Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1900-06-21
FREELAND, Pa, JUNE 81, 1900
Respectable Rascality.
rom the Scranton Scrantonian.

From the Scranton Scrantonian.
Respectable rascality is one OF the
chief curses OF American civilization.
The man with money, good clothes, a
fine house, pew in a fashionable
church, name that appears frequently
on subscription lists, and a political
pull, has been permitted to do as he
pleased, and as the press of the country
was virtually owned or controlled by
one or other OF the great parties, it was
impossible, save undor very special
circumstances to obtain redress for any
wrongs men of this class might commit.
They might rob, cheat, persecute, op-
press, imprison, disposess, or hound a
weaker enemy, person disliked, and
all that such person could hope for
was the well-meant advice that he'd
better quit, and make up with his ad-
versary on the best terms he could, as
he was too big to think OF fighting him.
These conditions prevail principally
in states, cities or counties where boss
or corporation rule became absolute,
and 1t is only recently than any serious
and systematic attempt has been made
to bring down respectable rascalty to
its proper level, i.-e., right In line with
rascality OF the man who has no pull.
no riches, no air Of outward respscta bill
ity to serve as cloak for his sins.
For this service, the public are wholly
indebted to the new school OF journal
ism, which is absolutely independent
and fearless in all matters affecting
the people in general. or course this
has involved the unmasking OF many
respectable scoundrels, the dragging
down from high positions OF power
many man who had long since be-
lieved himself to be beyond tho reach
OF public criticism, and, therefore, free
to crafty every lust or ambition that
took his fancy, and the utterings Of
painfully plain truths to those who
made 1t their business to dups the poo
pie for politics, profit or any other rea-
son that seemed good to them.
This new school OF journalism has
been styled sensational" yellow, +"
"vile," "scandalous," etc, by the hide
bound corporation and political ma
chine pap-fed press, but it is a notice
able fact just the same that the people
are with the so-called. sensational news
papers, that the leading pulpit orators
OF the day support them, that all the re-
form movements find their basis in
them, and that the thinking men of the
day are unstinted in their praise OF
them.
Take the World or Journal of New
York, for example, in their fight
against the ice trust. 1t was at first
considered shocking that the judges on
the supreme court bench, the mayor of
New York city and other dignitaries
should be scandalized, by being hailed
to court and made to confess their in
iqulty. But the yellow journals got
the best OF it, and even the hide bound
corporation papers had to yield to pub
lie sentiment and fall in line. In Phila-
delphia the North american fills a
similar position. Its bogus butter e1-
posures, its arraignment Of Mayor
Ashbridge and Director English were
awful, while their campaign against
Quayism, boodls politics aud corruption
at the polls stands without a parallel.
And yet, they have won in every in
stance, because they had right on their
side, while other newspapers have been
compelled to follow in their wake, be-
cause the public demanded that they
should. No three newspapers on earth
have ever been more bitterly assaiIed
than those we have named. Every
form OF abuse, feigned contempt, ridi-
cule and assumed high moral grounds
that thoughts and words could devise
were hurled against them in broadsides,
with persstency and energy worthy
OF better cause, but all in vain. The
people believe in the new journalism,
they recognize the good it has done and
lend it their every aid in the work OF
destroying respectable rascality.
Mark Hanna's ferocious denunciatiop
OF the trusts in the Republican