whose identity it is easy to trace. It charges that at the time of the armor plate scandal they bought out the Democratic party and secured the support of a President of the United States.
And here is part of a second dispatch, which appeared in
the "New York World" the following day. It is amusing to
note how these two rivals, the "World" and the "American,"
follow each other up!
Lake Placid, N. Y., Sept. 6—In an interview given by him today,
after he had been informed by his publishers and a representative
of the "World" of a report from Pittsburgh that William E. Corey,
President of the U. S. Steel Corporation, is to proceed against him
for libel, basing his action on charges contained in his new novel,
Upton Sinclair, who is spending the summer at Lake Placid, defied
the "Steel Crowd," as he designated Mr. Corey and his associates,
to do their worst.
Mr. Sinclair declared he would welcome legal action on the part of Mr. Corey, because it would give him an opportunity to place on record evidence which he declares is in his possession concerning alleged fraudulent acts of the steel men.
"I have not as many documents as I once had," said Mr. Sinclair; "I have not been able to replace some that were burned at Helicon Hall; but I have more than Mr. Corey would care to see in print, I fancy."
Mr. Sinclair said that among other documents in his possession before the destruction of Helicon Hall by fire, were affidavits and other papers pertaining to alleged fraudulent practices in connection with the manufacture of steel rails.
"I took the trouble," said he "to go out to Pittsburgh. I spent a couple of weeks investigating. I had affidavits to prove that these practices prevailed in the case of steel rails, a year or two before E. H. Harriman gave out his statement as to the wretched quality of rails which the Steel Trust was selling his railroads. I can tell Mr. Harriman, too, that his own purchasing officials were not ignorant about it."
All this, of course, had little to do with literature. But
it had something to do with Journalism, had it not? It had
to do with matters of vital importance to the American people—battle-ships
that could not fight, and steel rails that
cracked and caused train-wrecks. How came it that all our
organs of "respectability" kept silence, and left these grave
matters to the despised "yellow" press?
