
whose initials were not recognized by
Wheeling newspaper men as belonging
u any stan" in the city, wanted to
build his story great and he did 1t. In
graceful but untruthful language he de-
plcted a scene OF great excitement In
FaIrmont. mo political meeting In the
town ever exceeded thia meeting of
Debs'," general suspension OF business
was Sure" the operators had played
their last card" any attempt to run the
mines would certainly result In trouble"
Not one word OF this was true.
The effect OF this sort of newspaper en-
terprlse was witnessed as o as the
~enterprising Journal reached Fairmont.
There was indignation expressed by e!t-
zens, operators and miners against the
"star" man who had builded so great,
The harm of 1t, had It not been uhdene
the following morning by q statement of
the real situation, after the indignation
| had its effect on the alleged STAFF" man
might have been TO lncite violence where
the conditions were then 50 peaceful and
so void of excitement as tobe a matter Of
common comment.
This was Journalism of the ~lncendiary
sort that has been more than once pro-
ductive of trouble in this country. From
the beginning of the Fairmont situation
the Intenlgencer has daily given briefly
the exact situation. It was not looking
for s~ensatIonallsm. Never, at any time.
| did the situation warrant more than the
simple statement OF facts. The events
up until yesterday indicate this
course. We do not want to see any trou-
BILE In this state and the readers of the
IntellIgencer will not find in these col
umns one word OF sensatonallsm to en-
courage Il.