Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-05-10
POWER OF THE PRESS
IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS.
"Publicity' the Only Sure Method of Checking the
Reign of Monopoly-Papers Who Sell Their
Birthright for a Mess of Pottage

vague mass, the public and is there
lost to view. Hence it does not take
a Borgia to knead chalk and alum
and plaster into the loaf, seeing one
cannot know just who will eat that
loaf, or what grippe it will give him.
The purveyor of spurious life pre-
servers need not be a Cain. The
owner of rafter tenement houses,
whose pull enables him to ignore
the order of the health department,
foredooms babies, it is true; but for
all that he is not a HerOd."
The modern sin Is impersonal. The
man who charges the public three
prices for the necessities of life is
neither seen nor known by name. He
does not think he is a robber, for he
is merely putting up the price to pay
dividends on watered stock. He sits
i'm a richly furnished directors room
and is in constant connection with his
lawyer, who enables him to soar into
the twilight zone where he may vio-
late the spirit Of the law without fear
of paying the penalty. Moreover this
modern criminal, who manipulates
the markets to the injury of the
many and takes from the mouth of
labor the bread it has earned" is
personally one Of the cleverest men
alive. who gives to the widow, the
orphan and the church. and is a dot
ing father and a tender husband. He
BILE to associate him with putting up
the price Of beef to the consumer
and pulling it down to the producer
Control of the Press.
But, measured by the far-reaching
result Of his stock -jobbings, stock
watering and influence in fixing
prices, he is a robber beside whom
the train-wrecker and highwayman
were amateurs. Where they bodily
sandbagged their victim and got 500,
he. with lips as sweet as sugar and
manners that Chesterfield might envy,
relieves the helpless public Of mil
lions by shrewd evasions of the law.
Or he gains tainted money by putting
his agents and attorneys into public
positions, to enact laws through which
a four-horse wagon can be driven, to
cOnstrue laws so he may escape, or
be blind to the enforcement of laws.
This modern law w-breaker-these
"malefactors of wealth." as Mr..
Roosevelt called them-take no
chances. They try to control the four
branches Of government-the execu-
tive, the legislative, the judicial and
the press. II they control the press,
it is easier to control, or silence, the
others.
When the press is silent the corrupt
and selfish new issue criminals feel
perfectly safe. They can then more
easily control politics and rob the peo-
pie by subsidizing the press. Corrupt
politics can be traced to rich and re-
spectacle franchise grabbers, who
deal with the boss.
Public execration is heaped on the
corrupt boss by portion Of the press,
outer darkness-and yet how often is
the rich franchise grabber held up as
the man worthy of emulation, when
he was more guilty Of stealing the
streets of the city than the plant
political boss!
What is the duty Of the press with
reference to such malefactors? 1 am
now referring to the unsubsidized
press, which includes most of our
journals. 1t Is lamentably true that
as the owners OF street cars, water,
lights. railroads. trusts and all cor
pOrations affected by law or govern
ment. have seen that publicity" is
greater than law. they have reached
out their hands to silence, or buy, the
of the press nave refused to sell out
be subsidized, or be silenced. the cam
paign for the control Of the Depart
ment Of Publicity" has not been a fail
ure. and there are papers charged
with the duty of protecting the public
which are engaged in the service Of
violators of law, and which join
hands with shrewd lawyers who sell
their talents to help their clients con-
tinue their lawless practices. control
city, state and national legislation.
There are very few papers that are
the subsidized, active partisans Of the
rich violators of the law. There are
more that are retained to suppress
information and facts that would in
jure the corporation that is in control
of the paper. If any man can come
into a sanctum and say Don't print
this news or fact because it might in
jure my cOmpany"-if any sanctum
is so controlled, that paper has sold
its birthright.