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The Brass Check, a Study of American Journalism

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The Brass Check, a Study of American Journalism Mj Cornell University Library PN 4867.S61 Brass check ""''''"^"'""eA 251 The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924026364251 THE BRASS CHECK A Study of American Journalism BY UPTON SINCLAIR % PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR PASADENA, CALIFORNIA. A LETTER FOR THE TIME ViLLENEUVE, Switzerland, Monday, Oct. 6, 1919. My Dear Confrere: I am happy to see you always so burning with energy, but your next book prepares for you some rude combats. It requires a bold courage to dare, when one is alone, to attack the monster, the new Minotaur, to which the entire world renders tribute: the Press. I return to Paris in a few weeks. Reaction there holds the center of the walk. It speaks already as master, and perhaps it will be master before the end of the winter. The wave of counter-revolution, of counter-liberty, passes over the world. It will drown more than one among us, but it will retire, and our ideas will conquer. Very cordially I press your hand. ROMAIN ROLLANn CONTENTS PART I THE EVIDEMCE Chapter Page I. The Story of the Brass Check 13 II. The Story of a Poet 17 III. Open Sesame! 22 IV. The Real Fight '27 y. The Condemned Meat Industry 32 VI. An Adventure with RooseTelt 39 VTI. Jackals and a Carcase i 45 VIII. The Last Act 50 IX. Aiming at the Public's Heart 65 X. A Voice from Russia 58 XI. A Venture in Co-operation 82 XII. The Village Horse-Doctor «8 Xm. In High Society 74 XIV. The Great Panic 8* XV. Shredded Wheat Biscuit }.. 8« XVI. An Interview on Marriage 9ft XVII. "Gaming" on the Sabbnth 97 XVIII. An Essential Monogamist 102 XIX. In the Lion's Den 119 XX. The Story of a Lynching 114 XXI. Journalism and Burglary 121 XXII. A Millionaire and an Author 125 XXHL The "Heart-Wife" 139 5 6 Contents Chapter Page XXIV. The Mourning Pickets 142 XXV. The Case of the Associated Press 150 XXVI. A Governor and His Lie 154 XXVII. The Associated Press at the Bar 165 XXVIII. The Associated Press and Its Newspapers 169 XXIX. The Scandal-Bureau 176 XXX. The Concrete Wall , 184 XXXI. Making Bomb-Makers 191 XXXII. The Roof-Garden of the World 197 XXXIII. A Fountain of Poison 202 XXXIV. The Ddily Cat-and-Dog Fight 213 PART II THE EXPLANATION XXXV. The Causes of Things 221 XXXVI. The Empire of Business 228 XXXVH. The Dregs of the Cup 237 XXXVIII. Owning the Press 241 XXXIX. The War-Makers 250 XL. Owning the Owners '. ... 258 XLI., The Owner in Politics 263 XLII. Owning the Associated Press 271 XLIH. The Owner and His Advertisers 282 XLIV. The Advertising Boycott 289 XLV. The Advertising Ecstasy 295 XLVI. The Bribe Direct 30O XLVIL The Bribe Wholesale 307 XLV\U. Poison Ivy 311 Contents T Chapteb Page XLIX. The Elbert Hubbard Worm 314 L. The Press and Public Welfare 316 LI. The Press and the Radicals 323 LII. Thx5 Press and the Socialists 327 LIII. The Press and Sex 332 LIV. The Press and Crime 337 LV. The Press and Jack London 341 LVL The Press and Labor 346 LVIL The Associated Press and Labor 353 LVIIL "Poisoned at the Source" 362 LIX. The Press and the War 377 LX. The Case of Russia 385 LXL "Bolshevism" in America 395 PART III THE REMEDY LXII. Cutting the Tiger's Claws 403 LXIII. The Mental Munition-Factory 408 LXIV. The Problem of the Reporter 415 LXV. The Press Set Free 421 LXVL A Frame-up That Fell Down 429 Conclusion 436 A Practical Program 438 Publisher's Note 443 ! ' INTRODUCTORY The social body to which we belong is at this moment passing through one of the greatest crises of its history, a colossal process which may best be likened to a birth. We have each 6f us a share in this process, we are to a greater or less extent responsible for its course. To make our judg- ments, we must have reports from other parts of the social body; we must know what our fellow-men_, in all classes of society, in all parts of the world, are suffering, planning, doing. There arise emergencies which require swift decisions, under penalty of frightful waste and suffering. What if the nervea upon which we depend for knowledge of this social body should give us false reports of its condition? The first half of this book tells a personal story: the story of one man's experiences with American Journalism. This personal feature is not pleasant, but it is unavoidable. If I were taking the witness-chair in a court of justice, the jury would not ask for my general sentiments and philosophic opinions; they would not ask what other people had told me, or what was common report; the thing they would wish to know—^the only thing they would be allowed to know—is what I had personally seen and experienced. So now, taking the witness-stand in the case of the American public versus Journalism, I tell what I have personally seen and experienced. I take the oath of a witness: the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God. After this pledge, earnestly given and earnestly meant, the reader must either believe me, or he must exclude me from the company of civilized men. My motive in writing this book is not to defend myself. We live in a time of such concentrated agony and peril that a man who would waste ink and paper on a defense of his own personality would be contemptible. What I tell you is : "Look Here is American Journalism! Here is what it did to one man, systematically, persistently, deliberately, for a period of twenty years. Here are names, places, dates—such a mass of material as you cannot doubt, you cannot evade. Here is the 9 "^^ Inteoductoey whole thing, inside and out. Here are your sacred names, the very highest of your gods. When you have read this story, you will know our Journalism; you will know the body and soul of it, you will know it in such a way that you will not have to be told what it is doing to the movement for industrial freedom and self-government all over the world." In the second half of the book you will hear a host of other witnesses-^several score of them, the wisest and truest and best people of our country. They are in every part of our country, in every class and every field of public life; and when you have heard their experiences, told for the most part in their own words, you must grant my claim concerning this book—^that it is a book of facts. There are no mistakes in it, no guesses, no surmises ; there are no lapses of memory, no inaccuracies. There are only facts. You must understand that I have had this book in mind for twenty years. For twelve years I have been deliberately collecting the documents and preserving the records, and I have these before me as I write. In a few cases of personal experiences I have relied upon my memory ; but that memory is vivid, because the incidents were pciinful, they were seared into my soul, and now, as I recall • them, I see the faces of the people, I hear their very tones. Where there is any doubt or vagueness in my recollection, or where there is hearsay testimony, I state the fact explicitly; otherwise I wish the reader to understand that the incidents happened as I say they happened, and that upon the truth of every statement in this book I pledge my honor as a man and my reputation as a writer. One final word: In this book I have cast behind me the proprieties usually held sacred ; I have spared no one, I have narrated shameful things. I have done this, not because I have any pleasure in scandal; I have not such pleasure, being by nature impersonal. I do not hate one living being. The people I have lashed in this book are to me not individuals, but social forces; I have exposed them, not because they lied about me, but because a new age of fraternity is trying to be born, and they, who ought to be assisting the birth, are stran- gling the child in the womb. PART I THK EVIDENCE CHAPTER I THE STORY OF THE BRASS CHECK Once upon a time there was a little boy ; a nice little boy, whom you would have liked if you had known him—^at least, so his mother says. He had been brought up in the traditions of the old South, to which the two most important things in the world were good cooking and good manners. He obeyed his mother and father, and ate his peas with a fork, and never buttered the whole slice of his bread. On Sunday mornings he carefully shined his shoes and brushed his clothes at the window, and got into a pair of tight kid gloves and under a tight little brown derby hat, and walked with his parents to a church on Fifth Avenue. On week-days he studied hard and obeyed his teachers, and in every field of thought and activity he believed what was told him by those in authority. He learned the catechism and thought it was the direct word of God.
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