The independent., 1903-03-26

men in Chicago over the decadence of
morals, the increase of crime, the So
cial foulness in the two extremes of
society, that is, among the very rich
and the. very poor.
There is spread out before the edi-.
tor as he writes, one of the great Chi
cago dailies. The thing that the edi-
tor of that paper thinks is of the most
Importance to the public and to which
he gives the largest amount of space
in headlines is, "a Beautiful Virginia
Widow Forces Owen Burns to Dis
gorge $1,000 at the Point Of Re-.
volver." The space devoted in this
display head. is almost as great as
that of all the rest of the headlines
on the page. So the editor must have
concluded that the beautiful Virginia
widow and her revolver was the thing
that the 100000 inhabitants of Chi
cago were most interested in. The
rest of the first page of that great
daily is made up Of an article on roy
atty involved in a scandal, divorced
wife's plea, a murder case, fight
over will, an account of the birth of
a deformed child, something about
Minneapolis criminal, the announce
ment of the death of a notorious Tex
an, who, when acting as justice of the
peace when man was brought before
him for numbering Chinaman, an
nounced as his solemn judgment: Il
have examined the law Of this state
carefully and can find nothing which
makes it crime to kill Chinaman;
the defendant is discharged"
Then there are some sensational
charges described in which sister
of Congressman Hull accuses him OF
forging a will. An account Of the
proposed visit of the president an
item about the health of DR.. Webb
and a very short one concerning
revolution in Uruguay, make up the
contents of the whole page. This is
the leading republican daily of Chi
cago, the Inter-Ocean of March II. The
great p1utocratic dailies of the whole
land are like unto it. Some Of them
are even worse.
When the homes of the people are
constantly flooded with literature like
that, what other result can be ex-
pected than the one condition that
stares US in the face everywhere?
There is not one line in that whole
page that would tend to make bet
ter citizenship, that gives any useful
information, or that is not demoraliz-
ing and degenerating, except the an
nouncement concerning the president
and DR.. Webb. And this is not for
one day only. 1t comes in an over
whelming torrent every day in the
year, including Sundays. In fact Sun
days generally get quadrupled dose
of it.
There is an object in all this. These
editors persistently refuse to publish
articles of general interest to decent
people and most positively those of
an educational character, even when
written in unexceptional English and
offered free. 1t is the plan to amuse
the people with divorce news, scan
dals, murders and highly spiced oc-
currences in fashionable life, while
plutocracy perfects its plans for their
enslavement.
1t is claimed that this is the kind of
literature that the people want and
the only kind that they will buy and
pay for Is the claim true? The ca
reer of The Independent proves that
it is not. This paper prints no such
stuff and never has. Yet it has had a
steady growth for the last ten years
and continues to grow. 1t has spread
into every state and territory of the
Union opd noptippac 70 cpraad ;o