Page:The Brass Check (Sinclair 1919).djvu/254

 CHAPTER XXXIX

THE WAR-MAKERS

What is the moral tone in the offices of these great "kept" institutions? The best description I know of the inside of such a newspaper is found in an article, "The Blue Pencil," by Maxwell Anderson, published in the "New Republic" for December 14, 1918. It is very evident that Mr. Anderson has worked in the office of some newspaper; he doesn't give names, but his text indicates that the city is San Francisco. The name of the imaginary owner is H. N. De Smith, and if you are familiar with San Francisco affairs, you don't have to be a wizard to make your guess.

Mr. Anderson portrays one after another of the staff of the paper: the managing editor, the assistant managing editor, the city editor, the copy reader, the reporter, the dramatic critic, the artist, the designer, the copy boy. Every one of these persons is a slave with a chain about his neck; everyone of them clearly understands that his function in life is to subserve the glory of his owner.

They think unkindly of Hank De Smith; they speak derisively of his park, his policies, and the amount he is supposed to drink up in a day. But they obey him. Pasted before each man is a typed schedule of prejudice, known technically as the son-of-a-bitch list, and consisting of the names of men who must be given no free publicity. Here all prominent radicals and the business men who have refused to advertise in the paper are lumped in an eternal obloquy of silence.

"Refer to Dealer "Any copy containing name of: ,, , , "Names Not to Appear in Headlines: , , ,

"Use Title of 'Mr.' "Only in connection with H. N. De Smith."

What smouldering envies or balked ambitions may lie behind this absurd catalogue they do not know. But when this same De Smith buys a block of charity stock, as a matter of course they run headlines across the second title page to inform the city of it

"Praise Hank, from whom all blessings flow," the tall and heavy Texan sneers gravely.