- portunity. I got real legal evidence, and the Associated Press
knows that I got it, and I have been told that because of this they will never again dare to bring radicals into court, or to defend the thesis that they handle the news impartially. In my challenge I deliberately repeated the words for use of which the "Masses" editors were indicted, as follows:
I now, over my own signature and as a deliberate challenge, charge
that the Associated Press has poisoned the news of the Colorado
situation at its source. Will the owners and managers of the Associated
Press take up this challenge and make an attempt to send me
to prison? I am waiting, gentlemen, for your answer.
This was published May 30, 1914, and I am still waiting.
I made every effort, both public and private, to get this
answer. I besieged the Associated Press and also the Associated
Press newspapers, but no answer could be had, so I
think I may fairly say that the Associated Press admitted its
guilt in this case. The story, first published in the "Appeal
to Reason," was written within a few hours of the events
narrated, and gave all the documents. With the addition of
a few explanations, made necessary by the lapse of time, the
story is given unchanged in the next two chapters. It is a
long story, but it will repay study, for there are few narratives
of recent events which take you quite so far into the "inside,"
or reveal quite so clearly how Politics, Journalism, and Big
Business work hand in hand for the hoodwinking of the public
and the plundering of labor. I urge the reader to follow the
narrative carefully, for every detail is necessary to the proper
comprehension of the plot.
