Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1907-04-13


the newspapers with which | had adj
vertising contracts. They also con
trolled the main sources through
which the press was supplied with
newsstand often and well they had
used this control, and surprisingly
cautious had they been not SO to
abuse it that the editors and the pub
lie would become suspicious. When
my war was at its height, when | was
beginning to congratulate myself that
the huge magazines of THE Seven
were empty almost to the point at
which they must sue for peace on my
own terms, all in four days AZ of my
81 newspapers--and they the most I'M.
portant-notiiied me that they would
no longer carry out their contracts to
publish my daily letter. They gave as
their reason, not the real one, fear OF
THE Seven" but fear that / would
involve them in ruinous libel suits. /
who had legal proof for every state
ment | made | who was always care
full to understate. Next, one press
association after another ceased to
they had been doing SO regularly for
months The public had grown tired
of the sensation" they said.
countered with telegram to- one
or more newspapers in every city and
large town in the United States:
The Seven are trying TO cut the
wires between the truth and the pub
lie. III you wish my daily letter, tele-
graph me direct and | will send it at
my expense"
The response should have warned
The Seven" But it did not. Under
their orders the telegraph companies
refused to transmit the letter. | got
an injunction. 1t was obeyed in typi-
CAL corrupt corporation faShiOn-they
sent my matter, but so garbled that 1t
was unintelligibIc. / appealed to the
courts. In vain.
To me. il was clear as sun in cloud
less MONDAY sky that there could be
but one result of this inSolent and
despotic denial of my rights and the
rights, of the people, this public con-
fession of the truth OF my charges.
turned ever thing salable or mort
gaGcab0 into cash, locked the cash up
in my private vaults, and waited for
the cataclysu-
-Friday-Saturday. Ap-
parently all was tranquil; apparently
the people accepted the Wall street
theory that | was an texplOded sensa-
ton" THE Seven" began to preen
themselves: the strain upon them to
maintain prices, IL no less than for
three months past, was not notably
greater: the crisis would pass, 7 and
my exposures would be forgotten. the
routine of reaping the harvests and
leaving only the gleanings for the
sewers would SOON be placidly re.
sumed.
Sunday. Roebuck. taken i'll az he
was passing the basket in the church
of which he was the shining light, died
at midnight beautiful, peaceful
death. they say, with his daughter
reading the Bible aloud. and his lips
moving in prayer. Some hold that.
had he lived the tranquility would
have continued: but this Is the view OF
those who cannot realize that the tide
of affairs is no more controlled by the
great men" than is the river led down
to the sea by its surface flotsam. by
which we measure the speed and di-
rection of its current. Under that ter
rife tension. which to the shallow
seemed calm. something had to
give way If the dam had not yielded
where RoebuclI stood guard, 1t Must
have yielded somewhere else, or might
have gone all in one grand crash.
Monday. You know the story of the
artist and his Statue OF Grief-how he
nodded the features Il hundred times.
always failing. always getting an anti
climax, until at last in despair he gave
up the impossible and finished the
statue with q veil over the face.
have tried again and again 10 assem-
bic words that would give some not
too Inadequate impression of that ire
mendous week in which. with success
sion OF explosions. each like the crack
of doom, the financial structure that
housed S0,00o,000 of people burst col
lapsed. was engulfed. ! cannot. |
must leave id to- your memory or your
imagination.
For years the financial leaders,
crazed by tho excess of power which
the people had in Ignorance and over
confidence and sioVenly Sood-nature
permitted them to acquire, had been
tearing out the honest foundations on
when alone so vast structure can
hope TO rest solid and secure. They
had 5een substituting rotten beams
painted to look Hike stone and IRON.
The crash had to come. the sooner.
the better--when thing is wrong.
each days delay compounds the cost.
% ,.i,rLti,,.r Co Nith Ill tho horrors.