Evening star., 1897-05-13
THE EVENING STAR THURSDAY, NAY 10, 1914 PAGES

chinery OF the hubustering business can
be disclosed at this time. OF course. the
natural question ts: How do they do it,
Nevertheless It II impossible that the pub
lie should know the interior Of this thing
now precisely as 1t is impossible that the
public should know the inside of important
diplomatic operations when they are III
actual process: There Is many tale now
hello back by men who would like to talk
for pride's sake. for they are proud Of the
cunning of the arrangements, proud Of
outwitting the force o. nation, of two
nations. These men-simple American bus
mess men. for the most part-have stump
ed civilization. They insist on committing
a political crime, aad It. would be absurd to
say that they are any more than annoyed
by the agencies pitted against them.
The flibusters began by letting the news
paper men into the secret of events to q
large degree. Responsibility is so ar
ranged upon the shoulders of the average
correspondent that it is more cruel than
i.iI Kind 10 burden him with facts of vast po-
htical Significance. AS far as go personal
or social facts. the average reporter knows
enough to damn q continent and these he
keeps IN silence for many reasons of sense
sano..s anu RUE ana stu other reasons But the
rerorters business is to disclose, disclose,
disclose. A newspaper article Is purely a
disclosure of certain facts concerning q
certaln association OF persons to people
usually. The reporter Is not to be pre-
sented with valued facts in the way that
a man tells friend certain affairs belong
ing strictly to himself. The friend can have
may arrive when the reporter is confront-
cd by his obligation to his employer. and
although naturally as q man he then let's
ms obligation to his employer go to the
mas done him wrong in forcing him into
this position.
Journalistic Responsibility.
So the filibusters began by letting more
or less newspaper men into the mystery of
the process, and they are more or less
sorry for it. Some of the newspaper men
have not let their obligations to their en-
ployers go to the eternal blazes They
have peached; that is the whole amount
or It, they have peached. And peached in
a way TO deal havoc to parts of this de-
nclous Dit OF outlawry in the evening Of
the nineteenth century. Correspondents
who applied to the filibusters for passage
to Cubas insurgents camps, and who were
granted this privilege. through friendly
Cubans and because it was the opinion
that their pens would assist this cause,
these men have been men beyond all
others who have cursed many expeditions
with the curse Of an early telegraphic ac-
count. 1t is they beyond all others who
aroused Madrid to bluffing a lambent
American administration out of it's very
underwear and to the point where it pre-
ferred to violate the Constitution of the
United States rather than be frightened
still more by this terrible Madrid.
They caused the Washington of that
time to exhibit its willingness to smash
every law of the land rather than have
trouble with Spain. The administration of
that time admitted it. not publicly, per-
haps, but in a way that the telegraph COM
pany could preserve a record of 1t. The
correspondents, with their disclosures,
crowded that administration into a corner
where it could not face the situation man
fully. 1t weakened and crawled and de-
parted finally in popular disgrace.
Break a law to keep a law is the pre-
cept which newspaperdom unconsciously
thrust down the throat of a national ad-
ministratiOn. And yet the Cuban cause
gained Its way to the popular heart through
this very indulgence to the newspaper men.
STEPHEN CRANE.