Page:Herr Glessner Creel - Tricks of the Press (1911).djvu/25

 umns are open to "communications to the editor." Are they?

(Voice—"Yes.")

Good. Then put it under that head. Send it in and watch them publish it. After you've waited several weeks and it doesn't appear, call on the publisher in person.

But this, I say, is an example, a national one, of how the business office dictates what shall and what shall not go into the news columns.

And perhaps you think the editorial columns are sacred. Maybe you think they cannot be bought and sold just as the advertising and news columns, though at a higher price. Let's see. You remember the case of Christian Rudowitz, the Russian refugee, imprisoned at Chicago by order of the Czar. He was wanted for public execution in Russia. His fate was to be a warning to other Russian revolutionists. This man took part in the revolution in the land of the Czar. He was lighting for freedom for his people. The Cossacks put down the rebellion and Rudowitz escaped to this country. In these United States we boast that we have, an asylum for political refugees: that a man or men who have fought against tyranny elsewhere may find a haven within our boundaries. like "freedom of press," this is a theory only. The Czar wanted this man. He was arrested and ordered returned to Russia.

A National Political Refugee Defense League was hastily formed. At its head were such people as Jane Addams of Hull House, Raymond Robbins and other men and women of national reputation. Notwithstanding this, the great "Chicago Tribune." fought that case from start to finish. It said that Rudowitz. was a common criminal. That there was nothing of a political nature in what he had done. It ridiculed the men and women who were trying to save him; demanded that he be returned to Russia and publicly shot—and that at once.

And this was the reason. Follow this: The "Chicago Tribune" is owned by the McCormick family. The