“NEW YORK TIMES” KILLS FAVORITE AUTHOR
Death of R. H. Davis Caused by Reporter Seeking High-ball
Lie Occasions Fatal Shock
Reads “Times” Incitement, Drops Dead in Home
Now, how’s that?
CHAPTER LVI
THE PRESS AND LABOR
I have told many stories of newspaper lies about myself, and perhaps you thought that was just one person who was wronged, and it didn’t make much difference; but when it comes to lying about the labor movement, thousands and even millions of people are wronged, and that surely does make a difference. When newspapers lie about a strike, they lie about every one of the strikers, and every one of these strikers and their wives and children and friends know it. When they see deliberate and long-continued campaigns to render them odious to the public, and to deprive them of their just rights, not merely as workers, but as citizens, a blaze of impotent fury is kindled in their hearts. And year by year our newspapers go on storing up these volcanic fires of hate-against the day when labor will no longer be impotent!
Imagine, if you can, the feelings of a workingman on strike who picks up a copy of the “Wall Street Journal” and reads:
We have a flabby public opinion which would wring its hands in anguish if we took the labor leader by the scruff of his neck, backed him up against a wall, and filled him with lead. Countries which consider themselves every bit as civilized as we do not hesitate about such matters for a moment.
Whenever it comes to a “show-down” between labor and capital, the press is openly or secretly for capital—and this no matter how “liberal” this press may pretend to be. Says Professor Ross: