Truth. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1901-1908, 1905-11-11

Consequently, it should be among the |
first to recognize the incalculable harm |
which is being done daily to individu- |
ais, business inerests and to journal |
ism itself by the tendency of large
number of papers to distort truth and,
in some cases, to deliberately lie for
the purpose of pandering to the ire
sponsible mob
The Journalist not only processes"
as the Sun puts ito be the organ of
the newspaper profession, but for over
twenty years it has been constructed
by newspaper men for newspaper men,
and it is in the interest of decent and
honest journalism that it has so vigor
ously in recent issues fought against
that senseless lying on the part of
some newspapers which has made the
New York Legislatures investigation
of the life insurance companies an
event to be remembered with shame
by journalists who love their profess
sion and are jealous of it's honor
1t is fact patent to anybody who
has followed the testimony of the in
vestigation that the out-of-town sub
scriber to the Associated Press, for
instance, cannot get anything but
biased and unreliable reports of the
proceedings by wire.
A dispatch relating to the subject a
few days ago announced that a sensa-
| ton was created at point in the pro
ceedings by the admission of a witness
that his company made a practice of
committing renewal premiums" and
those familiar with insurance who read
| the startling news have been wonder
| ing ever since what the deuce was
meant.
Franklin Webster, editor of the In
surance Press, was among those who
wondered, and he wrote the great and
good Melville e. Stone query. Mr..
Stone replied that "Vice-President But
| Ter" so testified. All of which is
pretty good sample of the reliability
of Associated Press news, for even
that shining mark in journalism, Mr..
Stone, did not take the trouble to find
out that there is no "Vice-President
Butler" Probably he meant Vice.
President Buckner of the New York
Life, although we do not remember
that the latter said anything about
committing renewal premiums" and
certainly there was no sensation.
Here's another from the same source
of news on which a great number of
the policy-holders and taxpayers must
rely:
only the repeated threats of Sena-
tor Armstrong, chairman of the COM
mittee, to clear the room prevented
violent demonstrations of disapproba-
ton of the witness, Richard A. Nc
Curdy, president of The Mutual Life
Insurance Company"
| All of which anybody who was there
except the more or less brilliant scrub
who penciled that dispatch knows is
well, unqualifiedly untrue.
Is it any wonder, then, that those
who suffer from such perversions of
truth should be settled in the convic-
ton that reform is needed in news
paper work?
Mr. Hughes asks a series of ques-
tions on the techncalities of insurance
which are answered quietly, frankly,
and with an obvious desire to tell the
exact truth and no more. Shortly af-
ter local ears are assailed with another
red and yellow 'wuxtry," setting forth
a statement of events which never oc.
Cured and striving maliciously to blast
the reputation of some honest man
whose only fault has been that he is
connected with a great financial insti.
tuition and that he knows something