The Commonwealth. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1911-1914, 1913-10-30
THE INFLUENCE OF THE
PRESS.
uBy Emma i. IangdonJ

How few of the people who work
for wages realize the fun power of the
| journals or daily papers that use their
columns i'm defending the rights or at
/ tempting 10 gain rights for the great
mass of workers.
In the ages gone the orator was the
instructor of his fellows. They de-
pended upon him for their facts. He
clothed those facts in beautiful Ian
gauge, then drove them home with
passionate thunderbolts-ac action was
| immediate If at all. This age has a
spokesman-th press! He who
would guide and instruct this age
must use it, Not from a single forum,
but from thousands of presses, from
the great city dailies to the little week
| ly or semi-monthly newspapers-the
silent teacher goes on its way record
ing the events of the day and by that
record playing a leading part in max
ing the history of tomorrow.
Full well the capitalist class have
recognized and used the power of the
press The large dailies are owned
and controlled by the same class that
own the mines, mills, smelters and
other great industries of this country.
The greatest news associations are
controlled also by the same class You
don't expect dividends from the mines,
! the big railroad corporations owned by
this class-why do you expect any
ideas that will benefit you through
newspapers owned by the same class
and often by the same parties?
The organization for controlling the
press of the country is perhaps the
most perfect of all the organizations
for controlling the wealth and direct
ing the energies of the country But
the capitalist press, like the whole
system of capitalism, directly depends
upon the support of the working class.
The whole intelligence trusts of which
the newspaper is the chief item, would
vanish like a SNOWFALL in a fiery fur
mace if the workers would but read
and support the papers published in
their own interest-by their own class
and should own them collectively
where possible. 1t requires battle
to win a voice in the control of an in
dustry-to be able to formulate a
schedule of wages and hours. But the
wage workers could control the press
of the nation and the world by the
simple process of being true to them
selves and their fellows by supporting
that part of the press which condemns
the wrongs they suffer and points how
they can end them.
In the large dailies how much do we
read of the sufferings of the poor
how much of the great industrial con-
flicts are pictured in their true col
ors-how many details were given OF
the great West Virginia tragedy?
There is a great battle on in Michigan
between the great copper interests
and the miners. 1t is the greatest
battle in the history of the Western
Federation of Miners. Twenty thou
sand men out of work, striking for the
right to unite with their own class IN
an effort to wiring from their masters
sufficient amount in wages to pre-
vent starvation for themselves anu
their families. The officials OF the
state true to their class, turned the
militia over to the mine owners. inc
mine owners have also imported gun
men TO shoot down the workers.
Women are insulted daily, homes are
raided. the men and their families are
suffering every outrage usually heaped
uDon the working class IN such lhuus
trial wars. How much have you read
of this struggle in the large corpora
tion-owned dailies? Very little! Ana
that decidedly colored in sympathy
with the gigantic corporations we
see instead of our conflicts Harry
Thaw Kidnapped; some priest MUIR
dered some one; suicides, divorce
cases a brilliant picture of some NIL
Ionaire's party, varied by the death OF
some leading manufacturer" now ana
then. All in glaring headlines!
The success of the capitalist class
depends upon darkness-in keeping
the workers in ignorance. The success
Of our cause depends upon light-upon
education.
So long as the peoples mental 1000
consists of such pabulum as we read
in the capitalist daily press there may
he spanieI-like submission or rebelllous
discomfort, but there can be no intelh-
gent. united action; for that is only
possible when men and women kno"
the cause of their wrongs and how TO
end them; their interest and no" 10
asin them. The capitalist press VIII
never show them the way
The Socialist papers are exposing 70
the world the system that has paled
] IN ..,.l rr-4Fttan DV labor S