CHAPTER XLI
THE OWNER IN POLITICS
What counts with newspapers, as everywhere else in the
business world, is not so much the bulk of the wealth as its
activity. Wealth which is invested in government bonds and
farm-mortgages is asleep, and will stay asleep until the profit
system itself is threatened. On the other hand, one or two
hundred thousand dollars which happens to be in the hands
of new men, trying to break into the game, may be exercising
an influence out of all proportion to its amount. Such wealth
may be bidding for a new franchise. It will come to the
newspaper publisher and offer him stock; or it will point out
to him that if the franchise is granted, certain real estate that
he holds will be increased in value; or it will offer to help
nominate him for mayor; or it will point out to him that his
rival newspaper is enlisted on the other side, and is looking
for some unrighteous graft. The story of every newspaper
is a story of such a game of power-politics incessantly going
on. No newspaper can exist without taking part in it, because
every newspaper wields influence, and every newspaper must
cast its decision on every issue that arises. Every paper is
expected to have its candidates for political office; every paper
is expected to have its political policies, and inevitably in our
system these candidates and these policies are a screen behind
which great financial interests move to their ends.
For example, here is the "Denver Post," as portrayed by Judge Lindsey, founder of the children's court. Lindsey is telling in his book, "The Beast," how one of the political machines sought to use him as a candidate for Governor:
A few days later the "Post" endorsed me editorially as a candidate
for Governor, and there was a flurry in the corporation camp. The
paper was no more than on the streets before Mr. Field (telephone
magnate) . . . made a frantic effort to have the edition stopped
and the paper's support reconsidered. But the "Post" had just lost
in a fight with Evans (gas magnate) about a public franchise deal,
and the proprietors were eager for revenge. Their newspaper rivalry
with Senator Patterson made them ambitious to defeat him as leader
of the reform Democrats, by forcing my nomination in spite of him.
I found myself in the storm-centre of a small political cyclone.
