The labor argus. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1906-1915, 1911-02-23

GREATEST
NEWSPAPER
BY UPTON ST. CLAIR

that the Appeal to Reason is an incen-
diary sheet which ought to be sup
pressed. I shall not attempt to argue
that point; any one who has read the
Appeal and holds that opinion would
not be open to argument. For the sake
of those who may have taken their i'm
pressions from hearsay, it may be worth
while to state that there is one man who
has given a great deal of time to the
study of his country's history, and who
watches the trend of present-day events
with care, who considers that Appeal
the most important political journal now
published in America. ] say this
deliberately and in all soberness. We
are at this moment in the grip of relent-
less economic forces, which will put an
end to democratic institutions in the
United States in another ten years, nm.
less our people can be reused to some
realization of their peril; and we have
only the Appeal and few other outcast
papers to look to in the emergency.
We have had our little spasm OF re-
form, and it is past. We have cleaned
up everything, and the people have set
tied back in peace. "Muckralling' is
out of fashion, and our magazines are
| filed with love stories. Prosperity is on
the way, the tariff is in the hands of its
friends in short, reaction sits en-
throned and triumphant in city. state
and nation.
| SO those upon whom the nightmare of
wage slavery presses have only the Ap
peal to look to. Whatever the others
may do, the Socialist papers will keep
pounding away; and when he new dawn
comes, if ever it does come, it will be
they who have caused it-iust exactly
as they caused the wave which recently
passed.
The reader is n conservative and re-
spectacle citizen, I presume. He has
had his moods of radicalism and his i'm
pulses of reform, and he would be start
led to learn that he owes them to the
Appeal to Reason. Yet SO it is as he
can prove to himself, if he will read the
paper, and watch the advance of the new
tide. The mills of capitalism grind out
their inevitable crop of injustice and
horror; and men who suffer therefrom
seek for outlet among the capitalist
newspapers and magazines-and do not
find it. So they turn to the Appeal.
which is a clearing house for social dis
content. The Appeal publishes the facts.
and continues to publish them, until the
community is forced to pay attention to
them, and they begin to break out into
respectable publications-which- are, of
course, very careful not to mention their
source. EN- President Roosevelt has taken
occasion to dcnouncc the Appeal in bitter
language; yet I would wager him that !
could show him where every one of his
reform projects was prepared for by ex-
posures in that paper, which for fifteen
years has been pouring it's weekly broad
sides into the citadel of capitalism.
There is one case in which 1 think
can speak with authority. The presi-
dents friends speak with pride of his
campaign against the Chicago packers.
had something to do with that cam
paign, and I know how it went. 1t was
Warren to whom the public owes 'The
Jungle" and the beef trust campaig
which followed. 1t was Warren who
suggested Inc story, ana III was tlle &AP-
peal which advanced the money for the
writing of it. 1t was the Appeal which
published it serially. and forced it upon
the attention or the country. President
Roosevelt told me he had received many
hundreds of letters about the book! ]
did not tell him that they had been writ
ten by the Appeal Army.
That is one case. ] could name {.
score. 1t was the Appeal which printed
the stories of peonage and forced the ac-
ton of the government against it. II
was the Appeal which first printed the
facts about the white slave traffic and
forced the federal authorities to take
note. The Appeal printed facts about
the slaughter of men in the steel mills:
and now we have the Pittsburg sur
vey. The Appeal printed facts about
the elaborate system of prostitution
which is maintained in Washington I'm