a courageous leader against oppression; which is to say, against the law and the Government which protect this people in the possession of their homes, automobiles and liberties.
Col. Watterson resigned. But as a rule the professional
journalist pockets his Brass Check, and delivers the goods to
his master in the silence and secrecy of the journalistic brothel.
A professional journalist may be defined as a man who holds
himself ready at a day's notice to adjust his opinions to the
pocket-book of a new owner. I have heard Arthur Brisbane
remark that the "New York Times" was sold on several occasions,
and on each occasion its "editor" was sold with it. Yet
when you read this "editor's" preachments, they are all so
solemn and dignified, high-sounding and moral—you would
never dream but that you were reading actual opinions of a
man!
Quite recently we saw the "New York Evening Post" put up on the journalistic bargain-counter. I have told how the "Evening Post" treated me at various times, so you will see that the paper was hardly to be classified as "radical." But during the war it became treasonable to the gigantic trading corporation which calls itself the British Government; it persisted in this stubborn course, even when it knew that J. P. Morgan & Company were selling billions of British bonds, and handling all the purchases of the British Government in America. When the Bolsheviki gave out the secret treaties of the Allies, the "Evening Post" was the one non-Socialist newspaper in America which published them in full. So it was evident that something must be done, and done quickly, about the "Evening Post."
The paper was in financial difficulties, because of the constantly increasing cost of material and wages. Its owner gave an option to his associates, with the pledge on their part that they would not take the paper to "Wall Street"; then, three weeks later, the paper was sold to Thomas W. Lamont, of the firm of J. P. Morgan & Company; the owner being kept in ignorance of the name of the purchaser. So now the "New York Evening Post" looks upon the peace treaty, and finds it "a voice from heaven." "A voice from heaven" commanding the French to grab the Saar Valley, and the Japs to seize Shantung! "A voice from heaven" commanding the workers of Russia to pay the bad debts of the Tsar—and to pay them through the banking-house of J. P. Morgan & Company!
