The Brass Check: A Study of American JournalismSinclair, Upton
General
The Brass Check: A Study of American Journalism
Sinclair, Upton
Associated Press; Journalism -- United States; Press -- United States
I regret exceedingly that you have been misinformed. The legislature
has just passed an act, which I have approved, providing for a bond
issue of one million dollars for the purpose of paying the
indebtedness which has been incurred and which may be incurred in
suppressing insurrection and defending the State. As soon as these
bonds can be issued, these funds will be available and this State can
and will control the situation. This is the only constitutional method
of raising funds in immediate future. In addition to this act the
legislature has enacted a law permitting the Governor to dose saloons
in time of disorder, and also a law prohibiting the carrying and
disposition of firearms in time of disorder. Moreover, a committee on
mediation on the present strike has been provided for and appointed.
Now the heart of our story is this last sentence in the Governor’s
telegram: this “committee on mediation on the present strike.” If such a
committee had been appointed, the legislature might fairly claim to have
done its best to settle the strife. But _had_ such a committee been
appointed? It had _not_. The coal-operators, confused by the President’s
sudden action, had caused their poor Governor to telegraph the President
a lie; and now all their agencies of repression were brought to bear to
keep the truth, not merely from the President, but from the whole
country.
First of all, it must be kept from the State legislature itself! A
senator tried to have the President’s telegram and the Governor’s answer
read in the senate, but by parliamentary juggling this was prevented.
All debate was forbidden; but a Democratic woman senator, Helen Ring
Robinson, succeeded in getting in a few words of protest, under the
guise of an “explanation” of her vote. Senator Robinson read the last
sentence of the Governor’s answer: “Moreover a committee on mediation on
the present strike has been provided for and appointed.” Said Senator
Robinson: “I know of no such committee which has been appointed by this
assembly.”
Lieutenant-Governor Fitzgarald replied that the resolution providing for
the “strike investigating committee” provided for mediation.
“But,” protested Senator Robinson, “I can’t find a sentence in that
resolution that mentions ‘mediation.’ I can’t see a word on ‘mediation’
in the resolutions.”
“Whereupon” (I am quoting the account from the “Rocky Mountain News” of
May 17th), “Senator A. N. Parrish, conservative Republican, objected
that the motion was not debatable. Further discussion was shut off, the
motion to read the President’s telegram was laid on the table, and the
senate adjourned.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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