The Connecticut labor press., 1920-01-03

The ignorance of the American daily press is at times profound and amaz- ing The American newspaper as an institution for the dissemination of knowledge has in the past year heaped up an indictment of itself that it will take much faithful service and ohnest effort to quash. In dealing with me chanical statements of fact Ill which no special knowledge and no special effort are needed, the American newspaper is a fairly accurate one. In dealing with those situations in which no special in terest is involved, there is little room for complaint. And, on the whole, the American newspaper IS a serviceable, intelligent and surprisingly accurate medium of information. Great enter prise also is shown frequently.
 But, somehow, through some subtle and hay process, much of the fine character of the press fails to mani fest itself in dealing with the news of humanity as found in the struggle of Labor. Recent examples have been so emphatic and so important that who think deeply, and especially to those who have accurate channels of information.
 l three main situations of either recent or current interest. These are the steel strike, the coal strike and the interna- tional labor conference.
 In each of these there has been a mishandling of the news that must be regretted by all who have at heart the interests of truth and justice. No person of judgment and honor will sug- +11o+ f0 he proach to special pleading for the cause of Labor in the press, but there ought to be a full presentation of facts.
 In the case of the steel strike there was not fair presentation of the case of the strikers. There was full and fair presentation of the case of the steel employers; not only of tEe facts as pre- sented by the employers, but of the viewpoint of the employers. It so hap pened that the viewpoints of the en- p1oyers had to do with the truth of Lahor's statements and thus the case of Labor was subjected to additional bias.
 In the case of the coal strike the situation was repeated-on a larger scale if possible In the coal strike the exact facts about the amount of time worked, the wages earned and the product delivered were of paramount importance. There was not the slight est difficulty in finding in the press the statements of mine owners as to earn ings of coal miners, the state of their prosperity and the frivolousness of their demands. It was not so easy to find the facts as presented by Labor. Little at tention was drawn by the press to the selling price of coal, to the comparison between advances in wages and ad- vances in the selling price of coal, and to the advance in the price of coal that was made effective when the Govern ment removed the control price. It was pointed out that the wage increases asked by the miners would add a cer- tain sum to the nations coal bill. It was not so wildly pointed out that the mire owners not long since added far greater amount to the nations bill with out so much as by-yOur-leave of any body. This was done when the control price was removed At that time the price of coal was raised 50 cents per ton at the mine, and when there were about thirty million tons of coal i'll storage mined at labor cost but 40 cents above the mine labor cost of 1916.
 The International Labor Conference has been subjected to a somewhat diff ferent treatment. It has been given the silent treatment to a large degree. However, it, too, has been the subject of misrepresentation on the part of the press. The real object of the confer ence, the significance and importance of it as great new thing in world his