The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1911-08-08
Voice Of the People


what | said in a Fourth OF July ad-
uress In Hanover. and the Press Asso-
cIdtion went so far as TO demand the
Facts, but somehow forgot to SEND me
their resolutions or even TO ask for
the facts. All the information that has
come to me has been through tho
lndness of friends who now and then
SEND me a paper. Surely all that en-
thusiasm was not meant for home con-
sumption.
All that was said about certain Rich
nond newspapers was not only true.
but more might be said and proved. If
any one Is interested he need only
read Inc Tlmes-Dispatch for December
~, 1876, to see what connection there
was with certain Wall Street oper-
ators of unsavory fame. At the same
time a similar relation was maintained
between two leading Richmond papers
and the directorate of the Southern
galway, a Morgan corporation. noted
all over the South for it's bulldozing
ana high-handcd conduct, Such ties as
this forbid a real freedom OF the press
as well in Richmond as In Chicago
dhere were the same relations to both
Ryan and the Southern Railway on
the part of the Charlotte Observer as
stated in the o speech: though
/ believe now that there was no such
connection ctwec the editor of the
Charleston News and Courier and these
New York interests. the error being
due, as / believe. to a dispatch in a
which mistook the U%ntermyer move
inent for a Ryan deal. This correc-
ton is gladly made. though nave
not seon any denial by the party
During the connection between the
Richmond papers and the Southern
i;aliway a prominent daily paper in
North Carolina was shown to have
received $4,000 a year from the vice
president OF that road. / saw no criti.
cism' of this in any Richmond paper
vi, course, this nice sum was only a
friendly gift to the newspaper and 1t
could not possibly affect It's freedom-n
Sift like that of the Standard Oil Com
pany TO a certain w~ell-known Balti-
Hearst in 1905.
While l was a regular reader of tho
virginia papers n branch Of the Amer
lean Tobacco Company, of which RYAN
was a guiding spirit. played the game
OF decoy for the trust in Richmond.
and was never criticized IN two Lead
ing journals OF the city. At the same
time these silent papers held up the
so-called might riders" of Kentucky
as anarchists and enemies of the pub
nc Tor doing the same thing the Rich
Inond tobacco firm did every day.
For several years there was 4 lobby
lists club in Richmond where delin-
queht members OF the Legislature We're
taken In when they were unable to
was said many unusual bills were
drafted and where other equally pa
1riotic measures had their inception.
Ihis club was a matter or cynical
discussion on the part of It's pro-
motors. but our leading papers never
found time or occasion to investigate
or denounce what at the same timo
was outlawed in many other States.
North as we'll as South
From 1905 to 1905 Thomas F. Ryan
and three other railroad experts"
cratic Executive Committee Twice !
carried articles to the editor OF The
Iimes-Dispatch in which IL was urged
that such a thing ought not to be
/ allowed without pT0feSf f Ono ~ Tho
EDITORS agreed that the matter ought
to be brought to public discussion. but
never a linesof objection was printed.
passed through the city about this
time he was honored with a fuu page
portrait. OF course. this was all ac-
cidental only IL Wore an ugly look.
To some people, at least. this seemed
highly improper, and II is still doubt
ful whether the mass OF Virginia Dem
ocrats knew thai a New York stock
broker was he most powerful mem
bet Of this important committee.
Ihese facts convinced me that there
was an Understanding " the
newspapers under consideration and
the queer organization of the Demo-
cratic party. But on the night of the
returns from the Montague-Martin pri-
mary l was sitting in the waiting room
Of the railroad station in Ashland when
a local politician called up the editor
OF one of these hyphenated papers and
asked for the returns. The editor re-
LbA0 "ao d'Ah li!Il4lldIly
by his Christian name. The phenome-
nal majorities from the counties of the
SSinth District We're given and much
called OF. This paper had insisted
that its policy had been strictly
"hands-of" in the campaign. This
might still have been contended but
for, the fact that in Washington a
well-known Republican leader told me
n the spring Of 1906 that the Repub-
licans of the Ninth District had voted
therefore that they were responsible
for the decision. Do not all these facts
convince one that there was an un-
Outstanding these parties and
that there was then. and Is now. d BIZ
partisan league in Virginia whose pur-
pose is to break down all legiu-
mate opposition to the combination OF
railroads and bosses? Would a free
press long permit such a condition?
This is the game that Lorimer and
Roger sullivan have been playing in
illinois ever since 1896. a game that
has come out in all its ugliness in
the present investigation and which
Virginia editors have SO roundly con-
demned. WIN they refuse to condemn
or will they insist that no such thing
can possibly exist In the Old Dominion
and then denounce all who offer proofs
to the contrary?
One thing more. Some Virginia pa
pers quoted me as saying that 81 rep
resented the University of Chicago
and then went on to build up a case
OF personal vanity against me. No
such statement was made by me either
at Louisa or anywhere else: and the
blame cannot be put upon the re-
porter. because a copy of what was
said was sent to the Richmond papers
purposely to prevent the possibility
of misrepresentation. 1t must there
fore have been the editorial design
TO misrepresent in order to parry the
force of the statements of the speech.
This may be taken by some as proof
of the freedom OF the press in GER
tain quarters.
There is. l believe, only one other
man in Virginia who has read the files
of the Richmond papers covering the
last hundred years as carefully as I
have. and 1T Is here and now stated
that these papers have never fallen
so far short of the standard of rep
resentntiveness" as now. and that they
are now. by all the evidence that the
historian must and does accept, less
! Tree tlan at lnX time since Thnnann