Arizona republican., 1906-05-27
PHoEN1x. ARIZONA, MAY 27, 1906
SUBSIDIZED NEWSPAPERS.

SUBSIDIZED NEWSPAPERS.
 Standard oil company methods are so uniformly iniquitous. that there is nothing to be said in behalf of the corporation. If half that the interstate commerce commission is trying to prove is capable of proof, the company will have been shown to be the most heartless organization that ever ex- isted. The prosecutors of the company however, should beware of a multi plicity of charges of offenses of a minor nature. Wicked as they might age individual. or the average corpo- ration, they would appear weak, puer- ils and unimportant in comparison with many pretty we'll established crimes of the oil company. The effect of mingling these lesser charges with the greater ones will naturally be to dilute the latter
 For instance, the effort at yester days investigation to show that the Standard had subsidized chain of Ohio newspapers. appears to be anti climacteric after the earlier proof of the company's uninterrupted violation of fedora l and state laws, ordering even the murder of competitors or the destruction of their property.
 There is a rather fine line between subsidizing newspaper and buying its advertising space, though after all, the two things are widely different To subsidize newspaper is after all, not a criminal offense. We do not believe that it can be considered to be an in cident in a conspiracy. A subsidized newspaper is not however, an admir- able thing and the respectable news paper will not be subsidized. Some newspapers, though, have to be subsi- dized for either good or evil. They must be subsidized if their support is secured for a moral and progressive movement, but they submit just as cheerfully to substituting in behalf of an immoral or retrograde movement.
 But, as We have said, however des- picable on both sides, substituting is, it is not criminal. If it should be shown beyond doubt that the Standard oil has secured the concerted support of large number of newspapers. and this fact should be included in the report which the commission is to make to congress, we can not imagine what congress will do about it.
 This Is not the first, though 1t is only little the most recent newspa- Der subsidy. of which there has been suspicion. Last fall there appeared in a large number of newspapers and magazines of the eastern and middle states articles filled with reasons why the territories of. Arizona and. New Mexico should be forced into joint statehood. These articles appeared about the same time and in language so similar in all that it was suspected that bureau had been established. One of these articles, at least, was written by Senator Beveridge. The arguments of all of them were later found condensed in the presidents message.
 A lew weeks ago there appeared al- most simultaneously in dozens of newspapers throughout the country, an adverse estimate of Senator AL drich and the statement that the pres ident had all but accomplished his downfall and would shortly finish him. In the same newspapers it was hinted that Senator Foraker was not what he was popularity supposed to be. Never before had there been such general appearance of newspaper sub sidizing as set in year or more ago.
 But. as We have hitherto remarked. while subsidizing is not nice, it is not criminal. The Standard oil company can not be handled severely even if the offense cauld be proved