New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-03-28
ner1can Editors Hailed Before the Bar by Upton Sinclair
Socialist Attacks the Press
"The Brass Check" Charges a General Consn-
racy of Dishonest Propaganda

| very moment that he fell. although
there was ample reason In experience
to distrust the communicates COMING
from this source.
Nor Is it to the credit Of American
newspapers that the average New
Yorker never heard of Tom Mooney
until his name was mentioned in dis
patch from Russia about a Bolshevik
demonstration in front Of the Ameri-
can legation in Petrograd. In these
cable dispatches he appeared as Tom
MUM and that was the name used in
several New York newspapers which
were absolutely ignorant about an i'm
portant trial in California which had
Russia by the ears.
And yet even when all this has been
set down there remains a possibility
that the poor showing of the press
rested upon stupidity as much as
upon dishonesty. Sinclair attributes a
devilish ingenuity to American news
papers which they by no means possess.
Also it is fair to say that although Sin
clair makes no exceptions (save for the
radical press) in his blanket charge of
dishonest conspiracy against the Amer
lean press, "The New York Globe"
'The New York World" and "The Chi
cago Tribune" among others, did sue
ceed in getting first hand news from
Russia which was conspicuously fea-
tured in spite Of the fact that the find
ings of the correspondent were often
in conflict with the editorial opinion Of
the paper which he represented.
Sinclair does not neglect tho case Of
Russia, but 1t gets no more emphasis
than his account Of what "The San
Francisco Examiner" did to the story
of Upton Sinclair and the two shredded
wheat biscuits. Sinclair objects be-
cause the newspaper headlined the fact
that he had objected to an overcharge
on hotel bill for shredded wheat. He
adds rather bitterly:
can actress by the name of Rose
Stahl was playing up in Seattle and her
publicity man must have seen an OPP
portunity to get in on the game In
the afternoon paper there appeared a
story to the effect that Rose Stahl had
telegraphed me Is cents with which to
pay for my shredded wheat biscuit.
Rose Stahl did not actually send me the
25 cents; at any rate I never received
it; she merely gave out the story that
she was sending it."
To be sure, Sinclair uses the incl
dent only as link in his attempt to
prove that the newspapers of America
are banded together in conspiracy to
make him ridiculous because he is q
radical. He cites ample evidence
prove that every event, however
trifling, in which he could be made to
appear ludicrous was seized upon by
the newspapers of the nation, while
there was concrete wall of silence
against him when he had news of i'm
portance to give out. Undoubtedly this
is true, but the assumption which Sim
clair makes upon the basis Of his ex-
perience will not stand. Speaking of
the leisure class, he says: "They are
society,"; they are the people who own
the world and for whom the world
exists, and in every newspaper Office
there Is definite understanding that
so long as these people keep out of
the law courts there shall be published
no uncomplimentary news concerning
them"
have been on three newspapers, and