Los Angeles herald., 1906-11-22


The defeat Of Hearst, although not as
crushing as It ought to have been, saves
New York state from a disgrace which
would have cast its shadow over the
whole country. More interest was felt
IN the result Of this contest than in any
local struggle The dread that Hearst
would win was the one anxiety among
decent people throughout the United
states, and I'm many instances local
disappointments were completely over
come in the relief which followed when
It was positively known that Hughes
had won.
So malign has the figure of Hearst
become in the eyes of the man who
respects his country and its institutions:
so dreaded his triumph lest it lead to
still greater flights of political ambi-
tion, that, had he been successful, the
news would have generally been re-
ceived as the gloomest tidings in the
country's history since the assassination
of Mckinley. 1t Is not alone that the
man himself is repugnant to intelligent
and unperverted people, but the forces
he leads and the things he stands for
are such that no right thinking person
can contemplate even their partial
triumph without the profoundest re-
gret and the most disheartening fore
bodings.
ceeded In securing has served to
awaken the public to the dangerous
power which can be exerted through
the agency of selfish and unscrupulous
Journalism, backed by almost unlimited
wealth. No living man has ever made a
worse use of his money than Hearst,
He has applied it to the establishment
of newspapers, the employment of
writer's and the general propagandism
OF opinions, the whole and sole object
of which is to work upon the preju-
dices of the uneducated and debased,
with the deliberate intention of Great
ing class war for the devilish salts
faction of making hatred and the selfish
hope of securing power and place to
himself.
Many respectable and law observing
people have long been accustomed to
smile tolerantly at the antics of the yell
low journal and it's equally dangerous
Fellow, the newspaper without con-
science or principle. Such journals did
not influence them; they did not read
them, and they took 1t for granted that
those who did lacked the intelligent
cohesiveness to act on their suggestion.
Here they underestimated both the
cleverness of those who wrote and the
power of those who read. Thousands
Of raw recruits to the army of Ameri-
can citizenship have absorbed these
dangerous teachings through the medi-
um of the press.
Thoughts expressed in such plain
and simple English that even the most
ignorant could understand their mean
ing have been gradually spreading
their noxious influence upon the lowest
classes of the people, encouraging them
to believe that they are enslaved, that
those in authority are leagued to op-
press and degrade them, and that their
redemption from poverty and evil lies,
not in the individual development of
character and the gradual application
of the principles of honesty and thrift,
but in a concerted attack upon the es-
tablished institutions of the country
and the overthrow of all restraint.
Thus the fires of class hatred are con-
stantly being fed with new fuel, and
the climax sought is political and finan-
cial chaos.
Mr.. Ochs, publisher of the Philadel-
phia Public Ledger, in an article on
journalism says:
"An insidious evil has in late years
crept into the press, an evil inevitable
| in a country that has experienced q
growth such as ours. Our rapid devel-
opment has created colossal fortunes
tates, lavish expenditures, prodigal dis
play, the concentration of power
through enormous wealth-all of which
can be distorted to magnify the in
equalities in conditions of life, and
adroitly used to produce discomfort and
unrest.
THE demagogic journalist who is far
more dangerous that the demagogic pol
itician, was quick to invade the fruitful
field. He realized the proneness of hui
man nature to exaggeration and sensa-
tionalism; also that class hatred and
popular discomfort afforded rich oppor-
tunities for journalists of certain
type
"They were at first called yellow a
term which implied sensationalism
| They dealt chiefly with the seamy side
of human nature. giving unlimited
space to tales of hideous crime, f1aunt-
| ing vice in it's most abhorrent form in
gross exaggeration, crawling like SER