The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-07-28
Spirit of the Press.
THE PENALTY FOR BEING POOR.


THE PENALTY FOR BEING POOR.
Gastonia Gazette.
There are penalties peopl have to pay
for being poor. The Gazette, for instance.
pays the paper trust $3.50 hundred
pounds for paper which William Il.
Hearst, we are told, gets for $1S5. OF
this $3.50 about So is for paper and $3.50
is penalty for being too poor to help ones
self
Now over in Kansas City there's
newspaper man who isn't too poor TO
help himself. Out there where things are
done on a big scale fellow occasionally
makes some money-and this newspaper
man, Col VIM. r. Nelson, in twenty years
has got together couple OF millions.
He owns two papers in Kansas Clty-the
Star, which is an afternoon paper, and
the Times, morning paper. To keep
both enterprises running, something like
80 or 40 tons of paper daily is required.
This means that Col Nelson has to get
together nearly as much white paper
every month as all the newspapers In
North Carolina use in a whole years. He
had to have lot of paper and didn't
have any paper mill.
1t is said that fellow can see lot
of things when he hasn't got gun.
This perhaps, is because the things see
him and notice the absence of offensive
and defensive equipage So the paper
trust people contemplated Col. Nelson
one day few months ago, and, observ-
ing that he didn't seem to have any gun,
undertook to do him right on just as
they had been doing, only more SO. Sub
jected to a particularly annoying vexa-
ton of the paper octopus, he resolved
suddenly and decisively to quit being
caught without gun. So he built him
self paper mill and is making his own
white paper, forty tons day from Cana
da pulp, right there in Kansas City. Able
to own a gun. he doesn't have to pay
any penalty to the octopus for being
poor
Then there's William r. Hearst. He's
another man not too poor to help him.
self He owns, SO a New York man told
us not long since, the biggest sort of a
paper mill and thousands of miles of pulp
forests. The mill is idle. He never has
run it day. But he can run it-he can
start it in twenty-four hours, or maybe
in fifteen minutes. When Hearst pulled
this million dollar gun on the octopus, the
monster folded its tentacles across its
sick, rubber bottle stomach and said,
Don't shoot. Willie; I'll come down to
$1S5 hundred if you won't start the
mill" Hearst dropped his gun, but he
has it cooked and primed all the time
and keeps his pc .er mighty dry. His
paper mill. idle though it is, proves to
be handsome investment. 1t keeps
Hearst from paying penalties for not hav-
ing gun.
That's one place where Roosevelt is
right in theory-a powerful navy makes
powerfully for peace. The best way to
keep out of trouble is to be prepared to
take care of it when it comes. The other
day a man was seized with mad impulse
to throw rock violently against the
person of another man. But looking down
the barrel of the other mans gun, he
discovered that he didn't want to throw
the rock quite as bad as he thought he
did The other man was better fixed
than he for taking care of trouble.
Several years ago, a reader of Pulitzer's
World was weary of certain impositions
he suffered in the big city of New York.
He desired the great papers help and
advice and wrote it complaint about the
evil. The letter was printed in the can
swers to Correspondents" column and I'M
der it was this consoling information:
"That is the penalty you have to pay for
being poor" That was all.
Yes, we are all up against the trusts and
things. On every hand and in every
walk of life men are paying a penalty
for being poor. It's real tough. A man
can see a. lot of things when he hasn't
got gun. It's because ''the things see
him venturing along without his gun and
take advantage of the situation.
Let's get gun. The Democratic party
is the party of the people and it is against
oppression of the masses by the trusts.
It's the gun all of us can use who are
too poor to own one like Hearst or Mel
son.