The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1913-08-23

| but for the purpose of distortlng facts
and misleading the public
The editorial writer's, whose names
are generally unknown to the public,
are told what to say and what subjects
to avoid. They are instructed to ex-
! toll the merits of those who are sub
servient to the interests represented
by the paper, and to misrepresent and
| traduce those who dare to criticise or
oppose the plans of those who hide be-
hind the paper. Such journalists are
members of kind of black hand So
ciety;" they are assassns, hiding in
ambush and striking in the dark; and
the worst of it is that the readers have
no way of knowing when a change
takes place in the ownership of such
paper Editorial poison, like other
poisons, can be administered more sue
cessfully if the victim is in ignorance
as to who administers it.
The journalist who would fully per
form his duty must be not only incor-
ruptible, but ever ebert, for those who
are trying to misuse the newspapers
are able to deceive "the very elect"
| whenever any movement is on foot
for the securing of legislation desir-
ed by the predatory interests, or when
restraining legislation is threatened,
news bureaus are established at Wash
ington, and these news bureaus furnish
to such papers as will use them free
reports, daily or weekly as the case
may be, from the National Capital
reports which purport to give general
news, but which in fact contain argu-
ments in support of the schemes which
the bureaus are organized to advance
This ingenious method of misleading
the public is only part of the gen.
eral plan which favor-holding and ia
vor-seeking corporations pursue.
The profession for which Twas train
ed-the law--presents another line of
temptations. a., The courtroom is a
souls market, where many barter
away their ideals in the hope of win
ming wealth or fame. Lawyers some
times boast of the number of men
whose acquittal they have secured,
when they know them to be guilty,
and Of advantages won which they
knew their clients did not deserve. |
do not understand how lawyer can
SO boast, for he is an officer of the
court and, as such, is sworn to assist
in the administration of justice. When
lawyer has helped his client to OBJ
tain all that his client is entitled to he
has done his full duty as a lawyer, and
If he goes beyond this, he goes at his
own peril. Show me lawyer who has
spent lifetime trying to obscure the
line between right and wrong, trying
to prove that to be just which he knew
to be unjust, and will show you a
man who has grown weaker in char
acter year by year, and whose advice
at last, will be of no value to his
clients, for he will have lost the power
to discern between right and wrong.
Not only in the courtroom, but in the
consultation chamber, the lawyer
sometimes yields to the temptation to
turn his talents to a sordid use. The
schemes of spoliation that defy the Of
ficers of the law are, for the most
part, inaugurated and directed by legal
minds. The lawyers position is scarce
ly less responsible than the position
of the journalist, and if the journalists
and lawyers of the country could be
brought to abstain from the practices
by which the general public is over
reached, it would be an easy matter to
secure the remedial legislation neces.
sary to protect the producing masses
from the constant spoilation to which
they are now subjected by the priv
y ileged classes. CO..
If man who is planning train rob-
y berry takes another along to hold a
horse at convenient distance, we say
that the man who holds the horse is
equally guilty with the man who robs
the train and the time will come when
public opinion will hold as equally
guilty with the plunderers Of society
the lawyers and journalists who assist
the plunderers to escape.
In the counting room as well as in
the editors library and in the law
yer's office one hears the heart-search
ing question: what shall it profit a
man if he shall gain the whole world
and lose his own southland happi
ness, honor and usefulness all hang
upon the answer.
Then, too, we have not sufficiently