New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1903-12-15
SENATOR TELLER AND THE PRESS.
In his speech of December 9. on Cuban reel
procity, Senator Teller said:


prOcity, Senator Teller said:
I omitted to read yesterday extract I had
intended TO read, and which l want to read
now, taken from The New-York Tribune of the
9th of January, 1898:
THE public misery is terrible Municipal
Council requests your support for speedy solu-
''tion OF economic problem to avoid awful con-
dition of hunger and calamitieS Whlch VIII
occur il efficient remedy is not furnished La
"borers without work; there are no industries;
commerce is ruined. Cuban people expect that
the United States, the arbiter of this situation
will make Of Cuba a happy country, and not
"a land of mendicants."
Mr.. President, it would be very difficult for
the most expert and scholarly individual IN the
world TO get into the same space any more false
hoods than are contained in what l have Just
read. That published in of the great
newspapers Of this country-a newspaper that
TO my certain knowledge, in some of the best
sections of the United States, is practically the
only paper read, a paper with which l have been
familiar ever since ii started under Mr.
Greeley. 1 know that in certain sections of the
State Of New-York whole communities practi-
cally take other paper than that 1t is TO
them what the Bible IS 10 the average Christian.
Whatever is in that paper they believe. Whether
II be political. religious or economic II makes
but little difference It is taken not with a
grain Of allowance but as an absolute truth
can imagine, Mr.. President, when my former
youthful associates up in that part of the coun-
try read this article they must have thought 1
was monster of cruelty and wickedness if I
could resist such an appeal as that, and If It
had been true 1 could not
After such a generous tribute to the great
ness and power Of The Tribune, it is hard to
examine critically this and other statements
made by the Senator in his two days speech.
1t is necessary, however, in the interests Of
truth and the honor Of journalism. In the first
place, Mr.. TelIer's remark that he had omitted
the extract the day before was itself an over
sight. He had read it among other extracts at
| tributed TO this journal in an apparent though
not avowed attempt to make The Tribune ap-
| pear party to what he charged was work for
| Cuban reciprocity bought and purchased and
paid for partly by the government of Cuba,
| partly by the government of the United States,
| partly by the great Sugar Trust, and partly by
'the men who came here from Cuba at the ex-
'pense of the Cuban government" The extract
was not printed on January p, 1898, but on
| February ., 1902. Neither for it nor for any
/ Of the other extracts was The Tribune respon-
/ sible. They were all official letters and teIe-
grams sent from Cuba to the President and the
| War Department and published as such
At another point in his speech Mr.. Teller put
in definite form his charge of corruption against
| the newspapers Of the United States:
| Here. Mr.. President. have a statement which
! will put into The Record" from the War
| Department. showing that Cuban money was
| paid to papers IN the United States, as we'll as
| IN Habana, to publish these stories about the
| distress In Cuba
This is the first time so far as we remember
| that Mr. Teller has come into the open with a
| charge that newspapers are hired to oppose his
| views. Let US see what his proofs are. The
| documents he puts in the Record show the
| expenditure Of $3.50 9S for $3.50 copies Of
/ various issues of The New-York Journal of
| Commerce. The New-YorI Times" and THE
| New-York Herald" and S21 OS for 527 press
| clippings. That is absolutely the only news
| paper expenditure in the United States shown.
| The copies appear TO have been bought at the
usual price at which any person finding in a
| newspaper an article which he wishes particu-
lar persons to read buys it. He brings forward
| not a scrap OF evidence that any paper was
| paid Ito publish these stories" His Cuban evil
| dence is a record Of the purchase OF copies OF
| THE Havana Post" at apparently current rates
| and an expenditure OF $500 for the printing OF
some pamphlets-so far as appears, a simple.
straightforward business transaction.
This is the evidence and all the evidence
with which Mr.. Teller supports his charge that
newspaper opinion was bought up-"The New
| York Tines for So and 1.-The New-York Her
aid" for S11 25l Is that the extent of this great
conspiracy OF a subsidized press to oppose him?
Surely Senator Teller is too able and expert
enced a public man to imagine that such speci-
| hcations do more than make his charges against
his critics and opponents in the press grotesque;
| too able and experienced not 10 know that he
| is now in honor bound either TO prove them or
withdraw them In the same high forum in
which he has with such blazing indiscretion"
| advanced them.
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