The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1905-09-16
Union LABOR SHOULD
SUPPORT: UNION PAPER
We Fight Your Battles When
All Other Papers Are Work
ing Against You.
When You Are In Trouble You
Come to Us and Expect a
Great Deal.

"The ordinary laboring man does
not realize the Importance Of support
Ing a. labor paper" said a we'll known
local man to use the other day. =
What do mean by the labor press
Certainly not every paper that claims
to be the workingman's friend. Not at
all! I mean by the labor press those
papers which are published exclusive
~ in the interests Of the wage Garner.
why cry out that the labor papers
do not give you the news. You must
have your newspaper, and you be-
grudge the extra expense of the labor
journal.
THE labor journal does not give
you the news, and the capitalistic par
.pers do give you the news. That Is
your claim. The truth Is that the
capitalistic papers give you what news
they think is best to give you, and
suppress the rest. They give you
garbled accounts of every labor dis
turbance, and no account at all Of
many other happenings. Consequent
~, if you take a capitalistic paper and
no labor paper you remain in ignor-
ance of the very things it Is most I'M
portant that you should know.
why do say capitalistic papers?
Because the ordinary newspaper is
owned by the capitalists and run for
the interests of the capitalists. It's
object is not merely to make money
for its owners, but to manufacture
sentiment in favor Of any project they
desire to ADVANCE and to arouse an
tagonism against any persons or OBJ
jects which obstruct eheir path to
wealth and power. And in order &c
influence sentiment for or against a
person or object, magnify or suppress
news as the case may be.
THE corruption of the public press
of the country is hardly guessed at by
the average man. Take up one Of the
daily newspapers and examine 1t
carefully. You will find trifles mag
nified to ridiculous proportions in the
news columns; great outcries and ap-
peals to sentiments on behalf Of the
people of some distant land; records
of the follies and fashions Of the imbe-
cile spendthrifts and do-nothings Of
the uppen-ten; silly advice to love-
sick girls, etc. etc. And next day you
will hear, quite outside your 'newspa-
per- that this and that financial pol
icy has been quietly made without
a word spoken to anybody until 1t Is
too late to do anything. Great SUI
fering among certain classes of our
citizens is either entirely unmention-
ed or receives an inch or two Of space.
Or there is a labor war. and cruelty
and hardships are endured by our own
citizens which would BE reported with
glazing headlines If they had happen
ed in Russia, but, strange. to say, your
city newspaper doesn't say a word
about them.
What does this mean? It means
that so-called newspapers are the or
gans Of the employing class, and are
controlled in the interest Of that class.
Sometimes the employers get into
a quarrel and then one or both parties
fish for the workfngman's support in
their quarrel. Then they get plenty
Of news Of a. sort. The pot shows up
how black the kettle is. and vice versa.
But where do you come it? Nowhere,
unless you will play the cat to pull
the monkeys chestnut out OF the fire.
Their quarrels are not our quarrels,
nor their gain our gain, and the quick
er you realize this and fix your eve
attent1vely upon your own ends. the
sooner We will all come to an intelli-
gent understanding Of social problems.
when the subject Is thoughtfully
considered it becomes evident that it
is at least as much a union mans duty
to support the labor press as to buy
union-made goods Of any kind"