The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1905-10-28
.DENVER's DAD name IS !.
DUE TO YELLOW PRESS
William e. Curtis Makes Care
full Investigation Of Political
and Industrial Condition.
Says Colorado Is in Throes of
Wild and Woody Yellow
Journalism.

Denver, Oct. 26.--nenver has bad
reputation among the people Of the
East, reputation for sensations, for
extravagances, political conspiracies
and corruption, dramatic marriages
and divorces, which is undersigned
and is due to the yellow journals
which are printed in this city and to
the efforts of irresponsible CORES
pondents to make a living. Every
| thing is magnified as much as posi-
BILE; everything is treated in the SUI
perlative degree.
Denver is the victim of exaggera-
ton. If you will read the headlines
in the newspapers any day you will
recognize what mean. If some
body falls into an ordinary ditch he
long into a bottomless ,chasm; II
some servant girl receives legacy OF
a few thousand dollars from an
uncle up in the mountains she is de-
scribed as the heiress to millions.
Everything that happens, no matter
how trivial or commonplace, is mag
nif1ed into a sensation, under a mis-
taken idea that the public is easily
deceived, when as matter of fact
the newspapers themselves are the
victims of their own presentations.
A young woman who tends the news
stand at a hotel remarked:
Zone papers just about as bad as
the other. You can't rely on any OF
them; they are half full of lies and
half full of exaggeratio2s, and ev-
erybody knows it, so nobody's fool
ed"
Last fall, during the trouble with
the miners at Cripple Creek, the cor
respondents of eastern newspapers
at Denver, Colorado Springs and
! other places did the state an infinite
amount Of harm by similar exagger-
turbances were ten times as bad as
they actually were, and it will be a
long time before Colorado can re-
cover from that reputation. l re-
ceived letters from people who
wanted to spend the winter in Col
orado Springs, but were afraid to
come for fear they might be shot
down in the streets or have their
houses burned over their heads. On
my return to the East I was Ques-
toned by several good people who
| were under the impression that half
the cities of Colorado were controll-
ed by mobs and the other half by
vigilance committees. They got their
ideas from the dispatches sent to
eastern newspapers by correspondents
in Denver, Colorado Springs, Cripple
Creek and other places. These COR
respondents made their dispatches
as sensational as possible in order
to get them printed and paid for.
II they had stated the facts, il they
had given accurate descriptions Of
| conditions, the newspapers would
not have published the news, be-
| cause it would have been common
place.
It is true that there have been
sensational events in Denver, Grip
pie Creek and the rest of the state
! connected with politics and labor
| troubles, and the eastern public be-
| came accustomed to reading exciting
| news from Colorado; but the dis
| turbances are not chronic nor more
frequent than elsewhere, and the
| real Denver, the real Colorado, is
very different from what has been
represented.
The Denver newspapers are chief
ly responsible for these misrep-
reservations. Competition is so keen
| that they try to Guido each other in
scarlet display lines and exaggera-
tions, although I believe that a seri-
| Gus, conservative newspaper, print
ing nothing but true and useful in.
formation, would be cordially sup
| ported by the public and could do
much to set Denver and other cities
of Colorado in their proper light be-
fore the world.
| We have recently had an illustra-
ton. The responsible editor of two
of the Denver papers (mornlpg and
| EVENING", member of the United
States Senate, has been summoned
before the Supreme Court of the
state by committee of the Bar AS
ISOLATION to show cause why he
should not be disbarred and punish
ed for contempt because in his news
paper he accused that tribunal of
dishonesty, corruption and PARTISAN
ship in a decision affecting local po-
lit1cs. Last year the Legislature of
Colorado passed an act CONSOLIDATE
ing the county and municipal gov
ernments of Denver and making
! them, one and the same. When the
| act took effect the officials then in
office, who happened to be Repub-
licans, were supplanted by another
| set chosen at special election, who
happened to be Democrats. The OPP
ponents of the merger went into
court, and after a full and fair hear
ing the Supreme Court of the state
! declared the act unconstitutional and
most Of the proceedings under it UNI
lawful and void. The decision threw
| out the Democratic officials who
have been chosen at the special cleo
ton and restored to office the Re-
publicans who had been displaced.
Mr.. Patterson, a member of the
United States Senate, lawyer OF
long experience and the responsible
editor Of two newspapers, became so
hysterical over the displacement Of
the Democratic officials that the he
lost all sense of propriety and at
tackled the court in a most violent