The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1906-07-26

of pupIic service corporations and
commercial concerns that are averse to
having their operations restricted by
the provisions of the revised statutes.
Approaching the power of printers
ink the prime movers behind these
varied interests acquire ownership or
secure control of the leading papers in
the city or locality adjacent to their
field of operations-not for the earn
ings that accrue to legitimate news
paper plant, but in order that no
substantial opposition may be encoun-
tered when their interests are in
volved, and, by pervertive tactics, to
create confusion in the common mind,
and to keep the masses guessing as to
the proper line of partisan cleavage
whenever they are to be exploited by
private schemes under the guise of
public spirit.
For, Notwithstanding the plentitude
of their power, these capitalistic cor
uptionists-whom William Marion
Reedy has happily dubbed "The Big
Rich"-are as cautious as they are
crafty. They evidently appreciate the
accuracy OF Napoleon's apothegm
that: "Hostile newspapers are more
to be feared than a thousand bayo-
nets" and, altho always arrogantly
assertive of what they pretend to be-
lieve are their superior rights, there
Is nothing they fear so much as an
aroused public conscience.
Therefore, they do not openly as
sumo their true position of self-inter-
est, nor do they permit their
subsidized sheets openly to defend
their methods, but, on one pretext or
another, and by language as subtle as
it is specious, they attempt to attract
attention to tosometffHg else. When
as now-the public is justly incensed
over the filthy conditions known to
obtain in connection with the plants,
processes, and products of Packing
town, and clamors for relief from the
the venal newspapers attempt to mini
mize the really vital question of hu-
man life and health, and profess to te
concerned over the possible conse-
quence to the livestock industry and
the export market. In effect they say:
"You may theorize about the value of
American lives, but hands off Ameri-
can business" The thought is not
definite, of course, but that is the SEN
timent which prompts it.
When the people become aroused
: over the revelations concerning cor
ruption in high places, the partisan
} papers deal in glittering generalities,
and misquote the immortal Bunyan's
7 utterances on the man with the muck
/ rake When the public becomes in
: sistent in its demands that rascality
in high places shall slacken its gait
! and mend its ways, those same sheets
!, prate OF 'national honor" and exhaust
: their vocabulary of hackneyed terms
. and high-sounding phrases in praise
. of "civic honesty" and the grandeur Of
8 American ideals and institutions
4 And, thanks to the permeability of the
3 dear, people to the bhang-tipped shaft
Q of flattery, they are soon lulled into
q sense of security, and not infre
q quently become so entranced as to Ii
4 unmindful of the hands of the plullder
8 ers in their pockets
Such is the power of the press
: Honeycombed as it is with the pre-
Q vailing brand of commercial morality
q it hesitates to indulge in the strictly
: dangerous, but will stand for anything
: that may be prudently done in behalf
j of the "vested interests" whom it il
: prone to portray as the t'fower of civ
!, ilization," and any thought Or actor
Q calculated to Inconvenience them, o.
/ to accomplish the defeat of their sci
Il fish schemes, is warfare on society"
g 1t would be extravagance, of course
d to charge the existing state Of affair."
to any one cause, or to hold responsi
l. BILE society that probably does lee
il thinking than any society has eve
n done since the world began. The i'm
Is mediate responsibility, however, /
l. easily traceable to those individuals
/ and corporations, that own and con