The Lexington intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1901-1949, 1902-01-04
Trushless Newspapers.

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with such astounding recklesSneSs.
Years since che st. Louis Globe
Democrat began a crusade Of abuse
not only OF the democratic party, but
of Missouri, and to the present time
has kept up the fight with the brazen-
ness Of a political harlot and a con-
Rrmed, died-in-the-wool, shameless
perverter OF truth. No SANDER too
mean, no abuse too accentuated to
find place in the columns Of that
} paper, with the people Of this state
ever and always the object Of its
assaults.
However, with the Globe this
practice has been in vogue so long that
Missourians have become accustomed
to it and the telling Of a political
truth in the columns Of that Zeigen-
heinized organ would create as much
CONSERVATION as would a peal Of
thunder from an unobscured sky,
Hence, it's not so much this st. Louis
organ Of political putridity that this
criticism has to do, but with that
class of republican newspapers in
Missouri that for many years printed
truth though the telling of it
redounded to the credit of the great
political party that opposes them. In
other words. they, or some of them,
were once won't to discuss political
affairs from a standpoint Of fairness
and iustice-a policy that added dig
nifty to their columns.
The wonder is that with this class
Of newspapers things have so changed.
To now find an unbiased republican
sheet in Missouri is almost as difficult
as locating the %proverbial needle in
a hay-stack.n Rank p~artisanism
seems to have uprooted all ideas Of
fairness and truth has been treated
with such violence that it has been
crushed to earth in that quarter.
Whether inclined to a natural ten
dency toward moral decay or lured on
by the policy Of untruth inaugurated
by the Globe and 50 persistently
adhered to by that paper, we know
not; we do know, however, that the
tendency Of the republican press of
this state is in the direction Of the
basest kind Of misrepresentation and
that one might as well seek the
delicate rose Of purity in its pristine
beauty and loyeliness in the septic
tank that consumes the filthy sewerage
of a great city as political truth in
the columns Of the average republican
newspaper. 1t feeds upon PARTISAN
ism, spurns patriotism, traniples under
foot justice, and in this section Of the
state daily disseminates its nauseaus
assertion that smells to heaven with
violation Of the commandment, Hthou
shalt not lie.n And this stuff our
people are forced to read through the
only mediums available containing a
stagger at the new Of the day.
Apropos Of the position here
assumed we need only refer, anent the
latest illustration, to the attitude Of
the Kansas City Journal and the
Kansas City Star in dealing with the
assembling at st. Louis Of members
of the several democratic county
central committees Of the state for
the purpose Of comforting on matters
appertaining to the welfare Of the
party. From a perusal Of the columns
of these newspapers the morning fol-
lowing the meeting in question one
was lead to believe that discord
reigned supreme and that instead'o Of a
peaceful democratic caucus it was a
yeritable Kilkenny cat-fght. Later
in the day along came the St. Louis
Republic, a newspaper given to the
telling of truth no matter s'who
the shoe may ft," with the state
ment that there was not a jar in the
big assemblage of Missouri democratic
workers and that the address to the
people Of Missouri, as plethoric Of
truth as is an egg of meat, and which
is published in another column Of this
paper, was adopted without a dis
senting vote. /
But this is not all. These despollers
Of truth do not conhne themselves to-
the world Of politics They even
invade the social circle and do violence
to courtesies extended them by either
.covertly misrepresenting things said,
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