FOOLING THE PEOPLE AS A FINE ART
Follette, Robert M. La
Fooling the People As A Fine Art An Editorial by ROBERT M. LA FOLLETTE AGREAT deal of water has passed under the bridge since Lincoln gave us, in quaint, homely phrase, this moderately comforting...
...It has been well said that: "An enslaved press is doubly fatal...
...Ie could neither be wheedled, cajoled or bullied into permitting the steel trust or the oil interests to job the Navy Department...
...And again: 'The press is a mill which grinds all that is put in the hopper...
...Young men trained in journalism were quick to see what had befallen the newspapers of the country...
...Except for this monstrous crime, 65 per cent of all the wealth of this country would not now be centralized in the hands of 2 per cent of all the people...
...Except for the subserviency of most of the metropolitan newspapers, the great corporate interests would never have ventured upon the impudent, lawless consolidation of business, for the suppression rf competition, the control of production, mat* kets and prices...
...Its iron heel is as noiseless as the foot of time...
...The periodical, reduced in price, attractive and artistic in dress strode like a young giant into the arena of public service...
...But you can't fool all the people all the time...
...Their editorial good will could uo move have been purchased by the fat advertisirg contracts of special interests, than bv the dirty money of the tenderloin...
...And control can be achieved through that community of interests, that interdependence of investment and credits which ties the publisher up to the banks, the advertisers and special interests...
...There were stock transfers, there were consolidations, there was at least one failure caused by the "withdrawal of customary banking accommodations," and there was the strangle-hold on revenues through the centralized control of advertising...
...Before them lay the open, unoccupied field—the opportunity to promote human interest...
...Where public opinion is free and uncontrolled, wealth has a wholesome respect foi the law...
...Beginning within a few months ;ifter he entered the Cabinet the press of the country and the magazines assailed him wfth a fury th«t was little less than appalling...
...Fooling the People As A Fine Art An Editorial by ROBERT M. LA FOLLETTE AGREAT deal of water has passed under the bridge since Lincoln gave us, in quaint, homely phrase, this moderately comforting assurance: "You can fool some of the people all of the time and all the people some of the time...
...It ia better than that...
...The great interests that deal with the Navy Department found in Josephus Daniels a capable, honest public official determired to serve the public interest...
...Cootrol of the market prices of this great country enables those in control to tax tha people through extortionate prices for the necessaries of life, to the limit of their earning power, and yet escape all of the responsibilities of ownership...
...They were free...
...Here again control is better than outright ownership...
...It turned its camera on the mills and shops where little children were robbed of every chance of life that nourishes vigorous bodies and sound minds, and the pinched faces and dwarfed figures told their pathetic story on its clean white pages...
...New writers filled their pages witn brain-rotting fiction...
...The whole subject is one *hat sh<uld give as th« deepest concern...
...Of the same type was the organized newspaper and magazine attack upon the Seamen's Law...
...Its pages were filled with powerfully written articles on "The Truth About The Trusts," the "Looting of the Railroad j" the "Corruption of City, State and National Governments," "The History of Standard Oil," "Frenzied Finance," "The Beef Trust," "The Wall Street System," "Who Owns America," "The Money Power," "Public Ownership of Public Utilities,'" and other phases of the operations of invisible government...
...These magazines became a power in the country...
...These great editors dominated their newspapers...
...Free government is government by public o; nion...
...Another notable instance of the control of the • strumpet press was the malicious and determined attempt to destroy the Secretary of ti'.e Navy and force his retirement from office...
...It is too subtle for that...
...it not only takes away the true light...
...When the Morgan and Rockefeller interests harmonized to consummate the great wrong, they well understood that they could not achieve their purpose against a hostile press...
...fill the hopper.with poisoned grain and it will grind it to meal, but there is death in the bread...
...The magazines began to r*hange in tone and color...
...With gr':n determination and great fortitude he has held to his course until the enlarged re;ponsibilit>es of his office in war time and his executive capacity to meet every requirement has at last justified him and given him within a few mon:;is a temporary respite from the wicked abuse of the system...
...The editorial page was religiously consecrated to the integrity of independent editorial opinion...
...And we might today be industrially and commercially a fre« people, enjoying the blessings of a real democracy...
...Hence they "took ovar ' the newspapers...
...The setting up of a new, invisible and all powerful government in this country, within the last twenty years, in ouen violation of fundamental and statutory law, could not have been accomplished under the steady fire of a free and independent press...
...Editorial judgment was subject to the errors and limitations of human understanding...
...When the newspapers became the sponsors and defenders of combination and trusts, the weekly and monthly magazines became the advocates of the public interest...
...for in that cas« we might stand still, bit it sets up a false light th:it decoys us to our destruction...
...There was no sound or fury...
...It revealed the same influence back of judicial and other appointments...
...Such was the raid upon the Interstate Commerce Commission conducted by tl.e Railroad section of this great organizatior to force a favorable decision in the 5 per cent rate case three years ago...
...And the public heard their despairing cry...
...They might be multiplied indefinitely...
...It took the public through the great steel plants and into the homes of the men who toiled twelve hours a day and seven days in the week...
...It raged madly for months following the enactment of the law...
...They took orders from no one...
...all its details it broke out in every section of the country at once, disclosing the scope of its plan...
...If it is to be an extended campaign a corps of writers are employed who prepare editorial "suggestions" and special articles for newspapers and magazin...
...Steffens and Baker and Tarbell and Nock and the others could still write them,—oh, certainly...
...These examples but imperfeetl 7 attest the subserviency of the press to the well organized business interests of the country...
...The free and independent periodical turned its search light on state legislatures, and made plain as the noon day sun the absolute control of the corrupt lobby, it opened the closed door of the secret caucus, the secret committee, the secret conference in Congress and disclosed the betrayal of public interest into the hands of the railroads, the trusts, the tariff mongers and the centralized banking power of the country...
...and liberty and justice and equal rights found a free press, for the time being, beyond the influence of consolidated business and machine politics And then this great invisible power closed in on the independent weeklies and the monthly magazines...
...But the wide opportunity and intellectual freedom of the editor of that day, offered culture and commanding ability the highest possible call to public service, and gave us the greatest editors in the history of American newspapers...
...Perfected ir...
...Their pages were open to publicists and scholars...
...To control the American market is to own America...
...To befool and mislead the neope, to falsify public opinion is to pervert and des>oy a republican form of government...
...It wa% one of the most extended and relentless assaults ever made upon a measure of great public interest...
...The press was a potent force in promoting a sound public opinion in the public interest of that time...
...The perfection of the modern combination is little less tha/i a Fine Art...
...If it decides to pass a bill, or repeal some law, or control some policy of administration, or discredit some public official who stands in the way of its interests, its well organ: zed agencies are set in motion...
...Articles on "Mexico," or "Russia" or the "Friendly Road," or Spots on the Moon wou'd be very acceptable...
...s This material known as "press dope" is supplied to papers and periodicals in form to cover the country and avoid obvious duplication...
...Its scheme of operation is very simple...
...That the ruthless attacks upon him undermined for the time being public confidence at- least* in his fitness for tho office he holds, no one can doubt...
...but not about the Shame of the Cities, or the System or the Railroads, or the House of Morgan or Standard Oil, or Taxation, or The Truth about Trusts...
...The influence of this mighty power rests as a blighting curse upon our country...
...That campaign was so open, protracted and coarse that it developed into a great public scandal before <t was concluded...
...1 In those days we had the press of Horace Greely, Henry Raymond, Charles A. Dana, Joseph Medill and Horace Rublee...
...And it failed largely because tha President let it be known just before Congress assembled that he would not approve the amendment cr repeal of the Seamen's law until it had been given a fair trial...
...And so it transpired that the p.iblic sources of current information have been brought under a very complete control,—a selfish, mercenary, sordid, tyrannical control...
...Upon the soundness and integrity of public opinion depends the destiny of democracy...
...This does not necessarily mean the ownership of all newspapers...
Vol. 10 • April 1918 • No. 4
