he in return made clear why he did not do so. Anyone who had been present at our long and partly humorous interview would have perceived that this was no error in judgment of an individual employe of the "A. P.," but a definite policy of the great machine. Mr. Rowsey went so far as to say to me that he was a Socialist, in sympathy with my point of view, and that he personally would have been willing to send out a straight story.
In exactly the same way, when I took this story to various newspapers and magazines, I tried to suppress my own personality. I said to the editors: "If you are not willing to discuss the grievance of Upton Sinclair, then make an investigation of your own. Send a representative to Denver and interview Senator Robinson and write about the efforts of a progressive woman senator for fair play in this strike. Take the telegrams which passed between the President and the Governor of Colorado, take the pretenses of the fake mediation commission and the false reports of the Associated Press about it, and write the story without mentioning my name." But all such suggestions were in vain. There was no capitalist magazine or newspaper in the United States that would take up the conduct of the Associated Press in the Colorado strike.
In one of its published statements in the "New York Evening Post," the Associated Press had explained its stern attitude toward the editors of the "Masses":
The Associated Press is not prosecuting the case in any vengeful
spirit, but is fighting for a public vindication. For several years the
association has sat silent under accusations of this kind, reflecting
upon the integrity of the service and the personal honor of its responsible
officers, because the charges were made either on the floor of
Congress, where no redress is possible, or by persons who were careful
or lucky in avoiding the legal limitations of civil or criminal libel. In
several cases the persons making the charges retracted them absolutely.
At last they have a case involving libel per se, and they purpose to
avail themselves of the opportunity to present to the public the facts
regarding the service.
This, you perceive, is dignified and impressive; dignity and
impressiveness are virtues permissible to great capitalist institutions.
But now make note: my challenge to the Associated
Press, published in the "Appeal to Reason," repeated the
identical words for which the editors of the "Masses" had
been arrested; and I sent a copy to all the leading officers of
