- mitted, even to an Associated Press correspondent. You fear
that you have put in a fatal dose of poison, and decide to protect yourself by sending a small quantity of antidote—such a wee, small quantity of antidote! You write:
Shooting from the train, attacked on the Chesapeake and Ohio
Railroad during the night, was in the direction of the camp, and it
was feared that if any of the women and children had been hurt the
sheriff and his men would be unable to restrain the angry men as
they outnumber the posse ten to one, and are said to be well armed.
Such is the news, and all the news which the Associated
Press sent to the public about that exploit of the "Bull Moose
Special" on the night of February 7, 1913. And now do you
think, or do you not think, that the editors of the "Masses"
were justified in their cartoon alleging that this news was
"Poisoned at the Source"? I think so; also I think that Senator
John W. Kern of Indiana was justified in his statements
made in the United States Senate three months later, regarding
the suppression of other news from this coal strike:
But to me the most startling fact bearing on the subject under
discussion was this: Here was a proceeding not only unusual but
almost unheard of being carried on almost in sight of the capital of
West Virginia and within 300 miles of the National capital. One
of the best-known women in America—a woman past her eightieth
year—a woman known and loved by millions of the working people
of America for the promotion of whose welfare and for the amelioration
of whose condition she had dedicated her life—a woman so
honored and beloved by these millions that she was known to all of
them in every humble home as Mother Jones, was being tried in this
unusual way before this mock tribunal.
The fact of the trial was sensational. The subject matter of the trial was of the deepest interest The incidents of such a trial would be of necessity, not only sensational, but would interest the country.
And yet the great news-gathering agencies of the country, active, alert, with a large, intelligent force searching everywhere for items of news, were not able to furnish a line of information to their newspaper patrons concerning this astonishing proceeding.
This fact speaks volumes as to the conditions in that terror-stricken country. A zone had been established for these infamous proceedings for the purpose of suppressing information concerning them.
I was informed by a representative of the greatest of all these news-gathering agencies that the proceedings were not reported because the conditions there were such that it was not safe for newspaper men to enter the field to secure the facts for publication.
This same agency has had a representative in the City of Mexico throughout the period of the recent revolutions. He was not afraid to remain there and report faithfully the news while the streets were
