The Topeka state journal., 1911-03-30
THE PENALTY OF MUCKRAk1NG

Undertaking has had a rude awaken
ing, writes H. H. Windsor in Popular
Mechanics for March. The law. which
it so loudly called down upon a big
corporation, has at last been invoked
by the victim and the accusing maga-
zine loses no time In begging for mercy,
and pleading to be let off with a re-
traction. After all the abuse, vilifca-
ton, and certainly no small amount of
falsehood which magazine writer's and
publishers have for several years
heaped upon the Standarda Oil company,
that corporation would have been am
ply justified in pushing its suit, even
with the full knowledge that to do so
might mean conf1scation of the maga-
zine. Perhaps the lesson will be taken
to heart by other muckrakers whom
immunity thus far has emboldened to
write, regardless of all sense of fair
ness and frequently of fact. Have you
ever considered the why of the muck
raker? It seems to me like this:
When Rome was fighting it's wars of
conquest, building its empire and franz
ing it's wonderful code Of laws, the
minds of the people were occupied in
the doing of real things. Then the
people profted by public contests of
strength and skill, and physical man
hood was glorified. But later on, with
surrounding nations subjected, and sur
feited with conquest, the appetite for
blood led to the institution of those
revolving dramas where blindfolded
gladiators fought to the death, and
helpless maidens were fed alive to wild
beasts, or served as living torches. All
these for the entertainment of the
masses. 1t was a legalized concession
to perverted public taste, as ignoble,
beastly and degenerating as it was
cruel and wicked.
For the past 10 years we have had
what is known as yellow journalism.
For time this was confined to the
daily press. A depraved public appetite
for the sensational was thus created
and nurtured. The simple. straightfor-
ward. accurate telling of an event
ceased to satisfy A perverted taste
demanded highly favored and sensa-
| tional style in which extravagant
statement, suspicion, accusation and
innuendo were employed to make a
startling condition, quite regardless of
truth or of what the effect might be
on the innocent subject of the attack.
the weekly public murders through
mere monotony of repetition, so the
American public at last grew tired of
mudslinging because of its common
ness They were surfeited. Their
mental digestion was impaired; the
food no longer produced the healthy
red corpuscles which gave strength to
mind and Imagination. Their brain
cells were clogged with poisonous mat
ter; the whole mental system was run
down. It became a case of 1.-The day
after with an unwholesome, dark
brown taste in the mouth. The sub
stantial, sanely entertaining, instruct
| i've. beautiful and hea1thful articles OF
fiction. travel, biography and the like,
seemed tame after the long mental
debauch. And today both publisher
and reader of the yellow magazines
are wondering. the one why his sales
are falling off, and the other why the
magazine is no longer so interesting as
it used to be. Yellow leaves fall from
withered branches.
Another phase Of this back-flring OF
the engine is seen in the frenzied, arti-
fetal methods to hold and bolster up
circulation by means of premiums to
secure subscribers. and in the cut rates
where q combination of publishers Of