The Plymouth Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1878-1901, 1901-09-26
Special to The Evening News.

oiioul ndo CudllcuScu tut dbtcll-
ton of public men. Members of
congress who have been in this
city during the Mckinley funeral
ceremonies have talked of ways
and means for correcting by leg
islation what they unanimously
agree is an evil of dangerous
proportions. AS yet, no senator
or member of congress has gone
SO far as to frame a bill, and
there are some members who ex-
press doubt as to whether the
matter can be reached in this
manner. Public opinion. they
believe, is the only remedy.
There is no doubt as to what is
the public opinion on this sub
ject Thinking people all over
the country have been forced to
the conclusion that sensational
misrepresentation persistently
continued is at least indirectly
responsible for such tragedies as
the assassination of President
Mckinley. It is a common be-
lief, also, that the present trag
edy is to be traced directly to the
propaganda of certain journals
of New York. Chicago and San
Francisco, which have been
termed yellow" and which
have been thrust into the faces
of decent people from the Allan
tic to the Pacific ocean in conse-
quence of methods of forced cir
culation. That such papers
breed cranks it is impossible to
doubt. That they engender hat
red and direct it against public
officials is a fact which cannot be
challenged.
Congressman who are prepar-
ing to grapple with this question
have noted as signs of the pub
lies opinion a number of recent
happenings. For example, in
New York the chamber of COM
merce met and passed resolutions
denouncing the three most often
sive papers in that city, and sug-
costing that there should be a
concerted movement among the
merchants and the wealthy con.
sentative business men to with
draw their support from all
newspapers of that character.
Editorial utterances of respect.
able organs from one end of the
country TO the other. followed by
expressions of opinion and form
al interviews with leading citi-
zens, leave no doubt as to public
sentiment. The sentiment ex-
pressed IN New York finds an
echo in Chicago. San Francisco
and in every city where the
yellow" plague has broken out.
"The evil of yellow journals,
said congressman to the writer
today, consists in its exciting
the worst tastes of the ignorant
and depfaved. Intelligent read
ers are not affected by its utter
ances, nor by the persistent reit-
Grafton of false charges against
public men. The hideous mon
strosity which its cartoons pct
ure as the chief magistrate of
the republic to them is merely
repulsive. But to the unedu-
Gated man or woman coming pos
sibly from a foreign country and
knowing little of our American
institutions, these cartoons are
taken at their face value.
"This man knows that in Aus
tria, Germany, Hungary or Rus
STA the government would not al
low such pictures to be printed,
or such charges to be repeated
and published. even if based on
facts. The fact that they are
published every day and re-
peated in every conceivable form
is evidence to his mind that they
are true.
He is not a wide reader, and
this pestiferous sheet is proba-
bly, the only literature which he
ever reads. He learns from it
that the chief magistrate of the
country or other high officials
are brutes of the worst conceiv-
able type; that they are person
ally responsible for all of the
misery, wretchedness and power
ty of the world. He comes to