The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-01-19
Copyright, 1925, by Upton sinclsir.)

Then a painful thing happened.
There was a newspaper publisher
in western city, one Of those old
pirates of the frontier type, who had
begun life as bartender, and de-
lighted to tell how he would toss a
silver dollar up to the ceiling, and
if 1t stuck it belonged to the boss
and if it came down it belong to
him. By this means he had got
rich, and now he owned a paper,
and he got onto this scandal of the
oil leases. There came to him
man who had some old claim to part
of the Sunnyside lease, and the pub
Usher made a deal with this man
to go halves, and then he served no.
tice on Verne that they had to have
a million dollars. Verne told him
to go to hell, and the result was
this newspaper opened up with front
page exposures of the greatest pub
lie steal in history. And this was
no obscure Socialist sheet; this was
papers in the country, and copies
were being mailed to all members of
congress, and to other newspapers
yes, it was awful! Dad and Verne
and the rest held anxious confer
ences, and suffered agonies of soul;
in the end they had to give up to
the old pirate, and paid him his mil
lion in cold cash-and the great
newspaper lost all it's interest in
the public welfare.
When Bunny was youngster, he
had read the stories of CAPTAIN
Mayne Reid, and he remembered
one scene-a fish-hawk capturing a
fish, and then swift eagle swoop-
ing down from the sky and taking
the prize away. Just so it was in
the oil game-a world of human
hawks and eagles.
VII.
Bunny no longer felt comfortable
about going to the monastery. But
Wee would not let him quit, she ar
gued and pleaded; Annabelle was
so kind and good, and would be SO
hurt If he let horrid political quar-
rels break up their friendship. Bun
ny answered-he knew Verne must
be sore as the dickens; and imagine
Verne being tactful or considerable
of guesti
When you went out into society
and refused to take a drink, you
caused everybody to begin talking
about prohibition. In the same way,
! when you did not join in denuncia-
ton OF the "insurgent" senators in
Washington, you caused some one
| to comment on your sympathy for
bomb-throwers. The little bunch of
reds" in congress were interfering
with legislation very much desired
by the rich, and they were denounc-
ed at every dinner table, including
Vernon Roscoe's. The great Schmol-
sky said, what the hell were they
after, anyhow? And Verne replied
ASK Jim Junior-he's chummy
with them" Annabelle had to jump
in and cry, mo politics! l won't
have you picking on my Bunny"
Then, later in the evening, when
Harvey Manning got drunk, he sat
on Bunny's knees, very affectionate,
as he always was, and shook one
finger in front of Bunny's nose and
remarked, "You gonna tell m bout
me?" And when Bunny inquired,
Tell who, Harve?" the other re-
piled, Those muckrakin' friends OF
yours. / amt gonna have EN- tell
on me! My ole uncle fines out /
get drunk he'll cut me out Of his
will" So Bunny knew that his in
timacy with the enemy had been
subject of discussion at the monas-
| terry.
| There had been a series of vio-
lent outbreaks in Angel City. The
members of the American Legion,
reused by the 'red revolutionary
raving", had invaded the headquar-
tiers of the l. w. w. and thrown the
I hOWh thC obdh anu
thrown their typewriters and desks
after them. Since the courts would
not enforce law and order, these
young men were going to attend to
1 it. They had raided bookstores
which sold books with red bindings,
and dumped the books into the
street and burned them. They had
beaten up newsdealers who were
selling radical magazines. Also they
were taking charge of the speak
ers the public heard---if they didn't
like one, they notified the owner OF
the hall, and he fastened to break
his contract.
John Groby, one of verne's oil as
sociates from Oklahoma, was at the
dinner table, and he said that was
the way to handle the rattle snakes.
Groby may not have known that one
of the snakes was sitting across the
way from him, so Bunny took no
offense, but listened quietly. That's
a. -