The San Francisco call., 1897-01-29
KINDRED EVILS.

The American people are at this time
engaged in efforts to suppress three evils
of kindred nature, each being so insidi-
| Gus in its character as to be almost able to
| defy suppression by law, and at the same
time so injurious in its effect as to require
constant vigilance on the part of the
intelligent portion of the public to prevent
it from becoming serious menace to the
welfare of the credulous and unsuspecting
Boards of Health are trying to suppress
the adulteration of food, the owners OF
legitimate patented articles are endeavor-
ing to prevent tricky dealers from substi-
tuting inferior articles in place OF the
goods which the purchaser calls for, and
legitimate journals are trying to crush out
of the country that false Peter Funk sys-
tenn of running newspapers which prom
ises the people news and gives then fakes
and freaks instead of genuine reports OF
the events of the day.
These evils are of kindred nature mas
much as all of them partake OF the char
acter of petty swindling. The man who
sells cotton-seed oil for olive oil, and glu-
cose compounds for fruit preserves is not es-
sentially different from him who sells some
worthless nostrum in place of specific
of established reDute, or the journalist
who concocts fakes in his private Office
and sells them to his readers under the
title of dispatches from China. Neither
is any one of the three widely different
from the gold brick swindler or any other
man who relies upon his cunning to obtain
money under false pretenses.
Since the beginning of society there
have always been men who pride them
selves on living by their wits instead of
by their industry, but fortunately, despite
their boasting, they have been invariably as
devoid of wit as of energy. Their schemes
sooner or later are al ways exposed, and
their wits do not serve to keep them from
an eventual penury or the penitenriary.
The enactment of laws against these
offenses serves good purpose, but is not
sufficient TO guard the people against the
injurious effects of the seIf-styled witty
fellows. Adulterated foods are always
for sale, inferior articles are always being
substituted for good ones and fakes con-
tinue to be offered for news The only
safeguard for the citizen is in his own in
telligence and the exercise of a constant
vigilance against the sharpers. Under
these circumstances it is the duty of those
who see the evil to expose it. This work
is in particular sense incumbent upon
the press since it is looked to by the
people to furnish news of what is good
and warning against what is vicious.
THE CALL in the performance of the
duty due to the public from legitimate
journalism has endeavored to expose each
of these kind of fakers. We have given
space in our columns of late to reports of
discoveries made By the Board of Health
of the sale of adulterated food in this City,
we have called attention to the evil prac-
tice OF substituting cheap articles in place
of those of established merit, and we have
exposed the fraud of the Examiner in
palming off upon its readers a fake dis
patch from China. This much we have
done to warn the public. 1t now remains
for the intelligence of the people to act
upon the warning and to protect them
selves from the schemes of the fellows
who live by their wits.