The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1907-11-03
City and Country Newspapers.

WIZ 10 much to finally correct this
abuse.
City and Country Newspapers.
A New York newspaper, the World.
Is very much distressed or possihy
very indignant because, according to
us assertion, Mr.. Bryan said at Rich
mond that the great metropolitan
daiiIes are controlled by the trusts
ana their columns are open 10 the
ni&hest bidder The Worlds quota
tloh IS not accurate. | heard Mr. Bry-
as Si'cel2 ana recall that he said,
as he has tnlegraphed to the World,
many great metropolitan dailieS =
Nobody who knows anything Of either
New York or Chicago journalism will
question the justice of the statement
so qualified. The World, which show
Ell tie utmost irritation about it. has
done great work in exposing certain
trusts. 1t has fought hard and well
against the insurance infamics. the
Hartman methods Of finance and the
Metropolitan Traction But. after all.
when an antimonopoly and antitrust
candidate appears in either the Dem
ocratic or the Republican party we do
not lind the World enthusiastic or
even friendly. For MI Bryan it has
nothing but ridicule and malice: for
President Roosevelt, who has done
much and tried to do more. nothing
but hostility: for Senator La Toilette,
who on the Republican side is en-
phatically antitrust, the World has
little except silence or a semioccasonal
sheer.
Now, what Mr. Bryan really said at
Richmond was of more importance in
the part not quoted by the metropCl-
itan papers than that which they at
tack. lie said that the fight for real
popular government, for the represent
tation of the people in both the state
and the national government. must be
and would he taken up by thAcou2-
try papers He believed that tAtoun-
try press was free from the Influences
which affect. sometimes inSensibly,
many great metropolitan papers. The
country editor. it is safe to say. does
York newspaper alternately from
Monte Carlo and from his yacht. He
does not hold the most honorable posi-
ton of ambassador to England or to
St Petersburg and conduct his New
York or Chicago paper from either
point, so far removed from any touch
with the feeling of the common people
of the United States.
The great papers do a great work.
OF that there is no doubt But they
are not wholly free from the charge
Of constituting in themselves a trust,
and, as it now has come to pass that
their owners are multimillionaircsa and
must hold investments in trust Sc
curities, so beyond doubt they are in
sensibly Influenced by the trust senti-
ment. Mr.. Bryan was not first to say
that the country press was the one to
which representatives of the common
people must look for aid. The rage
and Indignation Of the metropolitan
press over his statement go far to
prove it's truth.
The Trusts Against the Trusts.
There are some students of public
affairs, some public men and econo-
miSts who hold that the operation of
natural law will ultimately destroy
monopolies and by so doing break
down the conditions which have Gre
ated the swollen fortunes which both
President Roosevelt and the leader OF
the Democratic party regard as Il
menace to the continued well being OF
the republic. / am frank to confess
that | have not agreed with this view.
It seems to me that legislation by
both state and nation, and very drastic
legislation at that. is necessary. AS
the president himself said in effect.
one of these millionaire monopolists
and stock jugglers in jail would be
worth hundred fines imposed upon
the corporation.
Yet it is worth while considering
whether the trusts are not going to
break themselves or, rather. whether
the men who have got control Of
them, in their eagerness to get rich
eand their personal jealousies. will not
bring down the whole artificial fabric
in one grand crash upon their own
heads. All of the men concerned in
the traction trust of New York city
have turned against each other, and
the revelations that they make about
each other have made the stock practi-
cally unstable and promise to engage
the attention of the courts for a decade
at least. Only last week the effort OF
one magnate Of a copper trust to beat
his rivals in Wall street resulted III
his being driven out of the banks he
controlled and his practical. though
possibly temporary, elimination from
the ranks of trust promoters. The
fall of He;nzc carried with him to il
certain extent Charles w. Morse, who
promoted and controls the ice trust
and the steamship trust. He. too. has
been forced TO resign from the direct
crate of every bank and trust com
pany with which he was connected
Z. r. Thomas. also widely enga ged in