Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-05-18

riec" of advertising he had received in
some time
Jerry, however. was not diSmayod by
Sr'h. signs Of unrepcntanre and pinned
n'% faith Still to the newspapers when,
however. the reporters heSicgSd him for
Lew d"NeIopm"nts on which to keep the
story alive. there were none to give. He
had discharged his whole Quivcr full of
arrows the first day.
The reporters wcrC SappOintcd for
their own enthusiasm had been aroused
hut they did their hest to nurse" the
story along by digging un interviews
with various m"mbors of Councils and
the COmmittc" in charge of franchise
bills This struck little fire. however.
as the members generally prOfcSscd
never to ha%" heard nf tho matter
while the COmmitte" members all and
sevorally declared that tho Archer Tool
Works had utterly failed to make out
convincing case. out Of this the evening
Ianers got no more than a sCratChv two
column head while next morning the
story had Crumhlcd to a stickful. al
/ though there WCr" one or two hclAtCd
editorials on the prcdicamcnts Of manu-
foCturcrs lill" the Archer Tool Works.
These. however. amazed Jerry by CON
rcdinG defeat to the ArChcrs in their
struggle. the authors being unable to
ri:e above the dead level of pessimistic
assumption that nothing can be done.
/ Yet the young woud-hr reformer
c'unE hlindly to his faith in publicity.
He had not vet learned that it is not
what the papers say hut what the
people say after they read the papers
that counts Fortunately for Jerry's
/ homes however. the people had begun to
! talk, but not the ones that came to his
| mind when he thought of "the people,
| the merchants downtown. the traders in
the Bourse. the men in the hgh-Class
clubs and hotels. the riders in autOmo-
hileS and the travellers on the suburban
trains-not they. These people read and
smiled. or sympathzed. or frowncd but
they did not talk--about Jerry and his
. franchise. They talked about the war,
about the stock market. about the income
tax and the Sur-taX, about baseball and
about speeding up production Talk like
that did not help wiring franchise from
! Councils.
But there were some other people.
the real people of Philadelphia, who
give it character and make its govern
| neiRhhorhOod-the real people of any
/ city. These were the people whose sons.
husbands and brothers would make up
the 700 additional employees of tn" en-
larged Archer Tool Works: they were
the landlords who would rent houses to
them. the landl"dies who would rent
who would serv" meals to them and the
small shops who would sell them cloth
ing and provisions-yes. and the saloons
where they would buy their beer.
These folk might have been seen, if
Jerry had paused to regard them stand
ing any day end any hour of the day
reading that sign up there on top of the
factory and considering it not at all as
a revelation of disgusting civic Corrup-
tiOn. hut solely rejecting on what il
mean. Of profit or of loss to them. They
were like Morltz RosenSCweig who
found the city administration good or
bad as it let him sell on Sunday or not.
They were like the ArChcrs who found
the administration good or bad as il
gave them a franchise or refused it,
They were like jeremiah Thomas Archer
suddenly alert because they had been
cIubbed on the head, These people did
not care about any quarrel between the
rich ArChers and the thrifty Jim Rand
They did not care how the Archers got
their franchise. They only saw that be
cause the Arrhers did no. get it, thev
the residents Of the neighhorhood were
losing money. and they therefore took
it up as their own fight, by bringing
pressure to bear in the only place where
they could make pressure felt-mor
the thirty or more division leaders tha
nine Common COunclmen and the three
Select COunCilmen who represented the
roots of the Republican Organization in
the Forty-ninth. Fiftieth and Fifty-firs
Wards, which comprised the industriaI
community surrounding the Archer
Tool Works.