Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1906-06-28
uNcLEAN NEwsPAPERlNG.

This campaign will long be notable
not only for the corrupt aad indefensi-
BILE fashion in which the anti-Cummins
fight has been carried on, but for the
zeal and willingness with which news
papers Of excellent standing hereto
fore have prosttuted their columns to
admit lying reports, forged and garbled
quotations from the speeches of prom
inent men, and their editorial columns
to misrepresentation and bald falsity
OF assertion. From the Des Mones and
Cedar Rapids railroad organs nothing
less was expected, but it Is a matter
for sincere regret when a journal like
the Burlington Hawkeye has become
notable and unrepentant offender in
this respect.
Last Saturday the Hawkeye and 9TH
er Blythe papers printed dispatch
asserting that Governor 1larrabee, re-
ferring to Cummins at Waukon. said:
"Alhert was railroad attorney then
and he stood in with the whisky ring,
and they sent him to the house for a
purpose. But they drove him too hard.
and he baked. Cummins has been on
the wrong side on almost every aues-
ton. But L guess ha is going right
now When this fabricated report
was brought to the attention of Lar
rabee. he wired immediately 1T is a
base fabrication. Ask any one of about
500 persons present at them ceilings.
Then the Hawkeye squirlned into the
assertion that Larrabee said il in pri-
vate conversation. and without shame
or apology defended its lying dispatch
and its violation of the simplest ethics
i#of decent pubicists.
Larrabee never said nor insinuated
anything of the kind. The dispatch
was utterly false, sent with purpose,
and points logically to Encouragement.
No one with knowledge Of Larrabee's
Character could credit it. 1t was so
plainly false on the face Of it that to
give it space was to become a party to
the fabrication.
What Larrabee thinks and says of
Cummns was expressed yesterday at
independence to a gathering of Blu
cfanan county voters, when after re-
viewing the governors long and con-
sistent services to the state in life
long fight against corporation control,
ne said:
governor Cumnins is more nearly
an Abraham Lincoln republican than
any of the men who are trying to steal
the nomination form him. If you call
him democrat, then give me the OPP
portunilty to vote for this democrat for
governor You and your children will
regret 1t if you permit him to be de-
feated in this struggle. The railroads
have sunk to the grossest injustice and
the most depraved means to defeat
him, but feel certain that Iowans will
always stand for justice and right.
"Theodore Roosevelt is leading the
fight for the people in the nation and
Governor Cumrnins is his lieutenant in
Iowa"
What is the use or sense Of lying
about Larrabee? Why do the Hawk
eye, the Des Moines Capital and their
ilk in the Iowa newspaper field sup
press what Larrabee actually said and
publish false reports of statements he
never made?
The reason is simple. Few men sub
scribe to more than one daily news
paper. A falsehood published and un-
corrected has its effect. 1t runs so fast
that it is never entirely overtaken and
destroyed. This has beer the policy
OF some Iowa newspapers thruout the
campaign, to lie about Cummins, fur
nish cooked up news reports Of the po-
4litical situation and defend them edi-
torially. This is why faxed up con-
vention reports are duplicated to vari-
OILS newspapers, why men like LARA
bee are misquoted, and figures of tax
alton manufactured and twisted away
from all semblance of fact
Unclean newspapering Is on the
same level as the shyster practice of
law. The newspaper thar opens its
news columns to forged quotations,
false dispatches, and lowers its editor
ial columns to Misrepresentation and
misstatement, belongs with the shyster
lawyer, the quack physician and the
paid ward heller.