The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1915-08-27
Simple Simon SHES a Brick.

i cago Tribune upon the Frank case
which, not content with excoriatin
the Georgia mob, turns upon all tn
people and institutions of the Soutl
with the ferocity of a roaring Benga
ldry-goods clerk.
One might, expect to read such
melange of ignorance and malice il
the Bungtown Bugle. But, coming
from the journal made famous b,
Joseph Medill, he wonders whethe
its waning influence and advers
fortunes have left it quite bereft 0
mental rectitude and moral &C
countability, or whether in the fire.
quent change of editorial writer's in
cident to double and sometime
disputed ownership, one of thos'
stupid old muck-rakers long out o
job has not contrived to impos,
himself upon careless, or impe
cunious management.
In any event, the subject matter
| is 100 uuulSCll Gnu oPAOAOIi'
to hurt unless it recoils and hits the
Tribune itself in the pit of the
stomach, or rips the seat of its
breaches.
Here is a sample of the toploftical
blatherskiting characteristic of the
greenhorn who thinks he can write:
"The murder was not by a mob
but by vendetta, which is de-
termined, cunning, resolved and
cruel. A. vendetta is possible in a
low social organization, one which
has not learned self-control, which
has not been sufficiently trained in
the rudiments of education to sub
nit itself to the restraints necessary
to the orderly processes of society.
1.-THE South is backward. 1t
shames the United States by illit-
eracy and incompetence. Its hill
men and poor whites, its masses of
feared and bullied blacks, it's igno-
rant and violent politicians, it's rot
ten industrial conditions, and it's rot
ten social ideas exist in circum-
stances which disgrace the United
States in the thought of Americans
and in the opinion of foreigners.
when the North exhibits a dem
onstration of violence against law by
gutter rats of society, there is shame
in the locality which was the scene
of the exhibition. When the South
exhibits it there is defiance of opin-
ion.
"The South is half educated. 1t
is region of illiteracy, blatant self
righteousness, cruelty and violence.
Until it is improved by the invasion
of better blood and better ideas it
will remain reprOach and a
danger to the American republic"
To be sure, such stuff might be
trolled off by a loose, unprincipled
space-writer in quest of cheap no.
toriety. Or, it might be dope. But,
assuming it by chance the crude out
cropping of an immature and I'M
travelled mind, a word or two, hav-
ing an educational purpose, may not
be wasted.
Our tyro says the South is back
ward. So it is, and so unhappily is
the North, the East and the West.
He says it is ''half-educated" 1t is
that, too, and likewise Chicago, and,
in truth, this bumptious provincial
himself, as his creed abundantly
discloses. Would that we were all
of us wiser and better. But such as
we be we be; and much alike; in
each of the States and sections of
the Union most homogeneous peo-
Pile; under the skin the same medley
of good and i'll; of courage, patriot
ism, greed and gall.
The use of the word vendetta"
indicates that our youth has been
reading "The Corsican Brothers"
He should not fail to read "The
Castle of Otranto," and "The Count
of Monte Cristo," to give him at
and perspective and i'm
prove his style. He might, indeed,
if he turned his attention to verse,
aspire to become ultimately known
as 1.-THE Sweet Singer of the Stock
yards"
That the South is "a reproach and
a danger to the American Repub-
lie" would seem, if we may ascribe
any serious meaning to such scrib-
blings, to be covert attack upon
the President of the United States,
whilst the chatter about "the in
vasion of better blood and ideas"
unthinking calumny directed against
several not inconspicuous Americans,
among them Washington and Lin
coin.
The management of the Tribune
should either get itself a space
writer who knows something and has
a little sense of responsibility, or
else If ShOuId tako tbic b,,roli,,